I wasn't happy with the title that showed up in China. This was not the title for the original article in the Chicago Tribune. Still it reminds me to stay fit.
Fat American comes to Lijiang
Lijiang, China
Flag of China
Monday, Jun 09, 2008 23:07
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Good to see the Olympic sponsors getting some leverage with their marketing.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-olympictorchjun10,0,3796738.story
chicagotribune.com
Northwestern professor to carry university name during run with Olympic torch in China
By Jodi S. Cohen
Tribune reporter
7:22 PM CDT, June 9, 2008
As a Northwestern University communications professor, Clarke Caywood knows something about effective marketing.
So when he carries the Olympic torch Tuesday in China, he isn't going to miss an opportunity to promote the Northwestern brand. Though Olympic officials rejected his idea to hold a Medill School of Journalism banner, Caywood still plans to carry something with the Northwestern name.
He also plans to use the experience as a marketing opportunity when he returns to the United States, perhaps by starting his classes and corporate lectures with pictures of him running with the torch.
"What professor wouldn't like Olympic background music when they open their lectures?" said Caywood, who teaches in the integrated marketing communications program.
"When I give talks to industry and professional organizations, I will certainly put some of this in there as a metaphor for high achievement," he said from Lijiang, China.
Caywood, who has been a visiting professor at several Chinese universities, was invited to be a torchbearer by Samsung Corp., one of the relay sponsors. There will be more than 2,300 torchbearers during the flame's remaining 41/2-month journey to the August Olympics in Beijing, according to Samsung.
The relay has not been the "Journey of Harmony" that Chinese officials envisioned. In San Francisco, London, Paris and elsewhere, the relay was marked by pro-Tibet demonstrations and protests over China's human rights record. The relay also was suspended to mourn China's earthquake victims.
Caywood views the protests as a shrewd communications technique.
"The people involved with the Tibetan issue have a right to find an ongoing event and try to use it as a way to get their story told," he said. "In marketing, we sometimes recommend that, a co-branding."
Northwestern professor Tom Collinger, chairman of integrated marketing communications, said the school has been developing relationships with Chinese universities and businesses. Twenty students are working at companies there this summer, he said, and about 50 percent of the program's students are international, many from Asian countries.
While in China last week, Caywood lectured for the fifth time at Sun Yat-sen University, speaking to the business school's graduate students about crisis and risk management. He also participated in a seminar on building environmental awareness.
Collinger said Caywood has been instrumental in developing Medill's programs in public and media relations, and crisis communications.
"He has really been very much the leader of that area of our curricula," Collinger said.
On Tuesday, Caywood said he expects to run about 200 meters, or about half the length of a standard high school track. Though not a far distance, he said he has worried about getting winded or falling.
"My students will read this and they'll say, 'Clark is OK, but he is a little overweight,' " he said. "At one point, they were talking about running on cobblestone streets, and I thought, 'Oh great, I'll be the guy who falls.' "
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
AIESECNOTE
Column for AIESEC June 1, 2008
It might seem like a long time ago, but my lessons from AIESEC have stayed with me for over 40 years. In fact, as a member of the graduate faculty of the Integrated Marketing communications department at Northwestern University (www.medill.northwestern/imc)
I continue to raise internships for my graduate students (over 50 percent are international) in the tradition of AIESEC every year. One difference might be the price (we secure support of $16,500 for each student for 11 weeks), but the spirit of AIESEC reigns in my process. My Olympic experience this summer will also reinforce my AIESEC education and beliefs.
In 1968 the University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter of AIESEC was vital and exciting. The group of UW students was so dedicated to the concept that we worked overtime to find meaningful internships in our small college town (Madison was under 100,000 populations). First Wisconsin Bank, Oscar Mayer and other firms were the corporate exception in a city dominated by the University and Wisconsin state government, but they knew the value of developing new talent in a global environment. At that time, Madison was thought to have more “foreign” cars per capital than other cities. The influence was the strongly global faculty who often came from international schools, conducted international research and brought home a Volvo, Saab, MiniCooper (the original one), MG or even Allard. I drove an Allard, Austin-Healey and TR-3. (It was a bad habit my Dad taught me and has stayed with me to this day (Porsche C4S)).
From foreign cars (the terms is oddly dated) to global students, the leap was comfortable and fun. While I had “won the lottery” that year for raising more internships than my peers; I regrettably was unable to assume my internship in Copenhagen Denmark due to some surgery from poor skiing behavior. Instead, I stayed in my home town of Madison, worked in the PR function of Oscar Mayer and hosted our international AIESEC guests.
It was a great experience. I wish I could remember their names but the Scandinavian group of men and women was excited to be in Madison. Wisconsin still has a great tradition of celebrating its northern European values and traditions. They found their welcome warm. We took them on weekends to local tourist sites (Frank Lloyd Wright’s school Taliesin, Wisconsin Dells (natural rock formations and tacky tourist attractions), the World Circus Museum and more.
