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ISU Public Relations Team Places Third in Nation
PRSSA Team Members
Members of the "I Ask Why"
PRSSA Team
For the first time in school history, ISU’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter placed third in the nation in the annual Bateman National Competition for its "I Ask Why" campaign, which targeted academic honesty on college campuses. In April, the team was informed it was one of three finalists in the prestigious annual competition along with Loyola-New Orleans and Texas State University. On May 2, the team made a final presentation to a group of judges from PRSSA and had a videotape of their performance further evaluated by a team of distinguished public relations experts at the PRSSA national headquarters in New York. "I am very proud of my students," said Dr. Dean Kazoleas, Associate Professor of Communication and PRSSA faculty advisor. "Each year these teams of PRSSA students put in literally hundreds of hours researching, planning, and executing a public relations campaign for the Bateman competition, which is considered the most prestigious public relations competition in the nation for college students. This year, their efforts really paid off and we are proud to bring this honor to ISU."

 

The Bateman National Campaign Competition requires student teams to plan, implement, and evaluate large scale campaigns that target their universities and/or surrounding communities on a topic selected by the national committee. This year's campaign targeted academic honesty on college campuses.

The ISU team's “I Ask Why” campaign raised awareness of the level of cheating among college students, communicated the short- and long-term consequences of getting caught, and sought to change the attitudes and behaviors related to academic dishonesty. The campaign was extremely successful in terms of placing the issue on the campus agenda and attracting wide scale media attention as it reached thousands of students as well as ISU administrators and student organizations. The team also convinced over 300 students to sign pledge cards committing to academic honesty in the future. The "I Ask Why" team consisted of five students majoring in public relations: Katie Heavrin (senior, Washington, IL); Annie Hughes (sophomore, Mundelein, IL); Holly Tanner (senior Washington, IL); Erin Tolle (senior, Bloomington, IL); and Anna Tiffany (junior, Rockford, IL).

A second ISU team finished in the top ten, achieving Honorable Mention status for its campaign titled "Ethical Eye." That team consisted of Becky Bier (junior, Bloomington, IL); Victoria Kent (senior, Plainfield, IL); Kim Krok (sophomore, McHenry, IL); Jennifer Monroy (sophomore, Savoy, IL); and Amber Neisendorf (senior, Hampshire, IL).

The annual competition features teams from over 100 universities nationally, including many large public universities as well as private institutions. Planning for the campaign began in November and the campaign ran the entire month of February. 

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