President Hsu Announces Student Communications Project
President Hsu announces a new project to improve day-to-day communications to students in this letter addressed to faculty and staff.
Dear Faculty and Staff,
As we strive for continuous improvement in our academic and administrative operations, the College is undertaking a comprehensive evaluation of the distribution methods and effectiveness of our day-to-day communications with current students.
The ways in which we communicate with our students, as well as the frequency and visual presentation of these communications, directly impact the student experience and retention. Our students have told us that they receive too many emails from the College, making it difficult for them to absorb and prioritize information.
To that end, I am establishing a campus-wide working group to spearhead a Student Communications Improvement Project. This project supports our Strategic Plan, especially the Student Experience and Success pillar.
The primary goals of this project are:
- To identify the current usage and capabilities of the various platforms and tools we use to communicate with our students, including email, text, platform-specific push notifications, digital display screens, and other methods.
- To better coordinate the flow and frequency of our student communications across campus so that our students can receive the information that is most relevant to them.
- To consolidate student communications on specific technology platforms. For example, campus units currently use several different email marketing tools, including MailChimp, Emma, Constant Contact and others. Not only is this inefficient from a cost standpoint, but it also creates redundant workflows and leads to a lack of consistency in our university branding.
This project is not intended to interfere with the ability of faculty and staff members to communicate directly with students regarding courses, advising, support services and other important matters. However, this project will help the College develop guidelines and best practices around digital communications that will benefit our entire campus community.
This project will be led by the Office of Marketing and Communications in close collaboration with Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Information Technology and other key units. It will be imperative that all units that communicate with students electronically are represented in this working group. In consultation with the Senior Leadership Team, this working group will develop a membership roster and begin its work over the summer.
In the meantime, if you have any questions about this project, please contact Ron Menchaca, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Andrew
Andrew T. Hsu, Ph.D.
President
College of Charleston
