PR campaign

PR campaign

Stylebook Executive Summary & Situation Analysis 1 Executive Summary “Fashion is about what you wear. Style is about how you live your life.” –Ralph Lauren The 2005 Loyola University New Orleans Bateman Team presents the exclusive Stylebook of the “Check Out My Ethics” campaign. This Stylebook catalogs our work from the drawing board (research), to the tailoring (objectives and strategies), to the runway (execution) where our public relations couture became all the rage. Our meticulously tailored “Check Out My Ethics” campaign links character-defining choices to the development of individual style, using the classic attributes of durable denim as a driving metaphor. Our academic integrity is a perfect fit for every day and for every body. Prior to our campaign, student and faculty survey results revealed conflicting definitions of cheating at Loyola and a nearby Catholic high school. Loyola Bateman 2005 enthusiastically accepted the challenge to advance academic integrity at Loyola and De La Salle High School. Our Stylebook charts how “Check Out My Ethics” grew from a grassroots trend to a mainstream style. We started with fliers and a Web site targeted to all key publics and garnered the unanimous support of the Loyola University Faculty Senate and the university president. The entire senior class at De La Salle was so appreciative of our presentation that they gave us an “A+” rating. We acquired attention from Loyola student media as well as high profile New Orleans business media. In only one month, our brand of academic integrity educated students about the significance of academic honesty, advanced the discussion of a university-wide undergraduate honor code and persuaded professors to take a more active role in cultivating a culture of academic honesty. Our Stylebook gives a peek inside the closet full of academic integrity that Loyola and De La Salle have incorporated into their wardrobe. We invite you to explore the style, substance and creative vision that define Loyola Bateman 2005. Situation Analysis Colleges and universities throughout the nation face the problem of dishonesty in academics. A survey administered by Rutgers University showed that of 30,000 students surveyed, 37 percent admitted to cheating. Universities nationwide have adopted honor codes and have purchased anti-plagiarism software to counter cheating. We were shocked to discover that at Loyola, 39.8 percent and even more startling, at De Le Salle, 88.2 percent of students admit to cheating. Armed with these statistics, we recognized the need to educate students at the high school and college levels about the realities of unethical behavior and the ramifications it may have on both scholastic and professional life. In a university atmosphere like Loyola’s in which lofty words about Jesuit ideals are so commonplace that people don’t stop to think about what they really mean or how they apply in day-to-day decisions, it is increasingly difficult to gain student and faculty attention regarding an issue they have become accustomed to overlooking. Research suggests that the fundamental problem of academic dishonesty at Loyola lies in miscommunication and confusion: students are not educated about academic integrity. Discrepancies between faculty and student definitions of academic dishonesty as well as the confusion about the lack of a university honor code create a misunderstanding of academic integrity policies. We determined that something so primary as honesty in the educational realm should be as prominent and popular as denim. For Loyola to have an effective system of academic integrity, the culture of Loyola needs to be one of consistent personal academic awareness. Stylebook Secondary & Primary Research 2 Research Secondary Research: Scholarly journals: • Student habits carry over into professional life, specifically the “copy, paste, but don’t cite the sources” mentality. • Teachers can discourage cheating by banning electronic devices or by giving multiple versions of tests. • Underclassmen cheat more than upperclassmen, men cheat more than women, lower GPA students cheat more than higher achieving students, and Greeks and athletes cheat more than students who don’t participate in those activities. • Cheating occurs more often when students perceive others can get away with it. It is lower where schools have a strong academic honor code. • Schools with an honor code and non-honor code universities differ in their description of moral community and lack of cheating. • Low self-esteem, effort avoidance, defiance of authority and achievement anxiety are connected with cheating in high school students. Loyola Handbook, Undergraduate Bulletin and Web site: • Loyola’s policies are broadly defined and provide few guidelines for the student. The Handbook states, “All academic work will be done by the student to whom it is assigned with out unauthorized data or help of any kind.” While the Handbook lists the consequences associated with cheating, plagiarism and misrepresentation it does not effectively explain these terms. • The policies are difficult for students to locate online. There is no “Academic Integrity Policy” title for policies at Loyola, rather, the information is found under the “Integrity of Scholarship and Grades: Academic Work” heading. Other University Honor Codes and comparative research studies: • 61 percent of other Jesuit universities have successfully implemented honor codes at their institutions. • We obtained an understanding of how honor codes are established, implemented and maintained. Internal media outlets: • Little to no Loyola student media attention has been paid to the installment of an honor code on campus. • Faculty members have engaged in heated debates on ethical