AU Survey

February 2004

Key Findings of 2003 AU Internal Communications Survey

Background and Methodology

This survey by the Auburn University Office of Communications and Marketing (OCM) during November 2003 sought to evaluate faculty and staff response to initiatives in internal campus communications and changes in attitudes of faculty and staff toward internal communications since previous surveys in 1996 and 2001.

The survey was conducted by Roy Summerford, editor of the AU Report, with assistance from Mike Clardy, editor of the AUDaily, and Camille Barkley, director of marketing services in the Office of Communications and Marketing.

Using systematic sampling from a list of all fulltimeAU main campus employees, OCM mailed a 49-item questionaire to 755 faculty and staff members, 5 percent of eligible faculty and staff, on Oct. 30, 2003. Excluded from the list were members of the president's cabinet, OCM staff and AU off-campus personnel. The study concluded on Nov. 21 with the receipt of 254 responses for a 34 percent response rate.

Reminder: This was a survey of attitudes about internal campus communications, not campus political issues. This survey was conducted during a stable period of campus activity(early November, 2003), enabling respondents to focus on questions about internal communications without the potential skewing effect of subsequent developments on campus.

Key findings

* Support is strong for both the AU Report and AUDaily. Readership is high for both.

* A high percentage of faculty and staff say AUDaily is their primary source of campus news, with print media second. The number listing AUDaily as their primary source has risen sharply over the past two years.

* Among print media, the U Report is the main source of campus news for most faculty and staff, the Opelika-Auburn News is a distant second and the Plainsman is third.

* Faculty and staff list accuracy and timeliness, respectively, as their top priorities in reporting of campus news. They cite accuracy as the AU Report's greatest strength and timeliness as the greatest strength of AUDaily.

* Faculty and staff at the time of this survey in early November expressed satisfaction with internal communications at Auburn. Attitudes toward internal communications are much more positive than in 1996 and 2001.

* Only 10 to 15 percent have consistently negative views of official channels of internal communications. The number does not seem to have grown since previous surveys, but judging by the written comments, their anger is much greater than in the past.

* The shift to weekly production of the AU Report has met with mixed results; about as many people oppose weekly production as support it.

* The use of color pictures is very popular despite a misperception that it is much more expensive than black and white.

* Although some differences exist mong the three groups (faculty, AP, support staff), none are significant enough to require major changes in internal campus communications. The same applies to differences in responses by men and women. Nor does time at AU have much impact on attitudes.

* The top five priorities for news coverage listed by faculty and staff were: 1. Pay & Benefits. 2. AU Finances 3. Legislative issues affecting AU. 4. Working Conditions. 5. Calendar. The lowest-rated items were: 17. Diversity. 18. Conferences 19. Campus Forum. 20. Alumni Gifts. 21. Color Pictures.

Print and electronic media

The AUDaily is now the primary source of news of special interest to faculty and staff. The number who rate e-mail as their primary source of campus news has risen from less than 3 percent in 1996 to less than 20 percent in 2001 to 47 percent in 2003. (The numbers for the earlier surveys combine e-mail and Web pages, so the actual number for e-mail was even lower in 1996 and 2001.)

However, with some employees lacking access to computers, more than 10 percent say they never read AUDaily, versus 4 percent who say they never read the AU Report. Eighty-nine percent read the AU Report each issue or most issues, and 78 percent read AUDaily each day or at least once a week.

Print media is the primary source for 24 percent, versus 54 percent two years ago and 64 percent in 1996. Among print media, 59 percent of faculty and staff list the AU Report as their primary source of campus news of special interest to them. A distant second is the O-A News with 17 percent. Less than 13 percent list the Auburn Plainsman as their primary source. Three percent say they do not read any print media.

Priorities in reporting and presentation of campus news

Priorities listed in order of importance by faculty and staff were 1. accuracy ( 60,6 percent), 2. timeliness (13.4 percent) 3. relevance (13 percent) 4. thoroughness (1.2 percent) perspective (1.2. percent) and 6. presentation (0.8 percent). (Numbers in parenthesis are the percent who rated that factor as most important.)

Respondents ranked the strengths of the AU Report in the following order: 1. accuracy (33.9 percent) 2, presentation ( 17.3 percent) 3. timeliness (11.8 percent) 4. relevance (9.4 percent) 5. (thoroughness (3.5 percent) 6. perspective (2 percent).

Respondents ranked the strengths of the AUDaily in the following order: 1. timeliness (47.6 percent) 2. accuracy (17.7 percent) 3. relevance (4.7 percent) 4. presentation (2.4 percent) 5. thoroughness (1.2 percent) 6. perspective (0.8 percent).

Although perspective was listed as the perceived greatest weakness of both the AU Report and AUDaily, there is some indication that faculty and staff do not consider this a major weakness. Forty-six percent agreed with the statement "The AU Report does a good job of balancing the information needs of faculty and staff with those of the administration," and only 15 percent disagreed.

Attitudes toward internal communications

Faculty and staff at the time of this survey expressed satisfaction with internal communications at Auburn. This is indicated by the results in the previous paragraph and the response to the statement "The administration tries to keep faculty and staff informed." Fifty percent of respondents agreed with the statement, compared to 20 percent who disagreed. Those numbers reflect a shift from two years ago, when 37 percent agreed with the statement and 31 percent disagreed and in 1996, when 38 percent agreed and 29 percent disagreed.

Response to changes in AU Report

People have mixed feelings toward the shift from bi-weekly to weekly publication of the AU Report. Thirty-nine percent prefer weekly publication, while 32 percent dislike it, and 29 percent say they are unsure. Response was much more favorable toward the switch to color photos. Although a number of comments suggested that many people have the false perception that color costs much more than black and white, 57 percent of respondents said the color photos make the AU Report better. Only 13 percent disagreed and less than 20 percent were unsure.

Other findings and resources

The results for all questions and statements are included in the following pages: Survey form . Charts . News Priorities. Results of the 2001 study . Results of the 1996 study.