CLASS Action submission guidelines

Submission Guidelines
5/12/06 at 1:07:25 PM

Updates from the student communities, CCLC, Student Information Office, and Office of the Assistant Dean appear each Thursday according to a published schedule, with each community or office normally contributing one time per month.

Article content should focus on student community or departmentally related subjects of professional interest to the staff as a whole. Our goal is to strike a balance between the need for professional, informational articles and the need to broaden and deepen a sense of community among our staff members.

Examples of topics that might be covered include the efforts of your community or office to deliver services to students or to further CLASS initiatives. Articles might also deal with professional development opportunities (including classes, conferences, and travel) or with how the community is working with a currently relevant educational topic such as the increasing number of undecided students or undergraduates with mental health needs. Other stories might highlight a student success story from your community, describe a partnership between the student community and one of its related departments, or describe the lessons to be learned from a particularly positive advising session. Job/staff changes and new staff introductions might also be included.

Of course your office has changed over the years due to job and staff changes, technology innovations, and shifts in unit and University direction. Your article can sometimes reflect on how your office has adapted to change, showing how professional development or improvements in service delivery are benefiting new generations of students.

Whatever the content of the article, we encourage you to see it as an opportunity to reflect on the challenges and opportunities, and to highlight your accomplishments. We hope you will use this opportunity to celebrate the successes of your community. The newsletter is an appropriate place to brag a little.

Potential readers for the newsletter include CLASS advisors and staff, some academic departments, and some collegiate and campus administrators. Given the potential audience, it is important to refrain from inside jokes and personal staff information in the update articles.

Spell out acronyms on the first use. Though most staff will know that "ADFAB" is the Assistant Dean's Freshman Advisory Board, the newsletter audience includes new staff and some non-CLASS readers.

Article length should be at least 200 words (200-600 is typical).

Include a headline for your article. It's helpful to know what you think is essential in what you're saying.

We welcome the inclusion of photographs, charts, and other graphics that add to the reader's understanding or enjoyment of the article.

Special Features (e.g., leadership articles) are published on an ad hoc basis. Ideas and submissions for special features are welcome.

Avoid repetition (the most overused phrase is "we're busy" – though it's true enough). What's different than usual or different than what could be said by another office?

Submission deadline is noon (Wednesday) for articles that will appear that week. We'll send an email reminder on Tuesday of the week your article is due. Our intention is to publish the newsletter by the end of the day Thursday so that it will be available to readers on Friday.

Unscheduled Submissions are welcome. Examples would include updates from various working groups (e.g., the working group on undecided students or on GC transition issues). We encourage such contributions so don't be shy. Please send any unscheduled articles or newsletter ideas to rsherman@class.cla.umn.edu .

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