behavior in the academic and professional fields in the form of letters to the editor in the student newspaper, The Maroon. External media outlets: • High-profile cases of unethical behavior in both academic and professional fields riddle today’s news. Primary Research: Loyola Student Online Surveys: (Check Out Appendix page 32 and 36, A 32,36). • 78.9 percent of students are under the false impression that Loyola has a formal honor code. • 39.8 percent of students admit to cheating at least once while at Loyola. • 53 percent of students believe that cheating does “matter in the long run.” • 58.3 percent of students report witnessing instances of cheating while at Loyola. • 82 percent of students said they believe that all colleges of Loyola should have one standard code of academic behavior. • 85 percent of students report “personal morality” to be their motivation to act ethically; 63 percent report “relationships with professors” is their incentive to stay honest. Loyola Faculty Online Surveys: (A33, 42) • 48.8 percent of faculty are aware that the university does not have a formal honor code. • 63.6 percent of faculty do not agree that the university emphasizes academic integrity. • 75.7 percent of faculty report seeing between 1 to 5 cases of academic dishonesty per semester. • 87 percent of faculty said they believe that all colleges within Loyola should have one standard of ethical behavior. De La Salle Student Surveys: • 92.4 percent of De La Salle seniors report witnessing instances of cheating while in high school. • 88.2 percent admitted that they cheated at least once while at De La Salle. • 52.8 percent said they believe that cheating does “matter in the long run.” Stylebook Target Audiences &Key Messages 3 Loyola Student Focus Group: • Cheating is not a big problem at Loyola. • Cheating seems to have become more socially acceptable. • Loyola’s Jesuit ideals have very little impact on the why students are at Loyola and are considered “overplayed” and overstressed; they are usually just ignored. Professional Focus Group: • Discussion about their undergraduate days paralleled results discovered in the Loyola student focus group. • Some corporate programs require ethics training. In-depth Faculty Interviews: • Cheating is a real problem on campus. • Some faculty members said they believe that it is their responsibility to make cheating impossible and reduce student temptation to cheat. • Students are often unaware of what the professor expects or how to properly cite sources to avoid acts of plagiarism. • Faculty indicated that they are reluctant to adopt peer reporting of policy infringement because they didn’t want to encourage a negative, antagonistic environment. Target Audiences: Primary Audiences: • 3,500 Loyola undergraduate students. • Loyola faculty who teach undergraduates. • Loyola president, provost and deans. • De La Salle senior class. Key Messages: Undergraduate Loyola Students: • Academic dishonesty includes any activity that impinges upon the intellectual property of others. Among these activities are: cheating on exams and assignments, presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, using false or improper citations on assignments and papers, submitting false data and lying to administration and professors. • Like the jeans worn everyday, academic integrity is an expression of timeless values and personal style. Integrity is a choice; make it your own. • Instituting an honor code at Loyola will strengthen the school as an academic institution and further promote a culture of academic integrity. Aside from being fashion-forward, students need to be dedicated to a style of integrity. • Academic honesty in college will help to advance your integrity and credibility in your future career. While trends may come and go, academic integrity is made to last. Faculty: • Instituting an honor code at Loyola will advance students’ ethical behavior and add to a culture of academic integrity at Loyola. On campus, academic integrity should be as fashionable and commonplace as denim. • Clearer definitions of academic honesty in the classroom and on the syllabus will help to dissuade students from committing academically unethical behavior. De La Salle Seniors: • Academic dishonesty includes: cheating on assignments and exams, copying someone else’s work, words or ideas and presenting it as your own, using false citations or not citing sources, sharing others’ work and claiming it as your own and lying to teachers. The academic integrity style is always the perfect fit. • Academic honesty will benefit you throughout college and in your future career. Jeans never go out of style, and neither does integrity. Secondary Audiences: • Loyola broadcast and print media. • Local broadcast and print media Stylebook Challenges/Opportunities & Objectives, Strategies, Tactics and Outcomes 4 Challenges/Opportunities: Challenge: For the first time in the history of Loyola’s participation in the Bateman Case Study Competition, our primary research was subject to Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Prior to this year, only sociology and psychology students were required to go through official review because their research could potentially be harmful to human subjects. Because the committee could not meet before Jan. 18, the execution of our surveys and focus groups was delayed. In turn, our entire campaign was postponed two weeks. Opportunity: IRB approval provided assurance that our primary research was professional, thorough and respectful of all participants. We learned more about ethical research practices and valid informed consent. Challenge: Loyola’s recent emphasis on marketing taglines to promote the Jesuit ideals to prospective and current students made it difficult