NEWS

Carolina to export U.S. brand of public relations education to Russia

By JULIAN BIBB
UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication has received a $280,000 grant from the U.S. Department of State to help improve public relations education in Russia.

The three-year grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will create a partnership among the school, Moscow State University for International Relations (MGIMO) and Irkutsk State University in eastern Siberia. It will run through Aug. 31, 2005.

Dr. Richard Cole, dean of the school, described the award as timely and important.

"Public relations education is growing in universities around the world," he said. "It’s a mushrooming field of study for college students, a worldwide phenomenon. The former Soviet Union did not pay much attention to public relations. Now that Russia is embracing capitalism, public relations jobs are burgeoning."

Dr. David Pike, a professor of Germanic languages, directs the UNC-MGIMO project. He worked with Cole as co-principal investigator on the new grant to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"Both MGIMO and Irkutsk stand to benefit from this program through the professionalization of their curricula," Pike said. "This grant will build actively for future, long-term cooperation. It creates a prime opportunity to make a lasting contribution to Russian developments that are in our utmost national interests as well."

MGIMO, located in Moscow, has been designated as the Russian accreditation agency for a professional degree in public relations; Irkutsk was included in the project to provide a regional perspective in building a new curriculum.

MGIMO (pronounced "mi-GEE-mo") is the principal Russian university in the field, and it substantially influences the process of reshaping the public relations curriculum at regional Russian universities. That means the UNC school’s brand of public relations education will have a wide-reaching impact in Russia.

"In essence, what we’re doing is exporting the U.S. model of public relations education, particularly the Chapel Hill model, throughout Russia," Cole said.

The school's project, which also will involve faculty from the UNC School of Information and Library Science, will continue a growing relationship between UNC and MGIMO begun in 1990. Students and faculty from each university have visited the other for study, research, advice and collaboration.

Last year, officials at both universities signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue stronger ties between the two. UNC has since established a MGIMO advisory board of faculty members who consider ways the two universities can work together, said Steve Allred, associate provost. The board is based at the University Center for International Studies and chaired by Dr. James Peacock, center director.

In November, two professors, one from each Russian university, will spend three weeks in Chapel Hill. They will audit public relations classes and work with faculty members and undergraduate and graduate students in the school. During the years of the grant, more than 30 educators and specialists will spend considerable time at each other’s institutions.

In early December, three faculty members from the UNC school will visit MGIMO: Dr. Dulcie Straughan, associate professor and head of the public relations sequence; Larry Lamb, assistant professor; and Cole. The three will participate in a conference at MGIMO with Russian professors from several universities throughout the country.

"I see our trip as a chance to get a better idea of how we can assist them effectively in developing and modifying their public relations curriculum," Straughan said. "Eventually, our work together can have a profound impact on the study of public relations in Russia as well as strengthen ties between our universities."

Potential ties listed in the memo of understanding include:

• joint undergraduate courses in appropriate subjects, including international studies, law and journalism, taught long-distance by UNC and MGIMO faculty via the Internet or satellite links;
  
• language instruction in English for MGIMO students and in Russian for UNC students;

• translation of textbooks by UNC authors into Russian for distribution in that country, and translation into English of Russian textbooks appropriate for use in courses taught in the United States; and
  
• joint faculty research on past, present and future U.S.-Russian relations.

Already, students from each university have taken weeklong seminars at the other. Next summer, Pike and Dr. Timothy McKeown, a UNC associate professor of political science, will direct a four-week study abroad program for UNC students at MGIMO.

McKeown and two MGIMO faculty members will teach "International Conflict Processes" and "Politics of the Soviet Union and its Successor States: Russian Political Culture." UNC journalism professor Chuck Stone and guest Russian lecturers will teach "Censorship," examining the concept within American and Russian cultures.

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Contact: Zach Hoskins, assistant dean for communication, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, (919) 966-3323