Poor Publicity Leads to Low Morale - morale at University of Miami

Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Education, June, 2000

Reprinted with permission from the Miami Hurricane, the student newspaper of the University of Miami

Every day at least one person tells me how school spirit at the University of Miami is unacceptable. No one seems to know what events are going on, where they're happening, or when they're going to occur. The only sporting event that has a decent turnout is football, and the amount of UM students that show up to the other events is far less than the number of students I see at any club on South Beach during the weekend.

Some may say that this is a problem because students have no interest in on-campus activities, but I think the problem is different.

The publicity and information spread about on campus and school sponsored events is so minimal that it's a wonder anybody even shows up. Let's face it, it's much easier to book a cheap weekend cruise on-campus than it is to find out when the next concert date is.

I'm not saying the University doesn't have the resources to publicize events.

It has the newspaper, the many booths at the University Center, fliers and the UMTV station. What I'm saying is that these resources aren't used efficiently enough to convey the information to students. The fliers are usually placed in classrooms or on the boards of the residence halls.

In theory, this is a good idea, but no one has the time to read the fine print on a flier while hurrying to catch the last sentence his or her statistics professor rattled out at 10,000 words per minute. And when you return from class, nothing can stop you on your direct route to bed.

The newly-created UMTV morning news show is even more ridiculous.

I think the show itself is a great idea, but no college student gets up at nine in the morning, an hour before classes, to watch the news. This idea would be far more effective if the broadcasts were replayed in the evening.

Compared to other universities, the participation in campus-related activities is scarce here, but I don't think the students are unwilling to attend them, either.

The organizers of the events just need to realize that we are ordinary college students, and that if something is being held, we expect to be notified about it instead of having to take time out of our well-needed sleep to track down the next big event.