Western Washington University, with over 16,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students, and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands, and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western is the highest-ranking public, master's-granting university in the Pacific Northwest, according to the 2022 U.S. News & World Report rankings.
About the Department
The Admissions Department supports Western's mission, which states that together with our students, staff, and faculty, we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity.
About the Position
As a key team member on the Admissions Communication Team in the Undergraduate Office of Admissions (Admissions), this position supports the recruitment and enrollment efforts of the university by providing students and families with a high-quality experience on the university website and other digital communications. They support this effort by designing and creating web pages, web components, CRM forms and portals (including the Application for Admissions and Scholarships, and Admissions portals for applicants and admitted students), HTML emails and other relevant consultation and documentation of IT App development processes and procedures.
The Admissions Communications team is responsible for creating, coordinating, and distributing all multi-channel marketing campaigns (web, email, print, texting, social media, etc.). The team coordinates with others within Admissions, with other offices in the Division of Enrollment and Student Services, and with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) across campus to ensure that the information in all Admissions communications is up to date and distributed on time.
The Admissions team communicates with prospective students and their families, staff, and the public about academic programs, student life, and undergraduate admission procedures at Western Washington University. Admissions have six distinct phases to fulfill annual enrollment goals set by the university that range from outreach to students who haven’t expressed an interest in Western, to encouraging admitted students and students who have confirmed their enrollment.
Required Qualifications
Full qualification and experience in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and CSS preprocessors.
Extensive knowledge of configuring and managing content management systems, such as Drupal or WordPress
Demonstrated success with UX/UI Design: wireframes, layout, prototyping, etc., and using current industry design and prototyping tools
3 years of experience communicating technical concepts for a non-technical audience
1 year of experience with version control systems, preferably Git, and command-line interface (CLI)
Demonstrated success developing HTML emails for multiple Email Service Providers
Undergraduate degree or equivalent amount of experience
Preferred Qualifications
Proficiency in using Drupal CMS
Demonstrated success auditing and fixing accessibility issues on websites
Relevant bachelor’s degree (Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, Graphic Design, Computer Science, etc.) from an accredited institution or equivalent employment experience
Practical experience with PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) and/or TWIG templating
Experience working in a communications/marketing environment, particularly in a college or university setting
Familiarity with the admissions funnel and desired outcomes throughout the student lifecycle
