Media relations
Media relations is responsible for raising the national profile of Earlham College by sharing the campus community’s stories with internal and external audiences.
Working with the media
As a liaison between Earlham and the news media, we develop relationships with local and national reporters to share information about Earlham.
Members of the press who wish to contact Earlham College should email the director of media relations. A link to the College’s news archive is located at earlham.edu/news.
Working with campus newsmakers
The expertise and experiences of our students, faculty and staff are promoted through local and national media. Newspapers located near a student’s primary residence may also be notified about accomplishments of that student. Students, for more information, please view the students and media section below.
This office also manages the College’s official social media accounts, including:
Policies
Earlham College Social Media Policy
Social media provides opportunities for Earlham College to encourage dialogue, build community and share its story with a global audience over a variety of digital platforms.
While the College maintains an official presence on many social media websites, other members of the campus community can also build affinity communities via social media. Please read the following policy to ensure that your practice syncs with Earlham’s overall communications goals and is consistent with the College’s Principles & Practices. The official College logo and wordmarks are reserved for posts by faculty and staff.
The following guidelines and best practices for representing Earlham on social media will help:
- Protect our reputation: We all influence Earlham’s reputation. Therefore, it’s vital to use correct spelling and punctuation.
- Be conversational: Social media channels are conversations. Listen to what issues are on the minds of the people you want to reach. It’s the likes on Facebook and the re-tweets on Twitter that make your posts valuable.
- Encourage interaction: It’s best to respond to prompts and questions in a timely manner. It is generally best not to censor or delete unflattering comments, unless posts contain profanity or messages that are discriminatory or offensive.
- Be consistent: Generate regular and timely updates. If you can’t devote time to maintain your own social media page, don’t start one. Instead, consider sending your department’s news and information to Brian Zimmerman, director of media relations, at [email protected].
- Be aware of liability: You’re legally liable for what you post on your own site and on the sites of others. Individual bloggers have been held liable for commentary deemed to be proprietary, copyrighted, defamatory, libelous or obscene (as defined by the courts).
- Share high-quality multimedia: Seek opportunities to integrate photography, videos, podcasts, and other forms of multimedia to enhance posts. When posting multimedia, choose content that is in focus and easy to identify.
- Own up to your mistakes: If you make an error, correct it quickly and visibly. This will help earn you respect in the online community.
- Avoid endorsements: Be careful about making posts that could be seen as endorsing positions on controversial topics that the College hasn’t taken.
Earlham’s Marketing and Communications Office is charged with sharing the story of Earlham with the public in a variety of ways, including through news releases about student involvements and accomplishments. (Please note that guidelines associated with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, referred to also as FERPA, guide the College’s release of information known as student “directory information.” More about this below.)
To facilitate our efforts, we use contact information for hometown newspapers in each student’s record in the College’s database system.
We request that students submit their Media Information Form for Marketing and Communications, indicating the names and contact information for two newspapers where hometown releases about you may be sent, to Marketing and Communications by July 1.
Non-Disclosure of Directory Information
Students may withhold directory information from the media and from publication on campus by filing a Non-Disclosure of Directory Information Form before the end of the second week of the Fall Semester. Requests for non-disclosure will be honored by the institution for only one academic year; therefore, authorization to withhold directory information must be filed annually in the Marketing and Communications Office.
Standard Directory Information
Earlham College routinely provides basic directory information about students in accordance with FERPA.. This includes:
- student name, campus address, campus phone and e-mail address
- student’s hometown and state
- identity of parents, guardians or next of kin
- major field of study and year of graduation
- dates of attendance, and degrees and awards received
- most recent previous educational agency or institution attended by the student
- participation in officially recognized college activities and sports
- photographs as available
- weight and height of members of athletic teams.
Such information as students’ names, major fields of study, year of graduation, dates of attendance, degrees/awards and participation in activities are typically used in media releases, publications, event programs and lists for on-campus office use.
Except when required to so by law, Earlham does not give out directory information in response to requests from off-campus sources, whether from individuals or vendors. Questions concerning enrollment or degree verification should be referred to the Registrar’s Office. To read more about this, visit the Directory Information Policy.
Marketing and Communications Office Procedure
The Marketing and Communications Assistant maintains a paper copy of the Non-Disclosure of Directory Information Forms for students not wishing to receive hometown news coverage. The Assistant also inserts “DO NOT SEND” in the first Banner media field (M1) for all such students.
Social media