To: From: Subject: Date:

Debra Thompson, Vice President, College Affairs Kaitlin Kelly, Director, College Relations Communication Plan for College Name and Logo Change March 17, 2011

The colleges board of visitors has approved a name change from John C. Anderson College to Anderson University during the centennial year which will coincide with the 20142015 school year. Along with this name change, a new logo will be adopted which will be a simple gold shield with a blue banner across it saying Anderson University. I have attached the new logo as well as the original logo to see the difference. I have also enclosed a list of events that will be taking place to make certain our change can be accepted and celebrated by our various constituencies. I have prepared this analysis that spans the next six months (from March 2014- August 2014) to assist you with the Universitys plans as we gradually adopt the new name and logo. I will also be discussing the steps we will be taking to ensure, with this progression, we still have our loyal donors and we are able to increase the enrollment by 25% over the next year (from 10,000 to 12,500 students). Its important that we first focus on our key constituencies and other people who might be affected by this change. I think that it is vital to make sure that all employees, both current and prospective students, and our alumni are first notified. Because we get most of our donations from our alumni, we should spend the month of March making personal phone calls. Although this could be time consuming, I believe it shows our investment in making sure that these past relationships are still secured. We will also be sending out a formal letter and an invitation for a special event that will be held in honor of the alumni (which will also ensure that we are still able to notify those who we could not reach by phone). Also, we will contact by phone and letter all

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our other sponsors. To make the future of Anderson University prosperous, we should send a letter to all prospective students and contact all of the high schools along the east coast including other schools our current or past students have attended. Also during March, we will notify all current students, faculty, and staff by email and we will hold various special events to support the new change. We will inform the surrounding community by mailing out letters and providing information to certain local media outlets which I will later discuss. Unfortunately, there may be some problems that could arise after our primary constituencies are informed. For our alumni, various sponsors, the local community, faculty, and staff, the change could be an issue because tradition is something that our school has always been proud of. They might believe that we have strayed away from our vision statement involving our heritage and community considering our name stemmed from a local doctor and Confederate Army general. Also, the alumni might believe it to be unfair that their diploma states that they graduated from John C. Anderson College instead of a larger, more advanced, and prestigious name such as Anderson University. However, its vital that we stress the importance of the name and logo change and the great impact that it will have on the advancement of our institution. Since we are approaching our 100th year anniversary, this change will help us expand our school in various ways. We will have a larger outreach to more prospective students and will be able to increase our student body. People pride themselves often on the name of an institution, such as a university, college, or community college. Our new name will also help attract more out-of-state students thus increasing our revenue. We will have the opportunity to expand our curriculum and adopt masters programs including advanced nursing, healthcare administration, etc. Also we will be

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able to include more sports programs and evolove from a Division III sports program, to a Division II, and eventually have a Division I sports program. People are often skeptical of change and try to stray away from anything different than what they are used to. Our key message stresses that this advancement is a financial, social, and intellectual betterment for our institution. The name and logo change clearly supports and incorporates our mission and vision statements. The mission of Anderson College is to educate and develop the whole person. With this new opportunity, we as a university will be able to provide an array of educational opportunities through more classes, majors, and master programs. Therefore, more choices will be provided for our current students which will help attract prospective students. To develop the whole person and for our graduates to be equipped to become leaders, this change allows us the chance to increase our educational and sports opportunities, and provides our students with the social advancement that they need to succeed in this ever-growing society. Our vision statement states: Affirming and building upon its heritage, Anderson College will become the recognized leader in transformative education of the whole person. Even though our logo and name will be changed, we still recognize and honor Doctor and General John Clifton Anderson from our local community. We are simply maintaining and building upon our heritage as we expand into a bigger institution. We need to continually encourage the positivity of this decision and put our best efforts forward to show that this change is needed. To reach the media, our secondary constituency, our media relations specialist will notify our local, state, and national media contacts found on our database. To make sure that all of our constituencies are reached, it is important that we adopt the use of social media. According to Facebooks statistics found on their website (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics),

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there are 500 million active users and 50% log on everyday. The site also states that there are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. Twitter is a place where we are able to tweet and tell our followers about everything that is going on around campus. I viewed an article found at (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/twitter-user-statistics_n_835581.html) that reported that the average daily sign-up rate has been 460,000 new accounts, as well as a 182% increase in the number of users tweeting from mobile devices in the past year. YouTube is also another great social media that is frequently used. Millions of users post and watch videos each day on various topics. These three forms of social media will be extremely beneficial to not only continue reaching our constituencies, but will also help enhance our image and further our reputation. Now that we have the opportunity to expand, we will need to create Facebook and Twitter accounts so that everyone is informed of our current change over the next six months. After our progression into a university, everyone who has a Facebook or Twitter can stay informed about everything that is happening on campus. It would be helpful if we had our Digital Video and Cinema Students to create a short video about our name change and why it is beneficial. I can work closely with them in monitoring that my vision is successful. Posting follow-up videos on YouTube will continue the spread of our name and logo change along with all other university updates. Its important that traditional media is still used throughout this process. This can be made possible by using our new logo on letterheads, our alumni magazine, the university newspaper, and various publications.

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As you prepare the rollout plan, keep in mind all of the event dates and how important these next six months will be in order for Anderson University to have a successful future. Although this analysis is a rough draft, many ideas can be added and developed upon further inspection. If you are presented with difficulties, I am always here to help you with anything you may need. Remember to continually stress how vital this change is for our institution to be able to expand its horizons. I, along with the rest of my staff, will be doing our jobs to ensure that all of the steps of this analysis and communication plan are thoroughly carried out. I look forward to working with you and helping make a difference here at Anderson University! Thank you,

Kaitlin Kelly, Director of College Relations KellyKC@dukes.jmu.edu

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