Best of CASE District II Award
 

Institution: University at Albany

Title of entry: COVID-19 Safety Campaign Initiative

About this entry: Beginning in January 2020, the Office of Communications and Marketing (OCM) began preparing for the threat of a virus that was migrating toward the U.S. from both Europe and Asia. Over the coming months, and now years, OCM has been integrated into the University’s crisis response team.

One of the key areas of concern was making sure that the UAlbany community stayed vigilant in protecting themselves and each other. The second area of concern was working to make sure that the messaging was not too institutional or morose because there was enough gloom and doom in the news media bombarding our stakeholders. There was a cautionary attitude within OCM that adding another layer of cheerless messaging would allow students, faculty, and staff to give themselves permission to tune out vital COVID messaging. A very deliberate decision was made to keep the messaging light, approachable, and, well, fun.

In the end, the response to the massaging was amazing. Thanks to the responsive and agile team efforts of OCM, the Office of Campus Planning, the Office of Enterprise Risk Management & Compliance, and the University’s School of Public health, UAlbany consistently outpaced the local Albany, NY community in testing and vaccinations that led to infection rates that were well below the national average.