Policies & Procedures

Working with Strategic Communications

Strategic Communications (formerly known as External Relations) engages with faculty, staff, and students to articulate the mission of Cornell Tech and the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute.

As stewards of Cornell Tech’s primary communication platforms, including web and social media channels, Strategic Communications directly supports the campus’s priorities and initiatives.

Strategic Communications oversees communications in the following key areas:

Digital Strategy

Strategic Communications oversees the management, development, and overarching strategy for the flagship Cornell Tech website and certain microsites (Urban Tech, K-12, Student Services). Strategic Communications is also available to consult with members of the Cornell Tech community looking to implement other digital platforms on their team (email service provider, CRM, etc.)

Editorial Strategy & Messaging

Cornell Tech’s editorial content strategy is informed by campus priorities and input from the Editorial Board. This strategy is applied to all written content on the Cornell Tech blog, videos, and social media channels.

Branding & Design

As stewards of the Cornell Tech visual brand, Strategic Communications is responsible for overseeing branded merchandise and print collateral.

Public Relations

We engage with an external public relations firm called BerlinRosen as well as working closely with Cornell Media Relations in Ithaca to field incoming press requests as well as strategize and pitch potential stories to media.

Merchandise

All merchandise or “swag” must be approved by Strategic Communications before production begins. To maximize efficiency, we recommend ordering merchandise directly through the Cornell University store.

Design Resources

Brand Website (brand.tech.cornell.edu)

The Cornell Tech brand website provides a high level overview of Cornell Tech’s brand, talking points, design guidelines, templates, and photos.

Templates

Strategic Communications provides templates for common design needs such as:

Presentations
One-pager/flyers
Letterhead
Envelopes
Email Signatures
Business Cards
Shipping Labels
Name Tags

Graphic Design Support

If you have a custom design need, please complete this form for support from the Strategic Communications team. We work with a handful of freelance designers and can manage the project for you, or with you. Depending on the type of project, custom design requires a minimum of 1 business week. Enterprise graphic design projects, with larger project we will evaluate

Design Approval

Please send Cornell Tech branded materials to stratcomms@tech.cornell.edu for approval before distribution.

Website Updating

Minor copy/textual edits
For small changes to copy, changing/updating an image, please email stratcomms@tech.cornell.edu with the information needed

For edits or additions to the “People” section, please submit this form.

Built at Cornell Tech

This page features some of the companies, projects, and technologies built by members of the Cornell Tech community.

Strategic Communications will add items to this page two times a year (winter and summer) and all projects will be approved by a small group of leadership. We are prioritizing projects and companies that have built a technology, digital product or service that addresses a societal need.

Other criteria required to be added to the page:

Must have a website
Must have a logo
Must have at least 1 Cornell Tech-affiliated person on the founding team
Must have approval by leadership

Please contact stratcomms@tech.cornell.edu to submit your project for consideration.

Editorial Content Strategy

Strategic Communications manages all of Cornell Tech’s digital platforms—including social media, web, and multimedia content. Our focus is to establish and communicate Cornell Tech’s brand story both internally and externally, including working with our parent institutions, Cornell and the Technion. We manage our work through a content strategy that is revised yearly based on institutional priorities and input from the Cornell Tech Editorial Board, a group made up of campus leadership that meets quarterly.

To pitch a story idea, please email news@tech.cornell.edu.

Quarterly Content Packages

Each quarter the Strategic Communications will provide a report of relevant content for 4 main campus priority areas. The goal of these “packages” is to surface content that could be helpful to certain departments goals.

Jacobs
Admissions & Enrollment
Research/Faculty
Studio

The Strategic Communications team maintains a library of images for campus use in the Images folder inside the Strategic Communications Toolbox.

Cornell Tech photos used in campus materials, including our parent institutions, Cornell and the Technion, do not require approval from Strategic Communications. Please credit using the information available in the image metadata.

Any photo requests from external partners or organizations must be directed to Strategic Communications (stratcomms@tech.cornell.edu) for approval.

