Bringing the real world to the classroom: A last look at the Hunter College dust-up

In the PR classrooms at Kent State, we like to “make it real.” We use real-world examples in class discussions and real-world clients for class projects. Students create real-world portfolio materials and they operate under real-world deadline pressures. Our faculty are senior professionals who once labored in the real world of public relations.

Part of Kent’s “real” experience is a capstone course called PR Campaigns. For the past 7 years, real-world clients — some of them Fortune 500 companies — have put up real-world money to sponsor the class. In exchange for a $5,000 donation, clients work with student teams who complete to develop a winning PR plan to meet their needs. The students benefit; the client benefits; the profession benefits.

So you can see why the dust-up at Hunter College earlier this month surprised me a bit. How could a class so similar to our own go so wrong? In a nutshell, a class of PR students at Hunter, using $10,000 donated by the Coach handbag company and the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC), launched a clever, albeit deceptive, campaign to fight product knockoffs. It was a challenging project, and I’m certain my own students would have enjoyed working on it.

Profile of a famous blogger!

Damn! Does this mean I’m really famous? Hell, I’ve been thrown off better blogs than this one.

Thank you, Kait Swanson, for such generous treatment of this irascible old fool. And f*&% ‘em if they can’t take a joke!

PR and the ‘chick’ factor: The women of Kent State tell us how to lure men to public relations

I promised to share some of my students’ ideas for attracting men to public relations. All 14 students on this project were women, and all are in their first PR class following the basic “Principles” course.

Duh! Fix the Website. Students learned that our website is first point of contact for most prospects. They also learned that our site does little for those seeking information about the PR major at Kent State. What little info we have there is out of date and hard to find.

Students suggest we create a separate landing page for PR. While we’re at it, they said, give it a masculine look and feel, using colors and typefaces that appeal to men. Insert short video stories on successful PR majors, and make sure plenty of them are men. Students can produce the stories as part of class assignments, thus illustrating the hands-on professional focus of Kent’s program.

After creating the landing page, students suggest we focus on search engine optimization. No sweat. In the fact-finding stage of the project, students learned that KSU has a staff expert on SEO, and guess what? She happens to be a graduate of the PR program. Yeah, she’s a girl.

Publicity? Forget it. Informal research tells us that mainstream journalists would rather write about hemorroids than public relations people (even though both are perceived by journalists as pains in the ass). But seriously, students recommend we not waste resources pitching MSM about “men in PR.” No matter how you twist it, the story has little news value and little potential impact. Go direct.

PR and the ‘chick factor’: What Kent State learned about the missing men of public relations

Girls, Girls, Girls! That Motley Crue classic might be a perfect theme song for public relations these days. But I gotta warn you, the video will set back women’s rights a hundred years! Link with caution!

Public relations belongs to the “girls” in 2008. Some 70% of PR practitioners and 80% of PR students today are women. At Kent State it’s closer to 90%. In the communication biz, PR has become the new nursing.

I know what you’re thinking: So what? Women do well in PR, don’t they? They do, indeed. But if you embrace diversity as I do, you have to worry about the trend line. Today’s public relations practice is out of whack gender-wise. The absence of men — particularly among the 20- and 30-somethings — hurts our profession and it hurts those who employ us. Men and women view the world differently. We bring different values to the table, thus different perspectives to PR problem-solving.

So today I launch a one-man campaign to bring gender diversity back to public relations. Care to talk about it? I have the summer off!

Girls, Girls, Girls. Examining the “chick factor” in PR

Watch for details in this space…

When I finish grading projects and proctoring exams in a few days, I plan to publish at least two posts about the gender imbalance in public relations – along with some ideas on how to fix it. I’ll tell you what the women in my Case Studies class learned about the problem, and I’ll share some of their strategies for attracting men to the PR biz.

Regular readers will recall my raising the gender issue back in January in a post that drew 47 comments and went on for two weeks.

If you haven’t noticed the gender shift while attending PRSA or IABC meetings, come to my classroom sometime. At Kent State, nearly 90% of PR majors are women. This year, for the first time in history, EVERY student in our gateway PR Case Studies class was female.

But PR’s gender diversity problem isn’t unique to Kent State. It’s a worldwide phenomenon that lots of folks talk about but few act upon. Maybe you don’t agree that it’s a problem at all. I think it is.

