Towson Tigers Today “T3” a report that serves to inform faculty, staff and students of campus announcements and events, recently replaced the Daily Digest.
Towson Tigers Today is in blog form. Administration decided on the blog format so they could track number of hits on each post, which the Daily Digest did not allow. While the Daily Digest contained information for students, faculty and staff, Towson Tigers Today sends a tailored email for each group to avoid confusion.
“A blog format was the best way to deliver daily messages while maintaining a similar format to the University’s website,” Eric Martinez, divisional communication specialists in the Department of Administration and Finance, said. “The administration can gather daily, weekly, monthly and yearly analytics which will help determine what posts are successful and what posts are not.”
Senior Marina Ybarra said that so far she prefers the Daily Digest.
“It was so simple,” she said. “It was a single page filled with news around campus. If something caught my attention I would just click the link and wouldn’t be concerned with other events that didn’t interest me.”
The Office of Technology Services created the Daily Digest in 2003 to decrease the number of campus announcements via email. But it was not compatible with many of the technological developments of the last 10 years, such as mobile devices, according to Martinez. “The Daily Digest was efficient but antiquated,” Martinez said. “It had limited graphic capabilities and was incompatible with multiple devices.”
T3 also supports embed pictures, videos, and other multimedia and interactive elements. For instance, if Parking and Transportation posted an announcement of a parking lot being closed, their post would include an accompanying map.
The right sidebar of Towson Tigers Today also promotes daily events or special posts such as scholarship applications. Readers can share posts via email, Facebook or Twitter. Martinez and the administration are working hard to increase readership and ensure that the Towson University community hear feedback Towson Tigers Today.
“I have been going around to different areas to explain the functions of T3,” he said. “Once the semester begins, I am planning on meeting with the [Student Government Association] president. In February, I have two meetings with student leaders around campus to provide insight to T3 and how it will be utilized.”