Colorado State University issued the following announcement on Aug. 17.
Ninety-one percent of Colorado State University students are motivated to practice safe health behaviors so they don’t spread COVID-19, according to a recent campus survey.
The statistic is part of a recently launched campaign by CSU to encourage students to practice public health safety behaviors amidst COVID-19. The campaign, which features print and digital messaging across campus with CAM the Ram wearing a face covering, started rolling out last week.
COVID-19 recovery
The first thrust of the campaign focuses on how face coverings can help slow the spread of COVID-19, pulling data from a July survey of students.
The campaign was developed by more than two dozen faculty, staff and students across campus as part of the Social Norming Taskforce, co-led by Jody Donovan, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students, and Laura Giles, associate executive director of housing and dining services.
The taskforce used a social norms marketing strategy to develop the campaign, relying on recent statistics from the campus-wide survey on student perceptions involving COVID-19.
“Social norms marketing is one strategy that focuses on correcting the misperceptions that we have about our peers and their attitudes and behaviors,” Donovan said. “While the university is doing messaging around the public health and caring for our community, we were asked specifically how to engage our student population and help them buy into being a part of keeping our campus healthy.”
Donovan said the social norming committee came out of the Student Life Recovery and Continuity Workgroup, one of the groups executing President Joyce McConnell’s COVID-19 recovery plan. Workgroup members Karen Estlund, dean of Libraries, and Blanche Hughes, vice president for Student Affairs, led the charge for the subcommittee. Giles added that the support for the campaign was evident from the beginning.
“President McConnell and the CSU Pandemic Planning Team underpinned the importance of this work being based in CSU student behaviors,” she said. “There are many communication strategies informing students, faculty and staff about the new operational paradigm of CSU — this is only one – and together all the strategies will make a difference in public health.”
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up