Quarterly Messaging Themes

Lobos share stories every day that demonstrate UNM’s impact on New Mexico and the world—shaping public understanding of UNM’s value, strengthening trust among key audiences, and reinforcing UNM’s role as a driver of opportunity, innovation and statewide progress. This quarterly messaging calendar is designed to coordinate those stories around shared narrative themes, helping to strategically highlight that impact.

By using consistent language and thematic framing, UNM’s marketers and communicators can better align public perception of the University with institutional priorities, outlined in UNM2040. This framework supports clear, consistent communication across audiences and channels, making it easier to present the University with a unified voice.

The calendar provides guidance for marketing and communication staff, as well as University leadership, to plan content—such as stories, advertisements, speeches, and talking points—that reinforces UNM’s values and impact.

How to use this calendar - examples

If you write stories for your school or college, you might prioritize Quarter 2 stories that highlight career outcomes for recent graduates. If you manage department social media accounts, you can save “evergreen” content about sustainability initiatives for Quarter 3.

Stories and social media posts aligned with this calendar are more likely to be shared through institutional accounts and channels, and advertising that reinforces these themes helps strengthen UNM’s role and reputation within the community.

Quarterly Themes

This quarterly cadence allows the University to focus messaging for greater depth and repetition, while aligning storytelling with academic milestones, civic moments and the rhythms of campus life.

These themes are intentionally broad to encourage units, schools and colleges to map their own priorities, initiatives and stories to the framework in ways that reflect their unique work while contributing to a shared University narrative.

Each theme includes pillars, provided to help focus content selection and storytelling.

Quarter 1 (January – March): Statewide Impact

Theme Pillars:

  • Economic Impact
  • Health of New Mexico
  • Access & Affordability
  • Workforce Development
  • New Mexico Research Impact

Quarter 2 (April – June): Excellence & Outcomes

Theme Pillars:

  • Student Success
  • Academic Excellence
  • Career Outcomes
  • Faculty & Research Achievement

Quarter 3 (July – September): Community & Belonging

Theme Pillars:

  • Student Experience
  • Lobo Pride
  • New Mexico Culture
  • Community Engagement
  • Sustainability

Quarter 4 (October – December): Discovery & Innovation

Theme Pillars:

  • Research
  • Collaborations
  • Future Impact
  • Driving Change