Read about Communications Prof. Andy Porter's partnership with the International Association of Business Communicators Boston chapter in the article below, originally published in the IABC Boston May-June 2013 e-newsletter.
STUDENTS' CORNER
IABC Boston and Simmons College Partner Up!
By Brian Moore
IABC Boston understands that the communications professionals of the future are the students of today. And during a strategic planning session last summer, chapter Board members identified student involvement with the chapter as a significant area of opportunity in the Membership Development arena.
Target No. 1? The Simmons College Communications Department, home of former IABC Boston president Andy Porter.
The goal? To foster a mutually beneficial relationship between chapter members and Simmons communications students. Students could benefit from building relationships with IABC Boston members, and members could benefit from having a window into the trend-setting communication methods that students are bringing with them into the workforce.
And then there are internships and jobs. Students need them, and chapter members need a talent pipeline for their organizations. Put the students and the members together, and good things could happen!
So Porter and Brian Moore, the chapter's VP of Membership Development, began talking in the fall about partnership opportunities between the chapter and the communications department.
This led to a guest presentation by Moore at a Simmons class in December and another in April 2013 by Moore and chapter VP of Social Media Tracy Zimmerman. In both instances, Porter had prepared his students with an overview of organizational communications. Moore and Zimmerman presented case studies from their experiences, as well as an overview of the benefits of IABC Boston involvement.
"Brian's description of the association gave me the feeling that no matter where I am living, there will be a community of communications professionals behind me to lend their advice and support," Simmons junior Michaella Giorgio said. "I look forward to becoming a member in the near future and attending their networking event in [August]."
Junior Sarah J. Galvez enjoyed hearing about the presenters' career journeys. "It was great to hear Brian and Tracy speak candidly about the journey their career paths have taken as communicators," Sarah said. "It was especially important for us to hear this at a time when many of our students are just thinking about what field of communications to pursue after graduation."
Students were also interested in how communications play such an important role in an organization's culture internally and its brand and reputation externally.
"It was great to hear each of their unique perspectives," sophomore Amelia Cordischi said. "I found the idea that public relations can also be thought of as creating a culture very interesting."
IABC Boston and Simmons are discussing more ways to strengthen their relationship, and the chapter plans to extend its college outreach initiative to an additional college this fall. Chapter members will soon be invited through a survey to indicate their interest in hosting a communications student as an intern or a job shadow, or their interest in speaking to a communications class. IABC Boston members should contact Andy Porter to discuss filling internship or job openings at your company with Simmons communications students. And who knows? Good things could happen!
Brian Moore is IABC Boston VP of Membership and Internal Communications Manager at Ahold, USA.
The AAUP publication Academe and Nick Romeo of The Daily Beast examine the changing landscape of higher education.
(Click the cover image to view a PDF of the full issue!)
The latest issue of the award-winning magazine COMMTRACKS has arrived!
Led by a team of five students as an independent study advised by Simmons College Department of Communications faculty members, COMMTRACKS is our department's annual magazine comprised of feature articles and faculty and alumnae profiles.
Congratulations to everyone involved on a fantastic 2013 issue!
To request a hard copy, please e-mail yasmin.solomon@simmons.edu.
BREAKING THROUGH THE CLOUDS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 at 6:30 P.M., C101
THE INVISIBLE WAR
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2013 at 6:30 P.M., C101
Simmons College Radio was the recipient of three national awards at this year's 73rd Annual Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) International Radio & Webcasting Conference in New York City on March 1.
The station was named the winner of "Most Creative Show in College Radio - 2012" - for a special 3-country broadcast done by the students in the Globalization on a Shoestring course. This was a live radio show with the students at our partner school, African University College of Communications (AUCC) in Accra, Ghana and special guest, Andrew Kromah, founder of the Independent Radio Network (IRN) in Sierra Leone.
The broadcast combined live streams from all three countries and focused on the impact IRN has had in helping to end the 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone and prevent it from starting again. It provided a powerful lesson on the impact responsible local media can have on a society.
SCR was also named a National Finalist for "Best Use of Social Media" and, for the second year in a row, received the IBS Platinum Microphone Award for Broadcast Excellence.
(by Len Mailloux)
Prof. Ellen Grabiner's COMM-323 class creates and shares their take on the Harlem Shake meme.
Graphic design professor Judith Aronson knows through personal experience that one course may make a substantial impact on a student's life. Aronson was 28 when she took a course in basic photography, a requisite in her graphic design graduate program.
"I'd never taken a picture before in my life," she says. "My thesis project [was a] color photo slide show to music accompaniment following some food from a supermarket, into the kitchen of a family in my building, down the incinerator, carried by our superintendent out to the sidewalk, picked up by a garbage truck, over to the Hudson River, onto a barge, down the river to the now infamous Fresh Kills Landfill site. This was the first time I had an inkling what it might be like to become a photographer."
