Student Affairs Communications Group Minutes
February 26, 2014
Attendance: Kami Hammerschmith, Kent Sumner, Brianna McNall, Colleen
Schlonga, Wendy Little, Majeed Badizadegan, Michele Ribeiro, Ruth Sterner
Next meeting of the Student Affairs Communications Group will be Wednesday,
March 12, 2014, 9 a.m. -10:30 a.m., MU Council Room. Topic: Branding…what are we
doing at Recreational Sports with Wendy Little, RecSports Marketing Coordinator.
Today
Our scheduled presenter Daniel Newhart, Director of Student Affairs Research,
Evaluation and Planning, was unable to join us. Wendy will try to reschedule him for
spring term.
We held discussions on a few communications topics.
Kent had a meeting with Theresa Hogue in News & Communications and was told
she will now be a Student Affairs beat reporter for internal and external
communications. She is a good person to discuss story ideas with and will take your
information and write a good story.
Kent talked about the hiring process for student graphic designers. Career Services
is looking for one designer, MU & UHDS will hire three designers, Athletics is looking
for two designers, Printing & Mailing two designers, Recreational Sports needs four
designers and KidSpirit is hiring one designer. The online application should be
ready around March 9 and promotion will begin early spring term.
Michele asked about how departments work with multiple designers. Kent said
having a team of designers allows the department to diversify the skill set and
creative styles of designers. Departments also like to hire designers with different
class standing, so the senior designer can mentor/teach the next one and when one
has project/exam conflicts the other designer can hopefully pick up the slack.
Colleen said Student Health Services has two designers. She likes to stagger the days
they work and offers each about 10 hours/week. She often gives them a larger
project they can go back to, as well as the smaller deadline-oriented projects.
Wendy in RecSports said her designers work 11-12 hours/week.
Kent described the hiring process. The hiring departments get all their current
designers together to learn about how to do interviews and develop interview
questions. The current designers interview all applicants with the staff sitting in the
background. It is often two days of half-hour interviews, back-to-back. Then
departments individually bring candidates back in for a second interview. Each
department provides their own job description. All offers are given on the same day
and candidates can decide which job they wish to accept.
The Director of Student Affairs Communications and Marketing position closes on
Friday, Feb. 28. Kent said a week ago there were about 15-16 applicants. Maureen
Cochran in Student Affairs Research, Evaluation and Planning is chairing the search
committee. Their first meeting is tomorrow.
The Student Affairs Assessment Council 2014-15 meeting schedule was set, so Kent
setup the Student Affairs Communications Group meetings for next year. The
meetings will continue to be the opposite Wednesdays.
There was a discussion on summer meetings. It was decided to hold a monthly
meeting on the first Wednesday of each month – Wednesday, July 2 and Wednesday,
August 6. Hopefully we will be able to meet with the new Director of Student Affairs
Communications and Marketing this summer.
It was suggested that Theresa Hogue be invited to a spring meeting to talk about
how we can work with her on Student Affairs stories. The idea of making campus
visits to other marketing communication groups or taking a field trip was discussed.
If you have any ideas of where to visit, please let Wendy know.
Additional topics for future meetings include marketing to international students,
using Adobe Cloud software and conveying the value of marketing when working
with a new director. If you have additional meeting topics you’d like to suggest,
please send them to Wendy.
Wendy mentioned the Strategic Approach to Digital Brand Management online
certificate program being offered by Professional and Continuing Education at
Oregon State.
Colleen mentioned the Video Workshop offered by the IMC Network on Wednesday,
March 26, from 9:30-Noon in Kidder 202. Justin Smith, Multimedia Production
Manager in Interactive Communications, is leading the workshop. If interested,
please RSVP to Justin at justin.smith@oregonstate.edu.
Kent said his understanding is that Central Web Services will be transferring sites to
Drupal 7 this summer. They are encouraging departments to switch to the Doug Fir
theme as it is easier to transfer to Drupal 7. They are also pushing group setups.