NORTHCENTRAL UNIVERSITY
ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Learner: Sammy L. Jones, Jr.

| | LHE 7004-8 | ERIC LOVIK | | | Organization and Governance of Higher Education | # 5 | | | I enjoyed the assignment and received valuable help
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Analyzing the Communication Flow With-in Lipscomb University
An Essay Paper
Activity 5
Sammy Jones
North Central University

Good communication is vital to any organization. It is the essence and backbone of the core fundamentals of the group. In higher education it is equally important. How the administrator and its’ team communicate with the faculty, staff and student body will determine how successful the administrator will be. Good communication can cause him or her to be successful or bad communication can cause him or her to fail. In this essay we look at Lipscomb University and how they communicate both internally and externally. Lipscomb is a private liberal Christian university. It is located in the city of Nashville Tennessee. The university serves a diverse student population however the majority of its students come from with the Church of Christ of which they are affiliated with. All of their faculty and staff are members of the Church of Christ in fact they won’t hire anyone not a member and says as much on the application process. Lipscomb is governed by a Board of Trustees and is run on a daily basis by the President. The first layer of communication is the Provost and two senior vice presidents and two vice presidents as well as the Director of Athletics and the Compliance Officer. The next layer are the Deans of the colleges and institutions of which they have seven colleges, four schools and seven institutes of which this writer is one. The final layer of communication is the faculty/staff which totals of 225 and its students which totals 4278. 2757 are undergrads and 1521 are post graduates but no doctorial students. Communication is vital to the continued success of the school as well as the longevity of the administration. Dr. L. Randolph Lowry III (2012) once said that “Communications is about people” In other words openness and collaboration should drive all communication. People speak a lot about 'channels of communication' but effective communication shouldn't start with thinking about channels, but should start with thinking about people, the dynamics of how they interact, engage with organizations and with each other. Often we can put the 'channels' in place, but the culture of an organization is a huge barrier to them actually being adopted. If a university doesn't have a culture of open and collaborative communications, all the shiny tools and surveys in the world aren't going to change that. At Lipscomb the President tries to do just that. He does this by breaking communication down to two parts. Internal that deals with the Board of Trust, Officers and Deans as well as other administrators, and faculty and staff as well as students and external that deal with the community, church community and everyone else.
INTERNAL
Communication among administrators is done mostly by emails and correspondences. The Presidents sends all senior administrators or level one leader a bi weekly memo informing us the changes or updates from the Board as well as things he wishes us to know. Beside these communications he also has a weekly meeting with senior leaders and all deans and managers. On a daily basis he meets with his administration for what he calls his daily briefing. These meetings are held to keep everyone on the same page. In addition to these he meets with the faculty on a monthly basis and faculty and staff at the beginning of every semester start. While this is good he relies heavily on senior management to dissimilate the information to the staff. His style of communication is ‘top down’ communication. This is good but sometimes it comes off as what is called the ‘Hitler syndrome’. This writer thinks that this type of communication is too top heavy and would change to where communication is on equal footing. In addition to memos and meetings, communication is done also with students via email, the school paper and I-grams. These are done on either a daily basis or weekly but again communication is heavily depended on faculty to inform their students. There is also the communication from the VP’S to the Deans and Directors. On this level we meet weekly to report and here reports from other colleges and institutes. To be brought to date with senior administration policies and any Board changes. The Deans and managers have their own internal meetings and staff meetings. In each college or school/institute there are departments that are overseen by a chair who oversees that department faculty and staff. They must meet on a monthly basis with their departments and weekly with their Deans. Generally all decisions are made via meetings and interaction with everyone. The ultimate decision maker is the President who in turn answers to the Board of Trust. To get feedback from staff and faculty is usually done via meetings however quarterly surveys are done via the web to gage quality management. Of course there is the communication with students. This as mentioned earlier is done via the student paper, emails or I-grams but primarily it is done via the SGA and the various clubs and houses. The Director of Student Affairs is responsible for all communications between administration, staff, and faculty and all students. But the students have a pleather of ways they can communicate likes or dislikes and they use them. They are the most vocal of the university and they let their voices be heard via assemblies, protests, rallies, emails, and the paper or via their represented on the Board and faculty senate as well as their student government. Over all internal communication is good however there are something’s that needs changing. The memos and emails are great but the ‘top down’ style of communication needs to change. The dissemination of information is also needs to be more concise. As Sgt. Joe Friday is famous for saying, “Just the facts, mamm.” Communication need not be lengthy or wordy just simple and to the point.
EXTERNAL
The communication external process is simple and straightforward. Three ways the university communicates with those off campus are the internet, campus newspaper and news links with its member churches. The first two are great but that last is a problem. The university relies too much on its new links. It feels that communication with the churches is best done by bulletin type announcements and flyers but the problem with this style is that not all members get the information and sometimes the intended audience does not get it at all. Most times the information is sitting in some office somewhere or in someone’s mailbox and might be weeks before it is passed on to the appropriate people. Communication is almost considered an afterthought and not a priority with the campus or churches. The change here would be to locate a point of contact and flow information through that person whose job is to see that the right people are informed and kept up-to-date on university issues.
There are barriers to communication in any organization and especially within a large diverse university but these barriers should not be hinderers. At Lipscomb the barriers are few but eliminable. The one barrier is attitude. Since this institution is Christian based sometimes the idea of superiority is imposed on the campus as a whole. The university strict adherence to solely using Church of Christ members for its faculty and staff as well as heavily recruiting in those congregations of likeminded faith lends itself to a certain air of superiority. The communication is mainly one of superiority. Eliminate this air and communication would flow better. Not saying to eliminate the core values or quality but look outside the box and communicate on a broader scale that includes a more open society. The other barrier is how we communicate with the students while on campus. Students are heavily communicated with before they arrive, but after, it's as if 'the university' no longer cares, so their relationships end up being with their departments or the students' union instead. After students graduate, 'the university' wants to know them again and starts bombarding them with alumni communications. The focus on external communication since fees have gone up is short-sighted. In this day and age organizations have to be what they say they are. Investing more in marketing and external communications might be putting lipstick on a pig. An engaged and 'on message' internal audience will carry through to our external communication and people will start spreading the word about how great the organization is via the many spaces students use to connect. The University and universities America wide have to realize that our number one clients are the students we serve for without them no one would be employed. We have to realize that they are highly important not just at the recruitment stage or the alumni stage but while they are in our care during the four or eight years we have them. And not just the undergrads but we have to give the same deference to the post graduates as well. They are equally important and should be treated as such. Change these two barriers at Lispcomb and one will see a more positive communication and inclusion spirit on the campus as well as in the community.

Reference

Dr. Lowery III, L. Randolph ( November 3rd ,2012) , Convocation Address to Faculty and Staff at Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN.

COMMUNICATION FLOW CHART FOR LIPSCOMB UNIVERSITY