Students learn art of persuasion

Author: Molly Dwyer

Despite the fact that Middlebury students have a quarter of the workload and quadruple the amount of free time during Winter Term, between the parties and ski trips, students are exploring non-traditional academic classes that are preparing them for the "real world."

"It is good to take advantage of vocational classes during J-term when you can actually learn skills that you could potentially use in your career someday," said Abby Hoeschler '10.5, who is taking one such class.

This January, students are engaged in a number of courses designed to give them exposure to skills and topics they would not normally cover in the classroom. One class that strives to help students develop important skills is "Language of Persuasion," which teaches students how to communicate effectively in order to bring change to Middlebury College. Vice President of Communications Michael McKenna and Visiting Professor Bee Ottinger '70 co-teach this interdisciplinary course by combining their experiences in the advertising industry with different media forms.

On the first day of class, students were asked to brainstorm ideas about what they would like to change about Middlebury. The students decided to spend the month designing campaigns to revive Winter Carnival, promote Middlebury's nightclub, The Bunker, fight budget cuts in dining halls and encourage a healthy balance between work and play.

"We were ready for anything," said McKenna. "If students wanted to address world or societal issues, we could have done that. As it was, choosing subjects concerning life at Middlebury worked out fine. It's always easier to influence opinion when one knows the subject and target audience well. As a result, by choosing things here on campus that the students care about, I think the work is coming along nicely."

Ever since the Friday off from classes before Winter Carnival was exchanged for a day off in the spring for a student symposium, students became concerned about losing a tradition that brings light to long winters at Middlebury. Some of students in "Language of Persuasion" teamed up in order to design a campaign that might encourage students to join together and revive this year's Carnival.

Open for the first time last year under the name "Xanadu," The Bunker seeks to be the newest social outlet at Middlebury. Open on Friday nights to the entire student body, The Bunker functions as a dance floor and bar for those students of age. In order to help build the popularity of the fledging institution, the students in this class decided to continue to promote this social space as a guaranteed, weekly party.

Another group of students was particularly disappointed by the budget cuts in the Middlebury dining halls, in particular the turning off of the juice machines at dinner time. This group is campaigning for the restoration of juice at night, hoping to kick-start the movement with the tagline, "Bring back the damn juice."

The struggle to balance work and play is a common issue with Middlebury kids. How much time should you spend in the library? How can you take advantage of Middlebury and Vermont? What do you want to remember about college? One group of students is trying to encourage students to re-think their routines in order to get the most out of their liberal arts education at Middlebury.

The students, along with McKenna and Ottinger, have spent the term coming up with tag lines, logos and slogans to effectively communicate with the community. McKenna has enjoyed seeing the interesting ideas his students have produced thus far.

"Bee and I are both pleased with the work," said McKenna. "I think even if the students never plan on working in advertising or public relations or design, they are discovering some creative talent and abilities that I hope they will be able to apply in whatever field they choose."

While the students were working on the four ongoing projects, McKenna sought a fresh perspective from his students regarding his project, Midd 68, a campaign to encourage the community to keep their rooms and offices at 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Students came up with headlines ranging from "68, because 69 is just too hot" and "68 degrees, not bad for Vermont." Mr. McKenna was very impressed.

"I think the work is very good, and I have to admit some used some contemporary vernacular I wouldn't have thought of in a million years," said McKenna.

Though this is a class that probably would not be offered during a normal semester at Middlebury, it is the type of class that suits Winter Term perfectly, as it teaches an unusual lesson that will be valuable to the students throughout their lives, whether or not they choose to go into advertising. McKenna hopes that the students' work in the class will open their eyes to the everyday practices in advertising.

"At the very least, the students will be able to look at magazine ads and watch television commercials with greater insight," said McKenna. "They should all be well-informed critics of the Super Bowl spots this year."