In a Crimson article with suggestions for reducing the university’s budget, the writer includes this:
Harvard should cut its wasteful internal public relations division. The Harvard Gazette and the other fluff put out by the Harvard Office of Communications ought to be axed on both financial and environmental grounds. The publications and their staffs cost a few million dollars each year. Externally, they do nothing to strengthen Harvard’s brand. Internally, they are regarded as propaganda.
Certainly UD has complained for years on this blog about too much Harvard propaganda in her mailbox. But why not let some of this stuff go online?
After all, UD has a soft spot for the Gazette.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:00PM
Although I don’t mind our internal weekly news sheet, our counterpart to the Harvard Gazette, being on paper, what really gets me is the barrage of announcements for lectures and other events. No longer are they xeroxed on regular paper, but more commonly they are custom-designed and professionally printed on heavy stock. Realize that these are internal to the university and not intended to create an impression externally. I’ll attend if I’m interested, not if I get a flashy card or glossy flyer. In terms of external propaganda, I don’t get that much from Harvard, perhaps since I’m not an undergraduate alum, but what I do get is an immense amount of propaganda from other schools, obviously in the hope that I’ll remember them when it’s time to fill out the questionnaire from U.S. News. There is a recycling bin in the mailroom where these go.
April 19th, 2009 at 5:41PM
So THAT’S why my (and the Dean’s) mailbox is chock full of magazines (and sometimes other marketing gimmicks, like baseballs and coasters) from other institutions on a daily basis. US News surveys already filled out. Lots of wasted postage. Sigh.
April 20th, 2009 at 7:04AM
We no longer get campus phone books or calendars that we actually can use. Instead, we get four-color glossy mini-mags touting this or that strategic initiative or highlighting our commitments to truth, athletics, justice, the American Way, athletics, diversity, hiring proteges of trustees, protection of students from demon rum, and–did I mention athletics?
April 20th, 2009 at 9:10AM
AAD, yes, the baseball, from a school in Ohio. I got that one too. Gave it to the neighbor’s kid. Not a good marketing idea, since odd-shaped boxes in my mailbox tend to alarm me. My U.S. News survey is still sitting on my desk but no amount of glossy literature or baseballs is going to affect my opinion, certainly not positively.