Gaining Faculty and Staff Support

Faculty and Staff can be some of our greatest allies. Be sure and create a plan to work with faculty and staff. Think of ways to keep them informed about your peer education group.

Here Are Some Tips:

• Host a faculty and staff social sponsored by your group to introduce the new peer educators to key faculty and staff on campus.
  
  
• As a group, brainstorm the names of key campus faculty and staff that you would like involved to a greater extent with your program. Be sure to collect their names, departments, campus mail addresses, e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
  
  
• Invite three or four different faculty or staff members to one of your meetings. It is best if this invitation is made in person instead of in writing. Your advisor can help by making a follow-up phone call on the day of the meeting.
  
  
• Have a staff appreciation day and find some way to recognize secretaries, ground maintenance crews, custodial staff, food service workers, campus police, and so on.
  
  
• Send an open letter to faculty and staff explaining your mission. Let them know who your advisor is and that they can contact you through your advisor. Make this a very upbeat letter and thank them for their support.
  
  
• Send a copy of the The BACCHUS Network™ pamphlet, "Partners for Prevention: A Guide for Faculty" to all of your campus professors. These pamphlets are available to affiliates at a discounted rate (call 352-377-5228). Include a letter thanking them for their contributions to the campus prevention efforts.
  
  
• Give fun things to faculty and staff. For example, give away buttons for Safe Spring Break to every secretary you know. They will wear them more often than the students do! Give them posters to hang in their offices.
  
  
• Have a dinner night out and ask every member to bring a faculty or staff member along. This doesn't have to be a formal banquet. Just invite a few folks out for a casual dinner, get to know them, ask about their area of academic interest, and sell your organization to them.
  
  
• Send greeting cards to faculty and staff. Pick any holiday and make up your own special cards.
  
  
• Recognize a faculty member or staff person each month. This might mean putting up his/her photo on a bulletin board in the student center as "professional of the week."
  
  
• Get to know who's who in your Vice President's office and in all student affairs offices. Remember that you can often get the information you need from a secretary with whom you've built a good, trusting relationship. Never ignore a staff person!
  
  
• Sponsor a "don't cancel that class" program on a health issue. Offer to fill-in for faculty if they have to be away at a professional conference. Market and promote the program to faculty periodically throughout the year.
  
  
• If your members work on campus in offices or departments, let supervisors know about your affiliation with peer education.
  
  
• Make sure your events are publicized to the faculty and staff through personal invitations and faculty-staff newsletters.