The faculty advisors of AIESEC from the School of Commerce also showed their global nature. I particularly remember a backyard event at the home of Management Professor Ed Petersen and his wife Ruthie with Marketing Professor J. Howard Westing and Peg (my future father and mother-in law).
My global halcyon days continue. As I write this I am on my way to Lijiang China by way of Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Bejiing. I will be celebrating my long interest in world issues (not as an athlete) but as a guest of the Olympic Committee, Samsung and China to carry the Olympic Torch for 200 meters. As I carry that torch, I will remember that it was AISEC that gave me my first organizational introduction to a global world. As I run, I plan to carry a memento of my students, family, universities and AIESEC.
It might seem like a long time ago, but my lessons from AIESEC have stayed with me for over 40 years. In fact, as a member of the graduate faculty of the Integrated Marketing communications department at Northwestern University (www.medill.northwestern/imc)
I continue to raise internships for my graduate students (over 50 percent are international) in the tradition of AIESEC every year. One difference might be the price (we secure support of $16,500 for each student for 11 weeks), but the spirit of AIESEC reigns in my process. My Olympic experience this summer will also reinforce my AIESEC education and beliefs.
In 1968 the University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter of AIESEC was vital and exciting. The group of UW students was so dedicated to the concept that we worked overtime to find meaningful internships in our small college town (Madison was under 100,000 populations). First Wisconsin Bank, Oscar Mayer and other firms were the corporate exception in a city dominated by the University and Wisconsin state government, but they knew the value of developing new talent in a global environment. At that time, Madison was thought to have more “foreign” cars per capital than other cities. The influence was the strongly global faculty who often came from international schools, conducted international research and brought home a Volvo, Saab, MiniCooper (the original one), MG or even Allard. I drove an Allard, Austin-Healey and TR-3. (It was a bad habit my Dad taught me and has stayed with me to this day (Porsche C4S)).
From foreign cars (the terms is oddly dated) to global students, the leap was comfortable and fun. While I had “won the lottery” that year for raising more internships than my peers; I regrettably was unable to assume my internship in Copenhagen Denmark due to some surgery from poor skiing behavior. Instead, I stayed in my home town of Madison, worked in the PR function of Oscar Mayer and hosted our international AIESEC guests.
It was a great experience. I wish I could remember their names but the Scandinavian group of men and women was excited to be in Madison. Wisconsin still has a great tradition of celebrating its northern European values and traditions. They found their welcome warm. We took them on weekends to local tourist sites (Frank Lloyd Wright’s school Taliesin, Wisconsin Dells (natural rock formations and tacky tourist attractions), the World Circus Museum and more.
The faculty advisors of AIESEC from the School of Commerce also showed their global nature. I particularly remember a backyard event at the home of Management Professor Ed Petersen and his wife Ruthie with Marketing Professor J. Howard Westing and Peg (my future father and mother-in law).
My global halcyon days continue. As I write this I am on my way to Lijiang China by way of Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Bejiing. I will be celebrating my long interest in world issues (not as an athlete) but as a guest of the Olympic Committee, Samsung and China to carry the Olympic Torch for 200 meters. As I carry that torch, I will remember that it was AISEC that gave me my first organizational introduction to a global world. As I run, I plan to carry a memento of my students, family, universities and AIESEC.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
ग्रादुअते क्लास्सेस वर्क ओं वर्ल्ड Hunger
Two classes in the IMC program at Northwestern University in Evanston and in Chicago IL. have accepted a challenge by the management of YUM! Brands to plan the second year program of a hunger prevention week. Last year the company generated 1.5 billion impressions of awareness on the hunger issue around the globe (98 countries). Because of the commitment, dedication scale, they were asked by the UN to "give a voice to hunger and starvation" around the world. The company has clearly developed a program that is not intended to sell product but simply to "save lives". Sad but important statistics such as a child dies of hunger every 5 seconds around the world motivated the top management and over 1 million employees, family and friends of employees of YUM! (including KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver, A&W) to join in a volunteer, awareness and donation effort. Inaddition to the $50 million in prepared food donated to the poor and hungery each year; the effort raised an additional $16 million . Additional milllions of dollars in volunteer hours (where employees were paid by the company) contributed to the overall effort. We will conduct research, compare their effort to best practices of reputation programs by companies and not-for-profit organizations, prepare a plan and recommend actions for the company's leader of the effort - Jonathan Blum (Chief Public Affairs Officer). The final work will be done by experienced, educated and trained IMC students by the end of May. While we have had other clients of importance; we have not had a client where our contribution might be considered to driectly save lives! at this scale (with a company with 1 million employees).
