Teachers assigned extra credit for going to the event, organizations were asked to be present, etc. but the greatest use of spreading the message was how Twitter was in full use with news about the event. The hashtag #untbold was trending that day in DFW. Students had been enticed to attend for the chance to win a free iPad 2, bag giveaways and the anticipated windbreaker jacket.
The event had such high attendance that attendees were relocated to overflow rooms once the main seating area was full. There was a nice musical number in the beginning and the first speaker was for sure my favorite. They picked someone with a great voice to start us off and hold our attention. I thought the brief history of our school was nice and funny at times. They did a great job of having each goal be read by a different person. The four bold goals are:
1. Provide the best undergraduate educational experience in Texas.
2. Provide superior graduate education, scholarship and artistic endeavors and achieve status among the nation’s tier-one research institutions.
3. Become a national leader among universities in student support, employee relations, operational effectiveness and service to constituencies.
4. Establish UNT as a nationally recognized, engaged university and regional leader by building and expanding mutually beneficial partnerships and resources.
They did a good job about announcing the goals, but my opinion on the actual goals is for another discussion. But the wild crowd to get out of there and grab our free stuff turned crazy and students were running for the next place where the jackets and free iPad would be. The people working the event had told students the wrong place at first and some students took off to two different locations. There was a very long line waiting for the doors to open but it turned into a mob once they did and the students took off for the entrances. I was among one of the first people in but the confusion and craziness distracted me and I didn’t receive my free jacket.
Once other students realized that the tickets for jackets were gone it calmed down a bit and they just wanted the free food next. It was crazy and loud but also fun. However a lot of the students felt tricked because they didn’t receive the freebies that were rumored to be there and then gave up and left.
The talk about the event and the new goals and logo was still fresh the next day but after a day people seemed to go on with their lives and forgot about it. But the school just recently grabbed the student’s attention again by offering up another order of the jackets. The jackets have the new tag line on them and the logo which is an excellent way to remind people of this big change.
The buzz about it on social media sites has become almost nothing now but during the event it received a lot of coverage. Local news stations were even there. All in all, I thought it went really well as events go. They seemed to manage to get a lot of people there from all representation of UNT and there didn’t even have to be a tailgate before it to attract people. I think offering up prizes for going was a genius way to get the students to attend. It was bold to have us all running like mad people to get inside but it was awesome and a memory I’m grateful to have.
Sources:
http://www.unt.edu/features/four-bold-goals-event.htm
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