UW News

October 11, 2001

Survey responses spur changes to University Week

Newspapers exist to serve readers, and University Week is no different. We strive to keep you informed of all that’s going on at this large and complex institution and to help acquaint you with some of your colleagues campus wide.


So when we sent out a reader survey to a randomly selected group of faculty and staff last spring, it was with a desire to know how well we were doing and what we ought to be doing differently. We’re grateful to the more than 300 people who responded with praise and criticism, affirmations of the status quo and new ideas. We want you to know that we paid attention and are making some improvements as a result.


One visible change is some new features you’ll be seeing in the paper. One, called “Inner Workings,” was suggested independently by a number of readers. They asked for a series profiling different units on campus, simply telling what each does. You’ll see our first entry in this series in today’s issue on Page 8. Which units we do in the future, however, depends on you. Want to see your unit’s work publicized? We’ll soon have a form on our Web site (http://uwnews.org/uweek/), that you can fill out giving us information about what you do. You’ll be contacted by someone at UWeek. If you want to indicate interest before the form appears, contact us by e-mail, uweek@u.washington.edu, and we’ll send you the form.


Another new feature is the mystery photo. Our photographers will be taking pictures of various spots on campus and you’ll be asked to guess where those spots are. Those who guess correctly will have their names entered in a drawing for a prize that we will give away at the end of the quarter.


When we asked our survey group what they liked to read in the paper, they indicated high interest in research and employment/benefits, two subjects that we cover thoroughly. However, they also like personality profiles, something we’d like to do more of, but we need your help. Let us know if there’s a faculty or staff member with an interesting job or an interesting off-the-job activity. Last year, for example, we profiled the ethnomusicology archivist who takes care of a large collection of unusual musical instruments and a faculty member who runs ultra-marathons in her spare time.


Our survey also told us that some of our regular features – Newsmakers, Peer Portfolio and Etc. – are well read. However, we’re aware that the first two didn’t appear very often last year and we’re planning to do better this year. Your contributions are welcome in Etc., the column that announces faculty and staff honors and chronicles small and amusing incidents on campus.


Most respondents to our survey told us they read the paper every week or nearly every week, but most said they skim everything and read selected stories. Therefore, we at University Week are making an effort to upgrade our layout so that you can easily find what you want to read and get a quick sense of the rest that you only skim.


We were distressed to learn that some of you didn’t know there is a Web version of University Week. Although up to now it has been a duplicate of the paper version, this year we plan to add a few things. The forms for “Inner Workings,” as we already explained, will be there, as will the form for guessing the mystery photo. In addition, we will on occasion carry shorter versions of stories in the paper that will be covered in more depth on the Web.


Another new feature will appear soon on our Web site only. We’re asking readers to submit digital photos for inclusion in the online UWeek. The photos must relate to campus events or people and must be labeled with an appropriate caption. University Week reserves the right to choose which photos will run and which will not.


You should also know that our Web version has a search feature that allows you to find and download stories of interest – from issues back to September 1998 – and that photos that appear in the paper can be ordered through the Web site.


We’ve enjoyed reading what people had to say about our paper and thinking about how we can make University Week the publication our readers would like it to be. We can’t please everyone, of course, but we’re eager to hear responses of any kind. Feel free to communicate with us at any time via our e-mail, uweek@u.washington.edu.