Friday, July 20, 2007

Searching for faculty in PR and Marketing

One of the advantages of being a full-time faculty member of the Medill School at Northwestern University is the intelligent mix of faculty. While it would seem to make sense that a professional school (strong career education orientation) would hire both full-time and part-time senior practitioners in the relevant fields. Naturally a research level I university would also hire individuals holding a doctoral degree emphasizing advanced research in related areas of academic study. The marketing and public relations department (Integrated Marketing Communications - IMC) has balanced this approach for a number of years to earn the respect of colleagues at other schools and the support of the NU administration. Our journalism colleagues have not succeeded in balancing the model and have found themselves in some jeopardy with the University and with their colleagues in the accreditation process. This month, the NU administration lead by President Henry Bienen and Provost Larry Dumas with Associate Provost John Margolis approved the hiring of two additional research trained and educated professors for IMC. We will offer more undergraduate education for the extraordinarily qualified NU undergraduates. One of the posts will be for a researcher and teacher in marketing and marketing communications with special knowledge of the consumer. The other post will be for a junior colleague (usually recent recipient of a doctorate) in journalism-mass communications, communications or business management. They should be able to work with senior faculty on some traditional areas of stakeholder relations, PR metrics and newer areas such as communities. As the details are written, I will post the requirements here for your review and discussion. We expect to interview for the positions at the AEJMC and AMA August 2007 meetings and through the Fall of 2007.

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