Communications and Outreach Guide | Feinberg School of Medicine

Communications and

Outreach Guide

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Basic Science Administration

Updated August 2024

Table of Contents

Contents

Feinberg Brand and Style Guidelines and Templates

Brand Guidelines .....................................................................................................................4

Branded Templates ................................................................................................................4

Electronic Letterhead ......................................................................................................... 4

Style Guidelines ........................................................................................................................4

BSA Listserv Guide

Listserv ‘How-To’ ......................................................................................................................6

Cayosoft Listserv Platform ...........................................................................................11

Cayosoft Listserv ‘How-To’ ............................................................................................11

HTML Email

HTML Templates .......................................................................................................................13

Adobe Dreamweaver ...........................................................................................................13

HTML Code Cheat Sheet ................................................................................................14

Image and Document Network Drive for HTML Emails ....................15

Events: Planning and Promotion

PlanIt Purple .................................................................................................................................17

Digital Signage .......................................................................................................................... 17

EMS Web App for Event Space ................................................................................18

Additional Event Space .................................................................................................... 18

Catering ............................................................................................................................................ 19

AV Support ...................................................................................................................................20

Furniture Moves ....................................................................................................................... 20

Furniture Reservations and Rentals ..................................................................... 20

Local Hotels .................................................................................................................................. 20

BSA Meeting Owl Pro Device ......................................................................................21

Website Development and Maintenance

Department and Center Website Maintenance .......................................22

Faculty Lab Site Development ..................................................................................22

Core Websites ............................................................................................................................ 23

Miscellaneous Website Development Requests ...................................... 23

Social Media Guidelines

Page Likes / Followers ........................................................................................................24

Post Frequency and Timing ...........................................................................................24

Images / Graphics / Videos .......................................................................................... 24

Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Table of Contents

Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Social Media Guidelines (cont.)

Sharing Links / URLs with Graphics.....................................................................24

Social Media Content Management ..................................................................24

Partners and Ampliﬁers .................................................................................................... 25

Additional Tools and Resources

MachForm ....................................................................................................................................... 26

Adobe Creative Cloud .......................................................................................................26

Photo Resizing without Photoshop ....................................................................... 26

Revision History

4Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Feinberg Brand and Style Guidelines and Templates

Brand Guidelines

The Northwestern Medicine brand guidelines

include logo usage, sizing and color to help us

effectively and consistently share brand-appro-

priate materials.

Branded Templates

Branded templates, provided by the Feinberg Of-

ﬁce of Communications, are available in Power-

Point, InDesign and Microsoft Word formats.

Please contact medcommunications@north-

western.edu, if you experience issues with ac-

cessing assets.

Feinberg Brand and Style

Guidelines and Templates

DOWNLOAD FEINBERG TEMPLATES

PowerPoint presentations

Brochures

Elevator signs

Flyers

Meeting agendas

Name plaques and tags

Reports

Research posters

Room cards

Style Guidelines

In alignment with the Feinberg Ofﬁce of Com-

munications, the use of AP Style for all websites,

publications and formal communications such

as event invites and announcements is recom-

mended. The entries below represent frequently

used or notable exceptions.

“Dr.” Title

We list doctoral degrees on ﬁrst reference (see

below), but do not use the “Dr.” title in the ﬁrst or

any subsequent reference. This is an exception

to AP Style.

Feinberg Faculty

On ﬁrst reference, include the degree(s) of all

faculty members after their name (e.g., MD, PhD,

DO) as well as GME if completed at Northwest-

ern. Separate dual degrees by a comma when

used after a person’s ﬁrst name. Do not insert

periods in degree(s) (e.g., M.D., Ph.D.).

John Doe, MD, PhD

When referenced in-text for the purpose of

publications or blog posts, include the faculty

member’s Feinberg title (including any named

professorships) on ﬁrst reference, as well as a

link to the faculty member’s proﬁle and any de-

partment or division pages.

Faculty titles are not capitalized but department

names are.

Professors should be listed as <name>, <faculty

title> of <Department> in the Division of <Divi-

sion>.

Jeffrey Sosman, MD, professor of Medicine

in the Division of Hematology and Oncology

Electronic Letterhead

C2 Imaging is our new preferred vendor for

branded stationery items, including electronic

letterhead. Feinberg items will be available to

purchase in iBuyNU by the end of summer 2024.

C2 Imaging Rep: Ed Biggott, ed.biggott@vomela.

com, 847-621-5136

5Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Feinberg Brand Guidelines, Style Guide and Templates

Faculty who are department chairs should list

their department afﬁliation only: <name>, chair

of <Department>.

Alfred George, Jr., MD, chair of Pharmacol-

ogy

To reduce length or improve clarity, move sec-

ondary appointments to second or subsequent

references.

Adler is also an associate professor of Med-

ical Education.

George, who is also Magerstadt Professor

of Pharmacology and Director of the Center

for Pharmacogenomics, said...

Otherwise, omit entirely as appropriate to the

story.

Always attempt to include endowed chair titles

and dean-level appointments on ﬁrst reference.

Rex Chisholm, PhD, vice dean for Scientiﬁc

Affairs and Graduate Education and Adam

and Richard T. Lind Professor of Medical

Genetics

Some case-by-case exceptions may be needed

for clarity or length.

For departments that do not have divisions,

continue the “of” usage without the “Division”

phrase.

Vipul Shukla, PhD, assistant professor of

Cell and Developmental Biology

In a story that mentions multiple faculty mem-

bers from the same division, second (and sub-

sequent) faculty afﬁliations can omit the “in the

Division of” language. But if different divisions or

departments are represented, the full afﬁliation

should be used in all cases.

