Most days at the McIntosh Center are the same; food, discussion about the food and workers amongst the students, and occasional chicken nuggets. However, last Friday was different.
On the multiple flatscreen televisions above each food ‘station,’ tweets that had mentioned the Twitter account @ONUDining (which most likely is run by someone working with the McIntosh Dining Hall) were being shown. Some were comical and some were critical, but hardly any were complimentary.
One tweet called out one of the cafeteria workers, named “Cricket,” for having a bad attitude. The @ONUDining account quickly defended Cricket, replying by saying that “Cricket is usually very friendly, but maybe [the student] caught her on an off-day.”
These tweets were displayed in real time on a television that sits directly above the counter where Cricket makes deli sandwiches for students every day. Cricket could not have even seen the tweets if she wanted to. She was too busy working.
Initially, I couldn’t believe that ONU would let the cafeteria broadcast these tweets to the whole student body, especially ones that are critical of its own employees. It seemed like PR suicide.
I understand what ONU was trying to do; they were trying to interact with the students and make the university seem more personable. They were attempting to tap into the ONU ‘groundswell.’ However, I believe that they failed because of they way in which they portrayed their own employees in the process.
ONU had the option to moderate which tweets were shown on the television screens, and they chose to keep ones that were demeaning to the cafeteria workers (not to mention the tweets that were harshly critical of the food). This put innocent workers at risk of humiliation, and I believe that they crossed an ethical line in doing so.
ONU tried to tap into the groundswell, and in doing so damaged the reputation of their employees and crossed sensible ethical boundaries. This was disappointing to me because the cafeteria workers are diligent in their work and deserve more praise than they get. This PR collapse only contributed to the criticism that the cafeteria workers (and the cafeteria itself) receive on a daily basis.
Not to mention the fact that I was sitting with a basketball recruit- a prospective student- who was also watching the tweets run across the big-screens. I can’t imagine what he must have thought about the university after he saw that. Maybe he didn’t think much of it, but I know that even the little things can affect one’s view of a place like a college, especially when the prospective student is comparing colleges side-by-side.
Since last Friday, I have not seen tweets appear on the Mac television screens. I hope that last Friday’s occurrences never happen again- not only because I respect the cafeteria workers, but also because of the fact that I am now a part of this university, and I wish that it would hold itself to higher ethical standards than that.
Grant,
ReplyDeleteI am shocked by some of the things you discussed in this post. Personally, I don't eat at Mac if I can avoid it (I don't have many meal swipes), but this is the first I have heard about these tweets. It's one thing for students to talk about their opinions of Mac food and the employees, but to broadcast them in the hall seems like a bad idea. I can hardly imagine what your basketball recruit was thinking about the tweets. If that was happening when I visited, ONU probably would have been dropped down on my list of possible colleges.
This isn't the first time ONU has done something wrong in terms of PR and using social media. I hope they can learn from this mistake!
This is so comical. I have yet to meet somebody who actually says they like Mac's food, so I can't believe they would think this is a good idea. I've heard so many bad stories about what people have found in the food I can't even say how many.
ReplyDeleteFrom a PR standpoint, I think you're exactly right. Even though I doubt many students really tell the cafeteria staff what they think of the food, they must have had some kind of perspective or idea on what people think. I can't really see a way in which the tweets would have been positive. This does indeed seem like a PR strategy that completely backfired on them. I wonder what was going through your basketball recruit's head when he saw those...
Grant, I am sorry to hear that McIntosh was not moderating these tweets. I understand they wanted to encourage productive conversation from students, but this was not constructive at all. This was harmful to employees and encouraged students to broadcast their negativity to the rest of the student body. I think asking for student feedback was a great idea, but this went too far. I agree with you that this crossed an ethical line. I'm disappointed in the students who felt it was necessary to talk badly about McIntosh dining services as well as the employees.
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