Spring surveys conducted by Institutional Advancement will give administrators insight to students’ perceptions of SIUC’s image.

The Image Task Force, assembled in the fall to examine the University’s image, compiled a report which called for the creation of a University image improvement program. Thomas Britton, vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement, and W. Russell Wright, associate professor in medicine, are working with faculty and staff to implement the program.

We are going to conduct some image surveys that will be completed by the end of the spring semester, Britton said. Students will be given the surveys in a faculty member’s class.

Advertisement

The surveys will gauge SIUC’s internal image, or how students, faculty and staff perceive the University. Vice Chancellor for Administration James Tweedy said SIUC’s internal image is in need of repair.

Perception is one thing, reality is something else, Tweedy said. I’m concerned in my area. I felt our area had an image problem in dealing with poor communication. It’s important to communicate. If you have a problem, address it.

Although internal image is important, Britton said he is more concerned with how SIUC relates to people outside the University.

I think that we are not as well known externally as well as I’d like us to be, Britton said. Internally, we are better than some believe.

SIUC took a hit to its image after the 1996 Halloween riots. Chancellor Don Beggs said such incidents should not adversely affect the University’s because the acts are committed by a small number of people.

It is not so much a change in the image but defining what we are when there are exceptions like Halloween, Beggs said. If you take an exceptional event and look at that as the image, then that is what people want us to be. The fact that there’s a local area drug bust, or that a graduate student is involved in inappropriate items, that is a unique part of the 20,000 here.

I think the students are different than the exceptional people.

Advertisement*

Beggs said events such as the First Cellular Main Street Pig Out help to improve the image. The Pig Out was a barbecue festival at the end of September in the parking lot near of 710 Bookstore, 710 S. Illinois Avenue.

Tweedy said striving to maintain an image is imperative in the area of public education.

Anytime you are in this business, one should be concerned with image and constantly look for ways to improve, he said. If you make a mistake, that affects your image.

If 100 students on South Illinois Avenue reflect what the University is like, that is not true.