Last year we worked on a similar projectd for Aidmatrix. com. We have also had projects for CocaCola, Rhapsody, Harley Davidson, Jeep, Chrysler, Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw (law firm) and other
Last year we worked on a similar projectd for Aidmatrix. com. We have also had projects for CocaCola, Rhapsody, Harley Davidson, Jeep, Chrysler, Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw (law firm) and other
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
IMC
February 12, 2008
Comments and two questions:
One of the specific challenges of the residency program is to offer to the companies the best set of knowledge and skills of the students. Of course, we are offering bright, educated and most often work experienced students from Northwestern University. However, we also need to offer to the companies a person with a specific set of skills and knowledge (see some of their requirements above). We are building a new list that will include elements of the new "communities, stakehoders and web 2.0" class. For example, the students will know about the running debate on the "wisdom of the crowds" vs. the "culture of experts and their credentials". They will know about new polling methods using automated dialing and success and their use in business (Rasmussenreports.com). They will understand some of the valued uses of Second Life (for training and education) for Electrolux. They will understand about building longer term relationships and stakeholder maps with stakeholders from the work of GE . Healthcare. Tokoni.com has given them experience on understanding how communities can be built around sharing of experiences with discussion with the Founder and Chair of the new firm as well as the start-up experiences of the same person on eBay. In other classes they understand the value of databases, how to construct and analyze them. They know how to use the more advanced elements of SPSS for statistical report generation. From Finance they know about ROI, Break-even, performance ratios, activity based accounting, balance sheets and income statements and more. They certainly understand the key ideas of marketing with a much strong consumer and stakeholder orientation. I need to build this list to include many more specific skills and help to implement strategies. For example in the Spring MPR class with YUM! brands they will know how to use some of the most expensive and productive media and advertising tracking systems for planning and decision-making. What else can I add to this list?
One note I want to add: If you will go the You Tube site that I have attached, you will see what many of the faculty consider to be a terrific self-marketing effort of a student to qualify for a highly competitive internship at the Coca-Cola company. The student shows enormous maturity and creativity to stimulate their interest. What do you think?
Comments and two questions:
One of the specific challenges of the residency program is to offer to the companies the best set of knowledge and skills of the students. Of course, we are offering bright, educated and most often work experienced students from Northwestern University. However, we also need to offer to the companies a person with a specific set of skills and knowledge (see some of their requirements above). We are building a new list that will include elements of the new "communities, stakehoders and web 2.0" class. For example, the students will know about the running debate on the "wisdom of the crowds" vs. the "culture of experts and their credentials". They will know about new polling methods using automated dialing and success and their use in business (Rasmussenreports.com). They will understand some of the valued uses of Second Life (for training and education) for Electrolux. They will understand about building longer term relationships and stakeholder maps with stakeholders from the work of GE . Healthcare. Tokoni.com has given them experience on understanding how communities can be built around sharing of experiences with discussion with the Founder and Chair of the new firm as well as the start-up experiences of the same person on eBay. In other classes they understand the value of databases, how to construct and analyze them. They know how to use the more advanced elements of SPSS for statistical report generation. From Finance they know about ROI, Break-even, performance ratios, activity based accounting, balance sheets and income statements and more. They certainly understand the key ideas of marketing with a much strong consumer and stakeholder orientation. I need to build this list to include many more specific skills and help to implement strategies. For example in the Spring MPR class with YUM! brands they will know how to use some of the most expensive and productive media and advertising tracking systems for planning and decision-making. What else can I add to this list?
One note I want to add: If you will go the You Tube site that I have attached, you will see what many of the faculty consider to be a terrific self-marketing effort of a student to qualify for a highly competitive internship at the Coca-Cola company. The student shows enormous maturity and creativity to stimulate their interest. What do you think?
IMC
February 10, 2008
This past week I sent out an e-mail letter to a few dozen colleagues who are either the CCO (VP) of Corporate Communications of a corporation with $3 billion in revenue (mostly Fortune 200) or the Sr. officers of a public relations and communications agency with large billings. Some have replied immediately including two very, very large firms. A challenge I face is that most of the U.S. firms do not have the time or inclination to offer international students in marketing and communications visa standing (if they were to employ the student) to stay in the U.S. It may be up to the School to make the argument that this generation of marketing and communications students are as strong as the earlier generations of engineering and science students who were eventually sponsored. However, we do not make it a condition of summer internships to offer a visa (no job has been offered). However, many of the companies may consider placing a the international students (55%) in corporate post in their home country if they have offices there.
The jobs requested from me will demand strong writing and editing skills, strong team skills, planning ability, knowledge of stakeholders, media and PR.
