Student Communication Specialist (Academic Support Specialist III)

Title: Student Communication Specialist (Academic Support Specialist III)

Salary Range: 47,118.00

Contract Term Length: 12 Months

Standard Hours: 37.5

Work Location: Discretionary Hybrid

FLSA Status: Non-Exempt

College: Gateway Community & Technical College

Campus Location: Gateway Edgewood Campus

Department: Student Support Services

Total Rewards

Gateway Community & Technical College offers a competitive benefits package and an attractive work environment that supports excellence, innovation, and creativity, including:

• Exceptional health care, vision, and dental coverage for you and your family
• Tuition reimbursement/waiver for you, your spouse, and dependents
• 403(b) retirement plan: a 5% employee contribution receives a 10% employer match
• Vacation/Sick Time
• Work-Life Balance
• 9.5 Paid Holidays
• 2 Weeks Institutional Closing Pay (Last 2 weeks of December) for qualifying positions
• Employee Assistance Program

Job Summary

The Communication Specialist supports the college’s student success, retention, and engagement goals by developing and delivering timely, targeted, and student-friendly communications throughout the entire student lifecycle—from applicant to graduate. This role combines strategic messaging, data-informed outreach, and creative storytelling to connect students with resources, deadlines, and opportunities that promote persistence and completion. This role also leverages emerging technologies, including AI-assisted communication tools and centralized knowledge bases, to improve message accuracy, consistency, personalization, and institutional knowledge sharing.

Job Duties:

• Update and manage the student communication calendar
• Partner with the Marketing and Communications team to align student communications with institutional branding, visual standards, and tone.
• Coordinate shared campaigns and messaging to ensure clarity and avoid duplication across audiences.
• Maintain a comprehensive communication calendar that aligns with college-wide enrollment, advising, financial aid, and academic deadlines.
• Coordinate messaging across departments to ensure clear, consistent, and timely outreach to all student populations, including new, returning, transfer, credit-for-prior-learning, English language learners, and dual-credit student.
  
• Create and deliver multi-channel communications
• Write, design, and distribute targeted messages across email, Constant Contact and text that engage students and promote participation.
• Collaborate with the Marketing team to develop student engagement content for social media channels, ensuring consistency with the college’s social media strategy.
  
• Lead coordinated campus-wide campaigns- Collaborate with Admissions, Advising, Financial Aid, Student Success & Engagement, and Academic Affairs to execute unified communication strategies for major initiatives (e.g., registration, FAFSA completion, student events, and graduation).
• Track and evaluate outcomes to improve reach and effectiveness.
  
• Leverage data and AI analytics to enhance communication and retention
• Use analytics and student data to assess campaign impact, identify communication gaps, and refine strategies in support of the college’s Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) goals.
• Utilize AI- assisted analytics and reporting tools to identify trends, improve message timing, and increase relevance.
  
• Manage current and future communication tools and technology and AI-enabled platforms
• Serve as lead user for communication systems such as Signal Vine, Constant Contact, and Anthology Reach and related systems.
• Oversee platform setup, audience segmentation, compliance, and staff training.
• Evaluate and implement AI-supported communication features.
  
• Develop and manage AI-supported communication knowledge bases
  
• Design, organize, and maintain centralized knowledge bases housing approved messaging, templates, FAQs, workflows, and communication standards.
• Ensure content accuracy, accessibility, and alignment with institutional policies.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support scalable and consistent student-facing communications.
  
• Support strategic enrollment, retention, and college-wide goals
• Lead SEM Communication team and assist in developing and implementing communication strategies aligned with Gateway’s Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan and the broader Strategic Plan.
• Ensure all outreach advances institutional priorities-expanding access, improving student success, and strengthening organizational sustainability.
  

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent and 4 to 6 years of relevant experience
  
• Degree in Communication, Marketing or equivalent
  
• High attention to detail, independent, self-motivated, adaptable to fast-paced environments.
  
• Skilled in engaging and supporting students from diverse different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
  
• Professional and courteous communication at all levels, both internally and externally.
  
• Clear verbal and written skills.
  
• Efficiently prioritize and meet deadlines.
  
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Excel, Forms, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Word).
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working at the community college level.
  
• Strategic communication planning
  
• Data informed decision making
  
• Digital marketing and engagement tools such as Signal Vine, Anthology Reach, Constant Contact or other CRM
  
• Writing and Editing expertise
  
• Design and Visual Communication such as Canva, Adobe
  
• Ability to use AI-assisted communication and productivity tools
  
• Knowledge base and content library management experience
  

Additional Skills Requested:

This position will continue to evolve as communication technologies advance and may support pilot initiatives related to AI-enabled student engagement, knowledge management, and communication optimization.