Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Promoting The Bc Digital Commons: For And By The Community, Ady Dewey

Strategic Public Relations Projects

The BC Digital Commons (DC) is an open-access robust repository of artifacts, scholarship, publications, performances, events, and more. Through Google Scholar and other search engines, the content is accessed worldwide, yet the DC remains a little-known resource on campus. This fact motivated the director of the Forrer Learning Commons to seek input on how to more effectively increase submissions and the number of users.

The 2023 Strategic Public Relations class (COMM 347) began by educating themselves on the DC and brainstorming about potential advantages from a student’s perspective. They identified stakeholders to interview to determine general awareness and to test …

Response To A Shooting: Supporting A Community’S Steps Forward, Ady Dewey

Strategic Public Relations Projects

On February 1, 2022, two security officers were killed by a gunman on the Bridgewater College campus. Our peaceful community was rocked by heartbreak. The fear, trauma, and grief of that day and the days—and months—to follow were uncharted and challenging in as many different ways as there were individuals impacted.

When the Strategic Public Relations (COMM 347) met for the first time when classes resumed a week later, after processing together their feelings and reactions to the day, they determined that they wanted to do something to help in the healing. They identified two needs: encouraging self-care and promoting …

Educating And Motivating Students To Get The Covid Vaccine, Ady Dewey

Strategic Public Relations Projects

The 2020-2021 academic year was one of many different challenges as the COVID pandemic ravaged the world. Classes at Bridgewater College were HyFlex, which meant some students were present, in-person, masked, while other students participated online via Zoom. This split arrangement presented significant challenges for everyone – those on campus and those remote. The college experience, needless to say, was totally rewritten and this importantly included communication efforts.

The 2021 Strategic Public Relations class (COMM 347) identified the need of educating their peers about the availability—and advantages—of getting the COVID vaccine. (At this point in March, the College had not …

#Whyaspire? Increasing Participation In Annual Academic Celebration, Ady Dewey

Strategic Public Relations Projects

Public relations campaigns are often designed with the goal of raising awareness about an event, an issue, a candidate or any number of other topics. Raising awareness, however, is not enough. To make change requires people connect and act: go to an event, donate to an organization, vote for a candidate. This semester, working with the faculty Research Resource Group, COMM 347 Strategic Public Relations set out to develop messaging and visual media to educate the BC community about ASPIRE and, more importantly, increase participation, both applicants and attendees, in future years.

ASPIRE stands for Arts, Scholarship, Performance, Innovation and …

Cultivating Student Philanthropy: Putting The Fun Into Fundraising, Ady Dewey

Strategic Public Relations Projects

Public relations can be seen as merely promotion – whether a product, an organization, a place or even a person. The essence of PR work, however, is about building relationships to help people gain a deeper understanding or connection to a particular subject-object-concept. The 2019 Strategic PR class (COMM 347) partnered with the college’s office of Alumni Relations to explore how PR seamlessly relates to fundraising by cementing connections between donors and a cause and motivating people to give.

For this project, three areas were identified to address: general philanthropy education, the annual Senior Class Gift, and the annual Day …

Retiring The Mack: Preparing Campus Community For Library Construction Project, Ady Dewey

Strategic Public Relations Projects

The Bridgewater campus was on the verge of a dramatic change as the Alexander Mack Memorial Library transformed into the John Kenny Forrer Learning Commons. The project impacted every student as the Mack closed its doors in May 2018, library services were moved to another building and warehouse, and new study spaces were created on campus. Despite this project touching every current and prospective student, there was not a distinct communication plan to reach this audience.

At the request of the library administration, the Strategic Public Relations class planned and recommended how to promote and educate the campus community about …

Strategic Pr Meets Digital Scholarship, Ady Dewey

Strategic Public Relations Projects

The 2017 strategic public relations (COMM 347) created a campaign to increase faculty’s awareness of the pedagogical benefits of digital scholarship and the work being done by faculty. While there are various definitions of the term “digital scholarship,” the class approached it as an opportunity to rethink traditional assessment tools by using different technologies to aid students in creating digital projects for a public audience. Digital scholarship is a critical direction for higher education to ensure students graduate with knowledge of digital tools regardless of their field of study. The requesting clients for the project were the College’s instructional designer …