{"title":"Supporting Student Success and Department Reach through Social Media and Branding Strategy","authors":"Erin Kathleen Bahl, Jenny Rissen, John C. Havard","doi":"10.1002/dch.30604","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30604","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the past year, the Kennesaw State University (KSU) English department undertook an ambitious project to enhance our media reach while providing high-impact learning experiences to students. Key features of the project included successfully proposing a faculty administrative role to coordinate this work that is supported with reassigned time and a stipend; hiring student assistants to create content for department outlets; and periodically assessing the effort through media analytics and narrative evaluation of student experiences. The project successfully resulted in enhanced community engagement as well as sustainable internal student employment and internships that enable qualified students to develop career-oriented skill sets and portfolio exhibits. In an era of heightened pressure to increase enrollments and provide students with strong professional outcomes, we believe other departments can benefit from considering how our experience might apply to their needs.</p><p>Given the pressures of the upcoming enrollment cliff, it has become increasingly common for departments to think carefully about their marketing strategies, especially in fields with declining enrollments. Moreover, with increased student, parent, and social expectations for a return on investment, many faculty have developed a broader interest in supporting the career readiness of their students. Indeed, for disciplines whose career outcomes may be unclear to students, these goals are interrelated: Those disciplines bear a greater burden of articulating their value to students. One way to address this challenge is through media storytelling that focuses on student experiences that lead to positive outcomes (Muir and Oliver <span>2021</span>). A recent report from our disciplinary society, the American Departments of English, insisted that “when we place students, their concerns, and their authentic ambitions at the center of our focus, we find that career preparation is not optional or additional to what we do in English departments, it is imperative” (American Departments of English Ad Hoc Committee on English Majors' Career Preparation and Outcomes <span>2024</span>, 3). With this goal of supporting student success in mind, the KSU English social media team regularly highlighted student achievements externally on the department channels as well as emphasized professional development internally in training and mentoring student team members.</p><p>Universities turning to media to engage potential students is not new (Ranta <span>1994</span>), and media strategy should not be the only component of a department's effort to engage its audiences, as physical events such as meetings continue to have their place (Assimkopoulos et al. 2017). However, media highlighting department-level (as opposed to university-level) content has several benefits. It provides department audiences with more personalized engagement with the faculty and students whose work is at the epicenter of ","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"35 2","pages":"9-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/dch.30604","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142316916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enhancing Staff Success in Academic Units","authors":"Susan A. Hildebrandt, Yojanna Cuenca-Carlino","doi":"10.1002/dch.30608","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30608","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"35 2","pages":"19-21"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142316932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Practical Strategies for Former Chairs in the Academic Department","authors":"Butler Cain","doi":"10.1002/dch.30587","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30587","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"35 1","pages":"5-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141441311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Big Bot on Campus: The Perils and Potential of ChatGPT and Other AI","authors":"Jeffrey L. Buller","doi":"10.1002/dch.30601","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30601","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"35 1","pages":"31-32"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141441441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leading through Challenges","authors":"Lesley Brown","doi":"10.1002/dch.30592","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30592","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"35 1","pages":"16-18"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141441439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Brown v. University of Massachusetts Amherst","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/dch.30598","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30598","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Disability</p>","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"35 1","pages":"29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141441360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bility v. University of Pittsburgh et al.","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/dch.30599","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30599","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Title VII</p>","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"35 1","pages":"29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141441361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Change from the Ground Up: The 2.0 Microenterprise Management Model","authors":"Don Chu","doi":"10.1002/dch.30596","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30596","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"35 1","pages":"25-28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141441372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Chair's Role in Fostering Equity, Part 3: Faculty Evaluation","authors":"Susan M. Morgan, Lynn K. Bartels","doi":"10.1002/dch.30586","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30586","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"35 1","pages":"3-5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141441317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Imperfect Progress: The Chair's Role in Navigating Conflicts","authors":"Leda Stawnychko, Ean Tsou","doi":"10.1002/dch.30585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30585","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"35 1","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141441316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}