Volume 18 Number 10 CampusUpdate Feb. 7, 2007 PUBLISHED BY THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS FOR THE SUNY OSWEGO COMMUNITY Double play: Oswego has 2 of 5 finalists for national PR award Every year, fi ve fi nalists from across the nation are chosen in the PRWeek Student of the Year competi- tion. This year, two are SUNY Oswego students. Public relations majors Melissa Andrews and Leila Boukassi competed in the fi nals Jan. 28 and 29 in New York City. The winner, which will be announced in March, receives $5,000 and a paid internship at a top PR agency in New York City, second place receives $3,000 and a paid internship, and other fi nal- ists receive $1,000. Andrews and Boukassi prepared 10-page campaign plans for Motorola in Professor Tina Pierracini’s “Advanced Public Relations” class, which included an entry form for the competition, but admitted they were surprised to learn they were fi nalists. “I wanted to do well on it,” Andrews said of the project. “I really didn’t expect to get top fi ve in the country.” Both their projects showed “creativity and attention to client needs,” Pieraccini said. “They did not just do a generic campaign — they really thought about the target audience and came up with campaigns based on target insight.” In New York, each fi nalist had to present to a pro- fessional panel and make a phone pitch to a reporter based on their campaigns. But they didn’t know they Two to go — Oswego is doubly represented in a prestigious national competition, as public relations ma- would have to do, on very short notice, a presentation jors Melissa Andrews (left) and Leila Boukassi are two of the fi ve fi nalists for the PRWeek Student of the on how they would launch a campaign to build buzz Year award. for a new product. PRWeek. “That was pretty scary,” Boukassi admitted. spected, so that says a lot for us,” Boukassi added. “They wanted to see how quickly we could respond They will learn how they placed at the March 8 Pieraccini, who described Andrews and Boukassi to something, and how well and creatively we could awards dinner at Tavern on the Green in New York as “both hard workers and goal-oriented,” also cred- do it,” said Boukassi, a junior from Great Neck. City. “Everyone in the industry is going to go,” which ited Ron Graeff of the broadcasting faculty. One of Finalists also had dinner with impressive guests will make it a great networking opportunity, said An- Graeff’s classes videotaped her students and asked that included top management from sponsors Hill drews, a senior from Rochester. questions about their presentations. & Knowlton Public Relations and the editor of “The awards are really sought-after and really re- See ‘National PR award,’ page 4 College signs exchange agreements with six more universities in China SUNY Oswego has new exchange agreements with “The agreement signed in 1993 seemed to allow Similarly, the opportunities for Oswego faculty to six universities in China, and its 13-year-old agree- much broader exchange and collaboration between teach at the Chinese universities are attractive, Opello ment with Capital Normal University in Beijing has the two universities,” Irminger noted. “Capital noted. The Chinese universities, he said, “have plenty been renewed, announced Walter Opello, associate Normal expressed strong interest in expanding our of money to support this activity. If we can get fac- provost for international education and programs, on current practices to include bilateral exchanges of ulty, they’ll take care of transportation. They’ll take the return of a delegation to China in January. students and faculty.” care of room and board.” Opello along with Dean of Business Lanny Karns The Chinese government grants scholarships to Opello predicted that as many as 20 students and and Xiaoqin Sun Irminger of the School of Education Chinese professors to go to the United States, but four faculty may come to Oswego from among the visited all seven universities last month. As China’s they need to fi nd a host university, Opello said. Yang seven Chinese universities in the next couple of years. global impact grows, Opello said, “We thought it Mingjia of Wuhan University is at Oswego this year As exchange students, the Chinese students and would be a good idea to have more opportunities in to work with Opello and Steve Rosow in political sci- Oswego students would each pay the standard tuition China.” Irminger, who joined the department of cur- ence. Several Chinese faculty members at the various at their home university, Opello explained. He said he riculum and instruction this year, helped make many universities expressed interest in coming to Oswego in anticipates that some Chinese students who sample of the contacts, he said. the future, Opello said. Irminger noted, for example, Oswego as exchange students may stay to become The new