Effective project management is essential and typically involves:
· Learning and analyzing client businesses to determine communications issues
· Developing actionable recommendations
· Building strong client relationships through effective integrated communications
· Participating on multi-disciplinary teams
· Interacting with internal and external resources such as research suppliers, advertising/creative agencies and other corporate resource groups
Other skills include:
Marketplace Insight Integrated Solutions
- Target Market Analysis - Communications Planning
- Needs-Based Segmentation - Marketing Planning and Integration
- Customer Understanding - Brand Building
- Messaging Assessment
Message Generation Execution and Measurement
- Positioning - Program Implementation
- Key Message Development - Communications Measurement
- Creative Strategy - Process Evaluation
- Persuasive Business Writing - Six Sigma/Commercialization
The market is chaotic this year. I suspect the softening business market will make it difficult to match students, but I know that we will match students to excellent projects. Watch this space for more information on residencies.
This past week I sent out an e-mail letter to a few dozen colleagues who are either the CCO (VP) of Corporate Communications of a corporation with $3 billion in revenue (mostly Fortune 200) or the Sr. officers of a public relations and communications agency with large billings. Some have replied immediately including two very, very large firms. A challenge I face is that most of the U.S. firms do not have the time or inclination to offer international students in marketing and communications visa standing (if they were to employ the student) to stay in the U.S. It may be up to the School to make the argument that this generation of marketing and communications students are as strong as the earlier generations of engineering and science students who were eventually sponsored. However, we do not make it a condition of summer internships to offer a visa (no job has been offered). However, many of the companies may consider placing a the international students (55%) in corporate post in their home country if they have offices there.
The jobs requested from me will demand strong writing and editing skills, strong team skills, planning ability, knowledge of stakeholders, media and PR.
Effective project management is essential and typically involves:
· Learning and analyzing client businesses to determine communications issues
· Developing actionable recommendations
· Building strong client relationships through effective integrated communications
· Participating on multi-disciplinary teams
· Interacting with internal and external resources such as research suppliers, advertising/creative agencies and other corporate resource groups
Other skills include:
Marketplace Insight Integrated Solutions
- Target Market Analysis - Communications Planning
- Needs-Based Segmentation - Marketing Planning and Integration
- Customer Understanding - Brand Building
- Messaging Assessment
Message Generation Execution and Measurement
- Positioning - Program Implementation
- Key Message Development - Communications Measurement
- Creative Strategy - Process Evaluation
- Persuasive Business Writing - Six Sigma/Commercialization
The market is chaotic this year. I suspect the softening business market will make it difficult to match students, but I know that we will match students to excellent projects. Watch this space for more information on residencies.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Medill
Every year for the past 20 a number of faculty with industry and government experience and deep affiliations have generated paid internships (we call them residencies due to their graduate level assignments) for our 80+ graduate students. I have raised approximately 400 paid residencies for my students. While it is a tough and lengthy process (from January to May each year) I enjoy the increased student contact and discussions with corporate officers. The students show remarkable level of skills, work experience and new knowledge from practical classes at NU in the traditional fields of public relations, advertising, marketing, direct marketing and research. We educate and train students to first be "business men and women" then "experts and leaders on the use of communications to solve strategic business and organizational issues". Finally, they are knowledgable at a leading edge level to "integrate" the communications, strategies, policies and tactics of the firm to strengthen the organization's brand with consumer and other stakeholders. The use the latest media tracking systems such as VMS, Biz360 and other sophisticated computer generated data tracking of experts, journalists, topics and more in print, broadcast and radio. They also (under our leadership) know SPSS statistics packages, Second Life and other newer media. Many of these skills are needed by modern corporations.
We place students in individual residencies in the U.S. and overseas (Shanghai) team projects for 11 weeks during the summer. The companies pay the tuition for individual residencies ($11,500 in 2008) and some living support for out of town firms. The faculty are involved in defining the challenging nature of the assignment, being in contact with the students and visting each student during the summer.
We have worked with hundreds of firms including most of the Fortune 200 and many of the next Fortune 200 (emerging start-ups and Web 2.0 companies. Many of the firms have offered full-time positions to our students when they graduate each December. Just this week I received a Blackberry note from a Fortune 10 CCO (Chief Communications Officer) within 1 hour of my sending him a note to request a "public affairs" oriented student for the summer. I always have a number of students who have worked on Capitol Hill (Washington D.C.) and will qualify for his needs. I begin the more detailed process by finding out more details about the work of the firm and the specific talent needs for the project.
This process has several more stages to go that I will share with readers of Tokoni.com (By the way, Tokoni leaders will be speaking in my new class on "Communities, Stakeholders and Web 2.0" this next week). More to come.
February 10, 2008
This past week I sent out an e-mail letter to a few dozen colleagues who are either the CCO (VP) of Corporate Communications of a corporation with $3 billion in revenue (mostly Fortune 200) or the Sr. officers of a public relations and communications agency with large billings. Some have replied immediately including two very, very large firms. A challenge I face is that most of the U.S. firms do not have the time or inclination to offer international students in marketing and communications visa standing (if they were to employ the student) to stay in the U.S. It may be up to the School to make the argument that this generation of marketing and communications students are as strong as the earlier generations of engineering and science students who were eventually sponsored. However, we do not make it a condition of summer internships to offer a visa (no job has been offered). However, many of the companies may consider placing a the international students (55%) in corporate post in their home country if they have offices there.
