Faculty flaunts its expertise in the press

Author: Rachael Jennings

After the flood of Web pages directly linked to the College, www.google.com brings up a few interesting search results on Middlebury: a New York Times article on Neil Waters' history class and the banning of Wikipedia as a relevant source of research, a variety of sites describing the College's environmental initiatives, detailed accounts of Quidditch matches and pieces on the Amethyst initiative.

Of 976,000 hits for "Middlebury College," some search results are very focused on a small part of the College's activities instead of painting a whole picture of the school - for example, items relating to McCardell's drinking-age initiative or a magical sport phenomenon, though interesting, are small segments of the College's expansive repertoire.

The College gets press for everything - even those things over which it has no direct control.

Thus, Middlebury College's Public Affairs Office is making a purposeful effort to get the College recognized in a strong academic context.

The Public Affairs Office works daily to pitch stories to the media about on-campus success stories, student and faculty accomplishments, new programs and courses - constantly publishing materials on topics from the arts to colloquia. In fact, they set the goal of publishing over 100 press releases a year.

Basically, they are out to make the College shine in its best light.

Along with responding to local, regional and national calls with requests for information and interviews, the office monitors the "hits" that they receive each day (which include articles like "College Presidents Stand up for a Common Sense? I'll Drink to That," and "The War on College Cafeteria Trays").

Beyond their regular routine, the members of Public Affairs - including Director Sarah Ray, Associate Director Blair Kloman and Assistant Director Stephen Diehl - are trying to promote faculty "experts."

"Promoting faculty is one way we promote Middlebury - by demonstrating that Middlebury and its faculty are leading the dialogue on national issues," said Ray.

The faculty is certainly receiving a good amount of press lately - Economics Professor David Colander has provided background information for various reporters on the current economic bailout and has contributed quotes to several pieces for The New York Times.

"When I first came to Middlebury," said Colander, "the Public Affairs program was very helpful in introducing me to people at a variety of newspapers, thereby supplementing my contacts."

Thereafter, Colander had the contacts established and did not need to defer to Public Affairs as often. He continues to provide information for media sources, but researches purely what he is interested in and not just that which is considered "newsworthy."

"Public Affairs can help young professors, but I don't think it is a good research strategy to try to work on issues that the press is interested in," he added.

Professor Matt Dickinson is an expert on the American presidency and American politics, and in light of the recent election, has gathered a great deal of press attention - he even received e-mails from a newspaper reporter in Ecuador.

Public Affairs was also instrumental in convincing him to publish his presidential blog (http://blogs.middlebury.edu/presidentialpower/), which attracts significant attention.

Some of the new initiatives that Public Affairs are taking to expand the positive effects of such publicity include publishing a guidebook titled "Working with Public Affairs: Making the Most of the Media." This manual offers tips to faculty and staff on working with Public Affairs to interact with outside media.

This useful tool includes topics ranging from responding to calls from reporters to writing op-ed pieces.

"With the immediacy of the Internet, today's media are no longer limited to print, radio and TV," the guidebook states. "We may feel remote here in Vermont, but even the smallest blurb in the online edition of The Campus can become a national sensation within minutes. The more 'in control' we can be of our own news, the better."

The guidebook also makes suggestions on how to be more well-received by the media: for example, it notes that when being interviewed, reporters love statistics that state the ideas being discussed in simple, concrete terms.

"We want the faculty to know that we are always looking for new individuals who can speak about newsworthy topics," said Ray.

These individuals can now be featured on the Public Affairs Experts page (http://www.middlebury.edu/about/pubaff/facultyexperts/), where various faculty "experts" can promote up-to-date resource materials for the media on their areas of expertise.

Ray warned that faculty members should not be put off by the word "experts."

"This description doesn't mean that a faculty member must know literally everything about a particular topic to be interviewed about it," she explained, "They know far more than the average reader, listener, or viewer who will be reading, listening to, or watching the interview, and that's all that matters."

Public Affairs has also begun incorporating video and audio clips on the Public Affairs web page. Video clips on the Experts Pages specifically have been a great success.

"You can see Jason Mittell speaking about changing trends in television; Jack Byrne discussing why we should care about sustainability or Allison Stanger on privatization of government," commented Ray. "Adding the clips makes our pitches of these experts to the media much stronger - it also makes the person come alive for anyone visiting the Web site."

Experts are in high demand: most of the calls that come into the Public Affairs office are media looking for an expert on a particular topic that is in the news. Most of the time, the staff members that Public Affairs contact are happy to speak with reporters and relay their expertise.

An exciting opportunity that the Public Affairs office is bringing to Middlebury is a brief talk to the faculty and staff conducted by New York Times Associate Managing Editor Chuck Strum. During the event on Oct. 23 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 216 of Bicentennial Hall, Strum will offer interview tips for the faculty attendees.

In interacting with professors and connecting them with the media, Public Affairs hopes to increase the prestige of the College's name.

Part of Middlebury's increased focus on the press is a stretch for the image of "First Global Liberal Arts College" - a phrase coined by Vice President for Communications Michael McKenna.

"We deliver small, student-teacher centered learning environments on a broad array of interdisciplinary subjects in a variety of settings all over the world, from Vermont to California, from Paris to Hangzhou," said Michael Geisler, vice president of the Middlebury Language Schools and Schools Abroad.

"This makes us more globally engaged and internationally recognized than all of our competitors in the category of leading national colleges, while allowing us to retain the small intellectual learning communities that is characteristic of a liberal arts college," he added.

"As Middlebury's profile has risen, the demand for our experts has risen," said Ray. "The faculty are the heart of the College and they help attract great students who eventually become loyal alumni. The staff contribute to the quality of life for students, and the health and operations of the institution, so their contributions are important to highlight too."

Public Affairs works tirelessly to secure a positive image for the College - an ideal image that varies between professors and students, but the heart of which remains the same.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Laurie Essig, an expert on pop culture, described this image as "an environment in which critical inq
uiry is encouraged and nourished."

Dickinson commented that he hopes that the vision of the College will be as diverse as the students' interests and ideas fostered here and as colorful and different as each of those 976,000 hits for "Middlebury College."

"I think," said Dickinson, "that we should not be viewed as dominated by one particular viewpoint, whether it be on the environment or the presidential race or the other pressing issues of the day, and instead viewed as a college that embraces diversity of thought and challenges conventional wisdom. I hope the Public Affairs Office can contribute to that perspective."