What will it take to attract men to the PR biz? Watch this space next week.

Until then, I’ll be knee deep in final projects and exams. It’s tough sledding I tell ya.

Replacing Kent State’s Jewell? It’ll take a gem!

When the boss asked me to chair a search committee to replace my soon-to-be-semi-retired colleague Rob Jewell, I just chuckled.

Let’s see. Where will I find a PR professional with 35 years of experience who has counseled Fortune 500 executives from a cushy, but often very hot seat on mahogany row? And where will I find a master strategist who also has proven himself as a teacher in sophomore-level courses and one with the patience to mentor kids who sometimes struggle with misplaced modifiers?

And if we do find this person, how do I convince him or her to work for less than $50K a year?

Rob Jewell, teacher and mentor extraordinaire, will exit the not-so-ivy-covered walls of Kent State at the end of this week. He’s spent 5 years on the PR faculty here and earned teaching evaluations that, well — that I haven’t seen in a decade. But more importantly, Rob took the concept of a student PR firm and made it happen — so much so that CASE recognized Rob and Flash Communications with one if its highest awards.

In 2005-06, Kent State honored Rob with its Outstanding Teaching Award — our highest honor for classroom performance. Inside or outside the classroom, this guy has some serious creds.

Many academic PR programs have student firms — but not like Flash. Most student firms operate from PRSSA chapters and are staffed by volunteers. Most student firms work with small companies and nonprofits.

Flash Communications, operates as an integral part of Kent State’s University Communications & Marketing. Paid staffers (about 10 per semester) work on public relations projects that are essential to the goals and objectives of the institution. They write articles, develop brochure and Web copy, plan events and pitch the media. And they’re effective thanks to the mentoring of Rob Jewell, who has spent half his time overseeing the Flash operation.

Rob isn’t a control freak, nor is is a heavy-handed editor. He lets the students do their work, helping them find the right path but never leading them down one. He allows them to make mistakes, and they learn in the process. He recruits from the full roster of PR majors, not just the stars — and quite a few average performers later became stars, in part as a result of Rob’s policy.

Before joining Kent State, Rob spent a few years as a PR consultant after spending nearly 30 years with the BFGoodrich Company — once one of Akron’s “Big Four” tiremakers. He rose form entry-level grunt to VP of Corporate Communications. But when BFG was sold in the late 90s, Rob decided forgo a transfer south and become a young retiree.

A few years later he retired from his consulting business to take this full-time job at Kent State. Now he’s retiring from Kent State to join the Washington, D.C. foundation, Corporate Voices for Working Families, where he’ll be working from his home and commuting to D.C. as needed.

Do you get the idea he doesn’t understand the concept of retirement?

For an old dog (he’s 5 years my senior), Rob learned a lot of new tricks while at Kent State. Walk in his office today and you’re likely to find him Twittering on his Blackberry or posting to his blog, PR On the Run. Rob writes on a range of PR topics, most of which occur to him during his daily 5 a.m., 5-mile runs.

Nope. This guy’s not getting old at all, though I won’t speak for his hamstrings.

There’s no easy way to sum up this post. We’re gonna miss Rob Jewell a lot. While he leaves the proverbial “big shoes” to fill, he also leaves a solid foundation for his successor to build upon. He is leaving Kent State a better place than it was when he arrived. Not everyone can say that.

Join the PRKent faithful at Ray’s Place this Friday, May 9, at 5:30. We’ll all raise a glass to Rob as he retires one more time.

Finding wisdom in your blog vacation? Me neither!

The blog vacation has a week to go, and I have a stack of projects to grade — like right now. But the vacation also has allowed me a bit more time to read the news and ponder the nonsense around me.

Today, I found two items you absolutely must see if truth and intelligence in government mean a thing to you (oxymoron intended).

In yesterday’s New York Times, Tom Friedman comments on the proposal by two of our three candidates to suspend the federal gasoline tax for the summer driving season. Under the headline, “Dumb as We Wanna Be,” Friedman calls out McCain and Clinton for their shameless pandering to Americans suffering from gasoline sticker shock. Yesterday I experienced my first $50 fill-up with the old Subaru. I’m not happy about it, but I’m not stupid as a result.