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Building a university traditions programme for the 21st century
Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing,
3
(1),
81-91
(2018)
Abstract
Today's university students use social media and technology as much as, if not more than, face-to-face communication for networking and involvement on campus. Universities must not only recognise this, but learn to use the digital media available in innovative ways; namely, for promoting campus traditions and rituals. University traditions are brand assets that can be used to form the university image, helping to distinguish its students and alumni from other academic institutions. Many universities have traditions programmes that inform the university community of traditions, events, and other affinity-building activities and how to take part in each. A majority of these programmes, however, are not measured and are difficult to manage. Ithaca College, a small liberal arts school in Upstate New York, took their traditions programme one step further with a digitalfirst approach. This paper presents the authors' experience in launching a digital traditions programme - a social media initiative using a gamified smartphone application - built to enhance the student experience. Qualitative data gathered from programme participants indicate that student participation in traditions can affect engagement, retention and connection.
Keywords: traditions; social media; mobile application; smartphone application; student engagement; student involvement
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Adam Peruta is an assistant professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He teaches courses in digital branding and advertising, interactive design, user interface design and user experience design. His research area is in branding for higher education, specifically how colleges and universities use social media to recruit prospective students, build alumni communities and communicate with their constituents. He uses social media application programming interfaces to collect and analyse data from college and university social media pages. In his most recent project, the Traditions Challenge mobile app, he has combined his passion for visual design and his love for digital product development to create a gamified bucket list experience for college students. He has published on these social media topics and presented at international conferences. Adam previously taught at Ithaca College in the integrated marketing communications programme.
Lynne Pierce has worked to help create a community with Ithaca College students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff and friends for more than 25 years. She began in residential life and moved to the development office in 2000. There, she spent the next eight years in the Ithaca College Annual Fund where, among other duties, she was responsible for creating and advising the Senior Class Gift Campaign Committee. In 2008, a position was created in the Office of Alumni Relations to develop and manage the student and young alumni programmes at the college. Since that time, Lynne has worked to cultivate a culture of philanthropy among the students and young alumni of Ithaca College. As adviser to Ithaca Colleges Students Today Alumni Tomorrow, she supports them in their mission to promote further student involvement in the college community by building traditions, seeking links between students and alumni, and encouraging pride and spirit within the Ithaca College family. Lynne earned a bachelors degree in criminal justice and psychology from Kings College and a masters degree in education from the State University of New York at Binghamton.
