Student Communications Coordinator

Position Overview

The Student Communications Coordinator is a critical position to support the mission and vision of the Centers for Orientation & Academic Advising Programs. The work of this position supports every undergraduate student at the University of Kansas and many graduate level students. This position is responsible for the design, development, and implementation of strategies to communicate events, services, programs and successes to a wide variety of stakeholders including prospective students and their families, current students, faculty, staff, and the KU community. This position is also responsible for the design, development and implementation of strategic communications directly to students to enhance their academic advising experience. Regular responsibilities include working closely with the Executive Director and COAAP leadership team to design and implement strategic communications.

The Centers for Orientation & Academic Advising Programs (COAAP) is a part of the division of Academic Success and is comprised of the Center for Orientation & Transition Programs and Jayhawk Academic Advising.
In addition to a competitive salary, KU offers great benefits to employees with up to 176 hours of paid vacation per year, 8 hours of sick leave earned every month, nine paid holidays plus one discretionary day, a retirement program, medical & dental insurance, life and disability insurance, other benefit plan options and State of Kansas discounts offered by various vendors. KU also offers employees educational and professional development opportunities. KU is a great place to work! The University actively encourages applications from members of underrepresented groups.

Job Description

Strategic Student Communications (40%)

• Work with Jayhawk Academic Advising leadership team to assess the advising communication needs for students and recommend strategies to close critical gaps.
• Develop a comprehensive Student Communications plan and calendar to ensure timely re-enrollment and disseminate key information.
• Leverage a mix of email, Jayhawk GPS messaging and social media to generate student awareness.
• Draft advising communication templates and work directly with assistant directors and advising teams to ensure message use. Ensure communication templates are reflective of student population (undergraduate, graduate, online)
• Assess and summarize communication effectiveness and recommend modifications as needed.
• Create and maintain a student engagement calendar to be used by advising teams with critical points of engagement including satisfactory academic progress, main enrollment and graduation certification. Utilize engagement calendar to create and maintain advising campaign templates.
• Work with assistant director team and leadership team to generate new ideas for student engagement calendar.

Marketing and Communications Support (35%)

• Oversees the social media channels for the Center for Orientation & Transition Programs (OTP) and Jayhawk Academic Advising (JAA) including developing and implementing channel strategies, designing social media content, maintaining social editorial calendar, and managing postings.
• Generates ideas, plans, writes, edits and designs content for a range of communications including email, newsletters, print materials, presentations and websites related to COAAP, Orientation, Exploratory Pathways, and other OTP programs and events.
• Evaluate effectiveness of messaging, channels and execution.
• As needed, support the existing the Orientation communications plan and assist OTP leadership with recommended changes.

Online Identity Development and Maintenance (10%)

• Serve as a liaison to the Academic Success communications and operations team. Ensure COAAP is in compliance with any Academic Success standards.
• Work with Academic Success communications staff to ensure COAAP social media, website and materials follow Academic Success templates and are visually appealing and effective.
• Prepare documents for printing and/or print, finish and assemble small-run publications, including brochures, signs, flyers and other handouts.
• Maintain unit websites, ensure effective site navigation and write, edit and update content to engage and inform site visitors.
• Ensure all website content and linked documents meet ADA standards for accessibility.
• Review and evaluate Google Analytics to assess website effectiveness.

Unit Support (10%)

• Represent Academic Success at University-wide Communicators committee.
• Stays current on trends in communications and marketing.
• Assist with assessment summaries and annual reports for OTP and JAA.
• Serve, as needed, at COAAP events including but not limited to Orientation, Hawk Week, Winter Welcome, Late Night Breakfast, admissions events, etc.
• Create, organize, order and distribute promotional items in support of COAAP events.
• Assist with taking photographs and/or video or arranging for contract or KU Marketing Communications photographers as might be required for events and activities.

Miscellaneous (5%)

• Other duties as assigned by the Executive Director or Office Manager of COAAP.

Required Qualifications

1. Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, English, Communications, Marketing or relevant field. (degree at time of appointment)
2. One year of marketing or communications experience as demonstrated by application materials.
3. One year of strategic communications experience related to student services in a higher education context.
4. Excellent verbal and written communication skills as evidenced by applications materials and interview.
5. Experience using Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

Preferred Qualifications

1. Master’s Degree in a related field.
2. Strong computer skills, preferably with experience with Adobe Creative Suite, web content management systems, and social media platforms.
3. Strong interpersonal communication skills, as demonstrated by application materials and interview process.
4. One year of strategic communications experience related to student services in a higher education context.
5. Experience working collaboratively with diverse populations.
6. Prior work experience that required multi-tasking and managing projects on a tight deadline.

Additional Candidate InstructionsIn addition to the online application, the following documents are required to be considered for this position:A cover letter addressing how required and preferred qualifications are met.

Resume or curriculum vitae.

Contact information for three professional references.

Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Application review begins Tuesday, February 27, 2024 and will continue until a qualified pool of candidates has been identified.Contact Information to ApplicantsLeslie Wilson
lesliewilson@ku.eduAdvertised Salary Range$42,000-$46,000Application Review BeginsTuesday February 27, 2024Anticipated Start DateMonday April 8, 2024Apply to Job