How many Tufts students does it take to screw in a light bulb? The answer is two: one to screw it in, and one to say loudly that he did it as well as an Ivy League student.
Though this joke may be harmless, it is a reflection of the University's image. And while Tufts as an institution remains unscathed by the light bulb joke, there are occurrences that turn out to be potentially catastrophic for the University's image.
That's where the public relations (PR) department steps in. "[Our department] is usually involved if a sensitive issue arises," said Kimberly Thurler, Associate Director of Public Relations at Tufts School of Arts, Sciences and Engineering.
One incident that put the PR department to work was last semester's drug arrest. On Apr. 12, 2005, state troopers found 200 grams of cocaine in the possession of then-senior and Delta Upsilon brother Marcus Mattingly. Many expected the event to reflect negatively on the Tufts campus- if only because of the exponential amount of the drug involved.
The PR department's goal was to separate the individual's case from associations with Tufts and the fraternity. "We wanted to make it clear that while a student off-campus was arrested for possession of illegal drugs and additional drugs were found in his individual room at his fraternity house, police did not find any link to the fraternity or Tufts as a whole," Thurler said.
Although the function of public relations in general is often understood as mere crisis management, this actually accounts for only a small portion of the job description of the Tufts PR team.
"Our goal is to communicate key messages, such as active citizenship, international focus and excellent teaching and research," Thurler said. "During the past year, Tufts' public relations tracked nearly 7,600 major news clips, from major research breakthroughs to outstanding students and faculty - excluding most social announcements and sports scores."
Whenever a Tufts student, graduate student, or faculty member does something noteworthy, the PR team knows about it.
News coverage has increased this past year. "The quantity of coverage is up nearly 15 percent from the previous year, and the quality continues to be strong," Thurler said.
Despite the work the PR department puts into the University's image, they remain behind the scenes. "There is a reason for that," said Terry Knopf, Media Relations Manager for the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. "You do see the work of the public relations department, but it doesn't have our name on it. When you see an article in the Globe or the Times, it didn't just pop up. Chances are, the public relations department had a hand in it. We like to be seen, not heard."
One person who has taken notice of the work done by Tufts PR is Julie Dobrow, Director of the Communications and Media Studies program. "I think they really are to be credited with getting the Tufts name out there quite a bit, and launching the new electronic newsletters that go out with great regularity," Dobrow said.
Tufts E-News, launched by Tufts PR, features stories about Tufts undergrads, graduate students, alumni and faculty.
The PR department has been completely reorganized.
"In the past, you had a [PR] department based in a small place that served all the schools," Knopf said. "The University came to realize that wasn't the best way."
"There are [PR] professionals on each Massachusetts campus," Thurler said. "There are currently public relations professionals representing the Vet School, Health Sciences, Arts, Sciences and Engineering and Fletcher."
The specialization by school of Tufts PR has been beneficial, according to Knopf, who said, "In fact, many of the ideas I generate I get by walking through the halls, which I can do because I'm close to my constituents."
"Fletcher is unique because we have among the smallest faculty, but there's all this brainpower geared towards international policy," she said. "So, they're really well suited for generated opinion pieces. In the last eight years, we've had over 130 Op-ed pieces in the New York Times, the Financial Times, and many papers abroad in Asia and India. I keep expecting the Op-ed well to run dry, but for some reason, we continue to publish more and more every year."
Because Knopf deals with a smaller group of people than Thurler, she is able to be more proactive in her relationship with the media. In addition to tracking stories in the media, part of Knopf's job is to ferret out and pitch stories that contribute to Fletcher's image.
"There was a student here at the Fletcher school, Neamat Nojumi, from Afghanistan," Knopf recalls. "He had been a member of the guerrilla fighting force there trying to drive the Soviets out, and he went from there, to being a Fletcher student. As soon as I heard that, I pitched it, and NBC Dateline interviewed him, and the Boston Globe had a huge spread on him."
