Welcome to a new college department: Web and Digital Strategy

The Web and Digital Strategy Department will be driving grcc.edu’s online presence and evolving our web technologies to remain relevant and responsive to the needs of prospective and current students, GRCC employees and our community.

How is this department different from IT and Communications?

This department works very closely with IT and Communications, but manages the work where the two worlds meet on grcc.edu.

IT continues to drive our infrastructure, network security, and other technologies, while the Web and Digital Strategy Department focuses on evolving grcc.edu’s:

• Content
• Design
• User experience
• Web accessibility
• Web editor training
• Web integrations

The Web and Digital Strategy Department collaborates closely with the Communications Department to develop and maintain brand strategy and messaging across all platforms.

This department reports to the College Advancement Team.

For more information, please contact Leigh Jajuga, Director of Web Content and Digital Strategy.

Celebrate today with Jan Ensing!

Please join us in celebrating the career of Jan Ensing with a reception from 3-5 p.m. Thursday, June 27, at the Raider Grille patio!

Jan is retiring after being a graphic artist at GRCC for nearly 20 years, sharing her artistic talents and attention to detail on projects large and small — all aimed at serving GRCC students, faculty and staff. She will be missed!

Retirement reception on June 27 for Jan Ensing

Please join us in celebrating the career of Jan Ensing with a reception from 3-5 p.m. Thursday, June 27, at the Raider Grille patio!

Jan is retiring after being a graphic artist at GRCC for nearly 20 years, sharing her artistic talents and attention to detail on projects large and small — all aimed at serving GRCC students, faculty and staff. She will be missed!

GRCC students needed for photo shoot

GRCC uses photos of students on the website, on blogs and social media, in recruitment material, and in print, digital and video ads.

We are holding a photo shoot this summer to update our photo library and we need your help! We are looking for all types of students, from all walks of life.

Don’t think you are photoshoot material? Think again! If you are a GRCC student, you are who we are looking for.

The photo shoot, which will take 30 minutes, will be scheduled for some time between June 17 and 20.

Please send your availability to mpowers@grcc.edu ASAP to get your spot!

GRCC In the News, 5-24-19

GRCC’s summer guest student enrollment increasing

May 22, 2019; MLive

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Be our guest!

That’s the message Grand Rapids Community College has been sending to students at other universities and colleges and it’s resulted in an increase in guest student summer enrollment.

PR industry hands out PRoof awards

May 23, 2019; Grand Rapids Business Journal

The region’s public relations industry has recognized the best work over this past year.

… Corporate Social Responsibility Campaigns

Silver – Grand Rapids Community College, “Raising Awareness of New Laptop Vending Machines” campaign

… Reputation/Brand Management

Gold – Grand Rapids Community College for its Ford Fieldhouse Legacy Murals campaign

Consumers Energy, Grand Rapids Public Schools Name Finalists for Seventh Annual Student Art Competition

May 22, 2019; Arizona Republic

Ten Grand Rapids Public Schools students have been selected from a record number of entries in an annual art competition focused on energy-related subjects. The artwork will be on display this fall during Project 1 by ArtPrize through collaboration with the district and Consumers Energy.

… The 10 finalists were judged by a panel of art professionals from Kendall College of Art & Design at Ferris State University, Grand Rapids Community College and Grand Valley State University. The top winner and the winner of a “people’s choice” online contest will be announced Sept. 7 during the opening ceremony of Project 1 by ArtPrize, sponsored by Consumers Energy.

Photos from the 2019 GRCC Employee Appreciation Event

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It was a perfect warm up for the celebration of our graduates on Friday to spend the lunch hour celebrating our employees’ wonderful accomplishments!

Special thanks to everyone whose hard work & dedication made this incredible event possible:

• Creative Dining
• Facilities Department
• Media Technologies
• Human Resources
• Communications Department
• Our Presenters

Congratulations again to our honorees and thank you to those who came out to celebrate with us!

Upgraded digital signs are a new way to tell the GRCC story

The digital signs in buildings across the GRCC campuses have a new look, bringing more information about people and events.

The new presentations go into effect on Monday, Feb. 18, and Tuesday, Feb. 19, and are the result of a collaboration between the Communications and IT departments.

