Do I apply for (nearly) the same job again?

Just go ahead and apply for the newly-posted job the same as any other and pretend Job 1 isn't even in the equation. If they consider you a worthy enough candidate for either position, you will hear from them. I can't see why applying for both would hurt your application in any way.

In all likelihood, the contact name is a fictitious one. Applicants want to send the cover letter to an actual person. There's no upside to the HR person putting there real name out there and there's a lot of downside. I wouldn't sweat that the names are the same. I also wouldn't sweat the lack of contact on Job 1. It could mean: 1 - the job lost funding 2 - they've made an offer internally and won't update the system until the offer is accepted 3 - the hiring manager is on vacation 4 - the HR rep is on vacation 5 - someone on the hiring committee is on vacation 6 - HR is busy getting managers to do year end reviews 7 - they got a ton of resumes 8 - they got very few resumes and are waiting for a larger pool .... 100,001 - they don't like you and wouldn't consider you few any position Don't over think this and rob yourself of a job might enjoy. Apply.

I work at a state university. Last summer my manager asked me to chair a hiring committee for a position in my department. I can tell you a little of what it's like to be on the other side of things, but keep in mind that the rules/policies for my university might be drastically different from the rules for the one you're applying to. 1) Job applications are difficult and time consuming to write and have to be vetted by the HR and Equal Opportunity departments. What happens is people tend to take a similar job description that's already been approved and modify it. I'd guess that's why they look similar, but they might be in completely different departments/focus. 2) There are a small number of people in our HR who handle the intake for all applications. So even though you're sending an application for two jobs to the same person, they might have different Hiring Managers, Hiring Committees, and be in different departments. 3) It took my committee a full month after the search close date to process all the applications and offer interviews. Why? We had to meet and discuss every application, evaluate it against a rubric of job qualifications, and then debate what our minimum standard would be for an interview. Everyone would be notified of what our decision was, but no one was notified until we'd reviewed every application. 4) At no point in the entire process could I consider things that we're in the job description. So even if I knew you were applying to 20 jobs on campus, that's irrelevant to whether I'm offering you an interview or whether my committee would offer you the position. One thing I'd note, and this might just be where I work, but Civil Service positions (union) go through an entirely different process. What I've described above is only for salaried positions. Civil service people have to first pass the civil service exam (given several times a year). When a department needs one of those positions filled the union selects 3 candidates for us based on an internal ranking system. But if you're not already in the civil service system, you won't get the job.

The TL;DR version of my comment: apply to both jobs; don't feel bad if it takes awhile to hear back; I doubt it will hurt your chances.

Apply to both. I used to be a graduate assistant in a university department and I was the contact person for all job applicants up until an offer was extended - I had no official input in whether or not someone was interviewed, hired, rejected, etc. I sorted through resumes, coordinated the hiring committees, scheduled interviews, etc, and most of the people on the committees barely had enough time to scan through their stack of resumes and come to the interviews. Also the actual hiring manager was not even on the interview committee at my university - you might meet him/her at the second interview, but this person was not allowed to be on the first round committees. The process took a long time because of back and forth between the department and campus HR and EEO stuff. My department had to follow any required qualifications in the job description to the T and go through each application to decide which to interview.

My limited experience with university hiring is that they need you to apply for the specific position for which they are hiring, regardless of whether they end up filling both Job 1 and Job 2. So yes, you should go ahead and apply. In your cover letter, I think you could go either way -- I think it would be fine to mention that you also applied to Job 1, but I don't think it would be weird to leave it out. Also, don't be demoralized about the lack of contact -- first of all, jobs are hard to come by, but also, a lot of universities move slow and what seems like an eternity for you may be normal for them.

Absolutely apply to both. I've spent most of my career at companies where people desperately wanted to get a job (any job). It's standard for people to apply multiple times. In fact, if you get interviews for both jobs, you should interview with both hiring managers. Until you're hired, you should be looking out for the best possible fit. There's no shame or problem with multiple applications to the same company or institution. None at all.

yes. definitely apply to both. 26.2 has some good possibilities. Another, which I've seen happen more than once is that the first description was written and then someone internal decided it should be changed, for example to make it a non-unionized position. At this point, the HR department decided that they couldn't modify the existing posting, so they created a new one (and presumably forgot to close the first one).

Apply to as many jobs as you would like to be considered for. Don't bother introducing yourself as a previous applicant unless there's a question about "have you applied to any other posts with us in the last $timeperiod?". Applying is a million miles away from getting invited for interview, which is a million miles away from getting hired. You need to apply for as many suitable posts as you can, as fast as you can.