School Name

Use “Northwestern University Feinberg School of

Medicine” on ﬁrst reference within a page, and

“Feinberg” or “the medical school” on second ref-

erence. Never use “Feinberg School of Medicine,”

“Feinberg School” or “FSM.”

6Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

BSA Listserv Guide

The Basic Science Administration maintains

numerous listservs for faculty, staff and student

use. The electronic mailing lists offer an efﬁcient

way to disseminate information to large numbers

of people using a single email address. Users

are added to appropriate listservs depending on

their roles within the department.

LISTSERV QUICKLINKS AND CONTACTS

Direct Login to Listserv Admin Dashboard (login

with your email address and NetID password)

NUIT Knowledge Base

Listserv Request Form

Listserv Policies and Guidelines

Breakdown of Basic Science Department

Listservs

Note: Categories are NOT uniform across de-

partments. Notice differences in how positions

like research faculty are handled (e.g., postdocs

vs. faculty)

Northwestern University IT Help

Need IT help related to listservs?

Email: consultant@northwestern.edu

Primary Contact for BSA Listservs

Yesenia Navarro, Communications Specialist

Email: yesenia.navarro@northwestern.edu

Listserv ‘How-To’

List Dashboard

The list dashboard contains lists that you own/

manage. Owners control access to the list and

deﬁne the conﬁguration settings.

From the Dashboard

Clicking on the list name will pull up the latest

messages as well as an archive of past messag-

es.

Clicking on the number of subscribers will pull

up the subscriber list and the option to add or

delete subscribers.

Subscriber Management

When you search for a subscriber in the “Sub-

scription Management” tab, you can specify a

certain list, or choose the “Select List” option to

search in all lists you own.

Note: When you search for subscribers, you must

enter the email address only (no names).

Adding Subscribers

* Remember to add subscribers to BSFSM-ALL

and your department listservs.

Note the accepted formats of email address

entry:

henry@somewhere.com Henry Brown

Henry Brown <henry@somewhere.com>

Adding Subscribers Via Subscriber Management

• Select “Subscriber Management” from the

left-hand navigation menu

• Select the list you would like to add the per-

son to

• Enter their email address and name in the

entry ﬁeld (note option to notify the user

that they are being added, or the default do

not notify option)

7Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Adding Subscribers Via Subscriber Reports Menu

Select “Subscriber Reports” from left-naviga-

tion menu (or click the number of subscribers

from the “List Dashboard” to pull up “Subscriber

Reports”).

Adding a Subscriber by Selecting a List

Use the “Add Subscriber” entry ﬁeld. (Note op-

tion directly below the “Add Subscriber” ﬁeld to

“Send Email Notiﬁcation.” Check this box before

clicking the “Add Subscriber” button if you want

the person to know that they have been added

to the listserv). This also serves as a notiﬁcation

to co-list owners that an individual has been

added.

Receiving a Request to Add a Subscriber

If someone requests to be subscribed to a list-

serv directly through the listserv system, owners

receive an automated message (see Figure 1):

BSA Listserv Guide

LISTSERV TRAINING VIDEOS

Listservs Training Video (recorded October 2021)

Cayosoft Listserv Training Video (back-up list-

serv platform for the Department of Biochem-

istry and Molecular Genetics; recorded October

2021)

If you click on the provided link, the person will

be added to the list automatically.

Figure 1: Sample email request to add a subscriber

You can access “Bulk Operations” from “Sub-

scriber Reports” to add or remove in bulk from a

speciﬁc list. For speciﬁc instructions on how to

add or delete subscribers in bulk, please follow

Knowledge Base instructions.

8Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Removing Subscribers

* Remember to remove subscribers from BSFSM-

ALL and department listservs.

Remove Subscribers Via the “Subscriber Man-

agement” Menu

• Select “Subscriber Management” from the

left-hand navigation menu

• Select the list you would like to add the per-

son to

• Enter their email address in the “Search

for Subscribers” entry ﬁeld, and click the

“Search” button

• Subscriber settings screen will appear (see

Figure 2)

• From this screen, you can either select the

“Delete” button, which will remove the person

from the speciﬁc listserv (in this case, BIO-

CHEM-ALL), or if you select the “Delete from

All Lists” button, the person will be removed

from all listservs in the system that you own.

Figure 2: Example of subscriber settings screen

BSA Listserv Guide

9Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Remove Subscribers Via “Subscriber Reports”

• Select “Subscriber Reports” from left-hand

navigation menu (or click the number of sub-

scribers from the “List Dashboard” to pull up

“Subscriber Reports”)

• Select list

• To remove anyone from a speciﬁc list, click

check box to the left of the name(s)

• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click

“Delete Subscribers” button (again, if you

select the “Send Email Notiﬁcation” option

at the bottom of the Subscriber Reports

page, the subscriber will receive an auto-

mated message – in this case that you have

removed them from a list)

Exporting List of Subscribers

• Select list in question (either through your

“List Dashboard” or “Subscriber Reports”)

• The default report format is “Table,” which

presents a list of subscribers on screen

• If you select “CSV format” from the “Report

Format” drop-down menu and click “update,”

you will get a pop-up to open or save a CSV

ﬁle, which you can then save as an Excel

spreadsheet, if you prefer. (Comma Sepa-

rated Values format is a plain text format

in which values are separated by commas,

while Excel spreadsheet ﬁles contain infor-

mation about all the worksheets in a ﬁle,

including both content and formatting.)

