It’s the time of year when the number of help-wanted listings for communications jobs in schools and colleges starts to explode.

This month alone, HigherEdJobs has posted more than 500 full-time comms jobs at four-year universities. History suggests that the pace will pick up similarly next month for independent schools, on the heels of an unusual fall surge of vacancies.

It’s a good time to revisit your department’s job-posting template, even if you don’t expect to have an opening.

Most importantly, present a clear idea of who you want to hire. An independent school announced recently, for example, that it seeks an assistant director of communications with mid-career experience in writing, social media strategy, website management, creative design, video editing, and photography skills. Oh, and a willingness to work nights and weekends.

Jeepers! How many directors of communications meet such a qualification list?! And, by the way, what salary would such a person justifiably expect?

This sort of kitchen-sink listing — with every duty that an employee might possibly perform, even if only once — is common. It’s also self-defeating: An applicant uncowed by such a description is likely to glean a different idea of the job than was intended.

Instead, your posting should make clear what role the school seeks. If it’s a visual storyteller or a social media specialist, then crisis communications experience is not a needed qualification. If you need a generalist, you don’t need — and can’t afford — an expert in everything; relax the qualifications to “familiarity” or “understanding.”

Once you nail down the vision for your new hire, explain what the job involves. What are the day-to-day responsibilities? What are the most important facets, the most demanding ones? How big is the department? Who is the supervisor?

Titles obscure a lot of these important details. An assistant director’s job at one school differs quite a bit from how others see the role. Be specific and candid: Your openness will allow job-seekers to judge for themselves whether the opportunity works for them.

Finally, recognize that this is an introduction to your school. The posting should reflect your school’s culture, whether that’s traditional or progressive. The more approachable and informative you can make the listing, the better. A lively posting is worth the trouble, and don’t let the lawyers or accountants convince you otherwise.

Don’t-miss clicks

• The National Coalition of Girls’ Schools is rebranding itself, starting in July, as the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools. Executive Director Megan Murphy explains why in this video. (Related: If you’re at an NCGS-member school, you may want to check out the coalition’s deep discount on existing why-a-girls’-school materials.)
• East Coast states have begun easing mask mandates, and a Brooklyn school tried to follow suit, only to be told days later by health officials to give it up. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintain that it’s too early for Americans to remove masks in indoor public places. Education Week offers four questions for educators to consider before scaling back mask requirements.
• Education Week also has a lengthy explainer about cyberattacks — a good complement to last month’s Refill item about the Finalsite outage.
• January’s Refill also highlighted a disagreement between NAIS and educator Paul Rossi. (NAIS claimed copyright over videos recorded at its annual People of Color Conference.) Rossi has now co-authored an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on the POCC presentations, headlined “Inside the Woke Indoctrination Machine.” As the title suggests, the piece is more about values-signaling than stirring a reasoned debate — for instance, Mao and the Red Guards show up late in the op-ed.
• The “woke” boogeyman showed up, too, in this New York Post story, looking at a new logo commissioned by Manhattan’s Collegiate School. The new logo looks really sharp! Well done, Collegiate. (Gosh, is it just coincidental that the Journal and the Post are both owned by News Corp., which is controlled by the same family that owns Fox News?)
• Meanwhile, the Journal and the Post somehow missed this story about Silliman Institute in southeastern Louisiana, which celebrates on the third Monday in January not Martin Luther King Jr. Day but something it calls “Great American Heroes Day.” As the Baton Rouge Advocate notes, Silliman opened in 1966 as a whites-only school.

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