Larry Litwin's Public Relations Blog

The link below is a MUST read. It is especially relevant for those of us who are non-academics working in the "college of academia."

To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com. Remember Eileen and Ashley's blog.

Afterv you click on link you MUST type this in:

,0,4377636.story

Here's that important link...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-taking-on-tenure

Here's the story without pictures, etc.

Leader of nation's biggest campus wants to change rules that govern granting of tenure
ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS

Associated Press Writer

3:59 PM PST, February 4, 2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The leader of the country's largest university thinks it's time to re-examine how professors are awarded tenure, a type of job-for-life protection virtually unknown outside academia.

Ohio State University President Gordon Gee says the traditional formula that rewards publishing in scholarly journals over excellence in teaching and other contributions is outdated and too often favors the quantity of a professor's output over quality.

"Someone should gain recognition at the university for writing the great American novel or for discovering the cure for cancer," he told The Associated Press. "In a very complex world, you can no longer expect everyone to be great at everything."

Plenty of people have raised the issue over the years, but Gee is one of the few American college presidents with the reputation and political prowess — not to mention the golden touch at fundraising — who might be able to begin the transformation.

Still, some professors are already skeptical.

"The idea of awarding tenure based on teaching makes me anxious," said Jennifer Higginbotham, an English professor at Ohio State who's up for tenure in three years. By then, she will need to publish a book she's writing about conceptions of girlhood in the Middle Ages to have any chance at the promotion.

"There's a feeling, I think, that good teachers are a dime a dozen," said Higginbotham, 32. "I'm not sure what you'd have to do to distinguish yourself enough as a teacher to get tenure."

Tenure, which makes firing and other discipline difficult if not impossible, can seem ridiculously generous to outsiders. But the job protection gives professors the freedom to express ideas and conduct studies without fear of reprisal.

Tenure review, which took its current form in the 1940s, typically emphasizes publications over teaching and sometimes weighs whether a professor brings in research grants. Besides job protection, tenure also figures into salaries. A full professor with tenure at Ohio State earns about $126,000 annually.

The late Ernest Boyer, a former chancellor of New York's state university system, raised some of same issues in his groundbreaking 1990 book, "Reconsidering Scholarship."

A few universities have taken steps towards Boyer's model, including Portland State University and Western Carolina University.

At California State University at Monterey Bay, professors are graded on their teaching, research, service to the community and service to the university. Their teaching must be rated at least "commendable" — the second highest rating.

"We're asking faculty to look at their teaching really as an area of scholarship, just like they would their research," said Marsha Moroh, dean of the school's college of science, media arts and technology.

Gee is not yet giving specific examples of how a reformed tenure system would work. In order to make sweeping changes, he would need cooperation from faculty and administrators across the university system.

Taking on tenure will be the third big academic undertaking for Gee, who was hired away from Vanderbilt University in 2007 for his second stint at Ohio State after a term in the 1990s. Time magazine last year named him the country's best college president.

The 65-year-old is seemingly omnipresent on campus, striding from event to event in his trademark bow tie and horn-rimmed glasses at a pace that exhausts younger aides. He's up daily at 4:30 a.m. to exercise and stays busy into the evenings, popping into student parties or attending athletic events.

Gee earlier reorganized Ohio State's arts-and-sciences division and switched the school from a calendar based on quarters to one arranged by semester. Both changes ruffled plenty of feathers.

He raised a record $1.2 billion at Vanderbilt and is aiming for a record $2.5 billion at Ohio State.

Then there's the little matter of keeping tabs on one of the nation's biggest athletic departments and its outsized football program at a school with a total statewide enrollment of more than 63,000.

Gee said a new approach to tenure is needed to ensure the university stays relevant to students and the outside world. The recession has helped highlight the importance of higher education to the economy, he said, so now is the right time to make big changes.

"The universities of the 21st century are going to be the smokestacks of the century," Gee said, referring to the heavy industry that once dominated the American economy. "The notion of the large, massive public university that can exist in isolated splendor is dead."

One challenge is the complexity of big universities, which have numerous divisions accustomed to doing things their own way. Ohio State has more than 100 academic units capable of granting tenure.

"In effect, there are a hundred different sets of criteria for granting promotion or evaluating an individual faculty member's case," said Tim Gerber, a longtime music professor and chairman of the university's faculty council.