List Conﬁguration / List Moderation

From “List Conﬁguration” in the left-hand nav-

igation, you can select a list to view or change

the conﬁguration settings, including send-set-

tings, moderation, list ownership, etc.

The “My Conﬁguration” tab will display an over-

view of the list settings. As you browse through

the conﬁguration tabs, you can click on the

small question mark icon to learn more about

each setting option or consult the Knowledge

Base.

Send Settings Summary

• Private - Only people who are subscribed to

the list may send mail or ﬁles to the list.

• Editor - Only a pre-deﬁned editor (or editors)

can send mail or ﬁles to the list. Any mes-

sages sent by non-editors will need to be

approved by an editor or moderator before

being distributed to list subscribers.

• Owner - Only the owners can send mail or

ﬁles to the list. Quiet owners do not receive

the administrative messages generated

by the listserv system – for example, when

someone unsubscribes from a list or some-

one requests to join the list.

• Special: Dean Eric Neilson and his assistant

Sharon Atas are special subscribers to all

BSA listservs, which means they can send

but do not receive messages to the listserv.

“Conﬁdential” Setting

You can search the “Listserv Archives” in the

left-hand navigation menu to determine if your

listserv(s) are included in the full listing of avail-

able listservs.

BSFSM-ALL Listserv

Note: This list includes the entire BSA commu-

nity as well as “external” subscribers that are

interested in receiving seminar announcements.

The Professional Affairs team is deﬁned as quiet

owners they can add or remove individuals for

their department.

The list uses the editor and moderator func-

tion; all BSA staff members are deﬁned editors.

General inboxes are also included as editors for

send-privileges (e.g., sqe@northwestern.edu,

cgm@northwestern.edu, BSA-Procurement@

northwestern.edu).

BSFSM-ALL List Conﬁguration Details

Editor: When used in conjunction with the

“Send= Editor” option, it causes all mail sent to

the list to be automatically forwarded to the ﬁrst

BSA Listserv Guide

10Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

person listed in the “Editor=” keyword, who will

then determine whether to allow it to be distrib-

uted to the list. The editors are the only persons

(with the list owners) who are allowed to mail di-

rectly to the list. Any editor can send mail to the

list while only the ﬁrst one will receive copies of

mail sent to the list (but see also “Moderator=”).

When the “Hold” option is enabled “Send= Edi-

tor,Hold”, the moderators may approve postings

using the “OK” mechanism or the web-based

moderation interface rather than forwarding the

posts back to the list.

This keyword deﬁnes which editors of a mod-

erated list receive postings for approving and

forwarding to the list. The default is the ﬁrst edi-

tor as deﬁned by the “Editor=” keyword. If mul-

tiple moderators are deﬁned, the load is spread

across them.

Note that all editors may still post directly to

the list, but only those editors deﬁned by “Mod-

erator=” will have messages from non-editors

forwarded to them.

If the parameter “All” is coded before the list of

moderator addresses, LISTSERV will send copies

of all postings to all moderators, any of whom

may approve the message.

Other Administrative Messages

Subscription Renewal Monitoring Reports

You will regularly receive “Subscription renewal

monitoring reports” via email (see below).

BSA Listserv

Guide

Annual System Check

The listserv system also does an annual system

check around early July in which every subscrib-

er on every list receives an automated message

asking the person either to:

1. Do nothing, which keeps them on the partic-

ular list

2. Unsubscribe if they no longer want to receive

messages, and instructions to do so are pro-

vided in the email.

As list owners, you will receive a barrage of

automated emails related to this annual system

check.

For Editor/Moderated Lists: “Approval Required”

Messages

If you manage a moderated list and an owner or

editor attempts to send a message to the

listserv, you will receive an automated message

(see below).

As depicted, you will receive a copy of the at-

tempted message as an attachment. If you want

to approve the message, you can either click on

the link in the automated message, or you can

sign-in to the listserv system and you will see a

prompt that indicates that you have messages

awaiting moderation.

11Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

* For use of the Department of Biochemistry and

Molecular Genetics (BMG)

• Owner-only send

• Individuals that should be added as “Qui-

et” list owners: BSA staff that should have

access to send to the BIOCHEM-ALL list and

all BMG core faculty members

The original BIOCHEM-ALL listserv was expe-

riencing send issues, so Feinberg IT created a

Self-Service Group or distribution list, which is

managed by a tool called Cayosoft; It should be

maintained to continue to serve as a backup.

Northwestern University IT ﬁnds distribution lists

more appropriate for communication among

members of the Northwestern community. List-

servs are typically reserved for communications

with a mix of internal and external subscribers.

BSA Listserv Guide

CAYOSOFT LOGIN AND GROUP DETAILS

Direct Login to Cayosoft Dashboard (login with

your NetID and password)

Cayosoft Knowledge Base

Group Details:

Name: FSM Biochemistry

Group name: DL_FSM_BIO_CHEM

Email: BIOCHEM-ALL@northwestern.edu

Managers:

Yesenia Navarro

Matt Temkin

Colleen De Luca

Beverly Kirk

Cayosoft Listserv ‘How-To’

1. From the “Self-Service” group management dashboard, select “My AD Groups.”

Cayosoft Listserv Platform

12Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

BSA Listserv Guide

2. Select FSM Biochemistry, which highlights the “Actions” menu on the right-hand side.

3. Select “Membership” from “Actions” menu

4. Add a new member by entering their NetID or email address in the “Find” search bar and then click

“+Add” button – this will open the “Modify Membership on (FSM Biochemistry)” screen

5. Remove an existing member by searching for them either by NetID, email address or name, selecting

the person within the list, and click “Remove Members” button

6. Important: When add/remove actions are done, click blue “Update” button at the bottom of the

“Modify Membership on (FSM Biochemistry)” screen (see screenshot below)

Per, Dr. Shilatifard, only faculty can send emails to the BIOCHEM-ALL listserv.

13Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

HTML email templates using the Feinberg brand

are used for ofﬁcial announcements and events

by basic science academic departments, insti-

tutes, centers and cores.

HTML Templates

Templates for HTML emails are hosted on the

BSA bulk email host drive (\\bsa.fsm.northwest-

ern.edu\bsa > html-templates).

HTML Email

Adobe Dreamweaver

Adobe Dreamweaver, part of the Adobe Creative

Cloud (CC) suite, is the program used to edit

HTML templates. Feinberg IT can install Adobe

CC on your computer if it was not downloaded

during your employee onboarding. Then, you can

download Dreamweaver.

Dreamweaver allows you to view the stylized

template and the HTML code at the same time

(see Figure 3).

If your workspace does not already have a split

view, you can adjust this setting by clicking

BEST PRACTICE

It is recommended that you copy

and paste all ﬁnal content into

Dreamweaver, as there is no spell

or punctuation checks integrated

into the platform.

Figure 3: Adobe Dreamweaver, split screen view

“View” > “Split Vertically” from the top menu. You

can work on the side that you feel most com-

fortable using.

14Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

HTML Email

HTML Code Cheat Sheet

• Hyperlinks should be underlined and blue for

visibility and readability. Existing Feinberg

templates should already have this update

incorporated into the HTML code. However,

should you need to update this in a ﬁle, you

will need to update the unvisited and visited

link color to #0056b3 (line item 15 and 21 in

the example below).

Frequently used (replace RED text with your

content):

• Underline <u>TEXT</u>

• Bold <strong>TEXT<strong>

• Italicize <em>TEXT</em>

• To manually embed a link <a href=”https://

LINK.com”>TEXT</a>

• To change the color of a font, search for the

HEX color via Google, or another preferred

site.

• Northwestern purple HEX color: #514689

• Northwestern grey HEX color: #748283

• To add bullets (ﬁve bullets in sample HTML

code below; each bullet begins with a <tr>

tag and ends with a </tr> tag):

<table style="margin-left: 25px; margin-right:

25px; font-family: Calibri,Trebuchet,Ari-

al,sans-serif; color: #54585A; margin-top: 4px;"

border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">

<tr>

<td valign="top">•</td><td style="pad-

ding-left: 8px;font-size: 16px;">Bullet 1</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td valign="top">•</td><td style="pad-

ding-left: 8px;font-size: 16px;">Bullet 2</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td valign="top">•</td><td style="pad-

ding-left: 8px;font-size: 16px;">Bullet 3</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td valign="top">•</td><td style="pad-

ding-left: 8px;font-size: 16px;">Bullet 4</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td valign="top">•</td><td style="pad-

ding-left: 8px;font-size: 16px;">Bullet 5</td>

</tr>

</table>

15Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Image and Document Network

Drive for HTML Emails

Feinberg IT grants access to the BSA bulk email

network drive; Contact Yesenia Navarro to fa-

cilitate access. Once you have access, the drive

can be retrieved via the following information:

• PC instructions for mapping drive and path:

\\bsa.fsm.northwestern.edu\bsa

• Mac instructions for mapping drive and

path: smb://bsa.fsm.northwestern.edu/bsa

Image and Document Host Drive Cheat

Sheet

The primary function of the BSA bulk email net-

work drive is to host additional images and doc-

uments that are not already part of the HTML

template. Guidance on how to use the drive is

detailed below:

URL for images – The root hyperlink to the drive

is: https://bsa.fsm.northwestern.edu/images/

[FILE-NAME].[FILE-TYPE=jpg or png]

• You will ﬁnd placeholder images already

embedded in the templates designed with

headshots. In the code view, you will just

need to update the red text with the name

of your ﬁle and ﬁle type if the image is not a

‘png’: <img src=https://bsa.fsm.northwestern.

edu/images/placeholder-150x150.png alt="-

headshot">

• File names should have no spaces; use hy-

phens to separate words/names, if needed

Image size

• Ideally, images should be no larger than 250

pixels wide.

• You can resize images using Adobe Photo-

shop, Photoshop Express or another pre-

ferred method.

HTML Email

Other things to note:

• There are other folders in addition to the im-

ages folder in the host drive including tem-

plates, pdfs and email. Please make sure you

are dropping your ﬁles in the correct folders

because it will impact the URL structure that

is used in the HTML ﬁle.

• Template folder: All Feinberg branded tem-

plates are located in the host drive for your

convenience. (I also have them in One-

Drive; all updates and new templates will be

dropped in both places).

• PDF folder: If you plan to hyperlink to a PDF

document in an announcement, you can also

use the drive for this. Simply add a hyper-

link, as you regularly would in Dreamweaver

and use the following preﬁx: https://bsa.fsm.

northwestern.edu/pdf/[FILE-NAME].pdf

• Email folder: HTML ﬁles for emails can also

be stored in the network drive. For example,

BSA uses this option to host HTML emails

linked in our monthly X/Twitter event posts. If

something changes (e.g., a cancellation, time

change, title added, etc.), the existing HTML

ﬁle can be overwritten, and those changes

are live to the post and there is no need to

make corrections or update posts. The link

for this is (red text is the ﬁle name in the

following example): https://bsa.fsm.north-

western.edu/email/2022/May-2022-BSA-

seminars.html

• Please do not delete or overwrite ﬁles that

are not yours. If you think this could become

an issue, create a folder within these existing

folders with department-abbreviated names,

but note that the URL structure will change.

16Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

HTML Email

Inserting HTML Source Code to Outlook

Emails

Once you have ﬁnalized your HTML ﬁle in

Dreamweaver, you will need to import your

source code to Outlook. Instructions on how to

send on a PC are linked here. Mac users simply

need to open the HTML ﬁle in a web browser,

copy it, then paste it in a new Outlook email

window.

BEST PRACTICE

A LWAYS test your links!

17Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Events: Planning and Promotion

PlanIt Purple

PlanIt Purple (PiP) is Northwestern’sweb-based

calendar. It serves as a central database for

events throughout the Northwestern community.

Posting your events to PiP will help publicize your

event as widely as possible and will reduce the

likelihood of event scheduling conﬂicts.

All faculty and staff have access to PiP though

the PiP admin login page, which uses your NetID

and password. You will then be directed to your

dashboard, where can access groups that you

have privileges to. You can create, edit or cancel

an event from this dashboard. Event listings can

be created/updated from a computer, phone or

tablet.

Events that are posted in PiP are automatically

fed to corresponding department websites. You

can also manually add a listing from an external

department group to your feed by scrolling down

to the bottom of the listing and adding it to a

particular group feed (see screenshot below).

Events: Planning and Promotion

To get access to a group, reach out to the group

contact or a group manager to add you as a

co-manager or contributor. If the group contact

is no longer current, you may request access via

the Northwestern IT Service Request Form.

BEST PRACTICE

If an event is cancelled, do not

delete the event in PlanIt Purple.

Instead, edit the listing and check

off “Flag Event as Cancelled,” so

that the cancellation is properly

communicated.

Digital Signage

The medical school has digital signage through-

out its Chicago campus to provide faculty, staff

and students with timely and informative con-

tent, such as news and weather. When you add

your event to PlanIt Purple and submit a request

form, it will also be added to these digital moni-

tor. Generally, the Ofﬁce of Communications has

a one-business-day turnaround for inclusion in

the monitor feed.

Up to three calendar entries may be selected

weekly to appear as full-screen slides. Entries

must meet the following requirements:

• The “Title” ﬁeld must include the speciﬁc

title of the talk.

• Titles should not be in all-caps.

• Titles should not be submitted with “TBA” or

“TBD,” nor with any other incomplete infor-

mation.

• Requests must be submitted two weeks prior

to the event date to allow for production and

approval.

Paper ﬂyers are generally not allowed to be

posted in any foyers or public spaces of Feinberg

buildings unless there is a designated bulletin

board area.

PLANIT PURPLE STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES

Group Administration: Create Groups, Your

Dashboard, Manage Groups, Manage Users

Events: Add Events, Edit Events, Cancel Events,

Delete Events, Share Events

18Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Bulk Email and Listservs

Monthly BSA Seminars Bulk Email

Each month, BSA sends a monthly seminars

email (example linked) with a roundup of all BSA

department, institute and center events to an

all-Feinberg audience. Events published on PiP

are the primary source for content for the events

email, so it is important to keep PiP listings

updated with speaker, title, date, time, location

details, etc., if you are responsible for event co-

ordination for your department. The BSA com-

munications specialist reaches out to all events

coordinators mid-month to update events for

the following month to ensure all information is

up to date.

Bulk Email

Departments may also choose to send a bulk

email for their event if it is hosted in space large

enough to accommodate large audiences (e.g.,

atriums, SQ and Hughes auditoriums) and is

appropriate for a broader Feinberg audience

consisting of any combination of Feinberg facul-

ty, staff, students, McGaw residents and fellows

and/or TGS students. Bulk emails must follow

guidelines set forth by Northwestern University

IT. Additional school-level policies are outlined

on the Ofﬁce of Communications’ Bulk Email

webpage.

Plan for a 72-hour (three business days) turn-

around on the delivery of your message to allow

for the drafting and approval of your email. Re-

quests for bulk email are submitted on the Bulk

Email webpage.

Listservs

All other internal or targeted emails can be sent

via BSA, department, institute or center listservs.

See additional information in the Listservs sec-

tion.

Events: Planning and Promotion

EMS Web App for Event Space

EMS Web App (formerly VEMS) is the space

management system, managed by the Feinberg

Ofﬁce of Finance & Administration, is a portal

that allows you to search for and book space

across the Chicago campus.

If you do not have an EMS account but would

like to reserve space in any of these locations

on the Chicago campus, ﬁll out the associated

request form. Requests will be sent to the re-

spective room coordinators, and you will receive

a conﬁrmation once the request has been pro-

cessed. Please allow up to two business days for

processing. You will also receive a summary email

of your request immediately upon submitting.

If you will be regularly reserving space and need

an EMS account, please complete the VEMS

Web User Info Worksheet and submit it to fsm-

spacerequest@northwestern.edu.

Additional Event Space

If campus space is limited, please see a list of

campus partner contacts who may have space

available to reserve at cost.

