What Makes the University of Cincinnati Tick and its PR Work

The University of Cincinnati, located near downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, is a state university composed of 35,000 students. The university is the largest employer in the Greater Cincinnati region, with an annual economic impact of more than $3 million. UC was founded in 1819 and credits itself on offering students a balance of "educational excellence and real-world experience." Each year, the urban, public, research university graduates 5,000 students, adding to the more than 200,000 alumni currently living around the world. The president of the University of Cincinnati is Nancy Zimpher, who became the university first female president in 2004 (www.uc.edu).

UC has been the home of numerous important discoveries, developments and projects, such as the oral polio vaccine and first antihistamine. It also has the oldest and largest co-operative education program in the United States and several top-ranked national programs, such as those in its College of Law, Medicine, College-Conservatory of Music and the school of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning (DAAP). UC is ranked as an NCAA Division I school, and its athletic teams moved from Conference USA play to the Big East Conference in the fall of 2005 (www.uc.edu).

UC has an extensive and divisive public relations department, and here, the most visible aspect of the school's PR efforts, its media relations, will be analyzed here. I chose this area because I am a former student and employee of the University of Cincinnati and worked specifically in the area of media relations for UC Clermont College. At UC Clermont, I was an intern and reported directly to the Director of College Relations, now Mae Hanna. Mae, a former journalist herself, deals with the media constantly, is Clermont College's spokeswoman and also works with the other public relations professionals win different departments within the university. I always was intrigued by her work as an intern and thought this report presented an excellent opportunity to learn more about how media relations works for the entire university.

Through the environmental scan performed on the Colleges, universities and professional schools industry, it was easy to see how UC fits into the landscape of its field. According to Hoover's Online and the Encyclopedia of American Industries, the U.S. higher educational system has long been the envy of the developed world. This feeds into the trend of a continually increasing number of international students, especially at the graduate level. Since its American colonial beginnings in 1636, the industry and grown and changed dramatically. While early schools had close religious affiliations, today the majority of institutions are secular. Also, the move toward co-education for men and women, and all races has been a continuous trend (Encyclopedia of American Industries).

Another top trend is the ever-increasing enrollment in two-year colleges. UC, with its popular Raymond Walters College and Clermont College branch campuses, is definitely a part of this trend. Although both branch campuses offer four-year degrees and transfer options to the main Uptown Campus, their respective associate degree programs remain a popular draw, particularly for non-traditional students (Hanna, Mae, personal interview).
Yet another key industry trend that has become a huge part of UC experience is the tailoring of curricula toward businesses that invest in universities. According to the Encyclopedia of American Industries, in 1998 the National Science Foundation facilitated more than 20 partnerships between businesses and community colleges designed to prepare students for high technology positions. At UC, these types of partnerships are apparent at all levels, particularly in the university's co-op education program. In this extensive program, students alternate between attending school and working full time on a quarter-by-quarter basis. Participants work with the largest companies in the region - and the world; personal care product powerhouse Procter & Gamble, which is headquartered in Cincinnati, is the largest employer in UC's co-op program.

The most significant trend in higher education, however, is the soaring cost of tuition. The Encyclopedia of American Industries notes that this is a nationwide trend and goes hand-in-hand with the decrease in government funding for universities and colleges across the country. The University of Cincinnati is no exception to this trend: it has increased tuition an average of 6 percent for the last five years (www.uc.edu). As government funding and financial aid dwindles, though, private scholarships and endowments increase (Encyclopedia of American Industries).

In all of these emerging issues, effective communication with a university's publics is key. UC's media relations are varied, precise and divided among different individuals in charge of being informed about specific areas. The University has a main public relations office composed of 5-6 people on the main Uptown Campus that oversees all media relations activities and is part of the larger Division of Government Relations and University Communications. Then, each different entity within the university - for example, the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences and related academic areas - has its own public relations staff of 5-6 people. University-wide branding comes from the top (the main office), but each department and college has its own identity, said Hanna. Within the larger UC identity, each college, such as Hanna's Clermont College, has its own branding and autonomy. The main public relations office and individual PIOs (public information officers) maintain close working ties, however, and meet on a regular basis (Hanna, Mae, personal interview).

