Donald K. Wright, Ph.D
Professor of Public Relations
College of Communication
Boston University
September 17, 2007
Laguna Niguel, California

"Thoughts on Ethics, Education and Friendship"

To download a printable version of this speech, click here.

Thank you. You are very kind. This is a wonderful honor and I'm still not sure how to respond. Our field is full of awards and I've been fortunate to receive some, but there is something very special about this one. I put it right up there with the Pathfinder Award I once received from the Institute for Public Relations because it not only is bestowed by peers but it also is presented by an organization whose values I deeply cherish.

I have a mixture of things to say, stories to tell and people to thank. I will be brief but as is my custom, I'll probably say some things not everyone agrees with, and I hope that's okay.

I also have to figure out some way to share with you the excitement of this moment, the honor of following others far greater and better than me to this podium, and the immense joy and satisfaction that accompanies selection as an honorary member of this terrific and prestigious organization.

My research about public relations and communications ethics has gone on for more than thirty years and one thing that always has impressed me about the Arthur W. Page Society is the stark reality that companies who have senior-level corporate communications officers highly involved in this Society rarely, if ever, face ethical criticism. And if and when that happens, the problem usually is solved quickly and appropriately by doing the right thing and following other principles the Page Society believes in.

Most of the companies with serious recent ethical difficulties did not have a senior communications officer reporting to the CEO and spending time with us when we gathered twice each year to discuss the merits of telling the truth, proving it with action, and other worthy things? We need to tell that story as often as we can.

Another story that needs to be told involves succession planning because too many companies don't appropriately replace the brightest and best chief corporate communications officers when these people retire or move on to other opportunities. Granted there are notable exceptions. AT&T set the benchmark high years ago with Ted Vail, Arthur Page, Ed Block, Marilyn Laurie, Dick Martin and others. Johnson & Johnson is right up there too replacing the excellence of Larry Foster with Bill Nielsen and then Ray Jordan. General Motors has an excellent tradition in this regard all the way from when Paul Garrett headed up the function 80 years ago to today and Steve Harris. Tom Martin, and companies he has worked with, set an exceptional standard by leaving the function in the capable hands of Bill Margaritis and Angela Buonocore.

There are other success stories but, there are too many unfortunate situations where nationally significant leaders in our field are not replaced by practitioners of equal caliber. Things are even more pronounced in public relations education where excellence too frequently is measured in terms of individual professors instead of institutions. These are serious problems we should acknowledge and try to fix.

Lack of succession planning is just the tip of the iceberg for public relations education and the crisis brewing there.

Data I've collected with assistance from Michelle Hinson of the Institute, Rob Flaherty of Ketchum and Pat Ford of Burson-Marsteller, indicate graduates of public relations degree programs account for a dismal ten to fifteen percent of the recent hires within the nation's major public relations firms. Most of the time these agencies, and major corporations, favor graduates of liberal arts, business and other academic disciplines instead of graduates of public relations degree programs.

Records suggest 35,000 students now major in public relations at nearly 700 US institutions. How did this happen? Who decided public relations should be taught everywhere? More importantly, who is going to tell these kids most of them will never get a job in our field?

Support for public relations education is woefully bad, at best. This includes lack of appropriate budgets at many universities that make huge financial profits teaching the subject, and a lack of financial and moral support from many who practice in our field. Although there are exceptions where public relations education is appropriately supported at some universities, and there are several hundred practitioners and some associations - including the Page Society - that are great friends and supporters of public relations education, the reality is most universities don't support public relations education and research in a manner similar to other popular majors and too many public relations practitioners couldn't care less about it.

Some want to blame the practice for this problem. I think we should blame universities and public relations educators. We've sat back and let the curriculum at some schools evolve into something more theoretical than practical. We've looked the other way when some universities have hired less than competent professors. We've tolerated, hired, tenured and promoted those whose research agendas don't focus on information practitioners want or need. Far too many institutions have not revised course materials to accommodate the reality that public relations is in the midst of a revolution that involves new audiences, new channels, new kinds of content and new measurements. And, most public relations education remains a part of journalism schools - a model that might have worked 50 years ago but is not effective today.

