GNP staff report
For ECU it was a rare public display of at least an effort at making progress its months-old agreement with popular YouTuber MrBeast.
It came earlier this year, on March 26, when then-Provost Robin Coger publicly asked teachers across the university to say how they could help create a Creator Workforce Education Program. An online Qualtrics survey was the venue, and it went out that same day.
Twenty people responded, according to survey results. That is 1 percent of the 2,070 faculty members that ECU's University Dashboard counted for the fall semester.
The survey-takers' names were blacked out because they were commingled with “other information that would reveal confidential personnel file information,” said ECU Deputy General Counsel Jenny McKellar.
She added that ECU and its Office of University Counsel and ECU are “conscientious in balancing transparency and public records law with protecting the confidential employment and personal information of its employees.”
The Greenville News Project recently obtained the survey results through a public records request it made in August.
Responses varied on the contributions the survey-takers said they could make to an ECU creator program. Here is a sample of their visions for its curriculum:
- “Brainstorming strategies for creating viral content …; using AI to expedite creative projects …; researching tactical education strategies that transfer into clicks and reshares.”
- “[K]knowledge of how things ‘go viral’; digital folklore … how to be a good podcast guest; how to interview people.”
- “[C]amera-based performance, directing, scriptwriting and storytelling … [and] insights into how AI models [can] generate images and videos.”
- Creating “content for live, immersive performances or online presentations.” And creating “content that would focus on writing and performing humorous content.”
- Survey research and marketing communication.
- Helping “content creators cultivate their leadership capabilities and refine their professional skills.”
- “[P]ractical sessions on resume writing, etiquette in online communication, and oh essential professional skills necessary for success in the creator industry.”
- “Career building (goal setting), identifying mentors, presenting your self [sic] ..., to employer[s].”
- “[U]nderstanding people, their emotions and their motivations … [to] help increase workplace morale and help businesses understand workplace dynamics.”
Whether ECU is considering any of these ideas, it is not saying.
GNP also filed a public records request for any material that might show action on the survey results.
It limited the request to material sent or received by Chancellor Philip Rogers, former Provost Robin Coger, and now-Chief Innovation and Engagement Officer Sharon Paynter. It set the time of the communication from April 30, when the survey closed, to Aug. 16, when the request was filed.
GNP received a short May 16 email thread between Paynter and an unnamed ECU employee who participated in the survey.
The employee was concerned that “Mr. Beast [sic] had searched me on Linked In [sic]” that morning or shortly before. The employee asked, “did ECU provide my name and my specific comments in that survey to Mr. Beast?”
Paynter replied, “ECU has not provided any data from the survey … with anyone outside the university.” She also characterized the creator workforce program as something “we are working on.”
A few months earlier GNP asked Paynter for evidence of progress being made on developing a creator program curriculum.
In her email reply, she referred the news site to ECU’s Nov. 16, 2022, announcement of its “educational partnership” with Greenville’s Jimmy Donaldson, otherwise known as MrBeast. And she attached a copy of a Nov. 15, 2022, nondisclosure agreement that Rogers signed with Donaldson’s company.
The NDA prohibits ECU and the MrBeast company from disclosing any proprietary information they share during their joint work to create a creator program.
GNP also has registered several times this year with ECU to receive email updates on the creator program. It has not received any. As of Dec. 11, 2024, the heading on the two-year-old registration webpage still reads, “Future site of MrBeast/ECU educational partnership.”
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