New software allows us to display dynamic, branded content in line with our mission to provide relevant information to our students in innovative ways. You can expect to see institutional events, information, and videos reinforcing to students and employees that GRCC is a welcoming place for our community and beyond.

Events, with some exceptions, that require design from our Graphics department will automatically have a digital sign created for them.

Raider Salute from the M-TEC for a phenomenal team effort during the storm

A Raider Salute from the Tassell M-TEC team:

A special thank you to Elly Bainbridge, Laurie Schaut, Dave Murray, and Klaas Kwant who worked tirelessly to get our video and materials created, printed, produced, and mailed for a national competition – all during a big polar vortex. While many were resting and staying warm, they were working furiously. We are so grateful for your willingness to go above and beyond to make GRCC look great. Thank you!

Communications welcomes Alissa Raddatz

Please join us in welcoming Alissa Raddatz as GRCC’s new lead designer in the Communications Department.

Alissa brings more than 10 years’ experience in higher education design work, including serving as senior graphic designer for Lone Star College in Texas. The Houston college has about 100,000 students and is one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the nation.

Most recently, the Mount Pleasant native has been a graphic designer for Ferris State University, focusing on statewide and online programs and efforts to develop awareness, recruit and retain students, and support online and campus programs.

Alissa’s Ferris office was in GRCC’s Wisner-Bottrall Applied Technology Center. So while it’s a short move for her, we know she’ll take us very far!

Coming soon: New RaiderCards

New security measures pertaining to doors created an opportunity to update the look of RaiderCards and how they’ll be used.

The new design was created with input from students and staff. Photos will be larger, and there is a higher contrast between the color of names and the background, making it easier for the cards to be read.

The new cards will be activated at the start of the Winter 2019 semester. You will need them for parking, point-of-purchase sales and, for staff and faculty, some door access. Watch for details in the weeks ahead about how cards will be distributed.

Updates to grcc.edu

The Communications Department, in partnership with IT, is eager to announce exciting updates to grcc.edu, including:

• A homepage video that captures the spirit of our campus community, academics and athletics.
• Less scrolling. Web content that extends the full width of the page when the right-hand sidebar is left unpopulated.
• Print-friendly webpages. In the past, you may have noticed that printed webpages included the sidebar or other attributes that impeded readability. Now, printed webpages read as easily as documents.

These updates allow us to continue improving the user experience of prospective students, current students, faculty and staff.

If you have any questions, please contact commdept@grcc.edu.

Looking for Experts!

The Communications Department is putting together a list of faculty experts on subject areas that might be of interest to our local media. At various times, reporters contact us for expert commentary on a variety of subjects: politics, health care, the arts, etc. If you have an expertise that you’d be willing to share with the public, please send an email to lchesley@grcc.edu, and she will compile a list for Communications to use when they are contacted.

Communications welcomes Leigh Jajuga

The Communications Team is excited to welcome Leigh Jajuga back to GRCC in the role of web content manager! Leigh will be leading efforts to develop creative web content marketing strategies that support our institution’s goals for enrollment and retention. She is to eager to collaborate with our campus community and partners to develop compelling web experiences that tell the stories and successes of our college.

Welcome back, Leigh!

Do you know what this is?

Do you know what this is?

Joe Z. has come across this item – it has “Grand Rapids Community College” on it and no other identifying information – and is curious to learn more about it. It’s roughly the size of a disc for disc golf. If you know what it is, email communications@grcc.edu, and we’ll pass the information along.

Website to migrate to Drupal 8

On Sunday, Feb. 4, the website development team will migrate to Drupal 8. While this technical upgrade is taking place, web editor access will be temporarily restricted on Feb. 3 and 4.

This upgrade is intended to offer more tools to web editors and provide more possibilities in upcoming website redesign efforts.

In addition to the new tools provided for web editors, all users will see a slight tweak in the font and appearance of our left-hand sidebar navigation menus. This change is intended to give users a clean presentation that is easy to navigate.

There will be two Drupal training opportunities offered this month through Staff Development.

 

Please contact webteam@grcc.edu if you have any questions.