The pressure to get tenure is also greater as universities rely more on part-time faculty and non-tenure track professors. While the number of tenure track positions grew by 7 percent between 1975 and 2007, the number of non-tenure track jobs more than tripled, according to the American Association of University Professors.

"There are many ways faculty members spend their time that may have been very important five years ago but may not be as important now," said Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education. "Maybe we need to free them up so their time can be directed in ways that have an impact on students."

Gee is the country's highest-paid public university president with an annual income of more than $1.5 million, including salary, retirement and deferred compensation.

His office is crammed with Ohio State memorabilia that includes a Gordon Gee bobblehead toy, but the first thing that grabs a visitor's attention is the framed poster of John Belushi from the 1978 college party film "Animal House."

The next poster to grab the eye is a quotation: "If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less."

(This version CORRECTS professor's last name to Gerber, not Weber.)

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

We haven't run this in a while. So, maybe this is a good time to do so. My dear friend Ralph and I wrote the original version in 1971. It is STILL current.

To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com. Be sure to check out our Blog partners Eillen and Ashley.

PR is

A goal of The Public Relations Practitioner’s Playbook is to assist communication practitioners – no matter the discipline– in achieving their goals. To do that, dissect the author’s“informal” definition of public relations:

Public relationsis as simple as a thank-you note and as complicated as a four-color brochure.

It’s as specific as writing a news release and as general as sensing community attitudes.

It’s as inexpensive as a phone call to an editor or as costly as a full-page advertisement.

It’s as direct as a conversation between two people and asbroad as a radio or television program reaching thousands of listeners or millions of viewers.

It’s as visual as a poster and as literal as a speech.

HERE, MY FRIENDS, IS THE BIG QUESTION: What IS
public relations?

It is a term often used – seldom defined!

In its broadest sense, public relations is “good work, publicly recognized.”

Believe me, there are no secret formulas. Public relations iss imply: the group itself saying –

• “This is who we are

• What we think about ourselves

• What we want to do – and

• Why we deserve your support.”

M. Larry Litwin, APR, Fellow PRSA, and Ralph Burgio © 1971; © 1999 For information, updates and additions, visit: www.larrylitwin.com

The following is directly from Ashley's Blog from Thursday, Jan. 21. Check out both Ashley and Eileen's blogs. To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com. Ashley's blog has a couple of terrific FREE offers with NO strings attached. Go for them.

Communicating properly is vital to the success of your PR efforts. Having successful two-way communication is even more important; talking with your customers instead of simply to them makes a world of difference.

Even though the Internet has made this two-way communication easier, it is still a struggle to send the right message, respond properly, and to actively listen to what you are being told. The goal of the PR professional is to ultimately change the beliefs of a customer (or to further enhance them) so that their actions reflect those of your current customers.

In order to achieve that goal, we must do the following:

•Convey information and share knowledge
•Increase understanding
•Gain acceptance
•Provide action

(pg. 221 The Public Relations Practitioner's Handbook by Larry Litwin)

Here are a few ways to improve your two-way communication skills:

•Establish the needs of your company and your audience. This is perhaps the most important step to follow. What do your customers come to you for? What do the media, other bloggers, or others in your industry ask of you? This can help for you to define and determine where your efforts need to be spent. Establishing your needs can also help for you to better understand what you are capable of and where your resources can be used.

•Write well. Since most of your conversing will take place through written copy, ensure that your writing skills are up-to-par. There is really no faster way (than through aesthetics) to deter a reader to finish reading than to misspell words and to misuse grammar and punctuation. Often times, a poorly written copy, pitch, or press release will not even be read due to poor writing skills. Take the time to reread what you write and to have someone else check your work.

•Listen. Not listening is another great way to alienate customers, the media, and others in your industry. Customers will often tell you what they think (and for free) if you would only listen. Moreover, they would give you that information if it were simple enough for them to do so.

•Respond. Once you make it available to them to give feedback and voice opinions, please remember to reply. This is a key part of the two-way communication process that many companies forget to do. This is a dangerous game to play if you do not intend to be responsive, and your company's reputation and image are on the line. Don't underestimate the power of the customer and the word of mouth (WOM) they can create.

