'PR in Education'
Inaugural Lecture, PRSI-Chennai, Stella Maris College,
August 6, 2008.
Dr. Bhavani Sitaraman, Associate Professor, The University
of Alabama in Huntsville.
I am delighted and honored to be asked to speak to students
of the recently established MA Public Relations program and
the members of the PRSI. I am also deeply moved and flattered
by the introduction delivered by Dr. Sundari Krishnamurthy,
Head of the PR program at Stella Maris and my teacher when
I was a student here many years ago. I was asked to talk about
“PR in Education.” As a career academic who has
been teaching in the U.S. for the past two decades, I will
discuss the growing importance of public relations as a conscious
strategy pursued by universities that see themselves in an
increasingly competitive environment for students and funds.
“PR in Education” can refer to two aspects. The
first refers to PR as an academic discipline within higher
education. The second meaning refers to PR as it is practiced
within colleges and universities as they seek to establish
their presence and grow within an increasingly competitive
environment. My talk will mostly focus on the second aspect
of this topic and outline factors that are contributing to
the explicit pursuit of public relations by U.S. universities
as a strategy for image creation, impression management, fund
raising and student recruitment.
The Ivory Tower Opens its Doors
It is useful to begin with an understanding of universities
as institutions. The term “university” derived
from the Latin “universitas” refers to a community
of students and scholars. The notion of community in turn
implies shared goals, values and relationships based on trust
between students and scholars. Universities in the U.S. are
defined by three core functions: teaching, research and service,
with all three implying meaningful contributions to society.
Universities in the U.S. depend on a wide range of sources
of funding for their survival including student tuition, alumni
donations, federal grants, state government funding, and industry
grants. Consequently a university’s publics (in PR terms)
or target audience includes current and future students, local
and national industrial partners, state and federal government,
alumni, the media, community patrons, high schools, faculty,
and competitors for funding and students.
In the past, universities as “ivory towers” isolated
themselves from the town and city which they characterized
as dangerous places with loose morals. The quintessential
American “campus town” is a self-contained community
that could sustain all the intellectual, social and economic
needs of students with little need to leave the campus. Higher
education was restricted to elite families. This changed with
the institutions of land grant (agricultural colleges) universities
with public funds in the early part of the twentieth century
and access expanded to middle and working class families in
the post-World War II era. The GI bill subsidized college
for returning soldiers in the 1940s and 50s and the baby boom
supplied a large cohort of students during the 1960s and 1970s
resulting in the expansion of universities and colleges. The
counter culture of the sixties and seventies also established
a reputation for universities as liberal hotbeds of protest
and change. The Civil Rights movement and resulting legislation
opened the doors of the ivory tower to minority groups (women
and blacks in particular) democratizing higher education.
Since then universities have expanded not just in the size
of students and faculty but also in the curricular offerings
and support services offered to students (e.g. day care, counseling
or academic support services for students with disabilities).
Changing Context of Higher Education in the U.S.
While the sixties and seventies were good for university expansion,
the baby bust that followed the post-war baby boom has resulted
in a more challenging climate for campuses seeking to recruit
students. Current demographic, economic and technological
trends have created a highly competitive climate for universities
setting the stage for highly visible PR campaigns that seek
to differentiate universities, brand their image, and extend
their reach nationally and globally.
Demographic Challenges: In 1900, four percent of
the U.S. population attended college; in 1999, 43% did. In
1900, 2.7 % of 25- year-olds completed four or more years
of college; in 1999, it was 23.6, a ten-fold increase. College
enrollments are expected to continue to rise by 15 to 20 %
through 2014, in every demographic segment
Social Diversity: Bulk of the increased enrollments
will come from an ethnic minority groups changing the racial
and ethnic composition of college campuses in the future.
Currently there are about 42 million Latinos in America. Since
1980, the number of Hispanics enrolled in colleges has more
than tripled, to nearly 1.5 million outpacing the rate of
Hispanic population growth. Hispanics' share of all bachelor's
degrees awarded has risen from about 2.3 percent in 1980 to
about 6.2 percent. It is projected that eighty percent of
new students added by 2015 will be of minority ethnic background.
An Aging Population: The baby boom generation that
expanded American universities is now aging and creating a
new demand for continuing education programs. According to
the National Household Education Survey Report (Source: National
Center for Education Statistics), between 2000 and 2001, 46
percent of adults participated in some type of adult education,
other than full-time college attendance (it was 22 percent
in 1965). Universities are also exploring new programs for
professionals seeking to upgrade their skills or change careers
in the new economy of rapid changes in employment conditions.
An example is the fast-track “Corporate MBA” offered
by some universities to serve working professionals.
Economic Context: Universities now operate in a climate
of declining state funding for higher education as they compete
with other social services (health care for an aging population),
schools (with a broader constituency), and successive conservative
governments that have prioritized defense and national security
over social services. A significant challenge is the shifting
view of higher education as a “private good” as
opposed to a “public good.” Public universities
are thus forced to raise tuition costs which have increased
at twice the rate of inflation. Some of you may recall the
now classic joke “I sent my son to ___ college and all
I got was this lousy T-shirt.” Furthermore, universities
have to justify rising costs amidst the growth of affordable
competitors in the form of distance learning (The University
of Phoenix which boasts 50,000 students), two-year community
colleges, and foreign institutions.
