Higher Education:
Duke University
Duke is a private university in Durham, North Carolina that was started in 1838. The school underwent many transformations before the name was changed to Duke University in 1924 as a memorial to Washington Duke. The university is well-known for its athletic achievements, most notably the men's basketball team that has been coached by Mike Krzyzewski (aka Coach K) since 1980. In addition to its athletic achievements, Duke has also reached great goals in terms of student enrollment and achievement. Duke has partnered with multiple international universities, like ones in Singapore and China, to open new institutions and increase international involvement for its students. In fact, international students now make up more than 50% of Duke's student population.
The university currently has 15,551 students with over 6500 of those being undergraduate students. The top undergraduate majors include Computer Science, Economics, and Public Policy. Vincent E. Price is the current president of the university and he is the 10th President of Duke.
To begin looking into Duke's public relations plan and its effectiveness, I wanted to first look at the website. I had a few questions in mind while looking at it; "Is it aesthetically pleasing?", "Is it easy to navigate?", "How does this help in its efforts to gain increased enrollment and publicity?". I think I was able to get the answers to all of these questions and examine Duke's effectiveness in its public relations strategy a little more. The website was pleasing to the eye and extremely navigational as an outsider to the university. It was simple, which is essential nowadays, and the different factions of the institution were very clearly marked throughout the home page of the website.
At the top of the website, it includes tabs to open separate sections of the website like Admissions, Athletics, Global, Arts, and more. The website also includes information about upcoming events on campus as well as links to more information about social, financial, and academic issues within the campus. Overall, I feel that this website can be extremely helpful in the university's efforts to gain awareness and publicity by offering a clear and straight to the view of the Duke institution.
Next, I wanted to focus on what I believe is the biggest way Duke, and other institutions, can expand their public relations strategy and really get in touch with the future generations of Duke students: Social Media. In my opinion, especially in this expanding world of technology that we are experiencing, social media is the best way any corporation or institution can connect to its target audience and demographic. In terms of colleges and universities, social media has become a major tool in connecting to and bringing in more students. As social media is constantly changing and becoming more and more advanced, how is Duke utilizing it to grow their enrollment as well as student involvement?
According the Duke's social media site, all of Duke's social medias are run, "by Duke students for Duke students, prospective students and alumni". The university's social media accounts include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify, Medium, YouTube, and TikTok. On some of the social media sites, like Instagram and Twitter, the university has another account called Duke University that is all things Duke. However, the accounts that are strictly used to increase enrollment and interactivity among students are called Duke Students. These are the ones that I linked because they are run by students in order to connect to past, present, and future students. I think Duke does a great job in their social medias of gaining attention towards the university and what it has to offer.
The last form of public relations I want to talk about is the community-campus relationships that Duke has created in North Carolina. The Duke Endowment, the sanction of the university that focuses specifically on these relationships and volunteer opportunities, says that they strive to promote service learning opportunities for students. There are two major projects and campaigns that Duke has created to promote these opportunities. The first is the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership. This partnership aims to improve lives in 12 different neighborhoods around campus. This includes boosting achievements among public schools as well as addressing priorities like affordable housing and safety and security among the neighborhoods.
The other major project is DukeEngage. This program provides funding for undergraduate students who want to pursue an experience in civic engagement anywhere in the world. Participants of the program take part in different service projects that are sponsored and led by Duke University, many in collaboration with faculty and staff of the school. The students can choose to serve in local, national, or international communities.
Overall, I believe that Duke has done a great job of adapting to the changing world of technology in order to gradually gain awareness and attention to its programs, studies, and opportunities for college students. More than connecting simply to the students, they have also gained a great reputation among businesses and communities around campus.
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