President Kupchella asks U community to complete survey
Dear UND students, alumni, faculty, and staff:
The University of North Dakota has undertaken an important process to clarify its position in the marketplace both externally and internally. This process is focused on our academic brand, and does not directly address our athletic brand. This "branding" exercise will be useful to us in many ways, not the least of which will be in designing recruitment strategies for faculty, staff, and students. We also hope to encourage community and personal involvement, and financial support for UND academic and research programs. This process will help ensure that various audiences immediately understand what we stand for, what we offer, and why they should associate themselves with us.
The first step will be to capture a compelling messaging platform for UND in preparation for a University marketing program. In effect, we need to define what makes us unique and compelling. This step is critical, and we need your help to make it successful.
We are seeking input from as many faculty, staff, students, and alumni as possible. Consultants from Educational Marketing Group (EMG) - the company facilitating our efforts - have been and will be on campus interviewing many faculty, students, staff, and alumni personally. We want to augment those interviews with contributions from the entire UND community through online input from as many stakeholders as possible.
I encourage you to participate in the positioning process by going to http://www.emgclient.com/input/und/ to give us your candid and confidential responses. Please complete the five questions at http://www.emgclient.com/input/und/ no later than Friday, Nov. 17. (Please note that the URL is case sensitive.) It should take five minutes or less of your time.
Your comments will be compiled and synthesized by EMG. They will provide a foundation upon which we will fashion that unique and compelling University identity I spoke of above.
Over the coming months, the UND community will continue to work with EMG to develop our positioning platform. Once this platform is developed, everyone will be involved in ensuring that the University actually matches and realizes this identity in every aspect of its operations.
Again, I urge you to participate by going to http://www.emgclient.com/input/und/ no later than Friday, Nov. 17, and plan for increased involvement as the positioning process gets under way. Thank you in advance for your participation. If you have any questions about this process, please contact Don Kojich, executive associate vice president for University Relations, at 777-2731.
Sincerely,
Dr. Charles E. Kupchella
President
So, what does everyone think about the newest thing out of the minds of our fearless leaders at UND?
Actually, I'm more interested in what people have responded. Here are the questions:
1. What are the University of North Dakota's three greatest strengths for students?
2. What are the University of North Dakota's three greatest weaknesses for students?
3. What is the single most compelling competitive advantage that makes the University of North Dakota unique and
motivates outstanding students, faculty, staff, alumni, and donors to become engaged with us?
4. In a short phrase, what is the guiding principle that you believe the University of North Dakota should stand for in the
hearts and minds of our internal/external audiences?
5. How are you related to the University of North Dakota? Please choose the one relationship that is the most
important to you. (In order to successfully complete this questionnaire, you must choose one.)