Guidance for Departments on Marketing, Media and Public Relations, and Outreach

Collaborate with COLA’s marketing delegate. 

Departments must collaborate with COLA’s marketing delegate on any marketing communications for audiences including: 

• Prospective and Newly Admitted Students
• High School Counselors
• Community Organizations
• Corporations
• RIT Alumni
• RIT Senior Leadership
• COLA National Council
• RIT Advancement Contacts
• Friends or Financial Supporters of the University
• Other external (e.g. not current students, faculty, and staff) audiences 

To initiate a marketing project or task aimed at these audiences, email COLA's marketing delegate to share details and schedule a kick off meeting if needed.

Depending on the scope of a project, its goals, and its audiences, collaboration could be as simple as an email exchange or as multifaceted as those requiring formal project briefs, budget determinations, stakeholder feedback, and more. 

Lead time for completion will vary depending on the complexity of the marketing request and the volume and strategic prioritization of marketing projects already in the queue. 

For events and activities, departments may market independently, using templates and following RIT brand guidelines.

To promote events and activities, departments can independently create and deploy marketing efforts for which the target audience is current RIT students. Materials must adhere to RIT branding guidelines and content creators should use either the templates available at the RIT brand portal or COLA templates available in Canva. Costs for design and production of materials are covered by the department. 

The RIT Brand Portal is a toolkit that anyone can access when creating marketing and communications materials. It includes in-depth guidance and resources such as: 

• Colors
• Photography
• Editorial Style
• Fonts and Typography Styles: Neue Haas Grotesk, Milo Serif, Arial, Georgia
• RIT Print (InDesign) and Presentation (PPT) Templates 
• RIT lockups

Additionally, the College of Liberal Arts has a library of branded templates ready for your use in the easy-to-use design tool, Canva. Login access is required. You can request login info and an orientation to Canva from Kim Walters. 

• COLA Canva Templates (login info will be needed, request from Kim Walters). 

Materials that are not properly branded may be flagged for discontinued use and disposal. When in doubt, please consult with Kim Walters. 

For efforts aimed at marketing enrollment in COLA degree programs to RIT’s current students.

Departments and faculty should partner with Heather Roth and Kim Walters.

Follow the process, collaborate with COLA Event Manager.

The first and most important step to promoting events is submitting them to the RIT campus wide event calendar. All RIT faculty and staff can do this. 

This step sets off a series of workflows that can amplify the news of your event, such as: 

• The RIT News and Events email sent three times per week during the semester by RIT University Communications to a list of nearly 25,000 subscribers.
• The RIT Events email sent weekly by Student Affairs. 
• Digital posters for displays campus wide. Created by Student Affairs and distributed to all “display delegates" to post in their buildings. 
• “This Week” social media postings on the RIT Student Life social media channels like Instagram, for example, which has nearly 10,000 followers. 
• “This Week at COLA” email sent to COLA faculty, staff, current students, and subscribers. Any COLA event that is published as of the end of day Tuesdays will be published in the COLA weekly newsletter, “This week at COLA,” which is sent on Sunday evenings. 
• “This Week at COLA” posts to COLA’s Instagram and Facebook channel featuring a weekly round-up of upcoming events. 

Once submitted to the event calendar, events are then reviewed and published by their college’s event stewards. Event stewards are responsible for tagging events with colleges/divisions, departments/schools, programs, and other keywords to publish the event to the appropriate RIT web pages in order to reach the intended audiences. 

Kerri Johnson, COLA’s event manager, oversees this workflow process. More info at the COLA Faculty and Staff Resources page and in this step-by-step guide. 

Any COLA event that is published as of the end of day Tuesdays will be published in the upcoming COLA weekly newsletter, “This week at COLA,” which is sent on Sunday evenings to all COLA faculty, staff, and students. It will also be included in the weekly events round-up posting COLA Instagram and Facebook. 

Kim Walters manages some aspects of event marketing for selected Dean’s office initiatives, such as the McKenzie Salon Series and the Center for Worldbuilding and Storytelling. 

COLA departments that have social media presence may also independently promote their events on their channels. Content published on department level channels should align with RIT’s brand standards. (See “Marketing to Current Students” for more information and resources.)  

Collaborate with COLA’s marketing delegate and/or University News representative.

Departments must collaborate with COLA’s marketing and communications delegate Kim Walters on any efforts aimed at publicity or coverage by the news media. COLA’s University News beat reporter is Felicia Swartzenberg, who partners with us to pitch and publish news stories that align with the RIT and COLA marketing communications strategy. 

If a media organization contacts you directly for comment or input, reach out to Kim Walters and Felicia Swartzenberg first. Felicia and Kim can make you aware of important context before you speak with a reporter, such as if there have been previous interactions with the media outlet, recent related news stories, or potentially incendiary topics. Felicia can also give you tips for how to best feature you, your expertise, and/or RIT.

RIT strategic vision for University Communications >

Notify University Communications and RIT Public Safety as needed.
Understand RIT policies on free speech/expression and academic freedom. 

If you observe events or concerning developments that may escalate to gain media attention, contact University Communications leadership members Bob Finnerty, associate vice president of University Communications, and Carl Langsenkamp, director of public information and internal communications. 