agreements are with Shanghai Normal that a professor of philosophy at Capital Normal full fee-paying students here or return later for gradu- University, Wenzhou University, Wuhan University would like to come to Oswego as a visiting scholar. ate degrees. q — Julie Harrison Blissert of Technology, and Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Zhejiang Gongshang University and Zhejiang Uni- versity of Technology, all in Hangzhou. Chamber honors college as ‘community investor’ The area around Shanghai and to the south and west, where all the universities are located, is a pros- SUNY Oswego has received one of two Communi- veil a new report on the college’s economic impact perous one, Opello observed. Shanghai Normal’s ty Investor Awards from the Greater Oswego-Fulton on the county, Central New York and the state next director of international exchange programs “com- Chamber of Commerce. month. In addition to the impact of the college’s mented that more and more of their students would The awards are for individuals or organizations operating budget — including purchases in the com- like to study abroad, and many of them have the fi - who have given substantial investment and com- munity by the college, its affi liates and its employees nancial means to do so,” Irminger said. mitment to the improvement of the communities of — SUNY Oswego has had signifi cant capital asset All the agreements, which allow for exchange of Oswego and Fulton and their business communities, activity in recent years — $28.6 million last year students and faculty between Oswego and the Chi- according to chamber guidelines. Fulton Savings alone — that in many cases employs local contractors nese universities, had been signed by the respective Bank also received the 2007 award. and workers. Spending in the community by students, presidents by last week, except that with Wuhan, “Realizing the existing economic impact SUNY their guests and visitors to the college and its many whose president was away, Opello said. Oswego has on the area and the addition of the fabu- public events further boosts the college’s economic The agreement with Capital Normal is active — lous Campus Center,” said Jennifer B. Hill, executive impact. “Two (Oswego) students are on their way there this director of the chamber, the board felt that “SUNY The Campus Center, a social hub of college life, semester,” Opello said — but the Beijing university Oswego was a perfect fi t as a recipient of the Com- is also a community resource as local groups use the has mainly served as a study-abroad destination for munity Investor Award.” ice arena and campus events in the center are open to Oswego students. College President Deborah F. Stanley plans to un- people in the greater community. q Inside: • King awards, page 2 • People in action, page 2 • Science Today lineup, page 2• Graduate job survey, page 3 • Spotlight, page 4 • Speaker James Burke, page 4 • Calendar highlights, page 4 1 Vol.Vol. 18, No. 10 Campus Update Feb. 7, 2007 College trends People in action Compensating faculty “Conventional wisdom has it that private univer- sities are better places to work than public uni- versities. The pay can be signifi cantly better and tight state budgets have forced many public in- stitutions to minimize raises and enlarge classes. But information released from a major research study of junior faculty satisfaction suggests that there are plenty of ways that public institutions — and we’re not just talking Berkeley and Michi- gan here — can be among the most desirable places for young professors to work. The new data are from the Collaborative on Academic Ca- reers in Higher Education, a Harvard University- based project. That analysis found that junior professors placed increasing importance on issues such as the clarity of tenure policies or the avail- ability of support for balancing work and family life when evaluating their job satisfaction. and publics can compete with the Ivies if they are creative about their policies.” — Inside Higher Ed, Jan. 25, 2007 Native vs. immigrant diversity King’s legacy — The 18th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at SUNY Oswego recognized the “More than a quarter of the black students enrolled legacy of the civil rights leader and the contributions of some members of the campus community on Jan. at selective American colleges and universities are 25. The Sigma Omicron Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha presented its Martin Luther King Jr. Community immigrants or the children of immigrants, accord- Service Awards to R. Deborah Davis, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction; Grace Mukupa, ing to a new paper by sociologists at Princeton assistant residence hall director of Mackin Hall and a graduate student; and Gurdeep Skolnik, assistant University and the University of Pennsylvania.