DFWCards

A colorful approach to marketing UofL in Big Blue country

The University of Louisville is taking a unique approach to increasing its brand awareness outside the Louisville metropolitan area, from which come the majority of the school’s student body.

Like many recent marketing campaigns, this one focuses on some of UofL’s strengths, including high ACT scores, national rankings and cutting-edge research.

What’s different is the color scheme which infuses the advertisements. Rather than exclusively using the university colors of red, white and black, the messages are delivered in front of a royal blue background, the color often associated with the Commonwealth and with UofL’s chief athletic rival, the University of Kentucky.

“The campaign is designed to spill red into the traditional UK and Commonwealth blue, reminding audiences that there is more than one university in Kentucky," said Mary Griffith, senior associate vice president for communications and marketing. ”It’s an incursion campaign coming right at the time UK and UofL play out their traditional sports rivalry (the football teams play their annual grudge match in Lexington on September 19).”

Target audiences are central Kentucky alumni, current students and potential recruits, and influencers. A smaller print campaign directed at veterans and their education needs is running in Elizabethtown and Fort Knox newspapers.

Papa John's Cardinal Stadium’s new look takes shape

As the 2009 football season begins for the Louisville Cardinals, I thought those of you familiar with the university who don’t get back to the campus very often might enjoy some recent photos of the Papa John's Cardinal Stadium stadium expansion, which remains on target for completion in 2010.

These photos were taken by Aerial Innovations of Tennessee, Inc. For a full and updated gallery of images, please visit the UofL Sports web site.

Louisville campuses to go smoke free in November

University of Louisville provost Shirley Willihnganz announced on Friday that the school’s Belknap Campus and all UofL-owned or controlled properties on Shelby Campus will become smoke free on November 19, the date of the annual Great American Smokeout.

The UofL Health Sciences Center has been smoke free since January 2008.

There will be a grace period between November 19 and June 1 on Belknap and Shelby campuses. Smokers will be allowed to smoke in designated areas until June 1.

Enforcement of the smoke-free policy at the Health Sciences Center campus will take effect November 19 because employees on that campus have had plenty of notice.

With this policy change, UofL becomes part of an accelerating trend across the United States. As of August 2009, over 170 colleges and universities had instituted tobacco-free campus policies, up from around 140 a year earlier.

The American Cancer Society maintains a Smoke Free Campus Initiative to help colleges and universities initiate such programs.

Bardstown legislator contributes to RestoreUofL

From the University of Louisville news web site:

Kentucky Rep. David Floyd [Tuesday] presented University of Louisville President James Ramsey with a check for $1,000 to support RestoreUofL, a fund-raising campaign to help UofL recover from the August 4 flood.

Floyd, a Republican lawmaker who represents the state’s 50th District, which includes Bardstown, Kentucky, said he was “moved to help” the university after seeing video of extensive flooding there.

“In Bardstown, we didn’t get a drop of rain from the storm that flooded parts of Louisville and devastated the UofL campus,” he said. “When I read the reports (about UofL) I understood the need was genuine … so I wrote out a check for $1,000 and wanted to challenge others to do the same.”

UofL President Ramsey and University Provost Shirley Willihnganz each are matching Floyd’s contribution with $1,000 gifts of their own.

The money will go toward such things as planting new trees and redoing landscaping or into a fund to help UofL employees who lost cars and other personal items.

UofL suffered an estimated $15 million in damage from the flood, which university officials have called the worst natural disaster in the school’s history. Thirty people had to be rescued from rising water and 90 buildings were affected.

UofL’s fall semester begins as freshmen move into the dorms

Excerpted from the UofL web site:

Despite fickle weather on August 20, UofL students — mostly freshmen — arrived on campus and began moving into residence halls.

Between downpours, students, their families and volunteers hauled books, computers, TVs, bedding and more to residence hall rooms across the University of Louisville’s Belknap Campus.