The intent of bringing others into the situation is to allow our RIT team to be aware and ready to respond should media inquiries occur. RIT recognizes and respects the importance of freedom of expression. Your advanced information to the Marketing and Communications teams helps us understand a situation and speak to RIT's commitment in that context effectively.

For Immediate Threats to Safety: 

If you feel threatened or fear for your safety, contact RIT Public Safety immediately:

• Phone: 585-475-3333
• Text: 585-205-8333
• Confidential Tip Line

RIT Emergency Information and Management

Detailed information about how RIT responds to and manages crises such as external disasters, weather related closings, emergency plans and actions, and more can be found at the RIT Emergency Information website. 

• RIT Emergency Information > 

Social Media During a Crisis

RIT's multifaceted communications approach for reaching the campus community during times of crisis includes social media. 

• RIT Guidelines for Social Media During a Crisis > 

Freedom of Speech and Expression and Academic Freedom: 

• RIT university policy regarding Freedom of Speech and Expression >
• RIT university policy regarding Principles of Academic Freedom (applies to all members of the RIT faculty) > 

Anyone may submit.

Anyone may independently submit news for RIT Newsmakers. Newsmakers are a quick and easy way to acknowledge the professional and academic accomplishments of RIT students, faculty, and staff. This may include publishing an article in a scholarly journal, presenting research at a conference, serving on a panel discussion, earning a scholarship, or winning an award. 

Newsmakers appear in the RIT News and Events email and are published as web pages that are linked to the "In the News" section on faculty/staff directory profile pages.

Collaborate with COLA’s University Communications representative. 

The Conversation is a nonprofit, independent news organization dedicated to “unlocking the knowledge of experts for the public good.” They publish explanatory and informative articles written by academic experts for the general public. Their journalists may edit the articles, but content and expertise originates with academics. Many RIT faculty have written for The Conversation and then seen their articles get picked up by more well-known outlets like The Washington Post, Salon.com, and CNN. 

​​Participation in The Conversation is open to all RIT faculty and staff. Ph.D. students can write about their dissertation subject or co-author a piece more broadly in their field with a faculty or research mentor. 

Contact your University Communications representative, Felicia Swartzenberg, for more information. More about writing for The Conversation >

Collaborate with COLA’s outreach and recruitment assistant director. 

Departments must collaborate with COLA’s Assistant Director of Outreach and Recruitment Heather Roth on any outreach effort aimed at enrolling new students at RIT or encouraging current RIT students to enroll in a COLA undergraduate major or graduate program. 

Heather will collaborate with you to identify goals, enlist the help of the appropriate campus partners, and organize an executable plan. 

All communications to prospective students, especially prospective undergraduate students, must be channeled through Enrollment Management to ensure our messages are coordinated with the many outreach efforts they are already undertaking.

Collaborate with the Dean’s Office and COLA partners in University Advancement.

Departments must collaborate with the Dean’s Office and its partners in University Advancement for any outreach aimed at alumni. For example, this may include crafting a communication for alumni and sharing it with the University Advancement marketing team for distribution to a specific group of alumni or partnering with University Advancement to connect with alumni in relevant careers who can come speak in your class. 

Creating engagement opportunities for alumni can benefit us all, but efforts must be coordinated in close collaboration with the University Advancement team. 

Of additional note, the COLA’s Dean’s Newsletter, emailed several times during the academic year, is also shared with RIT’s University Advancement team for distribution to COLA alumni. 

The RIT University Advancement representative who supports COLA’s alumni engagement is:   

Matthew Taylor, Director Alumni and Constituent Engagement
Development | University Advancement
mstuadv@rit.edu | 585-475-3160

Collaborate with the Dean’s Office and COLA’s partners in University Advancement.

Departments must collaborate with the Dean’s Office and its partners (e.g. University Advancement) for any outreach aimed at raising funds for the department, its students, or the university. 

Ideas for opportunities are always welcome. Intentional collaboration with University Advancement ensures that our messages align with the many outreach efforts underway at any given time and enhances the success of our efforts. 

The RIT University Advancement representative who supports COLA is:   

Jennifer Tufano
Associate Director of Advancement
Development | University Advancement
jgtuadv@rit.edu | 585-475-5911

Departments may independently manage their own social media channels following RIT’s Social Media Guidelines and taking advantage of branded templates. 

College of Liberal Arts social media channels—Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn— are a component of its overall marketing and communications strategy. These channels contribute to public perception of the value and distinction of the liberal arts experience at RIT. 

Content published here aims to strategically, authentically, and equitably represent our disciplines and programs as well as our wide community of driven, committed, and impactful change-makers. Prioritization is placed on content that illustrates or tells the stories of our key value propositions as summarized in our elevator pitch and Guide to Conversations.  

Departments housed within COLA may independently create and manage social media accounts. Departments may promote events, activities, research, career opportunities, and any other experiences or offerings they choose.  

Department managed social media channels should follow RIT’s Social Media Guidelines and take advantage of social media graphic options available at the RIT Brand Portal  or through the College of Liberal Arts Canva account, to which you can request access by contacting Kim Walters. 

Sometimes department-level social media posts are reposted to the COLA channels and to the wider RITtigers channels, depending on how content aligns with goals of our communication and marketing strategy and on the volume of messaging being pushed out on any given day.