Highlights
Fiscal Year 2001 saw great strides in all areas
of University Advancement. Overall the division supported the universitys
broad goals by increasing the public awareness and understanding
of the university, by broadening the donor base and developing an
outline for future fund-raising with a rationale for timing and
size of a possible major campaign.
Development activities were very successful
this past year. The university increased private support, which
exceeded $30.8 million this past year, marking the fourth consecutive
year that UH has topped $24 million. The average amount of new gifts
also increased by 12 percent. Presidents Club membership went from
411 to 624 and The 1927 Society has now grown to 187 members who
have made irrevocable deferred gifts or notified UH that it has
been included as a beneficiary in their will.
Working with the Office of the Treasurer, Development
established an Electronic Funds Transfer program, which supported
the launch of the Universitys first faculty/staff campaign
in spring 2002. The university also now has the ability to accept
gifts through the Development Web site.
Stewardship activities also increased, establishing
a new Professor Emeritus program and hosting the first annual endowed
scholarship luncheon to steward donors of University endowments.
The Division played a significant role in the
universitys recovery from Tropical Storm Allison, coordinating
all internal and external communications during the shut down and
as the campus recovered, and organizing the Cougars Helping Cougars
program for UH employees who experienced losses from the storm.
The fact that Internal Communication had already helped to create
employee and student e-mail distribution systems greatly facilitated
the distribution of information during the crisis. Internal Communications
also redesigned the campus newspaper, UHCN, and created a
viable on-line newspaper and e-mail news and events lists to increase
the information flow to our internal audiences.
The Universitys 75th Anniversary celebration
was coordinated through University Relations, including the writing
and publishing of the universitys photo history, the very
successful Cougar Pride Week campus celebration bringing 5000 UH
faculty, staff, students and alumni to campus, a special insert
in the Houston Chronicle, and the Presidents first
luncheon Report to Community, which drew 650 people to his address.
This year also saw the rebirth of the Farfel
Distinguished Lecture Series, with two lectures drawing over 2,000
guests.
We also continued our partnership with Facilities
Planning to implement a major signage program on campus with over
400 signs installed.
The second year of the Learning. Leading.
campaign brought in fifteen awards, including two national Tellies,
as well as the top PR program in Houston and Houston Marketer of
the Year. To support the campaign on campus, Publications created
and implemented the Shasta Loves campaign, with over
500 posters supplied free to all colleges and more than 30 departments.
Our Internet presence also improved with the
hiring of our web content administrator of the university and the
division. An additional forty-one offices Web sites have come
into compliance with graphic standards since the new administrator
came on board.
We also began to standardize more of the graphics
across campus, creating a stationery system for alternative program
marks that still emphasizes the universitys marks. Publications
provided graphics and editorial support for both the central administration
and the college and unit marketing needs. The Universitys
magazine, Collegium, continued to receive accolades and awards.
External communications increased our outreach
to news media, as well as our national presence. By utilizing new
technologies, including the Internet, the university was able to
reach far more people and far more media outlets than ever before,
more than 2,400 over the past year, up from 1,600 the previous year.
Since June 2001, the UH On-line Newsroom has turned
into a cornerstone of the universitys external communications
efforts, more than tripling the number of hits to more
than 10,000 a week on the award-winning Web site (TPRA and Houston
Press Club 2002). Webcasts of major events are routed through the
Newsrooms Broadcast Archives link.
Another new delivery system, campus channel
8, went from nothing but a blue screen twenty-four hours a day to
providing round-the-clock programming from some of the countrys
most prestigious research universities, including events from UH
through ResearchChannel.
UHOnCALL responded to almost 192,000 inquires
about UH this past year and established a customer service training
program to help frontline employees across campus provide much higher
quality service. Marketing also helped establish permanent marketing
and communication positions to support distance education and the
off-campus institutes and teaching centers.
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