The move-in of new and returning students kicked off both Welcome Weekend (photo set) and the new school year. After students settle into their dorm rooms, they’ll participate in a slew of activities that include a convocation with President James Ramsey, open houses and service activities.

Ramsey didn’t need to go for his daily jog Thursday. He carried a microwave up three flights of stairs in Miller Hall as he helped a freshman from Lexington move into his room.

The president helped carry boxes and greeted new students and their parents.

As freshman Danny Durbin was moving into Unitas Tower, his mother talked about how it felt to leave her son on campus and return home.

“It’s exciting but sad,” she said. “Although it’s close to home, he’s still gone.”

Getting student residence halls ready for students this year was particularly challenging because of the August 4 flash flood, said Shannon Staten, director of housing and residence life. Damage to UofL from the flood is estimated at $15 million and three student residence halls — Unitas Tower, Miller Hall and Threlkeld Hall — required cleaning and repairs. They re-opened August 14 and 15.

“We not only had the clean-up itself, but also had to make sure the areas were sanitized,” Staten said. “The University put the residence halls on the top priority list and worked tirelessly until we knew we could occupy them.”

To read the entire article, please see http://php.louisville.edu/news/news.php?news=1512.

School asks alumni to help Restore UofL

The University of Louisville is reaching out to its alumni via e-mail and the web as it attempts to recover from an unprecedented series of body blows inflicted upon it by Mother Nature.

In the last twelve months, the university has been hit by three major disasters – a wind storm, an ice storm and the recent flash flood, which collectively resulted in millions of dollars in damage to UofL’s campuses.

As described on a new web site and communicated via an e-mail message delivered on Tuesday, insurance and state and federal aid will not cover the cost of all the damage. UofL must pay for the rest, and after nine consecutive years of Kentucky state budget cuts, there is not a lot of  money available for repairs and restoration.

So UofL is asking for financial donations “to help restore our campus to its prior beauty, to help address some of the challenges insurance doesn’t cover, and to give our students the environment they need to make the most of their educational experience.”

Contributors have a choice of donating to the Restore UofL Fund, which seeks to address the goals listed above, or to the Employee Assistance Campaign, which will help UofL employees who suffered financial loss due to the on-campus disasters.

If you’re an alumnus or friend of the University of Louisville and would like to donate, please visit the Restore UofL web site for additional information and instructions on giving.

Ramsey tells UofL faculty why Rick Pitino is still coaching

Last week, as the Rick Pitino story was reaching its media crescendo in the national media, many believed that the University of Louisville was likely to fire him because of the morals clause in his contract with the school.

Obviously, that did not happen.

University President James Ramsey and Athletic Director Tom Jurich pointedly supported their coach as he issued an apology to the University, his family, and the basketball team’s fans.

Now, thanks to the ‘Ville Voice, we also know what Ramsey communicated to his faculty later in the week, in an effort to mollify those who were upset about the negative publicity that Pitino’s actions brought to the school.

Here’s the President’s letter:

Dear Colleagues,

We were just beginning to recover from the historic flooding on campus when I received a media inquiry late Tuesday night.  A reporter had received a copy of a police report which contained information about our basketball coach’s actions six years ago.  I was unaware of some of that information.  I spent Wednesday morning gathering facts and discussing possible responses to these new developments with Provost Shirley Willihnganz and other administration officials.

I considered a wide range of options in dealing with Coach Pitino’s errors in judgment and their impact on our university.  I discussed these options with Athletics Director Tom Jurich Wednesday afternoon. In the end, I told Coach Pitino that he needed to publicly apologize to the university community for his actions.  He has done that.

He has admitted his mistakes and promised not to have similar errors in judgment in the future. Throughout his life, he has had a tremendous positive impact on thousands of young people’s lives, our community and our state.  He deserves a second chance and I have given my support to him.

It is time for our university family to move on to the challenges ahead, and there are several.  Many of you are still working in cramped office space after being displaced by the flood.  Fall classes begin in eleven days and our quests for cures and groundbreaking research must continue.

