UConn President Uses Blog To Communicate With Students, Community

By: Madeline Ward

Posted: 2/8/08

President Michael Hogan has joined the blogging community with "Pres Release," a blog that provides everything from photographs chronicling the spring training week to responses to Daily Campus editorials.

Hogan's history goes all the way back to his previous position as the provost at the University of Iowa.

"I found it a good way to communicate with faculty, staff and students without bombarding them with mass e-mails," he said in an e-mail interview. "And I could also post thank-you's and appreciations recognizing people on campus who had done something outstanding, whether it was a teaching or research accomplishment, a student initiative, reaching a personal goal or overcoming adversity."

Students can see the blog at blogs.uconn.edu/president.

"It was just an idea I had one day," he said of starting the blog. "When someone was talking about all the blogging activity that was starting up with faculty and students on campus. It occurred to me when I was at the University of Iowa that it would be a great way for me as the Provost to be more accessible, more direct in my communication with the university community.

"It's not meant to replace official communications that a president or provost must issue from time to time. Instead it's an addition to how I'm able to talk with UConn's constituents in a modern, informal and more personal way."

Like in most presidential offices, it's not just a one man show. Stephen Rhodes, executive assistant to the president, said that he worked for Hogan since he was a provost at University of Iowa and had in fact traveled to UConn to serve as his right hand man.

"I helped him develop his blog page," Rhodes said. "Mike's blog is really a kind of a one-way blog, in that it's not a Web site where anyone can go and post comments for everyone to read. Mike does have a link on his blog page where anyone can send him an email and he tries to respond to them. And sometimes he posts a response he receives. I help him with technical issues in posting the blog and with finding and scanning photographs which he likes to use."

When asked if he viewed it as a leisure activity or just another part of the job, Hogan said, "I consider it an extension of one of my responsibilities, which is to keep in touch with faculty, students, staff, and our wider UConn family. But it's not just another part of the job, either, because I really enjoy doing it, as I enjoy most of the things I do."

As for what sort of content a student can expect to find in Hogan's blog, he said, "There might be something about a professor's research or an award she or he received; something about student activities or upcoming events that I noticed and thought were worthy of wider attention; something about staff accomplishments or recognition of a special effort; sometimes just something about the weather. Also, I've posted some letters and announcements on my blog that I also sent out via email or snail mail, because I wanted to be sure that as many people had an opportunity to read them as possible."

Rhodes admitted the blog was not the most forgiving of formats.

"We're still working some of the bugs out of his UConn blog - we don't have the email link in the right place and there are some other formatting adjustments we'd like to make, but we have a lot of other things besides the blog to do, too."

"[The blog] helps him overcome to some extent the difficulty of one person - the president- having a relationship with some 40, or 50,000 people," Rhodes said. "And he's a strong believer in transparency and access as much as possible. The blog is not meant to be some sort of official pronouncement or something."

Some students have not been able to read Hogan's blog because they don't know about it.

"No, I had no idea he had [a blog]," said Jessika Lobraico, a 4th-semester biology major. "I would read it, if I knew where it was. I met him at a basket ball game he seemed like a cool guy."

Contact Madeline Ward at Madeline.Ward@UConn.edu.