to introduce academic integrity in an environment already saturated with abstract concepts. Opportunity: Rather than present academic integrity as a lofty ideal, we focused on practical implications. Challenge: We recognized that the decision to adopt an honor code is not one we could make for Loyola. We also acknowledged that behavior change is the result of personal reflection, and we could only raise the question to students, provide them with supportive resources and encourage them to choose academic integrity. PRSSA’s 2005 Bateman competition to achieve behavior change was especially challenging because we know that behavior change usually occurs over a longer period of time than what we were allowed by the constraints of the competition, the timing of the Mardi Gras holiday in New Orleans and the unexpected IRB delay. Opportunity: We created a foundation on which campus student and administrative groups could build. We prompted dialogue and set institutional wheels in motion so our campaign’s longevity would extend beyond the competition deadline. Our campaign was primarily designed to prompt critical thinking and discussion about academic integrity at Loyola and De La Salle so that the effects of “Check Out My Ethics” will endure even beyond our Feb. 28 deadline. Challenge: A Jesuit education aims to teach students how to think, not what to think. In turn, Loyola students pride themselves on individuality. Opportunity: In response, our campaign was an appeal to the individual. We engaged students in dialogue in addition to clarifying the definition and significance of academic integrity. We chose instructional, educational, technological, interactive and entertaining methods to reach our audience. Objectives, Strategies, Tactics and Outcomes Objective 1: To inform Loyola undergraduates about the definition, ramifications and the long-term significance of academic integrity by Feb. 28, 2005. Strategy 1: To establish a graphic identity for the “Check Out My Ethics” public relations campaign introducing key messages to campus opinion leaders, organizations, faculty, administration and students. Rationale: A unified brand identity keeps audiences informed rather than confused. Acceptance of our messages was enhanced by the repetition of key logos and slogans on Loyola’s campus. We wanted our brand awareness campaign to be a well-designed and color-coordinated ensemble that effectively reflects the classic style of academic integrity. In choosing a logo design for our campaign, it seemed only natural that we use a recognizable and established jeans logo. The Levi’s Jeans logo seemed a perfect fit: something lasting and timeless. Initially, we altered the words on the logo to read “Academic Integrity” and “Quality Education” and deleted all graphics but the pair of jeans in the center, but the real challenge came with deciding how much of the actual logo to change. After consulting various professionals, including PRSA Board Of Ethics & Professional Standards Chair, David C. Rickey, APR (A 49), and both public relations and design/advertising faculty, we felt comfortable sending our logo to press (A 96). Our Feb. 17 presentation to the University Faculty Senate meeting gave us new cause for concern as one of the professors questioned our logo choice. It was back to the cleaners for us, and a newly designed logo, minus the jeans graphic, was ready to wear. Stylebook Objectives, Strategies, Tactics and Outcomes 5 Tactic 1: Create a recognizable logo (A 96). We used our campaign logo, a classic blue jeans label, to communicate to our key audiences that academic integrity is a timeless and classic means of self-expression. Tactic 2: Develop a memorable slogan. “Academic Integrity is a personal choice. Make it your own” was the main slogan based on our student survey results, which reflected that students either acted honestly or dishonestly according to their own personal morality. Our slogan explained that students have a choice in decision-making, and it encouraged students to make that choice an ethical one. Strategy 2: To foster awareness in both the Loyola and the New Orleans community about our “Check Out My Ethics” campaign through positive publicity of the “Check Out My Ethics” week of events. Rationale: Publicity is necessary to make the Loyola community aware of our campaign. Media attention allowed us to introduce our campaign messages to Loyola students who did not see our fliers or receive e-mails. It also allowed us to spread our eternally stylish messages throughout the New Orleans community. Tactic 1: Press Release and Fact Sheet. We strategically crafted a stylish news release with a fact sheet/calendar of events to inform local journalists about the “Check Out My Ethics” campaign. We used these materials to pitch story ideas to media, not only to inform a secondary public (A 91, 95). Tactic 2: Awareness campaign through on-campus fliers (A 97-98). To kick off our campaign, we distributed fliers bearing our logo, slogan and Web site. Follow-up fliers displayed our schedule of events in high-traffic areas on campus. Our final wave of fliers featured Loyola opinion leaders modeling their style of academic integrity. Tactic 3: Tent cards in the J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library (A 99). Tent cards highlighting the “Check Out My Ethics” Schedule of Events were placed throughout the library before and during the campaign week. We strategically placed the cards at computer carrels and in all three of the computer labs. All chosen locations are frequented by students throughout the day, guaranteeing maximum exposure for the Schedule of Events and increasing the possibilities of message adoption through repetition. Strategy 3: Establish partnerships with on-campus