I appreciate your hard work and ask for your continued support toward making the University of Louisville a great university.

Jim

Of course, not everyone agrees that Ramsey made the right decision in keeping Pitino around.There is undoubtedly more fallout to come, but for now, it looks like things have quieted down on this topic.

UofL plans to create archive of flood records

From WAVE3.com, the Associated Press, and the University of Louisville web site:

The University of Louisville wants to create a record of the recent flood in the city and on much of the campus.

The university's libraries are asking for digital photos, videos and narratives of the August 4 floods that damaged Louisville homes and cars, buildings on the university's campus, and items at the Kentucky Derby Museum.

In addition to creating the collection, some of the images will be shared on an August 2009 Flood website that the libraries’ Digital Collection will host, according to Rachel Howard, digital initiatives librarian.

University Libraries, a member of the MetaArchive Cooperative, also will have the digital files replicated and stored at six different geographic locations so they are not lost due to natural disasters or other problems. The cooperative previously has documented the disasters in New Orleans and at Virginia Tech.

Pitino apologizes; pledges to coach as long as UofL will have him

Following a standard public relations template for putting undesirable news in the rear-view mirror, Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino apologized on Wednesday afternoon at a press conference to his family and to his players for what he referred to as an “indiscretion” six years ago. He insisted that he would continue to coach at the University for “as long as they will have me.”

As reported in the Louisville Courier-Journal, he did not specifically address the police report made public yesterday in his statement, but said he'd already apologized to his family months ago and now wants to apologize to his extended family at the university.

Prepared statements from UofL President James Ramsey and Athletic Director Tom Jurich were also distributed.

Ramsey said that “regardless of the truth or falsehood of specific actions that have been attributed to the coach, he's clearly made errors in judgment that have come under intense public scrutiny. We can't ignore these errors in judgment, and they have saddened and disappointed me.

"As we try to teach our students, when you make a mistake, you admit it and right it as best you can. Coach has done that today. We hope this closes this chapter; we're all ready to move on.”

That may be easier said than done.

Many think that even if the University and the community rallies behind Pitino - who has a morals clause in his current contract with UofL - opposing coaches will use the sordid details of the story as leverage against him during the annual battle to convince blue-chip basketball recruits to come to Louisville.

Details of Pitino-Sypher relationship made public by Louisville newspaper

What began as a typically quiet summer evening in Louisville changed radically Tuesday when the Courier-Journal published the lurid details of the relationship between Cardinals basketball coach Rick Pitino and Karen Sypher.

In statements made earlier this year to Louisville Metro Police and obtained through a Kentucky Open Records Act request, Pitino acknowledged having had consensual sexual relations on August 1, 2003 with Sypher at Porcini, an Italian restaurant in the Crescent Hill section of the city. He also admitted to later paying for Sypher to obtain an abortion. However, he denied Sypher's allegations that he raped her at the restaurant and then again later at a different location.

Sypher’s credibility has been challenged on numerous fronts and Louisville Commonwealth’s Attorney David Stengel declined to prosecute the case in July.

Louisville is a predominantly Catholic city in which Pitino’s success with the Cardinal basketball program has been widely celebrated. It will be interesting to observe whether the news that he paid for an abortion will affect his standing in the city and perhaps ultimately impact his position at the University.

Steven Pence, Pitino's lawyer, told ESPN.com Tuesday night that there is no reason why Pitino would take a leave of absence from the school in light of the information from his client's police interview being made public.

Kenny Klein, Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations at Louisville, added that Pitino hasn't made any suggestion that he would leave the program. He said that athletic director Tom Jurich and the administration are behind Pitino.

University of Louisville President James Ramsey spoke obliquely about today’s news in a statement released to the press.

"Several months ago Coach Pitino informed me about the alleged extortion attempt. I've now been informed that there may be other details which, if true, I find surprising," he said.