New university marketing director hopes to build on SIUE brand

DYLAN HEMBROUGH reporter

What goes around comes around: SIUE recently hired mass communications alum Kedra Tolson as the university’s new marketing and communications executive director.

Tolson said returning to the university has been part of a rigorous process she underwent in order to get the job. Tolson said she hopes to use skills she learned at SIUE to enhance the university’s visibility in the surrounding communities.

“It’s a good feeling to come back to the place where I learned a lot of the tactics that I used as a mass comm. student,” Tolson said. “It’s nice to come back and help the university grow in Illinois and outside of Illinois academically and strengthen our reputation with the students and parents.”

Tolson described University Marketing as the “communications hub of the university” and said she would be working with a wide variety of other university departments.

“I’ll be working very closely with Dr. Minor on enhancing the visibility of the university … with our advertising marketing, enrollment marketing [and] brand awareness type of things,” Tolson said.

Tolson said the marketing department works closely with other areas of the university in order to keep the disparate parts of the school communicating efficiently with each other and with administration.

“We do all types of different communications projects,” Tolson said. “We also distribute a lot of major publications, like for the alumni association and the foun- dation. We work closely with athletics on a lot of initiatives that they have. We, of course, work with the academic areas and publicize as much as we can about academic areas, faculty and staff and students and all the wonderful things that they’re doing.”

Tolson said she and her team have started preliminary work on a brand campaign for SIUE..

“The first thing the team and I are going to get to work on is working to establish a brand campaign, which speaks to our reputation, which speaks to our awareness in the region about who we are and what we do,” Tolson said.

Tolson said the university’s accomplishments speak for themselves to a degree, but that there is plenty of space to improve upon the school’s image.

“It’s fairly easy for me to brag about the university because

I’m a product of the university and I understand the strengths and values and power of an SIUE education,” Tolson said. “But I think we have room to grow in that area, so I’m going to be working with the team to work on establishing a brand campaign that will hopefully consist of television ads, radio spots, printed materials and such — enough that we get to tell the important story of SIUE.”

Tolson said this new brand campaign requires a lot of thought and research, and could potentially taking up to 6 months.

“Any time you start a brand campaign, you have to do some research, meaning you have to talk to current and prospective students, talk to the community at large, faculty and staff, business leaders [and] alumni,”

Tolson said. “You use the data you have to formulate what your brand platform will be, [and] that’s how you form your talking points. So initially, we will start off on research and consumer insight so we can get real good information on how the community views us.”

Tolson said she is honored to work for the university which taught her, and she hopes to use the skills taught here to help SIUE grow in the years to come.

“I’m excited to become part of the SIUE community and hope that I contribute in a way that really makes us continue to shine,” Tolson said. “I think that I have a story to tell. Being a student who learned my craft – my profession – here at SIUE, to come back is an honor for me, so I hope to do the university proud.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dungeons and Dragons club only played monthly board game nights – but now they’re back with a renewed interest in their namesake.

Ryan McMahon, a fourthyear mass communications major from Collinsville, Illinois, and vice-president of the club, said the club is trying to get events started up again, even though it has existed for many years.

One way they are doing this is by hosting a “try day” on Feb. 16, where DND games will be set up and people can walk in and try them.

If you want that kind of escapism, this is a really good way to do it because … none of us care why you do it,” McMahon said. “As long as everyone’s having fun, you don’t have the pressure of being on stage and it’s just hanging out with friends.”

Drake Stevens, a fifth-year English major from Alton, Illinois, and treasurer of the club, said as a school-sponsored club, they can rent rooms in the Student Success Center or Engineering Building, as well as loan out items they keep in storage. He said after the lockdown, they’re hoping to incorporate more events centered around DND, such as one-shot campaigns that can be finished in one sitting and figurine painting.

“It’s one of those things where people just want to interact, and with Dungeons and Dragons it’s a way to explore your creativity … Dungeons and Dragons is such an open and well-versed game that’s for anyone and everyone, that game can help you explore creativity even if you don’t have skills like singing or art,” Stevens said. “You just need an imagination and a pencil.”

McMahon said the club sets up campaigns through their Discord server, where members can message how many people they’re looking for, the story and the time they’ll play. He said he is usually the dungeon master for three active campaigns at a time, which he said has taught him how to improvise.

He said his favorite moments are when he gets to see his players grow.

“Maybe they come in, play the game and then that’s it, they don’t really interact with other people on our server … over time, we see them start interacting more and more, they show up to sessions a bit earlier, they stay after sessions, hang out a bit longer than normal,” McMahon said.

As a player, McMahon said he learned how to think his actions through because during his first time playing, he didn’t think through an action and it got his character killed.

“I still do things without thinking, but a lot of times I actually give thought to my actions before I just do them,” McMahon said.

Stevens said it’s rewarding to play through a plot and figure out ways to solve issues, as well as great stress relief because you just have to focus on being with your group.

“At the end of the day, Dungeons and Dragons is a game about storytelling and a group of adventurers and heroes,” Stevens said. “You may not even be heroes, but you tell that story through a collaborative effort, and you just work together with people and make an amazing story.”

Stevens said in addition to their try day, they will also continue their monthly board and card game nights. To learn more, find Dungeons and Dragons on Get Involved.