Kudos to my DePaul University colleagues for putting our PR program on the map. Although we didn’t win the big prize (congratulations Georgetown), the DePaul PRAD program was one of the top five education programs honored at last night’s PR Week Awards event in New York.
The five finalists were:
- American University
- Brigham Young University
- DePaul University
- Georgetown
- University of Alabama
Each of these programs is outstanding. I actually had “two horses in this race”—DePaul and Alabama. The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, which I chair, is based at UA and I enjoy my annual visits to the beautiful Tuscaloosa campus. UA has an impressive program that has been recognized by PR Week judges for the past six years.
Based on conversations with corporate and agency heads at last night’s gala, the state of PR education is held in high regard thanks to the increasing emphasis on research, measurement, insights and real-world experiences in our classrooms. They still cite the need for better writers, however. “Improve writing and you’ll hit a home run for your program and the overall profession,” said one agency leader. We’re working on that, too.