On Campus Event Space

• Pritzker School of Law: Tiffany Hanna, tiffa-

ny.hanna@law.northwestern.edu

• Kellogg School of Management - Weiboldt

Hall: Theresa Kleptach, t-kleptach@kellogg.

northwestern.edu

• School of Professional Studies: Sachin Patel,

s-patelk@northwestern.edu

Off Campus – Afﬁliate or preferred vendor

space

Hospital Space

• Prentice and NMH: Roberta Ibarra, confcntr@

nm.org, 312.926.2652

19Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Hotels

• Hyatt Centric: CHIMM-RFP@hyatt.com

• Double Tree (next to campus): Kevin Stein-

buch, Kevin.Steinbuch@Hilton.com (he man-

ages other hotels so mention which one you

are interested in)

Other Conference Space

• 111 S. Wacker Conference space: Stephanie

Tourounjian, 111SWConference@jll.com

(Note: They are unable to sign our event rider,

but the dean’s ofﬁce typically will accept

their contract without it. They also let you

use a caterer of your choice since they don’t

have an in-house caterer.)

• One North Wacker – info@conferencecen-

teratubstower.com

Catering

Northwestern Preferred Catering Contacts

• Compass – Northwestern Dining: Victoria

Caputo, victoria.caputo@compass-usa.com

• Amazing Edibles: Diana Streit, diana@

amazingediblescatering.com, 312.563.1600

• Catered by Design: Tami Henry, tamih@ca-

teredbydesign.com, 847.965.4094 ext. 205

• Catering by Michaels: Katie Free, kfree@

cateringbymichaels.com, 847.213.5010

• Food for Thought: Brian Kiefer, bkiefer@

fftchicago.com, 847.745.5134

• Jewell Events: Katherine Piotrowski, kpi-

otrowski@georgejewell.com, 312.374.8205

• Limelight Catering: Nicole Orlando, norlan-

do@limelightcatering.com, 773.883.3080

BSA-Vetted Non-Preferred Caterers

• ezCater: Jen Hoke, jen.hoke@ezcater.com;

Grubhub style website - visit linked site to

order with a p-card.

• Sazon Chicago: Ursula Adduci, sazonchica-

go@gmail.com, 773.620.2052; must acquire a

contract

Events: Planning and Promotion

Non-Preferred Caterers

Departments that do not use a preferred cater-

er listed above must create a Generic Catering

Agreement with the Ofﬁce of General Council.

• A Catering Agreement is required for each

banquet, reception, private function, or other

formal catering event.

• All catering vendors should sign the Cater-

ing Agreement and generate a Certiﬁcate of

Liability Insurance for the date of the event.

• Departments need to provide the Ofﬁce of

Risk Management with the insurance certiﬁ-

cate prior to the event date.

• All catering vendors should sign the Catering

Agreement, Northwestern Event Rider and

generate a of Certiﬁcate of Liability Insur-

ance for the date of the event.

• Submit to Feinberg Dean’s Ofﬁce for approv-

al – See Feinberg’s Contract Review Process.

Housekeeping must be notiﬁed for any catering

event after-hours or on weekends. Please com-

plete the Housekeeping Event Request Form on

the Catering Resources page and submit it to

Northwestern Facilities at facilities@northwest-

ern.edu.

Each classroom in Lurie has a designated “ca-

tering set-up location.” Catering tables are NOT

provided by Feinberg. If the catering table set up

is the only space required for event catering, no

additional reservation and/or space is needed.

If catering will extend beyond a single table set

up, the appropriate event space (i.e., Ryan Family

Atrium or Potocsnak Family Atrium) should also

be reserved.

The conference rooms in Simpson Querrey Bio-

medical Research Center (SQBRC) have creden-

zas that may be used for catering. Housekeep-

ing is required for all catered events in SQBRC

conference rooms.

20Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Full information on catering and event locations

within Feinberg can be found in the Event and

Atrium Guide.

Source: Ofﬁce of Finance & Administration, Ca-

tering Resources

AV Support

Feinberg IT/AV Support provides support from

7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. If

you need support during those times, the AV

team can arrange for an outside vendor to come

in and provide support at cost or provide you

with extensive training on the AV system.

Request for AV support can be made via this

form.

AV related items such as mobile podiums, pro-

jectors, and extra mics, etc. – particularly for

events taking place in the atrium – are available

upon request. Inquire about available options.

Furniture Moves

Furniture should not be removed from its orig-

inal location within classroom spaces, though

furniture can be reconﬁgured. For furniture

reconﬁguration and removal of the Ryan Family

or Potocsnak Atrium furniture for events, please

complete the Reebie Moving Request Form.

REEBIE will communicate fees associated with

furniture moves upon request and with sufﬁcient

lead time.

Furniture Reservations and

Rentals

Feinberg Furniture Reservations

All furniture reserved from the FSM facilities co-

ordinator must include an EMS reservation ID. All

furniture is reserved on a ﬁrst come, ﬁrst served

basis. Review page 4 of the Feinberg Atriums

and Event Spaces Guidelines for furniture offer-

ings and reservation process information.

FSM Facilities Coordinator: Marian Minicone,

marian.minicone@northwestern.edu, 312-503-

1871

For events with catering, linens and furniture

might be an option through the catering service.

Inquire about this option.

Event Furniture and Supplies (Non-Pre-

ferred) Vendors

In the case that your event is either off cam-

pus or furniture is not available or not offered

by FSM facilities for an on-campus event, you

may need to source a vendor to rent furniture or

other event supplies, such as poster tack boards,

easels, center pieces, linens, etc.

Currently, there are no preferred vendor(s) for

furniture reservations. In some cases, if you are

working with a catering vendor for your event,

they may be able to facilitate or coordinate the

rental of event furniture or supplies at cost.

Below are some vendor options for event furni-

ture and supplies. Please contact the vendor for

cost inquiries.

If you engage with the contacts below, please

ensure that you follow the appropriate contract

review process for non-preferred vendors.

