SMART Practices for Centers in Communicating With Faculty by Sharmila Pixy Ferris and Kathy Waldron
/SMART Practices for Centers in Communicating With Faculty
by Sharmila Pixy Ferris and Kathy Waldron
While the effects of COVID-19 on higher education are still unfolding, Centers for Teaching and Learning and Writing Centers play a crucial role in supporting faculty at risk of burning out during the pandemic, as Eaton notes. A large recent study by the Chronicle of Higher Education shows that faculty stress and anxiety have increased to the point that more than half of all faculty are considering retiring or leaving higher education. Research shows that during times of adverse change, support becomes even more essential not only in order to keep faculty motivated, but to keep the highly vested faculty motivated. In this blog, we share a means for Campus Centers’ to strengthen communication with, and support of, faculty. SMART practices include communicating strategically, through multiple media, directed at targeted faculty audiences, building on relationships with key faculty stakeholders, and providing resources using a timely just-in-time-just-in-need model.
Strategic Communication
Campus Centers can more effectively communicate with and support faculty by utilizing the organizational tool of strategic communication. As the seminal organizational theorist Peter Drucker (1954) noted, strategy is an indication of the organization’s positioning for the future. Most Centers have clear mission statements, but the pivot to and from remote teaching required by COVID have narrowed their focus and forced many Centers to be reactive rather than proactive. We suggest that Centers re-examine their core mission and proactively build on it. Rather than allowing a reaction to external circumstances to dictate actions, we feel Centers can more effectively support faculty if they allow their own guiding principles to dictate strategic courses of action, accompanied by effective communication to promote the principles at the heart of their mission. Strategic communication provides the link between key strategic issues and actions.
Multiple media
Clarification of mission/guiding principles also allows campus Centers to more effectively allocate resources necessary to support faculty and communicate with stakeholders. A low-resource but highly effective means to achieve successful communication is the use of multiple media. The support services offered by campus Centers are of no use unless faculty avail themselves of the services. Strategic communication through multiple media allows Centers to communicate the range and scope of their services. Communication by email and through social media are essential means of immediate and broad communication, but in-person presentations at faculty meetings can have a significant impact on the use of support services. Interpersonally rich media can include both informal and formal channels of interpersonal and mediated communication. Formal communication can range from mentions of campus Centers in “state of the university” addresses to formal presentations by Centers to the faculty senate, and customized presentations to each college or school or other large faculty organizations. Coordination with the provost and deans is essential, as Centers’ messaging should be consistent with messages from senior administrators, and vice versa. Centers have a unique role to play in helping the administration implement its messages and needed changes and in helping faculty interpret what is expected and needed.
Audience
Effective communication needs to be translated into specific communication strategies targeting various stakeholder groups and calls for a delicate balance between providing enough coverage and “spraying” or over-inundation. Fundamental to this balance is carefully crafting all messaging to the specific audience. While Centers can have multiple stakeholders, the stakeholder of interest here is the faculty body in its entirety. It is crucial to “massage” the message for particular parts of the faculty body (with apologies to Marshall McLuhan). This requires Centers to clearly understand the needs of each faculty body and be comfortable with the support needed for each, bearing in mind the main needs at the moment as well as long- term. While in-the-moment needs vary, long-term missions of Centers are generally to support faculty with pedagogy, technology, teaching methods, and improved student learning. Centers can strengthen their credibility with faculty audiences if they can communicate the availability of time-tested resources offered by Centers.
Relationships
To better reach their audience of faculty stakeholders, Centers need strong relationships with all faculty: untenured and tenured, junior and senior, adjuncts, and early and late adopters of technology. Relationships allow for effective communication and strategic communication calls for Centers to assume the role of strategist in establishing connections with the faculty they serve. Strong relationships can be built through the regular services and programming offered by Centers, but richer means of relationship development include giving public and private recognition to faculty for pedagogical and research accomplishments such as relevant publications and special work with students. Also helpful are relationships with administrators whose support can help Centers assist faculty.
Timeliness
Centers offer many types of concrete support, only some of which have been addressed above, but faculty may not have the time or the desire to regularly utilize campus resources. However, faculty do appreciate the opportunity to turn to Centers to meet immediate needs. Timeliness in availability of resources, and in communication about those resources, is essential. Centers generally host a wide range of pedagogical resources on their websites and can offer curated location and customization of resources. But faculty often work in a “just in time, just in need” model and may not know they can turn to Centers when they have immediate needs. Centers should communicate the range of their resources and ensure faculty understand that they can obtain customized resources in a timely manner when needed. While this puts a great deal of pressure on Centers, getting what they need when they need it matters a great deal to faculty. Communicating too late is a problem and getting it just right is the essence of strategic communication.
Understanding the concept of strategic communication can help Centers better identify the factors that promote effective faculty support at an unprecedented time in higher education when overburdened faculty need all the assistance they can get. A stronger faculty can better support students, thus doubly fulfilling the mission of campus Writing and Teaching Centers.