Drop out at SCSU; marketing plan in preparation | Local

Administrator Jameel Allen Sr., chair of the Public Relations, Advancement, and Alumni Relations Committee, briefed administrators on the university’s board of trustees on the committee’s activities during a meeting of the council on December 2.

A private donation report from July 1 to November 18, 2021 from the university’s Office of Advancement found that 1,337 donors gave a total of $1,160,001 to the university. Total donations increased by more than 89%. The office has increased overall giving to $5 million among its goals.

Sonja Bennett-Bellamy, the university’s vice president for institutional advancement and external affairs, reported on a successful donation Tuesday. The university surpassed its $100,000 goal by raising $112,602 that will go to the university’s “Ready All to Do and Dare” fundraising campaign.

Allen said, “We want to continue to encourage participation when it comes to donations.”

He said a university website was also being developed.

“We have an interim website … which works quite well considering the current state. Very interactive from a social media perspective, but the good news is that we will have a long-term solution in place very soon. So it’s moving forward,” he said.

Allen said improving the university’s customer service is also being worked on.

“It’s really just…the fundamentals around phone calls and having the right resources in place to get those phone calls back to market quickly. We have recognized this and we are seeing improvement in this area,” he said.

Allen said the university’s comprehensive marketing plan is also being reviewed.

“We want to make sure that we have all the right things and investments in place to move us forward when it comes to long-term sustainability,” he said, noting that the university’s visitors’ board charter is also under development.

“The BOV charter is in place. The lag we experienced was just making sure the SACS compliance requirements were attached to it. … We’ll be asking for board support as we move forward,” Allen said.

He thanked Hank Allen, president of the SC State National Alumni Association, for his work promoting the university.

“He held his first quarterly meeting with the National Alumni Association on November 20. … One of the things that Hank Allen articulated was … all of the strategic pillars that he presented to the board and to the alumni chapters through the national alumni platforms,” Allen said.

“The strategic pillars have been well received. He has appointed leaders and delegates to support these pillars to ensure that these strategic initiatives and goals can be achieved in this area.”

Administrator Dr. Doris Helms said she would like to see more emphasis on academics as part of the university’s marketing strategies.

“If I was a student looking to come here, I would be looking for this kind of thing because, number one, the future depends on what kind of education I get. … If you’re really considering increasing your enrollment, we need to raise awareness people to how you publicize what we do academically and what the career opportunities are,” she said.

Allen said Helms was right and the university “needs to do collaborative marketing of all of South Carolina State University.”

Bennett-Bellamy said, “We had to take a strategic approach to implementing this marketing communications plan based on the funding we had. So, you know, we couldn’t invest in billboards. There are a lot of things we couldn’t do because we just didn’t have the money. So we had to be very creative in how we executed this plan.

She continued, “We are getting to who we need to reach, but what excites me is just growing tentacles and expanding our reach beyond what we have been doing and being able to further diversify a many of the tools we’ve brought into play.”

Administrator William Oden, Chair of the Sponsored Research and Information Technology Committee, said the total amount of grants and contracts funded from July 1, 2021 to November 17, 2021 was $2,843,872.

Elbert Malone, associate provost for sponsored programs and research at SC State, said, “We always want to pay tribute to the faculty. All of these awards that we have given have actually been given by the esteemed faculty here at South Carolina State University. ”

Oden reported that Malone himself was appointed by the governor to the SC health planning committee.

The committee chair also said $236,295 in federal Title 3 funding has come to the School of Music.

Of infrastructure development, Oden said, “We’re doing a fantastic job of recovering from the hack,” but that restoring data and “trying to make sure the bad guys are taken down” wasn’t easy.

The university’s computer network was hacked in September.

“We’re doing a lot of upgrades … with the funds that will be allocated to some of the things we’re talking about with wireless access, smart boards — things like that in classrooms,” Oden said.

SC State Chief Information Officer Travis Johnson noted that infrastructure development is being worked on.

Malone said, “Nowadays it’s very hard to think about doing research without the proper computing infrastructure. Therefore, I think it’s a good thing to include IT in the unit that receives IDC funds (indirect costs). So we hope to be able to do it by mid-spring.

Johnson said, “IT and the Office of Sponsored Programs have just submitted additional funding for infrastructure funding to the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration). … The value of the grant will be $3 million over a two-year period. It is a pilot program. So we know that the NTIA and the Department of Commerce plan to fund more programs.”