•Encourage interaction. Make it easy for customers to communicate with you. This can include newsletters, emails, comments on a blog or website, forums, wikis, social networking site accounts (such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), and surveys. Try to monitor these tools to see if they are getting used. If they are not, try advertising them more on your blog or website, try moving links around on your blog's homepage, or try making links and next steps more visible and apparent. Use these tools to see how the audience you're reaching feels and what they think about you and your company. Again, be sure to respond.

•Vehicles and methods of communication. Consider where and how you are reaching your audience. This can tie back into the first step of evaluating needs; determine how your audience likes to be reached. Is it through the web, TV, or the radio? Do they prefer print? Knowing this can save you time and resources and increase your chances of having a successful campaign.

Overall, know that any communication may not be better than none at all. Your communication efforts need to be well planned and they need to be maintained. Customers come to expect a certain level or responsiveness from all companies. Remember, too, that this all takes time, trial and error, and preparation. The only way to figure out if this new plan will work is to really try it out; to better your chances of that plan working, ensure that you research properly, budget well, and exhaust all possible analyses that ought to take place before implementing a new PR plan.

What are some ways you communicate with your customers? Do you have any tips for improving the two-way conversations that need to occur to better relationships with your audiences?

Remember...check out Ashley. Her link is to the right.

A couple of weeks ago on the CBS program "Face the Nation," host Bob Schieffer said he had no idea from where this piece came or who wrote it, but a friend who knows Schieffer loves dogs e-mailed the following, which he passed along "because it seems a nice thing to share at the beginning of a new year." Several friends mailed me soon after the show with similar pieces. I like Bob's best. So, here it is:

It's a list of what we would learn if dogs were our teachers. Such as:

Always run to greet loved ones when they come home.

Never pass the opportunity to go for a joy ride.

Recognize the ecstasy of fresh air and wind in your face.

Take naps. (I do that!)

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp and play daily.

Thrive on attention (I do that) and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, lie on your back in the grass. On hot days, drink lots of water and find the shade.

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Enjoy long walks.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you're not.

If what you want is buried, dig deep until you find it.

And, when someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

We'd be better off, better people . . . if we acted more like dogs.

To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com. Check out Ashley and Eileen's blogs.

From Kim Ciesla's blog on Sunday, January 10, 2010...

http://prperfection.blogspot.com/2010/01/you-know-youre-pr-student-when.html

You know you're a PR student when...

1. During a trip to Barnes & Noble that was originally intended for pleasure reading, you end up grabbing a new grammar book and the latest copy of the AP Stylebook (and the book you intended to get if you're lucky).

2. Your iphone/blackberry has multiple news and social media applications.

3. You’re a fan of USA Today or other news organizations on Facebook.

4. Your friends make fun of you for having a Twitter account and insist there isn't a point (and you catch yourself defending it with the networking benefits).

5. SPSS, PRSSA and AP all make sense—and PR doesn’t stand for Puerto Rico.

6. Internships and networking events aren’t boring requirements.

7. Friends who work for parking services leave fake tickets on your car that say “Violation: Too much PRSSA”.

8. You find yourself editing your friends’ spelling and grammar mistakes on Facebook via comments or wall posts.

9. Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin have become legitimate procrastination excuses.

10. You get your Gen Ed papers back with comments like “need more detail” or “use more college-level wording next time” and with a big smile you think to yourself—I’m finally getting the hang of this PR writing thing!

11. While listening to Rihanna's song "Hard", you automatically think she says "where dem bloggers at" while your boyfriend insists she's saying "where dem black girls at"--clearly his thoughts makes more sense because, seriously, who mentions bloggers?? (Surprisingly, you're right though, bloggers do get credit in a Rihanna song!)

12. Not only do you find yourself listening to radio talk shows like NPR and NJ 101.5, but you actually find yourself itching to call in and contribute to the conversation.

13. You get excited about the "RT" count for your blog posts.

14. (From @Jesslaw) You find yourself judging people based on their spelling and grammar.

15. (From @cdavis620) You can’t watch a talk show without thinking about the work that went into getting the product on the show.

16. (From @kwats) You go to the store and buy products because you “love the company’s visual identity”.

17. (From @CourtLamp) You start taking every survey you see, hoping for good karma.

18. (From @elliebrown1) You start thinking in status updates. (or how to get your message across in 140 characters!)

To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com. Be sure to check out Ashley and Eileen's blogs. See you next week