Hemenway leads charge for KU’s image control

Creating a universitywide marketing plan will be a central focus for the upcoming year at Kansas University, Chancellor Robert Hemenway said Thursday.

Hemenway was among the speakers at KU’s annual faculty and staff convocation, which drew several hundred employees to Budig Hall.

Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway, left, chats with Stuart Bell, dean of the School of Engineering, center, and Jim Roberts, vice provost for research, before the annual faculty and staff convocation at KU. Hemenway and David Shulenburger, provost and executive vice chancellor, outlined their vision for the upcoming year Thursday in Budig Hall.

“We can’t go out to the wider world with a babble of contradictory voices,” Hemenway said. “We have to tell a story, tell it well and not waste resources.”

The university has worked for the past year with Christopher Simpson, a former administrator at the universities of Oregon and Indiana, on developing an integrated marketing plan. Work to this point includes focus groups and surveys of those involved with the university asking which symbols they most directly associate with KU.

Hemenway said work would begin soon on a new logo that will include the Jayhawk, KU seal and the school’s name. Other goals include a unified look on such materials as Web sites and business cards.

Hemenway said if executed properly, the marketing plan would help administrators share the successes of KU, which would result in increased state funding, higher faculty salaries and an academically stronger KU student body.

“We know we have a good university here,” the chancellor said. “But does the public — and key constituencies in that public — agree with us?”

Susan Twombly, the teaching and leadership professor who chairs University Council, said she hoped the administration would involve university governance in the process of developing a marketing plan.

Twombly, who researches higher education, said she thought the plan could have benefits at KU.

“I hate to admit it, but I think it’s good,” she said. “It seems silly, but … it’s clear these efforts have had an effect at other places. To some people it seems hokey — why would the university spend the time and money on something like this?”