After graduate school, Aronson traveled to Southeast Asia and began working with Hans Hoefer, the photographer of the APA Guide Book Guide to Bali. "Editing and cataloging his photos was the best photo education I could have had," she says. That education supplemented Aronson's propensity for observing the world around her.
In the introduction to her 2010 book Likenesses, a collection of intimate, black and white photographs of distinguished poets, authors and artists, Aronson writes of her "natural inclination, from a very early age, to pay attention to how people treated each other, beyond what they said--how they stood, what they did with their hands, what happened to their faces when talking or being spoken to." This innate talent for "eavesdropping," as she describes it, is an apparent element of her style as a photographer; Aronson frames endearingly idiosyncratic, intimate views of her subjects.
Aronson's photographs have recently garnered the attention of the likes of the New York Book Review, in whose December 6th, 2012 issue appeared her portrait of Saul Bellow, and the Poetry Cafe in London, where a two-month exhibition of her work ran from Thanksgiving to mid-January of this year. The National Portrait Gallery's current exhibit entitled "Poetic Likeness: Modern American Poets" (October 12-April 28) features Aronson's portrait of Robert Lowell.
by Jim Corcoran
Earlier this summer, Simmons' Sophomore Amelia Cordischi entered a contest offered by the NFL to design a flag for the New England Patriots to be unveiled at the 2012 Kickoff Pre-game festivities. The NFL Fan Flag Challenge's requirements included the design of a flag depicting her region's team, a 100-word essay describing the design's vision, and a 200-word essay of what inspired her to create the flag. Cordischi was also required to describe in her essays what being an NFL fan means not only to her, but other fans too.
"I remember from a very early age hearing many a roar from our family room as family and friends were crowded around the television set as Drew) Bledsoe and then Tom Brady would throw that great pass and ...TOUCHDOWN...we would all share together in the pride of a team that many throughout New England consider family," said Cordischi.
From tens of thousands of entries, Cordischi 's flag was chosen to represent the Patriots, New England, and the NFL at this year's 2012 Kickoff game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, which was held at MetLife Stadium. Cordischi and her guest took part in a three-day, all expense paid trip to New York City. Activities included participation in the NFL Village in Times Square, a tour of NFL offices, and meetings with the NFL Commissioner and many legendary players. One of those legends, former Patriot wide receiver Troy Brown, escorted Cordischi to the stage at Rockefeller Center on September 5th, where she participated in the pre-game Kickoff concert and unveiled the newly designed flag.
"The whole event was like a dream. I could not believe it was happening to me. Everyone was so nice making it an experience I will never ever forget," said Cordischi.
Cordischi is a member of Simmons College Class of 2015 and is majoring in Integrated Media in the Department of Communications. Her mother Leanne Griffin Cordischi is a 1988 graduate of Simmons College.
(As posted on www.billboard.biz)
July 06, 2012 | By Ed Christman, New York
The U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia ruled on Friday that the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) was unconstitutional when it passed rates for non-commercial web broadcasts, like college and high school radio stations, leaving in question whether those royalty rates and others set by the board still stand.
The U.S. Court of Appeals made its decision in a lawsuit against the CRB and SoundExchange brought by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS), a Rhode Island non-profit corporation representing colleges and high school radio stations engaged in webcasting.
Copyright Royalty Board To Set Mechanical Royalty Rates For Digital Music Services
Although the U.S. Court of Appeals mandated a solution in case No. 11-1083 so that the CRB can meet constitutionality requirements going forward, the decision has some wondering if any of the licensees will now challenge the rates set by the CRB previously.
The Appeals Court agreed with IBS that the position of the CRB Judges as currently constituted violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. To remedy the violation it struck down provisions that restricted the Librarian from Congress' ability to remove the CRB Judges. By giving the Librarian that power, it made the CRB Judges inferior rather than principal officers, and thus no constitutional problem remains, according to the ruling. But then the Court of Appeals vacated and remanded the CRB determination without addressing any of Intercollegiate's argument regarding the merits of the rates.
Consequently, some wonder if the rates determination set by CRB will be challenged in instances where the CRB set rates where there wasn't any settlement or any subsequent free market negotiated agreements between rights holders and digital service providers.
For example, will IBS now demand a new rate setting hearing from the CRB. Since the CRB made its rate determination in March 2011, Suzanne M. Barnett was appointed a CRB Judge by the Librarian of Congress James H. Billington to replace Chief Copyright Royalty Judge James Sledge, who retired in May.
Copyright Royalty Board Appoints Suzanne M. Barnett to Chief Copyright Judge
However, others argue that a challenge to the CRB rates determination will be unlikely since the Appeals Court mandated a solution to the constitutionality problem and did not address any of IBS arguments regarding the merits of the rates.