Journalism schools tend to operate on an industry model [of teaching entry-level skills for each specific area] ... [this] however, does not give students the sufficient understanding of the media as a whole that they will need to advance later in their careers. An alternative approach would be to use a generic model of ... mass communication education. (p. 9)

A broader-based exposure "to all the major communication functions ... particularly at the management level" would best prepare students "to participate ... in strategic communication planning" and succeed in "the increasingly fast changing media and professional environments that they will encounter" (Duncan, Caywood & Newsom, 1993, p. 10, 17-18). The exercise of managerial skills, for example, distinguishes quality "higher-level" public relations from the less-than-stellar levels of the profession =BE "Departments cannot be described as ‘excellent’ ... unless they also employ managers to supervise the work of technicians" (Grunig, 1989, p. 18). Moreover, a combined group of public relations and advertising students cross-training on projects is "the new type of educational experience" the Task Force on Integrated Communication recommended to prepare future practitioners for a marketplace where there is "accelerating movement toward overlapping responsibilities ... as both advertising agencies and public relations firms serve clients by providing increasingly similar professional offerings" (Duncan, Caywood & Newsom, 1993, pp. 5-6). As the Task Force concluded:

Both business and professional education have sometimes pursued specialization in the practice of advertising and public relations without building stronger relationships ... as well as with management, marketing, and other marketing communication-related areas. Integration through new knowledge, research, cross-training and education could develop a more liberally educated student in schools of ... mass communications. (Duncan, Caywood & Newsom, 1993, p. 26)

At the same time, educators and professionals alike have recognized that such training must go beyond just developing basic skills. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching attributes the current "crisis in education" to the fact that "we have failed to provide education for citizenship that is still the most important responsibility of the nation’s schools and colleges" (Newman, 1985, p. 31). According to the Foundation, higher education should be in the forefront of "service to the nation" (Mencher, 1994, p. 72) and "dealing with this issue should be a priority for universities" (Shachar and Weiss, 1996, p. 8). The call to civic involvement underscores the profession’s pledge "to promote and maintain high standards of public service" (Public Relations Society of America, 1988, p. 1).

Public relations educators have recognized the importance of a values-based curriculum. In a review of public relations education objectives (Ritchie, 1993), an emphasis on "the value system that the educational process fosters" and "the need to produce graduates equipped with a well-constructed value system" was seen as more important than the development of technical skills (Ritchie, 1993, pp. 186-189; Lordan, 1996, p. 5). A national study of "active learning" by public relations faculty (Lubbers and Gorcyca, 1996) indicated "strong use" of activities-oriented techniques in the classroom. Such teaching methods were used to develop students’ problem-solving and oral/written communication skills and to prompt discussion of attitudes and values. Moreover, when "active learning" becomes "cooperative learning," whereby students achieve common goals through teamwork that requires both individual accountability and effective social skills (Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 1991), society and the public relations profession ultimately are better served by graduates who value two-way communication and consensus-building.

"Service learning," which can be traced back to John Dewey and his work on citizen education (Fertman, 1994), integrates service and course content and directly "… encourages a sense of civic responsibility, while developing theoretical and professional skills ... providing genuine assistance to needy social services and organizations ... [and] improv[ing]the relationship between ... universities and their home communities (Shachar and Weiss, 1996, pp. 6, 10). "

Still, the teaching of civic values through "service learning" is not an important part of the public relations curriculum. Although "public relations is uniquely suited for this kind of social enhancement, in that communication skills are central to the solution of many social problems" (Shachar and Weiss, 1996, p. 1), public relations educators report only just an "occasional" use of field trips and volunteer activities to bring the community into the classroom (Lubbers and Gorcyca, 1996). Few schools of communication report offering service learning courses.

METHODOLOGY

From February 1995 to May 1996, faculty advisors from PRSSA and Ad Group chapters and from communication classes recruited 36 University of Miami School of Communication undergraduate and graduate public relations, advertising, communication studies and organizational communication students to work as volunteers (and a few for internship credit) on a variety of one-time projects and ongoing campaigns at the Hank Meyer facility. To participate, students were required to have a minimum 2.5 grade point average in their major and have sophomore standing. Volunteers represented the diversity of UM’s student population, including African-American, Hispanic-American and international students from such countries as Ecuador, Germany and Italy. In keeping with the mission of the office — "Use Service as a Learning Tool" – all clients were local community-based nonprofit agencies or UM-related activities. The university provided an operating budget for the office and some expenses were shared with Meyer.

Students were organized by experience and interests into teams of four or five account executives to serve a particular client. Each team was supervised by an account manager — usually an outstanding junior or senior recruited and selected by the faculty member who directed the firm (this author). Account managers reported to an office manager — a paid work-study graduate student in communication studies who reported to the faculty director. Account managers were required to review and edit their account executives’ work before sending it to the office manager and faculty director for approval. Account executives were asked to review one another’s work. Students were required to work a minimum of 8 hours a week; team members, where possible, were scheduled to work together. Office hours were Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At the end of the 1995-96 academic year, student volunteers were asked to complete a written survey about their work experience. The survey included semantic differential, numerical, Likert, and open-ended questions.

INTEGRATED APPROACH TO LEARNING

Over a period of 15 months, students assisted 12 clients, including the South Florida Chapter of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, American Forests, and UM’s Office of Volunteer Services. Consultancy services ranged from designing, writing and producing publications (brochures, posters, directories of services, videos) and media publicity (PSAs, news releases, media kits) to conducting public information campaigns and fundraising and community service special events.