The jobs requested from me will demand strong writing and editing skills, strong team skills, planning ability, knowledge of stakeholders, media and PR.
Effective project management is essential and typically involves:
· Learning and analyzing client businesses to determine communications issues
· Developing actionable recommendations
· Building strong client relationships through effective integrated communications
· Participating on multi-disciplinary teams
· Interacting with internal and external resources such as research suppliers, advertising/creative agencies and other corporate resource groups
Other skills include:
Marketplace Insight Integrated Solutions
- Target Market Analysis - Communications Planning
- Needs-Based Segmentation - Marketing Planning and Integration
- Customer Understanding - Brand Building
- Messaging Assessment
Message Generation Execution and Measurement
- Positioning - Program Implementation
- Key Message Development - Communications Measurement
- Creative Strategy - Process Evaluation
- Persuasive Business Writing - Six Sigma/Commercialization
The market is chaotic this year. I suspect the softening business market will make it difficult to match students, but I know that we will match students to excellent projects. Watch this space for more information on residencies.
We place students in individual residencies in the U.S. and overseas (Shanghai) team projects for 11 weeks during the summer. The companies pay the tuition for individual residencies ($11,500 in 2008) and some living support for out of town firms. The faculty are involved in defining the challenging nature of the assignment, being in contact with the students and visting each student during the summer.
We have worked with hundreds of firms including most of the Fortune 200 and many of the next Fortune 200 (emerging start-ups and Web 2.0 companies. Many of the firms have offered full-time positions to our students when they graduate each December. Just this week I received a Blackberry note from a Fortune 10 CCO (Chief Communications Officer) within 1 hour of my sending him a note to request a "public affairs" oriented student for the summer. I always have a number of students who have worked on Capitol Hill (Washington D.C.) and will qualify for his needs. I begin the more detailed process by finding out more details about the work of the firm and the specific talent needs for the project.
This process has several more stages to go that I will share with readers of Tokoni.com (By the way, Tokoni leaders will be speaking in my new class on "Communities, Stakeholders and Web 2.0" this next week). More to come.
February 10, 2008
This past week I sent out an e-mail letter to a few dozen colleagues who are either the CCO (VP) of Corporate Communications of a corporation with $3 billion in revenue (mostly Fortune 200) or the Sr. officers of a public relations and communications agency with large billings. Some have replied immediately including two very, very large firms. A challenge I face is that most of the U.S. firms do not have the time or inclination to offer international students in marketing and communications visa standing (if they were to employ the student) to stay in the U.S. It may be up to the School to make the argument that this generation of marketing and communications students are as strong as the earlier generations of engineering and science students who were eventually sponsored. However, we do not make it a condition of summer internships to offer a visa (no job has been offered). However, many of the companies may consider placing a the international students (55%) in corporate post in their home country if they have offices there.
The jobs requested from me will demand strong writing and editing skills, strong team skills, planning ability, knowledge of stakeholders, media and PR.
Effective project management is essential and typically involves:
· Learning and analyzing client businesses to determine communications issues
· Developing actionable recommendations
· Building strong client relationships through effective integrated communications
· Participating on multi-disciplinary teams
· Interacting with internal and external resources such as research suppliers, advertising/creative agencies and other corporate resource groups
Other skills include:
Marketplace Insight Integrated Solutions
- Target Market Analysis - Communications Planning
- Needs-Based Segmentation - Marketing Planning and Integration
- Customer Understanding - Brand Building
- Messaging Assessment
Message Generation Execution and Measurement
- Positioning - Program Implementation
- Key Message Development - Communications Measurement
- Creative Strategy - Process Evaluation
- Persuasive Business Writing - Six Sigma/Commercialization
The market is chaotic this year. I suspect the softening business market will make it difficult to match students, but I know that we will match students to excellent projects. Watch this space for more information on residencies.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Controversy at Northwestern's Medill School
Two articles (attached below) on the subject of our new Dean at the Medill School of Journalism (John Lavine) report partly on my opinion of the Dean's actions. The Chronicle articles are, in general, more accurate and on point. In general, I agree with his conclusions and reading of various audit reports on the immediate past and future of Medill. However, I have taken exception with his announcement that "faculty governance has been suspended" at Medill. Since my appointment by Dean Bassett in 1989, I have worked for 7 Deans (Edward Bassett, Michael Janeway, Acting Deans Abraham Peck and Jack Doppelt, Ken Bode, Loren Ghiglione and John Lavine. Dean Lavine is the first Dean to give direct attention to the IMC Department and to show a willingness to offer undergraduate courses in IMC and PR. One Dean, Michael Janeway, was rebuffed when he attempted to "cleanse" the School of the popular undergraduate courses in Advertising and Direct Marketing. For many years we have flown below the radar for the School. Despite the lack of recognition in