The University is seeking to question parents, fund an image research program and improve communication with the University’s external audiences in yet another effort to evaluate and improve SIUC’s image. Improving our communications is the only step in the right direction.

It’s puzzling that years of image research have not yet yielded the answer that SIUC has to have known all along if SIUC wants to improve its image, the campus has to make real and substantial internal improvements. So, an attempt to improve our recruiting communications is good.

However, the SIUC Faculty Senate approved an Image Task Force report Oct. 14, stating the Senate and the University should work together to establish and fund a University image research program. The task force also supports contacting parents for input on the University’s image, which is something that has not yet been done.

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These suggestions stem from the ninth such study of the University’s image in the last decade all designed to deter prospective students and their parents from believing that SIUC is just a party school that anyone can attend.

But the new comprehensive communications plan developed to evaluate how the University communicates with internal and external audiences has real merit. Tom Britton, vice chancellor of Institutional Advancement, says the plan will offer strategies for reaching new audiences through advertising, news media and even the Internet. In addition, a new communications unit within Institutional Advancement will be responsible for all University communications.

It seems Britton believes that improving SIUC’s recruiting communications and centralizing SIUC’s media outlets is a concrete way of doing something besides agonizing over 12 years worth of reports.

Realize that numerous SIUC faculty, administrators and students have spent this enormous amount of time researching methods to improve the University’s image. If one managed to amass all the reports and recommendations that were developed in examining what seems to be the University’s foremost concern, the resulting pile of paperwork probably could heat the entire campus for the next millennium if burned.

Still, merely addressing the public’s outside perception of our campus will not help improve our image alone. That would be like affixing a bandage to a gunshot wound.

Before the University eagerly anticipates the results of Britton’s plan and begins contacting parents to improve our image, can we make an additional suggestion?

The research that SIUC already has done has pointed out a number of things that SIUC students, prospective students and even faculty have said needed improvement. A look at fall 1996’s case study, Influences Upon Application and Enrollment of Admitted Students, shows that admitted students who chose not to attend SIUC have complained about 1.) difficulty in obtaining financial aid, 2.) a large student- faculty ratio, 3.) unavailability of majors, 4.) advisement difficulty, 5.) the number of teaching assistants heading classes rather than full professors, and surprise 6.) problems with parking on campus.

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SIUC’s perceived party school image was not all that kept students away from this campus.

Besides, our faculty also have complained about earning lower salaries than other faculty at Research I institutions. Are there any immediate plans to rectify this situation? Many may consider SIUC’s treatment of its faculty to be worse than any perceived image.

If all of the research that SIUC already has done has any merit, it will focus on improving these and other weaknesses. Additional research and strategies and Britton’s well-devised plan will be rendered useless unless they are effectively used. Use existing research to start building SIUC’s substance not just its image.