The University needs to start allocating money for national print and broadcast advertising in order to build a brand identity and keep pace with its peer institutions, said Senior Vice President for Communications Lorna Miles. The University doesn't currently have a marketing budget, she said.

In 2005, the University composed an Integrated Plan, a blueprint the administration established outlining Brandeis' overall goals through 2012.

This year the administration is doing a midcourse review of the Plan, and Miles' advertising proposal comes as part of this review.

"In the context of this Integrated Plan review, I created a communications plan and budget going forward that I'm asking the entire team to consider," she said. Miles added that she couldn't yet determine what kind of budget her entire plan might see, because the Integrated Planning Committee, would not prioritize its goals until December.

Miles recalled that when she came to Brandeis in 2003, her first goal was to centralize the marketing activities departments had been undertaking on their own.

"In order to be competitive and forward thinking and to keep up and hopefully outpace our competitors, we need to do that extra bit, which is the advertising piece," Miles said.

If all goes well, Miles envisions a "national brand building advertising campaign" that would include "radio advertising across the country." For example, an ad on National Public Radio's "Science Friday," show could convey the message that "we're building a science center [and] research is a priority for us," she said. Brandeis stopped advertising on NPR in 2002 after an alumnus expressed concerns that ads ran on radio news programs critical of Israeli policies towards Palestinians.

At the Oct. 14 Student Union Senate meeting, Miles said she believed the previous concerns with NPR were avoidable if the university was strategic in the placement of its ads.

The focus of the print and broadcast ads, she said, needs to reflect the expected demographic shift of college-bound students from the Northeast to the West and South-West. "I can't tell you how many times people say to me that nobody knows anything about Brandeis west of Chicago," she said.

Miles said she hoped print ads could run in regional editions of publications such as Time Magazine or Newsweek. Those ads, she said, could include features such as a photo of a famous alumnus today with an inset of the alumnus from their time at Brandeis, to emphasize how their experiences then led to their later career success.

The Office of Communications, with the help of communications specialist Marsha MacEachern, created a Facebook profile called Brandeis U News to help inform students about campus events.

"This seems to be a way of getting . closer to the students and meeting people more than halfway," Miles said. Miles and MacEachern said that they were not yet familiar with the methods Facebook provides for advertising, such as Facebook Flyers or its new Ad System allowing companies to create pages for themselves.

The Office also intends to create a Brandeis page on YouTube.com, following the example of other universities such as the University of California at Berkeley. "Some universities and colleges have a very decked out page," MacEachern said. "They have their logo on the top and colors." She also said that "when we saw that you can personalize a page like that and really make it pop and look different then just the standard Youtube page, we thought it was really nice."

Miles and MacEachern said the Office was storing a number of videos, from recordings of all Meet the Author events to the video of former President Jimmy Carter's visit last January, videos on the late Alex the Parrot and a science video featuring Professor Gregory Petsko (CHEM), but had no easy way to publicize them.

A planned redesign of the Brandeis Web site, using a new content management system from Library and Technology Services, would also play a large role in the university's advertising approach and the creation of its brand, Miles said.

"We're doing a whole soup to nuts review of the Web site," she said.

Work on the redesign began last November and the new homepage will launch in early December after the visit by former President Bill Clinton, she said. It will take one-and-a-half years to transfer all information to the new Web site, she said.

Miles said the new content management system would provide ready-made templates for four different color-coordinated kinds of Brandeis Web pages. "The Clinton Talk Web site is light blue, and that's the color of a special event," she said. Other categories would be academics, administration, centers and institutes.

Miles said she is also working with the Student Union to form focus groups to receive more student feedback on Brandeis publications and Web site designs.

"I think there are a lot of mixed messages that are put out about what Brandeis and what it stands for . so I think it's amazing what [Miles is] doing to make it make it more [unified], so we can keep attracting the best and brightest students from across the country," said Senator-at-Large Jessica Blumberg '09.