Graduate Coordinators
The Office of Communication & Marketing (OCM) is the communication and marketing division for our institution, Graduate Admissions is the official recruiter for all our graduate programs, and Graduate Studies provides support to all our graduate programs and keeps the Graduate Catalog up-to-date. All three of these offices and their staff rely on the academic programs for information necessary for successful marketing, recruitment, and support. Here are some ideas on how academic program coordinators and faculty can support this work:
- Regularly review the catalog, program websites, and print materials to ensure they are up-to-date; alert all 3 of these offices of any errors or needed edits.
- Notify these offices of any changes to the application or program of study and/or accreditation status.
- Alert these offices of newsworthy information about awards/recognitions, student/alumni/faculty achievements, etc.
- Keep these offices abreast of key publications/organizations where ads or articles may be of value.
- Keep these offices abreast of any existing or potential feeder programs, partnership programs, regional/NYS employers, or other connections that may facilitate marketing and recruitment.
- Make sure these offices understand how your program is unique among other programs in the region and/or SUNY system.
- What makes your program valuable to students? Please share your thoughts about career paths, the job market, and other information relevant to how we market your program to prospective students.
Wondering who to contact in these offices?
- For OCM, contact Andrew Bruso, executive director of communication, or John Oles, director of marketing.
- For Graduate Admissions, reach out to the Director of Graduate Admissions, Alana Matuszewski.
- For Graduate Studies, reach out to the Assistant Dean, Vika Shock.
- Join Graduate Admissions at Graduate Fairs, especially in locations where you may have contacts you can visit while there.
- Use your own networks and the networks of your program colleagues to get the word out about your program.
- Reach out to OCM and Graduate Admissions if you need print materials or have an idea for direct marketing to your contacts.
- Leverage your contacts on campuses that do not have Graduate programs in the discipline. Consider visiting a class or classes or hosting an information session/pizza party. Perhaps take along Graduate ambassadors from your program who are alums of the other campus.
- Work with Graduate Studies and Graduate Admissions to develop an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) to facilitate a UG/GR pathway with a partner institution.
- Going to a conference or meeting? Consider staffing a table or taking marketing materials with you to share as appropriate for the event.
- Hosting a big event on campus? Consider publicizing the event to UG students who might be interested in seeing what our GR programs do.
- Invite professional association representatives and alumni to your UG programs to plug GR opportunities and professional pathways.
- Participate in campus Open House events (UG, GR, in person and online).
- Work with Graduate Admissions to create your own recruitment events and outreach – information sessions, Apply Now events, in-person, or online program open house events, Slate messaging, etc. (Keep in mind, the earlier you have events on the calendar, the greater the opportunity for OCM to run social media campaigns to increase attendance!)
- Consider offering workshops, conferences, CEUs or other professional programming that help to spread the word about your program and its opportunities.
- Consider ways to leverage your alumni network to help alumni stay in touch, support your fieldwork and internship experiences, enhance the knowledge and network of your current students, and strengthen awareness of your program and its value to the discipline.
While OCM and Graduate Admissions maintain the GR recruitment webpages and Graduate Studies maintains the graduate catalog, many academic programs and/or their colleges/departments maintain program pages.
- Keep your pages up-to-date and fresh.
- Highlight job opportunities.
- Highlight newsworthy items like student/alumni/faculty awards, recognition, and success.
- Share information about any program awards or recognition.
- Share testimonials and success stories.
- Share exciting research and creative activities of faculty and students.
- Make it personal and experiment with content formats beyond text posts. Use Images, videos, infographics, and stories to capture audience attention and increase engagement.
- Engage students and TAGAs as your social media ambassadors.
- Engage your faculty/staff as social media ambassadors.
