“Rhody Today,” a newsletter that recently started appearing in University of Rhode Island email inboxes, was launched this semester to share information about important campus events and academic research.
After the termination of URI Communications as a delivery system for campus updates over winter break, “Rhody Today” began appearing with a wider range of daily campus coverage, according to Tracey Manni, a communications specialist working with the “Rhody Today” team. Instead of reserving their stories for updates and alerts, the new newsletter was created to share information about research achievements and profiles of URI community members as well.
“Rhody Today” now serves as a central communications vehicle.
“It’s really about telling the URI story more broadly, it’s about building community, about building pride,” Matthew McDonald, the vice president for communications and marketing, said. “It’s about trying to raise and advance the reputation of the university and about the good work happening here.”
The team began discussing the idea for “Rhody Today” in the fall, investing work over the course of several months to experiment with new delivery mechanisms, according to McDonald. They first began by envisioning what a daily news publication would look like.
Unlike “Rhody Today,” the former URI Communications had the potential to send out multiple emails a day. Tracey Manni said that they felt a daily newsletter would be better received by the community.
“We want to bring this in one package to people to make it easier and more efficient to get a look at what’s happening on any given day,” Manni said.
Information sent out in the newsletters can be found on their website, categorized under news, events and updates.
“URI is a place of great innovation and creativity,” said Manni. The team felt that the newsletter’s approach offered a more direct way to share positive news with community members who otherwise would not have learned about it.
Both Manni and McDonald expressed a great interest in spreading campus pride through the empowerment of students, staff and faculty. Spreading campus pride, however, would not be possible without help from its audience.
At the bottom of each email from “Rhody Today,” there is a space allocated for students to share story ideas about events on campus or any important work they wish to share with the community. In doing this, the staff at “Rhody Today” hopes to offer opportunities for community members to establish connections with each other.
Newsletter topics consist of URI research that relates to larger news events in mainstream media, any changes to policy, schedules, campus layout and ultimately any profound work that raises the visibility of URI’s expertise. The team hopes to maximize the spread of information to its readers and appeal to questions they may have and any other topics they value.
“We’re trying to make it a two-way conversation if we can, and if there’s something people really want to hear about or learn more about, then we’re inviting them to share that with us as well,” Manni said.
Any students, staff and faculty can provide feedback to the newsletter by contacting any member of the communications and marketing team, as well as responding to the story link at the bottom of each newsletter email.