AdPR students develop communication strategies for UGA’s Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness

Students presenting the communication plan

Dr. Lynne Sallot, Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, and her Grady students assisted the Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness with new communication strategies to improve the office’s service within UGA. 

During the past spring, Dr. Sallot charged her 25 seniors and master's students from her Public Relations Campaigns class with producing a proposed PR/communications campaign for UGA administration to extend awareness of best practices of emergency preparedness to UGA students, faculty and staff. Dr. Sallot’s students conducted original research with UGA's 35+ peer and aspirational institutions to see what they were doing: safety, security and emergency preparedness, and they also conducted a dozen focus groups with UGA students, and survey UGA faculty.

The recommendations gathered were grounded in their research findings, and the class presented their findings and recommendations in a presentation open to the public at the end the semester.

Based on that, the new communication strategies include a revised departmental web site, a new logo and an improved communication strategy. 

One of the first strategies already applied was the transition of the office’s name, which changed on June 1 to the Office of Emergency Preparedness.