• Marquee Event Rentals: Christine Huerta,

chuerta@marqueerents.com, 708-485-8587

• Indestructo Rental Company, Inc.: Nichole

Scott, nichole@indestructo.com

• Hall’s Party Rentals: info@hallsrental.com,

847-929-2222

Local Hotels

Northwestern has discounted rates for local ho-

tels near the Chicago and Evanston campuses

for guests traveling on behalf of the University.

Find rates on the Hotel Rates page.

• Club Quarters: 75 E. Upper Wacker Dr., Chi-

cago, IL 60611

Events: Planning and Promotion

21Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

• Doubletree Hotel: 300 E. Ohio St., Chica-

go, IL 60611

• Hotel Saint Clair: 162 E. Ontario St., Chica-

go, IL 60611

• Hyatt Centric (formerly Wyndham Chicago):

633 N. St. Clair St., Chicago, IL 60611

• Loews Chicago Hotel: 455 N. Park Dr., Chi-

cago, IL 60611

• MileNorth Hotel (formerly Afﬁnia Hotel): 166

E. Superior St., Chicago, IL 60611

• Omni Hotel: 676 N Michigan Ave., Chicago,

IL 60611

• The Peninsula Hotel: 108 E. Superior St.,

Chicago, IL 60611

• Warwick Allerton Hotel: 701 N. Michigan Ave,

Chicago, IL 60611

BSA Meeting Owl Pro Device

The BSA Meeting Owl Pro is a mobile videocon-

ferencing device. BSA currently owns one unit

that can be reserved for basic science academic

department events and meetings.

Availability can be checked and reservations can

be made via the BSA Owl Device Outlook calen-

dar (instructions to add outlook calendar:

PC instructions | Mac instructions

BSA administrative assistant Keith Davis is the

owner of the Outlook calendar and keeps of the

device in Ward 8-140. To arrange for pick up of

the device, email Keith at k-davis3@northwest-

ern.edu.

Events: Planning and Promotion

22Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Website Development and Maintenance

Department and Center

Website Maintenance

All Feinberg sites are built in Cascade, Fein-

berg’s content management system, hosted on

Feinberg servers and supported by the Ofﬁce of

Communications.

Select department staff have ownership rights

of their department/center sites and may update

it as needed. All existing department and center

websites are otherwise maintained by the BSA

communications specialist, which include up-

dates to page structure, creation of new pages,

updating lab blocks, adding news, announce-

ments, etc.

Cascade Training and Support

If you are a site owner and require assistance

with your site, please contact the BSA commu-

nications specialist (Yesenia Navarro, yesenia.

navarro@northwestern.edu), or to escalate,

please contact the Feinberg Web Team through

their Maintenance/Support Request Form.

To gain access to Cascade, users must be

approved by the BSA communications special-

ist and the Feinberg Web Team and attend a

Cascade training ﬁrst. The Feinberg Web Team

regularly holds training sessions for full-time

employees who have been approved for Cascade

training by both their unit administrator and the

Web Team. To attend training, desired Cascade

users must have their unit administrator caom-

plet an approval form. Limits on the number of

Cascade users per department or unit are set by

the Ofﬁce of Communications.

To start the process of requesting access to a

Cascade department or center site and receiv-

ing Cascade training, contact Yesenia Navarro.

Faculty Lab Site Development

Faculty investigators can build and manage a

laboratory website at no cost via the following

platforms:

Cascade

The Feinberg-branded website template is fully

supported by the Feinberg Ofﬁce of Communi-

cations, hosted on Feinberg servers and utilizes

a content management system called Cascade.

These sites are built by the Feinberg Ofﬁce of

Communications Web Team and the BSA Com-

munications Specialist and maintained by the

PI or a full-time lab staff member. The Ofﬁce of

Communications regularly holds training ses-

sions and offers technical support as needed.

• Before initiating a lab site request, you must

collect all necessary site content before

getting on our project queue. Download a list

of the content requirements. When you have

your site content, contact the BSA Commu-

nications Specialist to request a site.

• Training: A PI or the BSA Communications

Specialist can approve a team member for

Cascade training.

• Request Cascade support.

NUsites

NUsites is a self-service, WordPress installation

hosted on Northwestern servers. Plugins and

themes are limited to ensure maximum secu-

rity and compatibility. These sites are built and

maintained by the PI, a lab staff member or other

support staff. If you do not have experience in

WordPress or with building websites, Cascade

may be a better option.

View NUsites documentation and guides.

To discuss lab site options, please contact BSA

communications specialist Yesenia Navarro.

Website Development and Maintenance

23Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Core Websites

Standalone Feinberg-branded core sites are now

considered legacy sites and will no longer be

made. It is recommended that core sites be built

within the core’s relevant department or center

site, as It is best overall for upkeep and ﬁndabil-

ity. Alternately, cores may choose to host their

sites on NUsites, but they would not have sup-

port from BSA or the Feinberg Ofﬁce of Com-

munications.

Miscellaneous Website

Development Requests

In December 2021, Northwestern Procurement

organized a committee of digital communicators

across several Northwestern schools to build a

diverse collection of qualiﬁed vendors that any

unit at Northwestern may engage for website

development and design. As a result, there is no

need to engage in separate bids – those cho-

sen have a contract in place and have already

agreed to Northwestern’s Terms & Conditions.

Seven ﬁrms were awarded Pre-Qualiﬁed Con-

tracts. See preferred vendor list and navigate to

“Website Design.”

The Feinberg Web Team will continue to en-

gage in the existing web design/project request

process. However, when necessary, they may

share recommended vendors for the creation of

third-party websites such as consortiums and

out-of-scope projects.