organizations. Rationale: Partnerships are a strategic means to build credibility for our campaign and access to resources that may not have otherwise been available to students. Based on our student focus group, we discovered that students preferred positive messages rather than scare tactics, especially with a topic like personal ethics in the classroom. Our partnerships served as positive sewing tools when stitching together our campaign instead of focusing on the negative consequence of acting dishonestly at Loyola. Tactic 1: Partner with the Monroe Library (A 103). The “Check Out My Ethics” campaign offered the library the opportunity to publicize many of the valuable library services unfamiliar to students. As part of the partnership, library staff agreed to personally teach the “Copy, Paste, CITE” student workshop which the Bateman team developed to teach students how to use several library resources like RefWorks to properly cite sources and avoid acts of plagiarism. The library served as a hub for the campaign by hosting forums, allowing generous distribution of tent cards and fliers, distributing “Study Tip Stickers” at coffee carts and providing drop boxes to collect signed student and faculty petitions (A 101). Tactic 2: Partner with the Academic Resource Center (A 100-101). The A.R.C. developed positive messages to counteract academic dishonesty by providing study tips for students on stickers that were distributed during “Check Out My Ethics Week” at the Monroe Library coffee stand. This partner was so excited to join forces with our campaign that they offered to finance the printing costs for the stickers as an in-kind donation. Stylebook Objectives, Strategies, Tactics and Outcomes 6 Strategy 4: To engage Loyola students in interactive means of discussion that highlights academic integrity. Rationale: Loyola student e-mail surveys indicated that 39.7 percent of undergraduates admit to cheating during college. Undergraduate surveys and focus groups showed that one of the most prominent problems sutdents have with plagiarism is ignorance of proper methods of academic citation. Since undergraduates sometimes rely solely on online sources for their research papers, we determined that arming students with the knowledge of proper methods of research and citation is key in preventing future academic transgressions. Ethical behavior does not stop at the educational level; when students enter the worplace, behavior and ethics have a profound impact on clients, co-workers and employers. Just as designers rely on more well-known and established designers to model their collections after, Loyola Bateman 2005 relied on public relations ethics officers to advise our tactics in the development stages of our campaign. We sought advice from the PRSA New Orleans Chapter Ethics Officer Stacie Rivera and PRSA Board Of Ethics & Professional Standards Chair, David C. Rickey, APR (A 49). Tactic 1: “Shattered Glass” Film Discussion (A 74, 132). We gave Loyola students the opportunity to watch the movie, “Shattered Glass,” a film about a journalist who fabricated news. Students discussed the importance of honesty and trust in the workplace. Tactic 2: “Copy, Paste, CITE: A Workshop for Students” (A 133). The Monroe Library staff conducted this workshop for students, providing information on the proper uses of research and citation resources. Programs highlighted included Lexis-Nexis, Ref-Works and other university Web sites. Bateman team members also discussed the research findings and their relevance to student life. Tactic 3: “Careers with Character” Panel (A 88). The panel featured three speakers from diverse professions (A 89). Each panelist defined what academic integrity meant to them, its relationship to their field and their own experiences with unethical behavior in the professional world and its consequences. David Grubb, political consultant and public relations professional, said, “It’s not just your work. There are a lot of people who are affected by the decisions that you make… even those individuals that do cross the line will respect you if you stand up and say ‘no- I will not do that, I will not cross that line.’” Jennifer Bernard-Allen, Tax Associate with Laporte, Sehrt, Roemig & Hard, added, “Most importantly, the person you are becoming in college is the person you will be (in the workplace). There are no more excuses and the consequences are severe.” After the presentation, the panel became a round-table discussion with students and panelists. Tactic 4: “Mr. & Miss Integrity Pageant” (A 85, 136). We invited student organizations to nominate their most ethical member as a representative in our integrity pageant (A 86). A panel of strategically selected judges (A 87) selected the most ethical participant. Judges included a well-known professor, the current SGA president and a wellknown recent graduate and former SGA president to address the perspectives of integrity among faculty, students and graduates in the work world. The panel questioned contestants about how the personal style of blue jeans is like their personal approach to academic and professional integrity. Pageant participant, Elizabeth Frei, told the audience, “Jeans don’t lie and neither should you!” The judges also quizzed contestants on proper ethical practices based on our Academic Integrity Web site. Barbara Thompson, representing the Panhellenic Council, was crowned “Miss Integrity” and was rewarded with a gift certificate for a new pair of jeans. Tactic 5: www.thefacebook.com (A 71). The Facebook is an online directory used to search for students at other universities and view profiles of friends in a social network. Forming a group on The Facebook was an effective

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