Communications campaign to focus on planning, preparations for return to campus

University Communications is launching a communications campaign to keep UB community members informed of decisions and announcements as the campus gradually reopens to faculty, staff and students, and decisions are made regarding the new academic year.   

The objective is to provide the UB community with the latest authoritative information about UB’s plans for the fall semester, as well as information about health and safety protocols put in place to protect the faculty, staff, students and visitors.

One component of the campaign, “UB Forward: The university’s plans in response to COVID-19,” will be a weekly email bulletin summarizing need-to-know information about academic planning, campus operations, and health and safety guidelines and protocols.

An accompanying healthy campus awareness campaign, under the theme “Together we are UB,” will feature posters and signage, videos, social media content and other tactics, to engender a shared sense of purpose in adhering to UB’s health guidelines in order to protect all members of the UB community from potential spread of coronavirus.

“We want to build awareness of UB’s plans and protocols so that our community can make important decisions and have confidence in UB’s efforts to monitor and respond to the pandemic,” says John DellaContrada, vice president for university communications.

The communications campaign will present a refocused UB COVID-19 Planning and Response website, which has drawn more than 350,000 visitors since March. In addition, a new “Safe Return to Campus” webpage for UB faculty, staff and students offers guidance to employees on a range of issues, from UB’s requirement on face coverings to the cleaning of office spaces. A similar webpage is being developed for students and will launch soon.

The campaign will also help organize virtual town halls on informational topics for the university community.