Student Affairs Communications Group Minutes
May 1, 2013
Attendance: Kami Hammerschmith, Kent Sumner, Wendy Little, Ann Robinson, Jen
Busick Stewart, Jennifer Still, Colleen Schlonga, Annie Heck, Jennifer Viña, Megan
Full, Natalie Moser, Nancy Raskauskas, Chris Gates, Laura Shields, Melody Oldfield,
Blake Vawter, Larry Roper
Next meeting of the Student Affairs Communications Group will be Wednesday, May
15, 2013, 9 a.m.-10:30 a.m., MU Council Room. Topic: David Baker, Drupal Updates.
Project management systems being used by those in the SA Communications Group.
Today
Student Affairs Director of Strategic Communications & Marketing at U of O Rita
Radostitz and Director of Marketing for Housing at U of O Lauren Miller visited our
meeting. Rita said she was thrilled we invited them and trying to figure it out, too.
She said she admires the way we do things centralized here.
Student Affairs has only been a Division at U of O for about six years. There are eight
departments and some functional directors across the Division. Rita has been on
the job for four months.
Rita said they don’t know how to move forward until they know what their assets
are. They are creating an asset map of communication staff/students, hardware,
software, etc for the Division. Once they know what they have, then they can ask
what they want? They know there is a need for a photographer, probably shared
across the Division.
She is creating a centralized resource center for those departments without
marketing departments in her office. She sees herself as a consultant rather than the
person who will do all the marketing.
Lauren said at her previous institution they had a person that all the marketing ran
through to approve style and see what departments are marketing. She said it
improved the value of what was produced (same messaging, imaging, etc.).
When creating a new position, you need the expectations to be clear in advance.
Expectations may vary between administration and marketing personnel.
Rita said managing expectations has been a great first step. Both strategic
communications and marketing are in her title, but they are two different jobs and
skill sets. She would like one to be prioritized.
Lauren said University of Arizona is going through a similar transition. UC Davis
also. North Carolina has a similar model, but it is masked under their Union.
Rita said U of O has no university-wide marketing. They do have a Department of
Communications and a brand style guide. She is developing a communication
protocol and style guide for Student Affairs.
Her first project is working to get the Division websites more consistent.
Lauren said they are trying to be the glue between Admissions and Alumni. Lauren
has been at U of O since July 2012. She has worked to clean up consistency of brand
and develop style guides for University Housing and Dining.
Rita said she didn’t know Student Affairs existed even after growing up in Eugene,
graduating from U of O and working in five different University departments.
She said the Student Affairs staff should know they are part of a bigger picture.
Students don’t really care about “Student Affairs” as long as they are able to find
answers to their questions and get their needs met. Lauren said you don’t need to
know they are a Division, but you need to see them as connected and working
together. Rita said they do it really well, but don’t communicate it.
U of O Career Services works with the Alumni Center, but not broadened out to the
rest of the Division.
There is not a lot of coordination yet with Research and Assessment as that
department is one person with no staff. Communications has not been particularly
data driven yet, because Rita is new.
Lauren is creating a document stating all the marketing opportunities within the
Division. Social media overlaps with Division partners.
Rita asked how centralized marketing impacts Division marketing at OSU? Melody
talked about OSU’s integrated marketing plan.
U of O has an e-newsletter called Around the O with an interactive website. They
have messaging partners who have a header over their stories with links to the
partner website showing all their stories. Rita is trying to setup Student Affairs as a
messaging partner. At the end of the week, they have a communications email that
shares the top 12 stories of the week from the e-newsletter.
Rita wants to see consistency with lots of flexibility. She said website analytics show
a lot.
Larry Roper has committed to fund a position next year in conjunction with
University Relations and Marketing to focus on Student Affairs Communications and
Marketing.