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| Marketing candidates to visit in two weeks |
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| Written by By Nate Poppino -Argonaut | ||||||
| Friday, 30 September 2005 | ||||||
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The search for an assistant vice president of marketing and strategic
communications at the University of Idaho may be over soon, as two
candidates have been selected to interview on campus in October. Wendy Shattuck, director of public affairs at Reed College in Portland, Ore., and James Beaver, director of college relations at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., will visit UI Oct. 11 and 12, respectively. William Walker, associate vice president for public affairs at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., was previously a candidate but withdrew his application Thursday. The candidates are competing for the position similar to one left vacant by Bob Hieronymus, who left UI in July to become executive vice president for administration and advancement at New St. Andrews College in Moscow. Hieronymus served as director of communications and marketing. As the assistant vice president position is new, no salary has been set for it yet. When Hieronymus left, he was receiving a salary of $97,344. Each candidate will have a full schedule of meetings with various university offices and groups, along with a presentation for the university community titled, “How You Would Sell the University of Idaho.” Both presentations will be at 4:30 p.m. in the Student Union Building Borah Theater. Kenton Bird, director of UI’s School of Journalism and Mass Media, said the two were picked out of a large pool of applicants. “It was a really hard decision to narrow it down,” he said. “We were just really pleased with the strength and diversity and depth of these three in particular.” The afternoon presentations, Bird said, will allow UI President Tim White and other university members to see what the two have learned about UI, as well as the approaches they would take if they worked here. A hiring decision should be made shortly after the campus visits. “A lot depends on how comfortable the president is with any of the (two), whether he wants to look at more than those (two), or if there is one he feels would be a good spokesman for the university,” Bird said. The hiring process for the position has been quicker than most, with the position first advertised in July and the application phase closed in mid-August. Search committee members, led by associate dean of Graduate Studies Margrit von Braun, quickly reviewed the applications and completed phone interviews with all candidates two weeks ago. “It’s been an accelerated timeline in part because it is such an important position,” Bird said. “The president thought it was important that we fill this position quickly because of the importance of dealing with some of the PR and marketing challenges the university faces.” UI’s marketing situation seems to be incentive for the two candidates. Shattuck, who has worked for California consultant firm Accenture, educational publisher Pearson/Addison Wesley Longman and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., said she would relish the variety of challenges the UI position would provide. “The university has a terrific breath of programs,” she said. “I’m coming most recently from a very small, private liberal arts college. At this point in my career, a university with a healthy, robust graduate program and choices for students is really what attracts me.” Though the position focuses on promoting the university, she said, part of that needs to take place internally. “I think the thrust of the position has to be external … but that does not preclude or lessen the importance of communicating internally with students and faculty,” she said. Beaver, who in addition to his university work founded Chanticleer Inn and Beaver Orchards, both in Oregon, and worked for NBC Radio, said he is currently looking for a change in his life and UI could be that change. “My wife and I have talked about finding a new place,” he said. “Idaho and the inner-Pacific Northwest would be an interesting place to live.” As assistant vice president, he said, he would “protect the brand” of the university and focus on coordinating all the communications and marketing originating from within UI. “It becomes the role of the chief marketing and communications person to coordinate that decentralized activity in a way that is effective,” he said. He agreed that students need to be informed of university events, as they act as one of the institution’s marketing tools. “When freshmen go back home for Christmas break and talk to their friends in their hometown, you would hope they are telling the right story — and it’s a positive story — so then the friends apply.” Though both candidates said they are still learning about UI, Beaver said he is somewhat familiar with Moscow, as he used to have an uncle and cousin who lived in the town. Both said they are enthusiastically learning what they can before they tour the campus. “UI is something that I think, in Oregon and California, people just don’t know more about. Part of my role is to change that,” Shattuck said. “I think it’s a treasure there in the state that needs to be discussed more.”  Add as favorites (19) | Views: 557
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