Original Date: 5/22/1996 * Last Revision Effective: temporary approval 10/3/2024; expires 4/3/2025
Policy Contact: Vice President, Institutional Advancement
Purpose
The following procedures are established to meet the requirements for implementing policy #6650 – Official Public Communications and Social Media.
Procedures
“Official” public communications are those, regardless of the originating department, intended to provide official policy or information on behalf of the college. This includes publications that describe policies, procedures, operations, instructional offerings and effectiveness. “Official” public communications include print, digital and broadcast communications distributed or made available to prospective students, current students, volunteers, community members, government officials, businesses, donors, and other educational institutions. Examples include the annual report, credit and non-credit class schedules, advising sheets, program brochures and flyers, promotional and marketing materials (including flyers, posters, direct mail, advertisements, public service announcements, and press releases), official main college social media accounts, and websites.
This procedure requires three approvals of the content of every official college publication. In academic divisions, these approvals must come from: 1) program chair, 2) dean, 3) institutional advancement. In non-instructional departments, the publication content must be approved by 1) department head, 2) dean or vice president 3) institutional advancement. See requirements for student publications in 6550P Posting of literature. The document originator must retain copies of each approval message.
All official Bellevue College publications, web pages, and social media posts must meet the following requirements:
- Information about the college is accurate and up to date.
- Legal and regulatory requirements are met.
- Program and course information is accurate, complete, and consistent with that on file in the office of academic affairs, which serves as the official record of the college for purposes of state auditing.
- Claims or statements about programs, course transferability and any completion, placement, salary, or employment-on-completion data are accurate and have adequate supporting documentation on file.
- Information on program pre-requisites or other admissions requirements is complete.
- Any need for a student to obtain post-graduation licensure or certification in order to be employable is clearly described.
- Documents include statement of equal opportunity (EEO) and reasonable accommodation.
- The EEO statement should be contained within the “about” section of each Bellevue College official social media account and updated annually.
- Include the college logo, full college name and address, revision or creation date, official Bellevue College website address and a contact person’s phone number and email address.
Printing services may require confirmation of full content approval before printing begins. For ease of communication with printing services staff, work order forms may include boxes to be checked by the customer prior to graphics or print production work, confirming all approvals.
Coordination of public pronouncements
Institutional advancement coordinates the official “voice of Bellevue College” and manages all public pronouncements, except RAVE alerts including timely warnings.
The public information officer, within the office of institutional advancement, has general responsibility for communications with the community, including serving as the primary, initial point of contact for news media, coordinating communications with media representatives and issuing college press releases.
Faculty are encouraged and administrators and staff are required to involve the public information officer or vice president of institutional advancement in all college-related communications with representatives of the news media, both to receive assistance in preparing for interviews and to ensure accuracy and consistency in public statements.
Contact: communications@bellevuecollege.edu
Revision History
Original 5/22/1996
Revisions 5/10/2005; 1/8/2007; 5/21/2009; 9/24/2012; 10/15/2015; temporary approval 10/3/2024, expires 4/3/2025
Approved By
President’s Cabinet
Last Updated October 9, 2024