When an alumni magazine tells stories that matter
By Sharon Aschaiek | January 25, 2023
“My ultimate goal is to someday publish an issue where the only place it says “Sacred Heart University” is on the cover.”
That probably isn’t what you’d expect to hear from an alumni magazine editor. It’s also one of the smartest and most refreshing approaches to higher ed communications that I’ve heard.
Most institutions treat an alumni or community magazine as a marketing and communications vehicle that highlights their innovative research, illustrious faculty, dynamic programs, and accomplished alumni. Some push the marcomm agenda in content more obviously, some more subtly.
At Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, Timothy Deenihan operates on the far end of the subtle side of the spectrum. A freelance writer since 2006,
Deenihan is a skilled storyteller who likes to use his talent to illuminate current issues and timeless themes. After experimenting for a few years with an online version, SHU hired him in May 2019 to breathe new life into the relaunch of the publication’s print version.
“They wanted something that was going to break them out of the mould,” Deenihan says. “I really wanted the curiosity that drives the institution to be the thing that drives the magazine…I am blessed with a high degree of autonomy and trust from the institution.”
Backed by the institution’s leaders—including a president Deenihan says “understands that growth often requires grappling with uncomfortable ideas”—he is given wide latitude to cover deep and sometimes provocative topics in the semi-annual magazine.
Bold topics
The fall 2019 issue included a story advocating for dramatic reform of Catholic Church leadership to save it from dysfunction and moral corrosion. Writer Michael Higgins, the school’s Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought, uses historical Catholic texts to show how only the laity can rejuvenate the institution, writing that “asking the clergy to reform themselves is a self-defeating strategy.”
That’s a bold take for a private Catholic university—and from an editorial perspective, that’s exactly the point. By demonstrating it isn’t afraid to address a complex subject that challenges its own identity, the university is capturing people’s attention and, I think, their respect.
In the spring 2021 edition, a Black social work scholar and prison doula the White director of the university’s Master of Social Work program co-wrote an article probing the personal dynamics of racial discrimination. It asked readers: “Are you a racist or are you an antiracist? What do your actions say?” In the service of advancing social justice, the article explicitly strived to make readers uncomfortable, so they might reflect on their views, actions and complicity.
“To create change, we have to understand how race and racism are woven into the fabric of the world in which we live. Plenty of people who would never consider themselves racist, who abhor the idea of racism in theory, still benefit hugely from the racist foundations of our institutions,” Deenihan recalls. “If you’re willing to accept that, you need to ask yourself why and what that means. It’s hard to hear and a lot of people may be offended, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.”
Strong team
Deenihan produces the magazine with an executive editor who is also the university’s executive director of communications, a creative director and an art director. They outsource some of the work to illustrators, photographers and writers. Working remotely on the publication during the COVID-19 pandemic seriously certainly complicated their process—but as a strong team, they made it happen.
“We’re a team that communicates really well with each other, that is eager to challenge each other,” Deenihan says. He adds that the next challenge for the magazine lies in building it a meaningful presence online (currently, it can only be downloaded as a PDF).
By publishing journalistic stories that are thoughtful, poignant and, at times, push the envelope, Sacred Heart University Magazine has distinguished itself as an alumni magazine that is worth reading. And the accolades prove it—it has earned multiple Educational Advertising Awards, including gold for external publication in 2022, and a 2021 Council for Advancement and Support of Education award for column or opinion writing. That one was for a fall 2020 story Deenihan wrote on the importance of belonging and community during a time in the U.S. marked by political dividedness and pandemic-induced isolation.
“I think it shows a sign of confidence that we don’t always need to be talking about ourselves, where we’re asking bigger questions about the nature of the world,” he says. “That, to me, is what a university is, and does, and should be, and the magazine should exemplify that. We don’t need to keep patting ourselves on the back or reassuring ourselves that that we’re worthwhile. We’re just doing the work. And the work proves itself right.”