Hanna said she thinks UC's "decentralized" yet connected approach to media relations works well and is extremely effective - UC is in the paper almost every day in some fashion. Hanna pointed out the large number of PR professionals who work in the school's sports media relations and how it corresponds with the multitude of sports-related UC news stories in the regional media. As I learned from my media audit, The Cincinnati Enquirer is the number one publication to see a UC story on any given day and 60 percent of the most recent stories on the university were about sports.

What is obvious from UC's sharp media relations Web site, and what Hanna agrees with, is that fact that UC highly values public relations and marketing. The university hires significant numbers of people to fill PR positions and see the results: more than 4,000 UC-related stories were printed in the last year in Ohio newspapers alone. Hanna and other public relations directors at UC maintain close contacts with the local media and place high importance on cultivating positive relationships with local reporters.

UC's media relations Web site, called the "News" page, is organized and directs reporters to the PIO or college relations director in the best position to know about a specific area, providing them with individual contact information. The latest press releases, as well as archives, are easily accessible on the Web site. The site also provides reporters with special reports on larger UC issues, such as neighborhood development surrounding the urban university or information on the UC21 Plan, a strategic outline for UC's future (www.uc.edu).

I think that UC's decentralized yet tight media relations program reflects the PR idea of systems theory well. Systems theory is the mutual interdependence within systems and among systems and states that what happens in one part of a system affects other parts and the system as a whole. If one college of the university receives negative press, the reputation of all of UC is at stake. As the university's tagline says, "It's all UC," even if each area or college maintains its own identity as well.

Also, UC's prominent position and power in the Cincinnati community along with its initiative to provide the media with story ideas before they happen represent the PR theory of agenda-setting. Agenda-setting is an organization's role as the gatekeeper of information for the media and framing issues so that the way the topic is covered is generally set by the organization. From my media audit, experience working at UC and their media relations Web site, I think the university does an excellent job of agenda-setting. By applying a strictly-implemented branding of the entire school yet allowing reporters direct access to individual, specialized PIOs, UC creates a media image for itself that sticks. In the media audit, there were no negative stories about the university, and many of the most recent stories were similar to press releases posted on UC's site. As a Cincinnati native, I know there is no confusion about what UC is, and that is the result of long-term comprehensive planning by the public relations office.

UC's media relations also demonstrate four of the principles of effective communication: source credibility, nonverbal cues, verbal cues and opinion leaders. First, UC is perceived as a credible, reliable source of information in the community. Besides being a top research university, which increases a school's integrity in the eyes of its publics, it works hard at disclosing everything and not hiding issues from its audiences. This is obvious from its extensive Institutional Research findings and other information listed on the media relations Web site, some of which is not favorable information - UC is located in a notoriously dangerous part of Cincinnati, where crime is common. The university fully discloses information to the media and others about incidents that occur on and around campus (www.uc.edu). Although this may place UC in a negative light at times, it is necessary to provide its publics with all information that might concern them. This also gives the media more respect for the university's PR practices, Hanna said.

In the area of nonverbal cues, UC is branded so completely that when the athletic logo changed last year, it made Cincinnati news headlines for months (and continues to do so). Nonverbal cues are key for the historically back and red UC, and help tie together its otherwise autonomous departments and colleges (Hanna, Mae, personal interview).

UC's use of appropriate verbal cues is best illustrated by its Web site. On the media relations page, it gives straightforward contact information and other materials, such as press releases, targeted toward reporters. The lingo-laced, no-nonsense language used on that page differs considerably with its news pages for students, faculty/staff and alumni, for instance, where warmer, friendlier language is used to address people already dedicated to the university (www.uc.edu).

The best examples of UC's use of opinion leaders carrying the organization's message to the media is in its corporate and community partnerships. The media and Cincinnatians respect leaders within Procter & Gamble, for example, so getting a CEO or director of the company to speak highly of UC's co-op program recommends its excellence to them automatically. Industry leaders, particularly in areas related to the university's most renowned schools and programs, are frequently quoted in press releases about UC programs or are UC faculty themselves (www.uc.edu/news/staff.html and Hanna, Mae, personal interview).

All of these principles and theories in action combine to create a dynamic, effective media relations program. UC and Cincinnati have become so synonymous at this point that the most of the recent news articles found in the media audit had a neutral tone toward the university; it is an overwhelming part of the regional community and business sector. UC's media relations program uses a broad yet targeted approach in order to establish credibility and build relationships with the reporters and publications that help determine how UC will be defined. From personal experience, an insider interview and recent media results, it appears as though "It's all UC" - and it's working.