the School, the University has called us a "excellent skunk works" (a compliment)and supported our decisions as a faculty on tenure and new curriculum. In general, we have enjoyed relatively positive relationships with the very practical journalism faculty. I have successfully co-taught courses with Associate Professor George Harmon (business editor and full-time faculty). Our relationships within Medill faculty have been very constructive so it concerned me that the Dean (with tacit support from the University administration) took away the committee and faculty power of the School. Even though I agreed that the School needed a stronger plan and direction to be a competitive part of NU as a research 1 level university, I was concerned that the Dean's "heavy hand" was a negative force for the reputation of Medill. A truly independent faculty in a controversial area such as journalism could not be strengthened or built if there was a threat of administrative control over research and teaching. I expressed my concerns a number of times to John Lavine. At one early point he agreed that he "would not say" the offending terms, but he continued to act on them. Finally, I was asked as a member of the University version of a "senate" (General Faculty Committee) as a representative of Medill to report to the GFC on the Dean's actions. The members of the GFC were concerned from reading various articles in the University publications and from word of mouth. They were worried that the Dean's actions were a violation of University policy and the general traditions of "the academy". While I advised the Dean that the GFC had taken up a discussion on his actions (truth to power), I was also advised by the GFC leadership they would call the Dean for a Q&A before acting. During the change in GFC leadership and Medill's representation on the GFC; action was taken without the invitation to the Dean. This was unfortunate, but the final message to the Dean from the GFC was not entirely inaccurate. Since that time the Dean has continued to implement the 2020 plan for Medill with a smattering of support and input from independent faculty. The final outcomes may be worth the planning, hiring and aggravation. However, the means to the end may still haunt Medill until we can demonstrate our progressive spirit as an independent and thoughtful faculty and student body.
From Chicago Reader Blog
Lavine's absent accusers
November 16th - 6:21 p.m.
Because the future of journalism is so unclear, the curriculum changes at the Medill School of Journalism can't easily be criticized on the grounds that they're not preparing students to function in it. Who knows? So the case against rampaging dean John Lavine, who took over Medill almost two years ago after running Northwestern's Media Management Center, is anchored by the charge that he's left his faculty out of the process. Last June the university's General Faculty Committee unanimously passed a resolution that found Northwestern's “suspension of faculty governance at [Medill] to be unacceptable and in violation of the University’s Statutes.”
On November 12 Lavine and his students engaged in a Q & A in Fisk Hall. Lavine shrugged off the resolution: "The issues they had are not really issues with us, they are issues with the administration." He conceded that the faculty weren't all enthusiastic about the changes, but journalism has changed and "can we really stay where we were?" Here's a partial transcript of the proceedings.
The occasion might have been much more dramatic. Two recent grads, Andrew Bossone and Camille Gerwin, tried to organize a confrontation where someone would rise and read aloud a petition signed by some 80 alumni. It began, "As a member of the alumni community of the Medill School of Journalism, I endorse changes to the school that will improve the quality of the education for students, enhance the reputation of the program and add value to the diploma that I hold. I believe, however, that any changes should be taken with careful consideration and deliberation. These changes MUST include votes from all faculty members . . . "
The petition concludes, "It is [the faculty's] right to decide on the future of the school. It is also their right to express dissent without fear of losing their jobs. I therefore endorse this petition to immediately restore faculty governance to the Medill School of Journalism."
If all had gone as planned, that person would also have read a two-page letter (pdf) by Gerwin and Bossone to the board of trustees that expressed their "concern and discontent." "To begin with," they wrote, "we are appalled at the manner in which these changes are being implemented. Because faculty governance has been suspended, Dean Lavine has been making changes unilaterally or with staff members that support him indiscriminately. Those who have expressed dissent have been demoted or forced out . . . "
If Bossone and Gerwin had been on hand, they might have stood and delivered. But Gerwin is now working in Boston and Bossone in Cairo, Egypt, and from those great distances they could locate no one willing to lead the charge. So the moment passed. The petition and the letter were simply e-mailed and snail-mailed to the trustees and to provost Daniel Linzer. By Friday afternoon there'd been no response.
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Tags: Medill School of Journalism, John Lavine, Andrew Bossone, Camille Gerwin
NU faculty rips Medill
June 22nd - 1:22 p.m.
The faculty senate at Northwestern University has formally accused NU’s administration of abolishing democracy at the Medill School of Journalism. A resolution passed unanimously June 6 by the General Faculty Committee says it found NU’s “suspension of faculty governance at [Medill] to be unacceptable and in violation of the University’s Statutes.” The resolution predicts “curricular changes that are ill considered . . . the demoralization and enmity of the faculty . . . damage to the national reputation of the School . . . the loss of and the inability to hire faculty who believe that the faculty’s role in governance is important for students, faculty and the public.”
