Recast | Internal Communications

From: Evergreen President’s Office <president@evergreen.edu>
Date: Friday, January 15, 2021 at 11:30 AM

Dear Campus Community, 

Thank you to all staff, faculty, and students across the college who have expressed concern about the need for better and more internal communications.  

This fall, I commissioned a cross-divisional group (Karen Gaul, Jeanette Smith, Amy Betz, Julie Slone, Eric Pedersen, and Farra Layne Hayes) to assess how we could improve internal messaging and communications. The group spent much time looking at different models and brainstorming options. To fulfill their charge, they sought to be both sensitive to Evergreen’s budget situation, yet aware of our campus climate and the need for strategic and coordinated communications in these immense times of change. They recognized that Evergreen needs to ensure broad understanding of and engagement with many critical issues: our ongoing work with Covid-19, welcoming a new college president in the months ahead, implementing new academic directions, and other pressing college priorities.   

Based on these factors, the group’s thoughtful recommendations, and the need to rely on existing resources in supporting this effort, we are dedicating part of Andrew Beattie’s time to serve as Evergreen’s Internal Communications Liaison. With the goal of strengthening important information flow throughout the college, Andrew will work to develop, facilitate, and implement internal communications specifically targeted for students, staff, and faculty. Having a keen sense of how to inspire and engage Evergreen’s various internal audiences, Andrew will design and share communications that build trust, foster collaboration, and enhance dialog across all the college’s divisions. He will continue his work on the presidential search while also taking on these internal communications duties, through the end of June 2021. At that time, we will explore next steps.  

I have asked the Marketing and Communications Office to oversee this work for the next six months. The cross-divisional group recognized there are synergies with oversight by Marketing and Communications, as Andrew will collaborate with a cohort of communications experts. The collaboration will help ensure many of the messages developed by marketing and Communications for external stakeholders are shared internally with students, faculty, and staff.  

Many thanks to the cross-divisional group for their thoughtful deliberations and recommendations for how to move Evergreen forward. I am certain you would agree that strategic, deliberate, and cohesive communications for our campus community will be of great benefit moving forward. 

Sincerely,

George