The University in search of a brand
Public relations thrives in a competitive environment. It
is not surprising that universities are increasing engaging
in conscious PR campaigns to help with student recruitment,
fund raising and community relations. Universities in the
U.S have to not only recruit from a wider base of high school
graduates but also minimize the drop-out rate resulting from
the highly variable preparation for college among the ever
diverse population of freshmen. Managing academic and social
diversity among college students poses its own challenges
requiring additional resources to recruit, retain and integrate
an ethnically diverse student population. PR campaigns are
thus an integral part of strategic planning in many universities.
Faculty members are often reluctant participants in publicity
and impression management functions of a university. Nevertheless,
a comment by an American comedian George Carlin summarizes
university administrator’s response to academic reluctance
and disdain. Carlin said, “It isn’t always fair
that the caterpillar does all the work and the butterfly gets
all the publicity.”
PR practice in universities serves both routine and crisis
situations. Routine functions such as publicity are often
handled by a “university relations” office, fund
raising may be managed by an alumni relations office, and
recruitment initiatives by an admissions office. To my knowledge
there is no central designation of an office of Public Relations
that handles all of the relevant publics. The increasing importance
of a conscious PR campaign can be illustrated with two successful
university campaigns.
Two Successful Campaigns
The first is an award winning campaign, “Driven to Discover,”
launched by the University of Minnesota. The campaign’s
goal was to increase visibility and image of the university
within the state and to establish the university as a place
of research and discovery on topics of importance to the public
at large. Innovative TV and print asked people to submit their
single greatest question, and matched them with answers from
faculty active in the research. From the launch of the campaign
in September 2006 through August of 2007, nearly 4,000 questions
were submitted to the “Driven to Discover” web
site. On the first day of the campaign, web site traffic spiked
11%, with an additional 20,000 visits to the U's home page.
The U reported a 39% increase in funds raised from the previous
year. The campaign utilized new media like the website and
traditional media like billboards and sidewalk clings to exhibit
questions and answers. Questions ranged from “Why do
songs stick in our heads?” to “Do human rights
trials work?” or “What will happen if we switch
celebrity and teacher pay?” Answers linked these simple
questions to faculty research in the arts and sciences. The
campaign won the prestigious Gold Effie award. A survey of
Minnesotans indicated that nearly half of Minnesotans recalled
campaign messages, and solid majorities saw the underlying
themes--conducting research to improve lives, discovering
cures for diseases, and finding solutions for world problems--as
important goals for the University.
A similar campaign by a private university, Rice University
illustrates the growing use of PR campaigns to craft the brand
image of American colleges. Rice University’s New Century
Campaign sought to position and differentiate the university
as an outstanding education and research institution. It’s
campaign position was defined as “Unconventional Wisdom”
with the theme “Who Knew” a logo element and question
used in billboards, posters and websites to post thought provoking
questions with unconventional answers. Questions were generated
from faculty and students and began with the standard refrain
of “Who Knew….?” For example, one bill board
asked “Who knew a CEO could come out of an ATM?”
along with the caption “Know more at rice.edu”
Other unconventional questions included “Who knew that
education may be breeding segregation?” or “Who
knew jet fighters could repair themselves on the fly?
The university claims that they succeeding in raising $500
million targeted for the four year period of the campaign.
My own university is in the process of redefining its mission
and restructuring its administration with the change of leadership
at the top level. Surrounded by leading aerospace manufacturing
companies, defense contractors, and NASA the university is
seeking to position itself as a leading science, technology
and business school focused on applied research. To summarize,
several factors have pushed universities in the U.S. to become
conscious and strategic in their use of public relations.
First is the buyer’s market in which too many universities
are chasing a few students and seeking to expand the pool
of potential recruits locally, nationally and internationally.
A related issue is the threat that “if you don’t
do it, someone else will.” Public support for higher
education has also declined at the same time that pressures
for accountability (accreditation) require documenting and
showcasing a university’s achievements.
Public Relations also play an important part in crisis management
situations in universities today. Damage control is an important
function of public relations in all organizations. Two examples
of this function are (1) the recent Duke University scandal
involving the lacrosse team in allegations of alcohol abuse
and rape of a black female student by white male athletes;
and (2) the mass shooting by a troubled student at Virginia
Tech. In the first instance, public relations practice involved
confronting accusations, sharing information or transparency
and taking actions to investigate complaints. The accused
athletes in the Duke case were initially suspended along with
the team until the case was eventually dropped. Even when
the accused athletes were allowed to return to the campus
to finish their studies, the President set up committees to
investigate the campus climate and make recommendations on
improving it. Virginia Tech has now alerted all campuses to
the need for a security and crisis management system. A communication
system for alerting the campus community to an emergency and
counseling support services to detect and monitor troubled
students have emerged as important steps in minimizing (if
not preventing) threats to campus security.
In my concluding remarks, I will briefly touch upon the second
meaning of the topic for today’s talk which relates
to PR education in universities. PR education in the U.S.
has been historically tied to schools of journalism and mass
communication. Core curricular elements of an undergraduate
PR program include social science research skills, communication
and/or management theories, communication skills (public speaking
and media writing), ethics, and practical training through
internships. The global context of business and economics
suggests that future programs may also need to train students
for linguistic and cultural competence. PR campaigns also
increasingly use new media such as internet blogs, social
networking sites and websites requiring familiarity with new
technologies. On a positive note, the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics projects an 18% growth in the demand for PR specialists
in the next decade – a rate exceeding that the growth
rate for all occupations. Nevertheless, competition is likely
to be high for entry-level positions and placement for jobs
will be enhanced for those with practical experience and additional
language capabilities. |
