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| May-9-2003 | Newswise
930 Turner Mtn. Rd.
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Newswise:
After five years, I am in my final hours as associate vice chancellor of university relations at the University of Arkansas. On June 1, I am moving back to Pennsylvania to become executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association.
Before leaving, I just wanted to tell you what an integral role Newswise has played in our strategy to position the University of Arkansas as a nationally competitive research university. The cornerstone of that strategy was visibility in the national media, and that's where Newswise has been so valuable.
When I arrived five years ago, we established our science and research communications unit, and found three highly talented professionals to staff it — Melissa Blouin, manager; and Allison Hogge and Carolyne Garcia, communications officers. Though they do many other things — produce our research magazine, handle media queries, push story ideas, play an active role in CASW and NASW — the cornerstone of our program is to produce 12 compelling stories a month on faculty research findings. Of course, Newswise is our major distribution outlet, and we couldn't be more pleased with the results.
Over the last five years, we have moved forward in the U.S. News rankings; the university's academic quality ranking in 1998 was 173rd out of 249 national doctoral universities; this past year, 2002, we had moved upward to 125th — a rise of nearly 50 places, which is very fast movement by academic time; The Princeton Review has given us an academic quality rating of 80, which ties us for third in the SEC and, if we were in the Big 12, would tie us for second. Ted Fiske also upgraded our academic quality rating from two to three stars. So we have some third-party evidence that our strategy is working.
What has been particularly valuable to us is Newswise's top ten listing in its four areas. University of Arkansas stories appeared in those two top listings quite regularly, and that provided a superb marketing benchmark for how well our stories were competing for media attention. We knew we had a very good science and research communications unit — we won the CASE Bronze two years running in 2000 and 2001 — but the Newswise stories rankings and the monthly institutional reports provide an additional month-in, month-out barometer that has been simply invaluable.
So for whatever success we've enjoyed at the University of Arkansas, Newswise has been a big part of it. I thank you for providing such a superb service. It has made a huge difference for us.
Roger Williams
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Dr. Roger L. Williams
Associate Vice Chancellor for University Relations
479-575-5555
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