For more information, please consult the Fein-

berg Ofﬁce of Communications.

Website Development and Maintenance

24Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Social Media Guidelines

Page Likes / Followers

Be sure to ask others to like/follow your page to

start building your audience. You can email peo-

ple from your department and team, Feinberg

and your professional networks to start building

your audience. (It will take some time!) Like other

related pages or follow related accounts so you

can see other posts to share on your page and

also get ideas for how you want to create and

share your own content.

Post Frequency and Timing

Posting a couple times every week on Facebook

and Instagram and a couple times every day or

every other day on X (formerly Twitter) is recom-

mended. When you are ﬁrst getting started, you

will want to share others’ posts (from Feinberg/

Northwestern and beyond, like relevant news

stories and other studies) if you do not have

that much original content to share.

Images / Graphics / Videos

You also want to use the best-quality images

you can that are sized for web (ideally under

2MB) in the best sizes possible. You don’t want

the ﬁrst thing visitors see on your page to be

a blurry photo. Horizontal/landscape images

work best for posts (ideally a 16:9 aspect ratio).

Through your Northwestern email, you should

have access to an app called Adobe Express to

create graphics and help you size images. You

can even use this app from your smartphone. You

can also use a free online program called Canva

to help with this. Adobe Express is recommend-

ed since the pro version is free for Northwestern

employees. The platform also easily integrates

Feinberg’s brand elements into your designs.

Sharing Links / URLs with

Graphics

If you are using a photo, graphic or video with

a URL to a news story, study, etc.,“shrink” the

URL so you don’t have long, alphabet-soup

URLs bogging down your posts. You can use free

websites such as TinyURL or Bitly (for up to 100

links per month).

Social Media Content

Management

Features among the following content manage-

ment platforms vary, but the primary purpose is

to help you plan and schedule your posts across

platforms.

• X Pro (formerly known as Tweetdeck) (As

of 2023, X no longer offers a free content

management platform. However, you can

still schedule posts, save drafts and review

scheduled posts by using the regular posting

feature from your account.)

• Content Scheduler via Adobe Express (free

for Northwestern users)

• Sprout Social (paid service)

• Hootsuite (paid service)

Social Media Guidelines

25Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Partners and Ampliﬁers

On X

• Feinberg School of Medicine:

@NUFeinbergMed

• Basic Science Administration: @NU_BSA

• Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics:

@NU_BMG_SQE

• Center for Advanced Microscopy & Nikon

Imaging Center: @CAM_NUChicago

• Cell & Developmental Biology: @NU_CDB

• Center for Genetic Medicine:

@NUgeneticmed

• Neuroscience: @Neuroscience_NU

• Identify other campus partners (e.g., depart-

ments, centers) and beyond.

Additional Social Media Guidance

On Instagram

• Feinberg School of Medicine:

@nufeinbergmed

• Center for Advanced Microscopy & Nikon

Imaging Center: @microscopy.nu.cam.nic

• Cell & Developmental Biology: @nu_cdb

On LinkedIn

• Feinberg School of Medicine

• Basic Science Administration

Social Media Guidelines

26Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Additional Tools and Resources

MachForm

MachForm is a form management platform. Any

staff member can be granted permission to cre-

ate forms. Email medweb@northwestern.edu for

access.

If you already have access to MachForm the

administrative panel can be accessed at forms.

feinberg.northwestern.edu/.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Northwestern University's agreement with Adobe

offers the full Adobe Creative Cloud software

suite for use by eligible faculty and staff.

Adobe Express

Adobe Express is an online and mobile design

app, which allows you to easily create social

graphics, infographics, banners, ﬂyers, short vid-

eos, webpages and more. This is a great alterna-

tive to Adobe InDesign and Illustrator for individ-

uals that have little-to-no graphic/web design

experience. The site offers various templates and

custom and standard sizes for common design

needs. Adobe Express also has the capability of

incorporating the medical school’s brand.

To access Adobe Express:

• Select “Login with school account”

• Enter your Northwestern email address >

click “Continue”

• Select “Company or School Account”

• You may be redirected to the Northwestern

Online Passport or SSO. If so, use your NetID

and password, then click “Log in”

Brand

Please reach out to BSA communications spe-

cialist Yesenia Navarro to be invited to access

Feinberg brand assets, including logos, color

palettes and fonts.

Photoshop Express

Photoshop Express allows you to resize photos

quickly and easily in just three steps with stan-

dard and custom image size options.

Adobe Tutorials

Explore the Adobe videos to assist with creative

designs:

• Adobe Express

• Adobe Illustrator

• Adobe InDesign

• Adobe Photoshop

Photo Resizing without

Photoshop

Resize photos without any Photoshop skills.

Mac

• Open image in Preview

• Select “Tools”

• Choose “Adjust Size”

• Action: reduce image resolution, or height

and size > Then save

• Open image in Photos

• Click on the ellipsis button in the menu bar

at top

• Click resize

• Choose from default size options provided >

Then save

Additional Tools and Resources

27Communications and Outreach Guide

Updated August 2024

Revision History

• 1/16/24 - Extended events section with information on furniture reservations/rentals, preferred and

non-preferred vendors for catering, additional campus space (school afﬁliates), hotels, and event

vendor contacts.

• 8/2/24 - Added new vendor (C2 Imaging) for stationery, including electronic letterhead, in the to

the Feinberg Brand and Style Guidelines and Templates section; updated website development

project guidance; new department and center site owners must be approved for training; updated

Social Media Partners and Ampliﬁers section; added a new free social media tool for scheduling

content (Adobe Calendar via Adobe Express).