Welcome

Welcome to the first edition of Southern Spotlight, an online newsletter for the University’s faculty and staff.

Most universities have faculty-staff newsletters. They vary in length, presentation and form. Until last May, we produced Southern Windows once every three weeks in paper form during the academic year. Why have we moved to an e-mail and Web-based platform? This format gives us the ability to communicate faster. It is also more efficient and lets us stretch limited resources.

Last week, we sent out a survey in campus mail because we know there are individuals who are not in front of a computer during the workday. We want to gather information about those who may need another avenue to access information in Southern Spotlight, and we encourage everyone to return the survey as quickly as possible. Once we can assess the impact of moving to an electronic format, we will be able to consider solutions to those without access from home or work. We also realize that this is the future of communications. Everything from mandatory ethics training to many insurance benefits now relies on online access. Still, we want to make the content of this electronic publication available to as many faculty and staff as possible.

Southern Spotlight is written and produced by staff in Media & Communication Resources. Assistant Director Pete Rosenbery will take the lead on the weekly effort, with support from our entire staff of editors, writers, photographers, programmers, Web experts and general support staff.

Southern Spotlight will provide information about key issues and benefits during the course of the year. We are using list-servs to distribute the information and new e-mail addresses will be added to the list-servs periodically. We also know that some readers will divert this newsletter announcement with spam filters. But we hope most of the campus community will find the information informative and helpful.

Please direct comments and news tips to siucnews@siu.edu.

-- Sue Davis