Guidelines for Public Statements from the President

July 2024

Minnesota State College Southeast's president communicates regularly with the college community and the public through a variety of formal and informal mechanisms, including Town Hall, Faculty Shared Governance, Meet and Confer, a weekly all-staff email update, and guest opinion columns in local newspapers. 

Public statements from the college president are powerful tool for communicating in both good times and bad. However, the "overuse" of the president's voice can lead to an expectation that the president should personally respond to a broad range of issues or national and world events, even those that do not directly affect the Minnesota State College Southeast community. 

The following are examples of some, but not all, of the situations that may merit a statement directly from the president. Each situation and issue is considered on a case-by-case basis. 

• Crisis situations directly affecting the college's campuses and/or students, faculty, or staff.
• A tragedy that involves direct impact to individuals or groups in the college community, such as the death of a student, faculty or staff member, or retiree.
• Matters related specifically to the college's core mission of teaching and learning or its strategic priorities (e.g. liberal arts/transfer education, career technical education, workforce education, educational access and equity, or other institutional and presidential priorities).
• At the president's discretion, where significant national or world events have occurred that impact, affect, or concern members of the college community.

Presidential communications may be delivered through a number of channels including, but not limited to:

• College-wide email directly from the president
• Statement issued through the director of communications for attribution to the president
• News release distributed to media and posted on the college pressroom web page
• Message posted to the president's web page 
• College social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X
• Other channels managed by Marketing and Communications

It is presumed that the president of the college represents the college and Minnesota State's point of view when making public statements. In certain cases, another administrator may be a more appropriate choice, such as the vice president of student success for an academic matter or the dean of students for an issue concerning students.

Adapted with permission from DePauw University: Presidential Messages Protocol