The backdrop to this blunt resolution is a series of internal and external audits in recent years that judged Medill--which enjoys seeing itself as a journalism school without equal--as an academic basket case. President Henry Bienen and provost Lawrence Dumas stepped in. Skipping the usual faculty search committee they named John Lavine (pictured) the next dean in late 2005, and in early 2006 they booted aside the incumbent, who had months to go on his contract. Lavine was already on site: he was the founding director of NU's Media Management Center, a fee-charging profit center housed in the journalism school.
An article on Lavine in the fall 2006 issue of the university alumni magazine said he’d been given “free rein to transform the school.” It explained that Bienen and Dumas “suspended formal faculty oversight at Medill for the 3 1/2-year transition period in which Lavine will shepherd the integration and revamping of the [Integrated Marketing Communications] and journalism programs and faculty.” IMC and journalism are Medill’s two basic divisions.
The resolution continues, “If the Administration in the future concludes that an unacceptable academic situation warrants the temporary suspension of the normal role of the faculty ‘to prescribe and define the course of study’ [a quote from NU’s statutes], such suspension should be only for a set, limited period and only after formal approval by the Board of Trustees made after the consideration of the views of all concerned faculty.”
Medill professors I’ve spoken with say a three-and-a-half-year suspension is hardly “temporary.” And it’s news to them if the Board of Trustees had any say in the matter, let alone heard from “concerned faculty.” The GFC resolution was signed by the committee chair, law professor John Elson, and submitted to Bienen and Dumas. They apparently haven't responded. Elson wouldn’t comment, but Lavine did. He said the GFC didn’t talk to him before it acted, and its members obviously don’t know what he knows.
And what’s that? “We’ve had more faculty involvement in the last 18 months than in the decade before that. We have 12 major committees reaching across the entire faculty.” True enough about the dozen committees. But unhappy professors say Lavine just pays lip service to them. A new curriculum is going to be introduced over the next four years, and although professors have been consulted individually, one told me, “We don’t vote on anything. We have no vote. Anybody who dissents is labeled ‘antichange.’” Another outsider heads up the new curriculum project--Mary Nesbitt, who'd been (and remains) managing director of the Media Management Center's readership institute before director of the women-in-newspaper-management project at the Media Management Center until Lavine brought her over.
Lavine wasn’t blindsided by the resolution. Clarke Caywood, who teaches PR and marketing for the IMC side of Medill, was on the GFC when the resolution was proposed, though not when it was voted on (he says he'd have voted "aye"). He says, “I told Lavine a few months ago--truth to power--‘You should know it’s coming.’ His reaction was, ‘I think I’m doing the right thing.’ I don’t disagree with him, but I think his way of doing it leaves something to be desired.” That said, Caywood believes that the Medill faculty has long had a "passive-aggressive" relationship with the administration, with unwillingness to get involved running a close race with willingness to take offense.
A J-School Adapts to the Market - Chronicle.com
The Chronicle of Higher Education ... At the center of the controversy is John Lavine, who became dean in January 2006 after founding and directing ...
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The Chronicle: 6/24/2005: Use the Smart Classroom: A Spanish ...
The Chronicle of Higher Education · Information Technology ... As the game unfolds, Ms. Lavine -- an associate professor of Spanish at the University of ...
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From Chicago Reader Blog
Lavine's absent accusers
November 16th - 6:21 p.m.
Because the future of journalism is so unclear, the curriculum changes at the Medill School of Journalism can't easily be criticized on the grounds that they're not preparing students to function in it. Who knows? So the case against rampaging dean John Lavine, who took over Medill almost two years ago after running Northwestern's Media Management Center, is anchored by the charge that he's left his faculty out of the process. Last June the university's General Faculty Committee unanimously passed a resolution that found Northwestern's “suspension of faculty governance at [Medill] to be unacceptable and in violation of the University’s Statutes.”
On November 12 Lavine and his students engaged in a Q & A in Fisk Hall. Lavine shrugged off the resolution: "The issues they had are not really issues with us, they are issues with the administration." He conceded that the faculty weren't all enthusiastic about the changes, but journalism has changed and "can we really stay where we were?" Here's a partial transcript of the proceedings.
The occasion might have been much more dramatic. Two recent grads, Andrew Bossone and Camille Gerwin, tried to organize a confrontation where someone would rise and read aloud a petition signed by some 80 alumni. It began, "As a member of the alumni community of the Medill School of Journalism, I endorse changes to the school that will improve the quality of the education for students, enhance the reputation of the program and add value to the diploma that I hold. I believe, however, that any changes should be taken with careful consideration and deliberation. These changes MUST include votes from all faculty members . . . "
The petition concludes, "It is [the faculty's] right to decide on the future of the school. It is also their right to express dissent without fear of losing their jobs. I therefore endorse this petition to immediately restore faculty governance to the Medill School of Journalism."
