Alumni, Campus and Public Engagement Subcommittee

Final Report

August 9, 2012

• Subcommittee Overview• Stadium Website• Media Relations• Letters and Emails• Public Engagement• Grassroots Activity• Conclusion

Report Components

Subcommittee Overview• Charge

– A subcommittee of the Stadium Advisory Committee charged with creating a process that will be used to take input from and communicate to the public and various stakeholder groups.

• Principles– Thorough and Fair– Open and Transparent

• Members– CSU Vice President for External Relations Tom Milligan– CSU Staff Representative Farrah Bustamante– Community Representative Connie Hanrahan– ASCSU

• Support– Martin Carcasson, director Center for Public Deliberation– Department of External Relations staff

SAC Website

• Primary CSU Source for public information about Stadium Advisory Committee and stadium information

– Meeting notifications– Press releases– Center for Public Deliberation

documents– FAQ– Committee reports– Videos

• 31,163 Unique Visits since site launched on 2/1/12

SAC Website

“The school has a website specifically

dedicated to the potential stadium that is chock full of information.

Other governments proposing controversial projects would do well to

emulate it.”- Denver Post

Media Relations• 7 press releases & 5 media

advisories• 172 newspaper, broadcast and

online stories since 1/1/12– Estimated 16 million impressions– $199,000 in estimated publicity

value

• Local Story: The Coloradoan is primary news source – approximately 41stories or prominent mentions since 1/1/12

• 10 - 57 Comments follow each story in The Coloradoan – usually debate between proponents/opponents

Letters and Emails• 105 Unsolicited communications (letters and emails) to the

President’s Office since December regarding the stadium– 36 in support, 43 opposed, 25 no opinion

• 49 Email Responses to Tony’s campus-wide email on 3/22/12– 36 students responded – 7 in support, 14 opposed, 18 no opinion– 12 faculty/staff responded -- 2 in support, 2 opposed, 10 no opinion– 1 parent (opposed)

• City of Fort Collins – City Council questions and citizen comments

– Received 4/19, posted on SAC site

• Center for Public Deliberation online input form for public, faculty and staff

– More 2,000 responses to a set of five questions

Public Engagement Activities Overview• Stadium Advisory Committee meetings

– All meetings open to the public and webcast live– Materials, presentations and video replays are available on SAC website

• 19 public forums and stakeholder input events

• Surveys to more than 100,000 alumni, faculty and staff and more than 32,000 students

• Two days of targeted outreach to CSU students on LSC plaza

• All information posted on SAC website for public review

Public Engagement Activities• Center for Public Deliberation

– Led by Director Martin Carcasson and staffed by trained student associates– Works to promote civic dialogue and decision-making in Northern Colorado– Link to www.cpd.colostate.edu provided on SAC website– Independent and impartial

• Events Overview– Conducted 10 public forums that were attended by 260 individuals– Two public forums specifically for CSU students on May 1-2, 2012

• Results and findings– 2,000 responses to CPD input form– All documents and results posted on CPD website– Final analysis and extended backgrounder published July 26, 2012

Public Engagement Activities – Public Forums

• April 16-27, 2012– Public forums at Fum McGraw Athletic Center– 1-hour overview of feasibility study followed by 1 hour of public input– More than 300 people attended forums and more than 50 individuals

provided input to SAC members in attendance– Videotaped and posted on SAC website

• Two Ram Club events in Fort Collins and Denver

• Neighborhood Forums– Two forums held in Fort Collins to discuss traffic, parking and noise impact

on potential neighbors

• President Frank Open Forum – July 31– Attended by more than 500 individuals and lasted nearly 4 hours

Public Engagement Activities -- ASCSU• Targeted Student Outreach

May 1-2, 2012– Information about process and

feasibility study posted at LSC Plaza

– Members of the SAC, consultants and CSU staff were available to answer questions from students and take comments

– Comments and input captured, presented to SAC and posted online

• Student Survey– Survey sent to more than 32,000

students– 3,200 responses– Responses delivered to SAC and

posted online for review

Public Engagement Activities – Online Survey

• Online survey sent to more than 100,000 alumni, faculty and staff

– More than 10,000 responses– Final report delivered to SAC and all results posted on SAC website

Grassroots Activities• Save our Stadium, Hughes

– Primary opposition group– Largely Fort Collins residents– Have created website and Facebook page (228 likes)– Had David Ridpath – nationally recognized critic of collegiate athletics, Ohio

University professor and 1990 CSU graduate – conduct a forum in Fort Collins criticizing notion of on-campus stadium at CSU.

– Opposition petition has 6,497 signatures as of July 3, 2012 (according to SOSH website

• Be Bold CSU– Group created to support on-campus stadium– Linked to RamNation.com and supported by many alumni and Ram Club

members– Have created website and Facebook page (1,041 likes)– Supporting petition has 1,063 electronic signatures as of July 26, 2012

Conclusion

“We should note that CSU has bent over backward to be transparent about its efforts and

intentions.”Denver Post, May 13, 2012

• Overall, members of the Alumni, Campus and Public Engagement Subcommittee believe that stadium-related communications and engagement work have lived up to commitment to a thorough, inclusive and transparent process.

Center for Public Deliberation