“[The Office of News Communications] wants people to feel that they are a part of a place where all these great things are happening — but first they need to know about them,” said Ray Betzner, director of News Communications. “Temple is a really big university and there are a lot of exciting things going on. The Online Newsroom is the one place people can go to see everything.”

The Newsroom reflects a recent reorganization of Temple communications, where work of the former News and Media Relations Department and the Temple Times was merged. The resulting Office of News Communications supports the university through news stories about Temple pitched to the media and run in the Temple Times, the TUcalendar, Temple Today and media relations.

“In News Communications, it’s our job to share stories about research, awards, initiatives and other newsworthy activities that Temple is doing with the people who work and attend here, the surrounding community and the world,” Betzner said. "We look for stories that show how Temple is touching the lives of people every day. We want these stories to make everyone proud that they're a part of the Temple community."

New ways to see events

Upgraded calendar software, released in August, has made it possible for calendar visitors to see and search all of Temple’s public events by category, e-mail a friend, create reminders and subscribe to an RSS feed of events.

Located at http://calendar.temple.edu (or “EVENTS@TEMPLE” from Temple’s home page), TUcalendar supports the daily Temple Today e-mail and the weekly Temple Times calendar in print.

Temple Today, which has been delivered since the fall of 2004, delivers select highlights of events drawn from the TUcalendar, as well as announcements and top stories from the Online Newsroom. For those who want to be delivered more events, or only those that match their interests, users can create their own e-mail directly from the TUcalendar, using the “Subscribe” option.

“This feature allows you the opportunity to create an e-mail with only the information you’re interested in knowing,” said News Assistant Leslie Saunders. “For example, say you only want to know about Temple Athletics and faculty events, you can receive an e-mail with only that information included — making it easier for the busiest people to stay informed.”

Another feature designed to help make things easier for calendar users is the ability to send an e-mail to their accounts, informing them of changes to an event in the TUcalendar, Saunders explained. Users can also use the feature to receive a text message or e-mail reminding them of a particular event they have highlighted. Reminder messages can be sent five minutes to one day before the event takes place.

“I think students will find the reminder messages to be very useful when deadlines for things like graduation and course registration are approaching,” Saunders said.

TU news on your own web page

While Temple Today and the TUcalendar are popular features, Betzner said they are only two ways the Online Newsroom communicates what’s going on at Temple.

This week, an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed was linked from the Newsroom home page. Anyone who uses a feed reader (such as Google Reader or Bloglines) can now receive automatically updated headlines and links to full stories.

For current news about Temple, visit the Online Newsroom at www.temple.edu/newsroom. Visit http://calendar.temple.edu to see all university events.

How to …
A quick guide for Temple University staff, faculty and students

Suggest a story for the Temple Times newspaper, Online Newsroom or media coverage, or get help with an op-ed:

Contact the news staff member who covers your school, college or department (a list is at www.temple.edu/newsroom/contactus.htm), or call 215-204-7476 to be directed to the appropriate writer.

Get advice if you've been contacted by the media:

Contact Director of News Communications Ray Betzner.

Share faculty or staff awards, research or media mentions:

Contact a news staff member or write to newscomm@temple.edu (subject line: “awards & research”).

Suggest an announcement or event for the Temple Today e-mail:

Contact Editor Betsy Winter Hall at betsy.winter@temple.edu.

Include events in the TUcalendar:

Fill out the online events submission form at http://calendar.temple.edu. To ensure consideration, submissions must be received at least one week prior to the event date.

Get a calendar of public events for your departmental web site:

Contact News Assistant Leslie Saunders at TUcalendar@temple.edu.

— Written by Karen Shuey

For Temple News Communications