Brief is the official University of Minnesota staff and faculty hub for information about the University and its people.
The Brief website features stories, announcements, awards, and more by, for, and about employees and is updated twice a week. The Brief newsletter is sent weekly on Wednesdays highlighting stories posted to the website.
Brief relies on you, the content provider, to submit your stories. Content providers should be the experts in determining the value of each submission and its relevance to our primary audience of all faculty and staff; however, the editors retain the final decision on publication. Submissions should generally be regarded as "high-level" information or appeal to a broad audience of faculty and staff.
Your local college or department communications professional is a great resource for determining the best communication avenues. Those individuals are:
- Jess Bengston [email protected] (UMC)
- Alex Messenger [email protected] (UMD)
- Sue Dieter [email protected] (UMM)
- Amber Muehlenbein [email protected] (UMR)
- Marcom leads (UMNTC)
All submissions to Brief should adhere to the University's policy on accessibility of digital information. Digital accessibility is achieved when all people can equitably access content on the web or in applications. Learn more about how to make your content accessible.
Criteria for inclusion in Brief
- All submissions should be entered through the Brief submission form. The form is at the top of every Brief webpage. Word count, file sizes, link requirements, etc. are all referenced within the form.
- For newsletter consideration, the deadline for submissions is at noon on the Friday before the date of publication. There is no deadline for website submissions, however, they should be timely and of broad appeal to faculty and staff. Discipline-specific or content and events should first seek out a college, school, or departmental publication.
Features
- Share “need-to-know” administrative news.
- Highlight an employee, campus location, etc. to make the University more accessible to, and build relationships among faculty and staff (i.e., special interest pieces).
- Include components of the University’s mission of outreach, research, teaching, and education.
Images
- Should adhere to image requirements stated within the form and be as high resolution as possible.
- Please provide the necessary caption text and alternative text with your photo submissions. Minor edits for length, clarity, and grammar will be made at the editors’ discretion.
- Are not required but are highly encouraged to foster connection, expand storytelling, and add dimension to publications.
- Visuals for feature submissions should be eye-catching and help draw the audience into the story. Images should build on (not duplicate) the topic of the post.
- Visuals for employee quotes should be professional or informal headshots so the focus is on your face.
Awards and Recognition
- Announcements are heavily focused on recognizing current faculty and staff and campuses/colleges. College or department-specific awards should be rerouted to your local college or department newsletter or communications professional.
- Includes leadership appointments generally at the dean level and above or those with an administrative appointment that touches all colleges/departments in its function (e.g., a director of equity and diversity).
Events
Events are no longer promoted in Brief. You are encouraged to submit your events to respective campus event calendars or other University newsletters, which are linked at the bottom of every Brief webpage. Select event promotions and recaps will be featured at editors’ discretion if they are of broad appeal and magnitude (e.g., a presidential inauguration).
Questions? Email [email protected].