Over
the past three years, the MHC communications office has focused on honing
the College's institutional image on- and off-campus; raising the College's
profile locally, nationally, and internationally; and securing media coverage
that supports and encourages Plan initiatives by putting them in the limelight.
"We are working to portray the College's distinctive strengths in
ways that our audiences value and understand," says Patricia VandenBerg,
executive director of communications and strategic initiatives. "The
clarity of the Plan helps to crystallize our institutional identity. This,
in turn, makes it easier for us to communicate to people the value of
Mount Holyoke and the benefit of affiliating with the College."
Based on the Plan and on research on competitor institutions, the communications office has identified and projected strengths particular to MHC. The College is an innovative leader in liberal arts education, a technologically advanced institution, a global community, and an institution that is preparing women to be leaders in the twenty-first century. The department has successfully reinforced these messages through media relations and publications.
The College has been gaining more and more attention as a leader and innovator in the area of liberal arts education. In the spring of 2000, for example, MHC's decision to make submission of SAT scores optional by applicants for a five-year trial placed the College at the center of the national debate on the value and fairness of standardized testing. Newspapers, radio stations, and television stations throughout New England carried news of the SAT policy change, and national news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, USA Today, ABCNews.com, U.S. News & World Report, and the Washington Post carried articles and positive editorials on the decision.
The high media visibility on the SAT decision followed on the heels of other high-profile stories. Among them: Dean of the College Beverly Daniel Tatum's work on racial and ethnic identity development has been the subject of substantial media coverage, including coverage by Time, the Boston Sunday Globe, Black Entertainment Television, CNN, Fox's The O'Reilly Factor, and, in January 2000, The Oprah Winfrey Show. MHC is becoming a national model of an inclusive and diverse community. The College's Speaking, Arguing and Writing Program (SAW) is also recognized as an innovative and successful model nationally. SAW was at the center of a media frenzy in 1999. Coverage spanned National Public Radio, Fox News, 20/20, Good Morning America, the Los Angeles Times, and scores of other newspapers and electronic outlets.
The visibility of the College is further enhanced by the work and views of Mount Holyoke's faculty. MHC professors are often in the public eye--whether it's historian Daniel Czitrom and his on-camera commentary for Ric Burns's PBS New York series; art and culture critic Chris Benfey's pieces in publications such as Slate, the New York Review of Books, and the New Republic; or Martha Ackmann of the women's studies department, who makes headlines with a constant stream of commentary and opinion pieces appearing in papers across the country, including the New York Times sports pages, Salon.com, the Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. Coverage of historian Joseph Ellis, Ford Foundation Professor of History and nationally-acknowledged expert on the early days of the American Republic, and articles by him in national publications have been widespread. George, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, MSNBC, CNN, and scores of other publications--even TV Guide--have featured Ellis or his work.
The communications office has developed new College publications that project a venerable institution, but one that is, at the same time, innovative, contemporary, and connected to the world. Pieces such as Ten Brilliant Reasons--which addresses Mount Holyoke's legacy of success in graduating students who go on to enroll in the nation's competitive graduate programs and to successful professional lives--have provided prospective students with exciting evidence of the College's competitive status. This year, prospective students will receive a new large-format magazine-style publication that captures the appeal of MHC through bold graphics, cinematic sepia photographs, and lively text.
Embedded in this publication's kinetic presentation is the new focus that reflects the vibrant state of MHC--an institution global in scope, on the cutting edge in the areas of curriculum and technology, and a place where leaders are prepared to take on any challenge.
