I just received a note from Jennie Donohue, professional lecturer of public relations at Marist College, providing an update on the activities of Marist's Red Foxes Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). I was so impressed with the chapter's accomplishments this year, that I decided to share some of this good news with my blog followers.
According to Jennie, who is the chapter's faculty adviser, the chapter's executive board established several goals at the beginning of the school year last fall. These goals included recruiting and retaining more members in the chapter.
Of note, I served as the chapter's first faculty adviser when it received its charter from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) in December 2005. The chapter attracted immediate national attention by recruiting more than 70 members during its first semester of operations in spring 2006. According to PRSSA national headquarters, this accomplishment represented one of the fastest starts for a new PRSSA chapter on record -- made even more remarkable by the relatively small size of the Marist student body (around 4,000 undergraduates). However, over the next few years, membership began to decline, so the chapter leadership undertook efforts to survey members and find ways to encourage students to join and remain in the chapter.
The chapter's efforts have finally paid off in an impressive fashion. As of March 2012, the Red Foxes chapter reported the following accomplishments:
- An enrollment of 81 paid members, which nearly doubled membership (48 members in 2010-2011).
- Establishment of an active special events committee that has already built a strong reputation on campus.
- Development of a full staff for the chapter's newsletter esPResso (click here).
- Enhancement of the chapter's blog (click here).
- Organization of a new student-run public relations firm, North Road Communications. The firm has already taken on professional clients like the Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of the American Red Cross.
- Introduction of a chapter awards program.
In addition to this good news, Marist is proud to report that the current Chapter President Alexis Murphy, who will graduate in May, received national recognition for her work over the last year. First, she authored an article about the chapter that was published in the USA Today college edition.
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| Alexis Murphy receiving PRSSA Gold Key Award |
Second, she was one of only a handful of students in the nation to receive the prestigious PRSSA Gold Key Award for her leadership. Alexis has been very influential in the chapter's success, serving on the executive board as president-elect and then president. Her blog posts, tweets, and news releases have been published by PRSSA on its social media sites, which has helped put Marist's PRSSA chapter on the national map.
I wanted to add a congratulations to Jennie Donohue, as well. After several years as faculty adviser, I felt it was time to turn over my responsibilities to someone else. That someone else could not have been better than Jennie. Jennie, who was active in PRSSA as an undergraduate student, has gone on to earn her MBA and enjoy a very successful career in public relations practice and teaching. Marist and our students benefit greatly from Jennie's professionalism, energy, ideas, positive attitude, and ability to inspire students.
Finally, thanks to the many professional mentors (including Marist alumni) who have helped and pledged support to the Red Foxes PRSSA members. There are far too many of these extremely talented and incredibly busy professionals to name here, but of the professionals I have worked with five come to mind. Thanks to Michael O'Brien (Ketchum), Tim Massie (former Marist chief of public affairs), Gerry McNulty (Marist Communication Intern Director), Jim Keller (IBM), and Justin Meise (River Communications Inc.), who have dedicate countless hours to travel and engagement with our students, without any compensation other than the pride they gain from helping to develop the next generation of public relations professionals.
Please join me in congratulating the members, advisers, and mentors of the Marist Red Foxes Chapter of PRSSA!
Mark
