TELLING THE UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON STORY

TELLING THE STORY:
A LEADER IN
HIGHER EDUCATION
NCR PURCHASE
The University of Dayton’s purchase of NCR’s
world headquarters marks the first time a
university has purchased the headquarters of
a former Fortune 500 company.
Photo by Andy Snow
When The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine
issued the 2009 list of the nation’s best undergraduate
entrepreneurship programs, the University of Dayton
made the top 10 for the fourth straight year. Local media
and The Cincinnati Enquirer covered the award, along
with more than 20 business media outlets.
WVXU-FM in Cincinnati, the National Law Journal,
National Jurist and Leagle.com were among the
legal media outlets reporting School of Law Dean Lisa
Kloppenberg will step down in 2011. Business journals
in Boston, Houston, Raleigh-Durham and Los Angeles,
among others, plus Fox Business, MSN Money and
Forbes picked up the announcement.
The Associated Press picked up a Dayton Daily News
story about the University providing success coaches to
incoming first-year students. Newsday and The (Cleveland)
Plain Dealer among others, picked up the story.
www.udayton.edu/news
University Business on June 20 talked to Cari Wallace,
director of new student programs, about the Universityselected
book for this year’s first-year experience. “[Our]
main goal is to find a book with a diversity-related theme
that gives us a jumping off point to talk about diversity
issues,” said Wallace.
The third-annual River Summit sponsored by the Rivers
Institute attracted local media coverage from the Dayton
Daily News, WHIO-TV and WKEF-TV.
The websites of The Cincinnati Enquirer and The
Columbus Dispatch ran items about the Center for
Competitive Change’s Six Sigma and lean manufacturing
classes that started in January.
‘
Lisa Kloppenberg
championed curricular
reform, bringing
national recognition
for the way the School
rethought legal
education.’
— National Jurist Insider
8
University of Dayton
The University’s bold purchase
of the former NCR world
headquarters resulted in prize-winning
national and international coverage. The December
purchase was covered by The New York Times,
CNN Radio, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The
Associated Press, Ohio News Network, Catholic News
Service and University Business and drew extensive
local coverage by the Dayton Daily News, Dayton
Business Journal and the three Dayton-area television
affiliates.
An estimated 1,000 online media outlets, including
National Public Radio, carried the story. The Wall
Street Journal used Twitter to share the news with its
readers. Chinese visitors to campus later spoke about
seeing the story in Chinese media.
The coverage reached an audience of more than 60
million readers and viewers, according to an analysis
by Cision and PR Newswire, and generated recordbreaking
traffic to the University’s news website.
Media in the nation’s top-100 media markets mentioned
the University’s purchase of NCR 116 times.
The Chronicle of Higher Education on Jan. 17 singled
out the University of Dayton as one of a handful of
universities nationally taking advantage of “once-ina-generation”
real estate opportunities by converting
vacant industrial and corporate properties into
research hubs, and President Curran was invited to
meet with Chronicle reporters in February.
The Dayton Daily News ran two editorials celebrating
the growth of the University of Dayton Research
Institute and noting the University’s growing research
prowess, prestige and reputation.
A Dec. 22 piece, “UDRI Gets New Space, Recognition
it Deserves,” called the growth of the University of
Dayton Research Institute “a model for long-term
incubation of idea centers that could be the basis of
Dayton’s future economy. … Being in the NCR building
will give the research institute more visibility and
cachet. Locating in this first-class environment is a
statement about its role at UD and in the community.”
A Jan. 17 editorial, “UD’s Growth About Much
More Than Land,” used President Curran’s contract
extension to discuss the growth in the University’s
prestige, selectivity and research volume. “On nearly
every important measure — academic standards,
fundraising and research — UD’s needle is moving
in the right direction,” the editorial read. An
accompanying chart showed growth in enrollment,
acreage, endowment, sponsored research, entering
test scores, out-of-state enrollment and acceptance
percentage.
The University’s purchase of the former NCR world
headquarters drew more attention when The New York
Times in January devoted a full page account of how
the Fortune 500 company came to leave its birthplace.
The CBS Evening News weekend edition featured
a profile May 8 on Dayton as a city hit hard by the
economic recession. The report mentioned the
University of Dayton’s purchase of the former NCR
world headquarters as a sign of the city turning a corner.
On June 30, when the University took occupancy of
1700 South Patterson and 115 acres of former NCR
world headquarters’ land, it made history and again
prompted news coverage. The Dayton Daily News,
Dayton Business Journal and local television and radio
covered the story.
The University’s announcement of the acquisition
won the only gold 2010 Circle of Excellence Award
given in the “specific media relations programs and
projects” category from the Council for Advancement
and Support of Education (CASE), the largest nonprofit
education association in the world. Its annual awards
program showcases the best work on college and
university campuses around the globe.
9
Telling the Story
www.udayton.edu/news