Both the facility, with its full range of business equipment, and faculty/practitioner involvement provided the professional environment and support necessary for maximum learning. Posted client activity calendars, weekly status reports, and staff meetings with the faculty director kept management informed and projects on-track. Often, staff meetings were used as management training sessions for account managers. The faculty director maintained office hours two days a week, working directly with students. Meyer maintained an office and often visited to brainstorm, supervise projects and attend staff meetings, as did area practitioners. Other faculty provided guidance as students worked on School-related projects, which included on-campus publicity for communication scholarships and external campaigns for the School’s Bill Cosford Cinema and public relations graduate program.

One campaign is particularly noteworthy. Students worked for more than a year to raise community awareness and support for the UM School of Medicine’s Maternal Lifestyles Project. The program, based at Jackson Memorial Hospital, provides counseling and other assistance to single-mothers who have put their babies at risk through substance abuse. Students solicited donations of diapers, toys and other baby supplies for use by the organization as incentives for mothers to come to the clinic for check-ups. Ultimately, students organized a special luncheon in April 1996 to thank the mothers for their participation and to provide them with additional assistance. Students solicited baby supplies, grocery store and toy store gift certificates, door prizes, food and refreshments from 30 public and private schools, churches, synagogues and businesses. More than 80 women and their families attended the luncheon at the hospital, where they also received books for their children (purchased with cash donations from the schools). Leftover food was delivered by the students to Camillus House, a homeless shelter in downtown Miami. As Project Coordinator Dr. Daniel Messinger and Case Manager Yamile Valdes noted after the event, "because of the Hank Meyer group, this party was a huge success. Their perseverance, energy and incredible professionalism were apparent throughout the whole time. ... these students truly gave 100% of themselves to better serve their community" (Messinger and Valdes, 1996, p. 1).

The fundraising experience later proved particularly valuable for three students who, in a public relations campaigns course taught by the faculty director, solicited sponsors for a kite festival on Miami Beach in April 1997 to benefit Little Acorns, an organization that serves disadvantaged youngsters and their parents. Half of the students in class, in fact, were Meyer "graduates," and their on-the-job training in media relations, research and written/oral communication clearly had prepared them for the course project. Their efforts generated more than $480,000 in sponsorships and extensive radio, television and print media coverage for the event.

The Meyer facility also served as a clubhouse for UM PRSSA board and membership meetings and as a venue for community-oriented workshops. The PRSSA meetings benefited both the chapter and the facility; new account executives were recruited from PRSSA and Meyer students joined PRSSA, several eventually serving as club officers. The hosting of a workshop for the Arts and Business Council of Miami in April 1995 was part of a strategy to offer the office as a community resource. Thirty representatives of nonprofit organizations were coached on corporate sponsorships, event planning and media promotion by a panel of consultants, radio station personnel and the Meyer faculty director.

DEVELOPING THE "WHOLE" STUDENT

At the end of the 1995-96 academic year, students were surveyed on their volunteer "experience." Sixty-four percent said they had little or no experience when they started at the office. Most students felt they had received valuable working experience (91%), rating its value as a 7.9 and the quality of the projects assigned as a 7.6 on a 10-point scale. Most felt that they were able to put into practice what they had learned in class (82%), rating the experience as having been "better than I had expected" (64%). Interestingly, a majority (55%) were neutral or opposed to moving the Meyer "office" to the university’s main campus. Most important, most said they would consider working at the office the following semester (82%) and would tell their friends about it (91%). A majority (64%) were members either of PRSSA or of the Ad Group.

The experiment seems to demonstrate the effectiveness of various teaching methods employing client-based techniques (Quarles, 1987; Kinnick and Cameron, 1994; Sallot, 1996), organizing students into public relations agencies and "real world" office settings (Rayfield and Pincus, 1987; Hunt, 1993), student peer review of writing (Rayfield, 1988), practitioner feedback on projects (The International Public Relations Association, 1982). Another outcome involved synergistic learning effects on membership in PRSSA and other student organizations (Pohl and Butler, 1994) which, in this instance, prompted PRSSA members to actively participate in Meyer projects. Additionally, the office structure gave students the opportunity to develop strategic decision-making and technical as well as managerial skills, which should be an essential part of undergraduate communication education (Grunig, 1989; Werner, 1993; Kinnick and Cameron, 1994; Fall, 1996) –and which professionals contend are among the most important factors for career success (Schwartz, Yarbrough and Shakra, 1992; Werner, 1993).

TOWARD A "RENEWED" PROFESSIONAL ETHIC

Perhaps the most important outcome was that the "experiment" suggests civic-values formation can be integrated into the learning process as a valuable component in education. Students developed both professional skills and a sense of commitment to service of their community – skills that proved advantageous later in their academic careers and values that spurred an enthusiasm for further charitable projects. For example, one of the Meyer students later developed a strategic plan for community outreach while interning for UM’s Athletic Department. The plan was adopted, an office of Community Relations formed, and the student was hired upon graduation to implement the program.

Just as journalists try to stimulate citizen involvement in media-citizen projects that address neighborhood crime, drugs and other community issues, perhaps it is time public relations educators and practitioners to consider rededicating themselves to the cause of good citizenship through similar projects, classroom-based service-learning courses and civic programs. When educators and practitioners foster a spirit of community service, students are more fully prepared for the challenges that lie ahead – and public relations can more fully realize its potential in society.