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[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Black-college PR directors share challenges, sense of mission

Oct. 6, 2005

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Vicki Brown*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Telling the stories of historically black,
United Methodist-related colleges has always been a challenge, but
communication directors who came together to strengthen connections with
one another and church agencies said their sense of mission keeps them
going.

Larry Acker, public relations director for Wiley College in Marshall,
Texas, said he left his job at another historically black college a few
years ago to become tourism director for a small, historic town in
Texas.

"I knew in six months I'd made a mistake," Acker said, at a Sept. 28
meeting of public relations staff organized by the Black College Fund
and United Methodist Communications. "It was the difference between
filling rooms at bed and breakfasts and helping kids graduate from
college."

Fortunately, Acker said, he was offered a job at Wiley College.

Cynthia Bond Hopson, the new assistant general secretary of the Black
College Fund and Ethnic Concerns at the United Methodist Board of Higher
Education and Ministry, said the meeting was aimed at helping black
colleges get their message out.

"I think they are faced with challenges of limited resources,
competition for their students and small staffs. It's critical that we
help them tell their stories," she said.

Public relations staff from nine of the 11 historically black colleges
received tips from Michael Smart, national news director at Brigham
Young University, about getting coverage of their colleges in national
newspapers such as The New York Times and USA Today. Staff members from
both UMCom and the Board of Higher Education and Ministry also talked
about how the agencies can help the black colleges tell their stories.

Smart told the public relations directors that it was the story and
their pitch that were important, not the size of their college. "If the
story is interesting, reporters don't care where it came from," Smart
said.

He advised knowing the market they're pitching to, studying the
newspaper or magazine to learn who writes about that subject, and timing
some pitches based on news events. For instance, a professor's research
about an alternative fuel source is more likely to catch a reporter's
interest if gas is $3 a gallon.

Smart said that even colleges with big endowments and huge advertising
budgets need press coverage because a story told by a third party has
credibility that advertising lacks.

Staff from the colleges shared success stories and brainstormed about
placing stories.

For instance, Kennie Hicks of Philander Smith College in Little Rock,
Ark., said Walter M. Kimbrough, president of the college, is the
school's first president from the hip-hop generation.

"He really connects with the students," Hicks said, adding that
Kimbrough sometimes quotes hip-hop performers. At age 38, he is the
youngest of the presidents of the historically black United
Methodist-related colleges.

Hicks compiled a list of publications and approaches she might use in
getting national news organizations to write a profile of the president
of her college.

Other stories discussed by the group included mad cow disease research
done by Omar Bagasra, a professor of biology at Claflin University in
Orangeburg, S.C.

Acker said actor Denzel Washington is directing a movie about the Wiley
College debate team of the 1930s. However, Acker said, when the Academy
Award-winning actor is on campus, the film cannot be publicized because
Washington wants to work.

Smart and others told him not to worry, that when the movie comes out,
he will be awash in publicity. Jill Scoggins, public relations director
at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., suggested that Acker get
to know the studio's public relations staff, so that he will be able to
take advantage of the work they are doing - as well as their large
budgets. She said she has had success working with drug companies to
publicize research and trials involving Meharry doctors.

The movie, "The Great Debaters," is produced by Miramax and centers on
Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley from 1927 to 1947, and his debate
team. The team defeated the debate team from Harvard.

*Brown is an associate editor and writer in the Office of Interpretation
of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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