Reaching Beyond the Campus with Diversity Messages

Creative, collaborative thinking can help make a conference or other campus initiative stand out. With this in mind, planners of Diversity and Academic Standards: Reflections in a Different Mirror concluded their day-long conference with a two-hour public forum.

Through a partnership with The Boston Globe and WGBH-FM, UMB’s on-going Forum for the 21st Century: Shaping Boston’s Future, which focuses on the social and economic challenges facing the city, has reached wide audiences since it was launched in 1996.

Having worked previously with The Boston Globe on its occasional dialogue series, Hubie Jones, special assistant to the Chancellor for Urban Affairs, convinced the newspaper that the forums would fit perfectly into its dialogue series. A similar pitch was made to WGBH-FM, which agreed to air a time-delayed, hour-long version of each forum.

By coordinating the conference with the forum, both programs received benefits. The conference received added media attention and the Forum gained attendance from conference participants.

Planners of both events worked closely with staff at UMB’s Office of Public Information who contacted national and New England education reporters, distributed calendar listings and posted event “teasers” on UMB’s website.

A listserv named Inclusion-net was created for conference and forum participants to continue the dialogues begun at the April 7th conference. The partial transcript of the forum appeared in the Boston Globe on April 19, 1998 and was broadcast on Sunday, May 3 on WGBH-FM. For information, contact the Center for the Improvement of Teaching; 617/287-6767; citumb@umbsky.cc.umb.edu.