The University of Washington certainly has its share of problems to deal with these days. From medical school monkey business to backfield fumbles in the athletic department, the university’s public image has suffered mightily, and the fact that the problems are all self-inflicted cannot provide much comfort.
The UW is attempting to repair its reputation, and has turned to radio advertising to help get its message across. This isn’t a totally original idea. Many private-sector corporations that have found themselves in a public relations pickle have launched damage-control media initiatives.
This particular advertising program is based on six different 30-second radio spots, and their remarkable impact is clearly attributable to the presence in the script of two of the most powerful words in the English language: Thank you.
The speaker in one of the ads is a UW senior who is studying chemistry and oceanography. He is working with a team of scientists conducting research into the effects of oxygen content on marine life in the waters of Hood Canal. This is a high-tech, expensive project with important consequences for all of us, and he is clearly very excited about being a part of it. He says, “This is my passion; it’s the kind of work I want to do with my life.”
And then he adds, “And I’d like to express my gratitude to the people of Washington for supporting this university and making it possible for me to work with so many dedicated people. Thank you so much.”
There aren’t half enough words of thanks in this world, certainly not those sincerely meant. Perhaps it is a legacy of the ’60s, but in today’s workplace people seem more likely to give you a hug and profess their undying love than to say, “Thank you.”
And, if the sincere thank-you tends to be scarce in today’s high-stress workplace, it is virtually unknown in the public sector. When was the last time you got a thank-you note from the government? Government institutions do not generally view their funding as something that deserves or necessitates thanks. It is, instead, more often considered to be a form of entitlement, a modern twist on the divine right of kings.
That is what is so different, and so powerful, about the UW’s latest media program. That simple thank-you draws us in, and portrays the university as a collaborative effort, involving us, in our labor and our funding, just as much as the talent and energy of the students and faculty.
The focus of the ads is no accident. They were produced in-house, and Harry Hayward, director of strategic communications for the UW, said: “it was a collaborative effort involving our staff, key people throughout the university, and community voices. The important thing was that we wanted the message to be about all of us. The university is part of the statewide community and we wanted to get that across.”
That is the point, precisely. The University of Washington is a taxpayer-supported institution that does not have an independently derived right to exist. Its operation is funded by public money because we believe that the education and research benefits it provides to our young people and to our community are worth it. This is also true for Washington State University, Western Washington University and the rest of our educational institutions, including the schools in the K-12 system.
In fact, there are no government institutions at any level that have an inalienable right to public funding. Government must continuously justify its demand for taxpayer support by delivering on its promises, whether those promises involve a university teaching and applying complex ideas that few of us taxpayers could understand or the filling of a pothole.
For our economy, the relationship between government and taxpayer is a crucial one. Just as the power of government is derived from the consent of the governed, the economic efficiency of public funding is based on the willing support of taxpayers. If the economic relationship becomes adversarial, there are only a few possible outcomes, none of them good.
As our economy has grown and become more complex, our ability as individual taxpayers to comprehend and evaluate public finance is increasingly based on trust. And trust, in turn, is based not only on the truth but also in the recognition that we all play a part in what gets done. We are all crucial to the mission.
As good as these radio ads are, whether they will change our minds about the UW is hard to say. And whether they will change the UW’s mind about us is even more difficult to predict. But they are a good start. And who knows? This “thank you” idea could spread.
James McCusker is a Bothell economist, educator and consultant. He also writes “Business 101,” which appears monthly in The Snohomish County Business Journal.
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