For Cornell University imagery, search Cornell’s digital asset system WIDEN. https://cornell.widencollective.com/

Event Photography

The Strategic Communications team covers the cost of photography for select campus events including Open Studio and Recognition Ceremony. If you would like your event photographed, your department is responsible for hiring a freelance photographer. Strategic Communications has compiled a list of preferred photographers, but you are not required to use them. After your event, please share the photos with Strategic Communications so they can be added to the campus image library.

Photo/Media Release Policy

Outside guests: Outside guests must sign the Cornell media release document, which lives in the Strategic Communications Toolbox. It is the responsibility of the events manager/event lead to have these releases signed.

Media Release Forms: https://cornell.app.box.com/folder/1436750530
Completed waivers should be scanned and added to the ‘Signed Release Forms’ Box folder below:
https://cornell.box.com/s/c40ddr596cx6urga63pq3pts2ihk0smb
For large events where it is not possible to collect releases from each attendee, a sign must be displayed directly next to or on the check-in table. Please also include language in the event invitation

Students: Students are covered by university policy stating that they can be photographed and used in Cornell/Cornell Tech marketing materials. As part of onboarding we should make sure they sign a waiver just to fully cover ourselves.

Faculty: Faculty are not required to sign releases and their photos can be used in marketing materials by Cornell/Cornell Tech. They (like students and staff) must consent to Cornell/Cornell Tech sharing their photo to external/third parties such as media.

Staff: Same as faculty. It is important to note that anyone is invited/allowed to ask not to be in photographs or have a photographer delete a photo taken at the time the photograph is taken.

Primary Contacts

Adam Conner-Simons, Director of Communications, Cornell Tech

BerlinRosen, Cornell Tech’s Public Relations Firm

Procedures

Faculty and staff should direct any inquiries from the media concerning matters such as personnel issues, crisis management, emergencies, Cornell Tech policies and fiscal operations to Strategic Communications.
Faculty, staff and students are welcome to respond directly to media on ordinary, day-to-day matters such as course information, awards, special events, scholarships, publications, etc. However, it would be helpful if the individual(s) could report the inquiry to the appropriate contact above, so we can track the request and add any institution-specific information needed.
For all external commercial activities—for example, faculty members securing funding for their start-up or reaching another milestone, a professor being appointed to an external board, etc.—Cornell Tech, along with our PR firm BerlinRosen, will review the company’s or individual’s media release prior to its distribution. If appropriate, the news will be posted on the Cornell Tech blog and promoted on Cornell Tech’s social media channels. Information about the news should be sent to the above contacts at least one week in advance of the announcement. Please note there may be exceptional cases where we want to promote the news further as it relates to Cornell Tech’s mission, and we will work with you to do so.

For research announcements, Cornell Tech or BerlinRosen may draft a post on the Cornell Tech blog and promote it on Cornell Tech’s social media channels. If appropriate, BerlinRosen will draft a Cornell Tech (or Jacobs Institute)-branded press release and coordinate media requests. Information about the news should be sent to the above contacts at least one week in advance of the announcement.

Faculty Attribution

When interacting with press, please use the following attribution and confirm with the journalist that they have and can use the correct information. If you have any questions or need help speaking with a member of the media, please contact Adam Conner-Simons and BerlinRosen.

If you are part of the faculty of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, you should provide your title as: NAME, TITLE at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech
- If the reporter says the full name is too long, you can shorten to just the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute and cut ‘Cornell Tech’

If you are part of the Cornell Tech faculty, you should provide your title as: NAME, TITLE at Cornell Tech

These titles also apply to any researchers or students working with you.

Cornell Tech Boilerplate

Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.

About Cornell Tech (w/ Jacobs Institute)

Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. The Jacobs Institute, established jointly by Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, embodies the Cornell Tech mission by fostering radical experimentation at the intersection of research, education, and entrepreneurship.

Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute

The Jacobs Institute fosters radical experimentation at the intersection of research, education, and entrepreneurship. Established jointly by Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, our mission is to transform key industries through technological innovation, deep-tech startups, and uniquely skilled talent.

The Jacobs Institute degree programs equip students to take on complex, real-world challenges through interdisciplinary, domain-focused work. Recent PhD graduates work through the Jacobs Runway Startup Postdoctoral Program to apply their knowledge as they lead teams and build companies in industries critical to the 21st century.