While a few elite universities with highly selective admissions policies do teach public relations, many of today's top-ranked US programs are at smaller, regional institutions, some with questionable admission standards. This happened for several reasons and often because some, including me, took the easy way out and developed good programs at lesser-known institutions rather than fight back when top-ranked journalism schools showed blatant professional prejudice against what we do. It was easier for me to go to the University of South Alabama where I was wanted than it was for me to continue to fight the thinking of some professionally prejudiced journalism school faculty members I worked with with while teaching at the University of Georgia and the University of Texas.

Although the Page Society, the Institute for Public Relations and the Public Relations Society of America are now trying to help us, we've let academic accreditation of our discipline evolve into a journalism-dominated joke. Some of the better programs, including Boston University's, have chosen not to be accredited and ignore the concept of putting journalism people in charge of accrediting public relations education in much the same way many practitioners disregard PRSA's attempts to accredit them.

The bottom-line reality is simple. If public relations education was excellent, if the faculty were highly qualified in both theory and practice, and if the curriculum contained the kind of up-to-date, cutting-edge, state-of-the-art knowledge found in disciplines such as accounting, engineering, law, medicine, nursing, and so forth, employers with entry-level positions would fight over public relations graduates in a manner similar to what happens in other occupations. And, it would be the exception rather than the rule to have graduates from other academic disciplines hired for entry-level positions in our field.

Several universities - some represented here today - are working diligently to change this and do have some of you fighting over our top graduates but, unfortunately, these places are the exception.

We have politely ignored these problems for years, but someone needs to address these things if public relations - not just education but also the practice - is going to be better tomorrow than it is today. If similar problems existed in medical education, in engineering or law schools, people in those fields would take action. We should too.

As I near the end of these remarks, I reach the point where others similarly honored have paused to thank spouses and children who helped them reach this stage in their careers. My peculiar personal life doesn't permit that. When I pause at times like this to give thanks, I acknowledge friends such as you.

I wouldn't be receiving this recognition were it not for so many of you encouraging and touching my life in unique and special ways. I went through the Page Society directory checking off people I should thank but had to stop when the number topped one hundred.

They are all great people who have helped me in terrific ways, but too many names to mention here today. People who have served as president of this distinguished society, those who have attended forums and seminars I've taught or managed, speakers at those events and guest lecturers in my university class rooms, icons of our field who I have learned much from, leaders I've had the pleasure of serving with on the Boards of Trustees of the Page Society and the Institute, former students, those who have made it possible for me to watch the Red Sox play baseball, friends I've run marathons with and those of you I've had so much fun with we should have been arrested.

I do need to thank two very special friends whose dedicated determination to see that I received this award means very much to me. For some reason I still don't understand, nearly 30 years ago Harold Burson put his arm around me and hasn't let go yet. As he has done previously, Harold nominated me again this year, and to make certain my credentials did not get lost under a pile of nominations of others much more worthy than me, Harold recruited someone to help him encourage people to tell the honors committee good things about me.

That someone is Michelle Hinson, my terrific friend and wonderful partner on so many successful Page and Institute professional development forum programs. Someone who unselfishly specializes in making people look good often at the expense of having others not realize how creative and strategic she really is.

Someone else Michelle has helped make look impressive is my good friend Jack Felton who, when he received this honor five years ago, remarked: "Awards from friends that you know are the best and most appreciated of all." Which reminds me that noted and often quoted scholar "anonymous" once wrote, "Friendship is when people know all about you but like you anyway."

I am deeply indebted to many in this room and in this society. You are all very good friends. Friends I have worked with and for in the past and friends I look forward to doing more with in the future. You have made me feel wonderful today. I thank you for this incredible honor and for your patient attention to my remarks.