The 8:05

‘Whatever happened to that guy?’

Headshot of Michael Armini
by

Greetings, colleagues. Yes, it’s been a while. I apologize for the unannounced hiatus. I have a couple of excuses to offer up—and a new path forward. Hear me out. 

I began writing the 8:05 in July 2020 as a way to enhance internal communication during the darkest days of the pandemic. The goal was an informal, weekly message that shed some light on the university’s approach to managing an unprecedented situation. In some ways, that period seems like three lifetimes ago. 

What I didn’t anticipate was the loyal following that a simple email would generate. We literally had hundreds of faculty and staff sign up, far beyond the listserv of university leaders I used at the start. My Monday mornings often included reading dozens of thoughtful replies and specific requests for things to cover the following week. 

After the pandemic ended, I decided to keep the 8:05 going. There were issues ranging from the Supreme Court’s ruling on college admissions to the shifting landscape of university athletics that I wanted to untangle. And people kept signing up. 

Then the spring of 2023 came and let’s just say I got a bit sidelined. Like almost all major research universities, Northeastern experienced a wave of protests and an on-campus encampment—all related to the Israel/Hamas war. Nevertheless, after an eventful spring, and a rather complicated commencement, I was determined to get back to the 8:05, at least episodically over the summer. 

And then, as some of you know, in mid-June I was in an accident that landed me in the hospital for a week. I won’t bore you by enumerating my list of injuries, but it took some time to recover. I’m still not 100%, but I’m determined to get there. 

Taking things to the next level

Enough of the excuses, let’s look ahead. One of the truths the 8:05 revealed was the intense thirst on the part of faculty and staff for more information. As we all know, our university has become larger and more distributed. As with all complex organizations, there’s often a sense on the part of internal stakeholders that we don’t know what’s really going on. Or maybe we know the what, but we don’t understand the why.

To help fill this void, this Wednesday we are launching a dedicated faculty/staff news channel. We already have an award-winning in-house news organization—Northeastern Global News—but much of its content is rightly geared toward the outside world. In fact, 80% of the 5 million page views NGN receives each year come from “organic search,” meaning people not affiliated with Northeastern. 

Now, each Wednesday, an email newsletter will go to all faculty and staff. It will include profiles of your colleagues, behind the scenes stories of university strategy, and even construction updates so you know what’s happening on each campus. We will also convert the 8:05 to a blog of sorts that will be housed on the new Faculty and Staff News Hub. Yes, the 8:05 will continue and be integrated into this new approach. 

The goal is for this weekly newsletter is for it to become the “must read” content for all who work at Northeastern. Here’s a sneak peek:

A screenshot of the Faculty and Staff News Hub website showing two stories, one about the Portland campus choir and one about President Aoun attending the Facilities workers' BBQ.

But wait, there’s more! 

When we think about internal communication, we shouldn’t forget the more than 40,000 students at Northeastern. Many of our students (especially our 22,000 undergraduates) get a lot of their news and information from social media. 

And frankly, because a lot of news on social media is unreliable, we’ve launched NGN TikTok and Instagram accounts for our students—and any other constituents on those platforms. 

This new deployment of NGN will deliver news that students need to know about Northeastern, as well as feature faculty experts commenting on the issues of the day. We began piloting this approach in the spring and the results have been stellar so far. 

A screenshot from the Northeastern Global News instagram (left) showing an image with the headline 'Northeastern's Michael Davis receives prestigious award for his work as a trailblazing police chief'. Another screenshot of the Northeastern Global News TikTok (right) showing three people shoveling at the Portland Campus ground breaking.

Finally, because not all internal communication is about news, we will be launching an engagement campaign tentatively titled “One Northeastern.” I mentioned earlier that the university is larger and more distributed than ever before. And while that has become a source of strength and resilience, it also means we span several time zones, national jurisdictions, and campus cultures. Our goal is that a “One Northeastern” campaign will essentially be the peacetime equivalent of the very successful “Protect the Pack” campaign during Covid. 

As with all new launches, the internally focused initiatives outlined here will benefit from your input. We have already conducted a series of faculty/staff and student focus groups in the run-up to this week, but more feedback is always welcome. 

As for the 8:05, I will make sure to keep the same relaxed tone, even in its new iteration. I’m glad to be back typing away on a Sunday afternoon for a Monday-morning send. And I’m grateful to work at an institution that is amazingly dynamic and endlessly interesting. Much more to come…

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