If all had gone as planned, that person would also have read a two-page letter (pdf) by Gerwin and Bossone to the board of trustees that expressed their "concern and discontent." "To begin with," they wrote, "we are appalled at the manner in which these changes are being implemented. Because faculty governance has been suspended, Dean Lavine has been making changes unilaterally or with staff members that support him indiscriminately. Those who have expressed dissent have been demoted or forced out . . . "
If Bossone and Gerwin had been on hand, they might have stood and delivered. But Gerwin is now working in Boston and Bossone in Cairo, Egypt, and from those great distances they could locate no one willing to lead the charge. So the moment passed. The petition and the letter were simply e-mailed and snail-mailed to the trustees and to provost Daniel Linzer. By Friday afternoon there'd been no response.
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Tags: Medill School of Journalism, John Lavine, Andrew Bossone, Camille Gerwin
NU faculty rips Medill
June 22nd - 1:22 p.m.
The faculty senate at Northwestern University has formally accused NU’s administration of abolishing democracy at the Medill School of Journalism. A resolution passed unanimously June 6 by the General Faculty Committee says it found NU’s “suspension of faculty governance at [Medill] to be unacceptable and in violation of the University’s Statutes.” The resolution predicts “curricular changes that are ill considered . . . the demoralization and enmity of the faculty . . . damage to the national reputation of the School . . . the loss of and the inability to hire faculty who believe that the faculty’s role in governance is important for students, faculty and the public.”
The backdrop to this blunt resolution is a series of internal and external audits in recent years that judged Medill--which enjoys seeing itself as a journalism school without equal--as an academic basket case. President Henry Bienen and provost Lawrence Dumas stepped in. Skipping the usual faculty search committee they named John Lavine (pictured) the next dean in late 2005, and in early 2006 they booted aside the incumbent, who had months to go on his contract. Lavine was already on site: he was the founding director of NU's Media Management Center, a fee-charging profit center housed in the journalism school.
An article on Lavine in the fall 2006 issue of the university alumni magazine said he’d been given “free rein to transform the school.” It explained that Bienen and Dumas “suspended formal faculty oversight at Medill for the 3 1/2-year transition period in which Lavine will shepherd the integration and revamping of the [Integrated Marketing Communications] and journalism programs and faculty.” IMC and journalism are Medill’s two basic divisions.
The resolution continues, “If the Administration in the future concludes that an unacceptable academic situation warrants the temporary suspension of the normal role of the faculty ‘to prescribe and define the course of study’ [a quote from NU’s statutes], such suspension should be only for a set, limited period and only after formal approval by the Board of Trustees made after the consideration of the views of all concerned faculty.”
Medill professors I’ve spoken with say a three-and-a-half-year suspension is hardly “temporary.” And it’s news to them if the Board of Trustees had any say in the matter, let alone heard from “concerned faculty.” The GFC resolution was signed by the committee chair, law professor John Elson, and submitted to Bienen and Dumas. They apparently haven't responded. Elson wouldn’t comment, but Lavine did. He said the GFC didn’t talk to him before it acted, and its members obviously don’t know what he knows.
And what’s that? “We’ve had more faculty involvement in the last 18 months than in the decade before that. We have 12 major committees reaching across the entire faculty.” True enough about the dozen committees. But unhappy professors say Lavine just pays lip service to them. A new curriculum is going to be introduced over the next four years, and although professors have been consulted individually, one told me, “We don’t vote on anything. We have no vote. Anybody who dissents is labeled ‘antichange.’” Another outsider heads up the new curriculum project--Mary Nesbitt, who'd been (and remains) managing director of the Media Management Center's readership institute before director of the women-in-newspaper-management project at the Media Management Center until Lavine brought her over.
Lavine wasn’t blindsided by the resolution. Clarke Caywood, who teaches PR and marketing for the IMC side of Medill, was on the GFC when the resolution was proposed, though not when it was voted on (he says he'd have voted "aye"). He says, “I told Lavine a few months ago--truth to power--‘You should know it’s coming.’ His reaction was, ‘I think I’m doing the right thing.’ I don’t disagree with him, but I think his way of doing it leaves something to be desired.” That said, Caywood believes that the Medill faculty has long had a "passive-aggressive" relationship with the administration, with unwillingness to get involved running a close race with willingness to take offense.
A J-School Adapts to the Market - Chronicle.com
The Chronicle of Higher Education ... At the center of the controversy is John Lavine, who became dean in January 2006 after founding and directing ...
chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i49/49a00801.htm - 29k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
The Chronicle: 6/24/2005: Use the Smart Classroom: A Spanish ...
The Chronicle of Higher Education · Information Technology ... As the game unfolds, Ms. Lavine -- an associate professor of Spanish at the University of ...
chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i42/42b01001.htm - 24k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
[ More results from chronicle.com ]
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