This checklist is from a presentation on what actually belongs in a PR professional’s job description done while vice president for university relations at Carnegie Mellon University.

Does your job description include:

• Building relationships with external and internal audiences, publics and stakeholders?
• Building partnerships with on-campus colleagues?
• Supporting the goals and objectives of your institution?
• Supporting activities that contribute to the institution’s advancement?
• Developing an in-depth knowledge of the “business” of your institution, its primary audiences, publics and stakeholders and the tools and techniques needed to persuade them to act on the institution’s behalf?
• Participating in the “political” life of the campus, understanding your institution’s power structure and responding accordingly?
• Identifying new opportunities and directions?
• Educating the campus community about public relations and changing perceptions of your work?
• Communicating clearly the strategies, goals and objectives of public relations?
• Evaluating how your activities may affect the behavior of your institution’s key constituencies?
• Demonstrating to campus colleagues the value and impact of your work in helping them reach their target constituencies?
• Establishing public relations and communications priorities and eliminating ineffective or low-impact projects or programs?