No news comes out from behind the castle’s walls
It
troian
Volume LXXV, Number 41 University of Southern California	Monday. November 20, 1978
By Carole Long
University relations with the media within the last year have been described by many as comparable to the practices of a castle lord m feudal Europe—an attempt to live in silent isolation when criticism arises.
•	In earlv February, KABC Eyewitness New s ran a series on oitne at the university. The report placed the university in the highest crime area in Los Angeles.
University officials criticized
Carole Long, a Daily Trojan staff ion ter, is a sophomore in jour-
ilism._
the series as an example of bad reporting, but when John Sevenno, general manager of KABC extended invitations to President John R. Hubbard to appear on the news program and express his views, Hubbard said he preferred not to come.
•	In March, Charles Robb, a campus security officer was suspended for stating his views in the crime series.
When KABC requested to come on campus for a follow-up story on Robb, Hubbard said “no newsman from ABC who wants to talk about the Robb situation is welcome on campus today."
•	A three-dav crime series in early February resulted in major adverse media publicity for more than a month.
•	In late September, KNXT news reported that Hubbard would announce his resignation at the Faculty Breakfast Sept 30. KNXT also named Houston 1. Flournoy as "the most likely candidate to replace Hubbard."
Before releasing the report, KNXT had called the university and asked for information on Hubbard and Flournov and for pictures of the two.
Hubbard reportedly made the decision to allow biographies to be given but not to release any pictures.
•	In mid-October, news of a proposed Middle East Center recently approved bv the Board of Trustees, became a topic of concern among the Jewish commun-
ity and among facultv.
A lengthy article appeared in the Los Angeles Times Oct. 22 that described the center and its possible funding by American corporations with Arabian interests.
More than 90% of the university community, including faculty and deans, had not heard of *he center until they read the article in the Times
In the weeks that followed angry faculty and critics outside the university hotly debated the pros and cons of the center and the process by which it was planned.
Many now feel the adverse publicity surrounding the center for the past month has inflicted wounds in the university's image that mav never heal.
Some look at the university's public relations office as largely responsible for the problem; others claim that the public relations department cannot be blamed.
In any case, all agree that the image of the university projected in the media over the past year has not been a favorable one and an examination of the public relations operations may serve to explain recent history and predict what will occur in the future.
7 he sole purpose of public rela-
tions at the university, generally defined, is to advance the objectives and missions of the university in all its aspects.
The university is presently working to project a more academic image than in the past, said a number of university officials.
During the era of President Norman Topping, from 1958-1970, the main thrust was toward raising money for buildings, said John Marburger, dean of the School of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
"Topping realized we couldn't do anything without building facilities on campus. But the building era is essentially over. Now we have to concentrate on our intellectual resources,” Marburger said.
The university has two main offices that perform the public relations function; the office of university relations, headed by Leonard Wines and the office of academic relations, directed by Vance Peterson.
Leonard Wines, with a communications and publications staff under him headed by Glenn Adamson puts out the Trojan Family, newsletters for the support groups, and brochures and leaflets on the university.
Wines works closely with Thomas Nickell, vice president of university affairs, in promoting the university for the purpose of fund-raising.
Prior to last spring, the news bureau w as also under the office of university relations. Since then it has been functioning under Peterson and academic relations.
This reorganization of the news bureau was initiated by a memorandum that Hubbard issued in late March.
University officials were reluctant to discuss why the reorganization occurred at that particular time, refusing to link the move with the campus security incidents. They did, however, explain the motivation for the reorganization
"As far back as 1972 th^re has' been a widespread feeling among the faculty that the image the university was projecting was out of phase with what the university was accomplishing academically," Marburger said.
In 1973, Marburger and other facultv members and deans formed a "Priorities For The 70 s" task force.
The committee prepared a statement on the general aims of the university that was later used in the self-evaluation report submitted to the accreditation committee in 1976.
One of the aims listed in the statement called for "the deliberate improvement of communications both within the university and with alumni, prospective students, and the general public, in reponse to the anticipated increase in competition for excellent students and funds."
"In the 70's we have been concerned with improving our academic image but we have had very little publicity in this area," said Zohrab Kaprielian, executive vice president.
In the reorganization Hubbard was responding to a long-time concern of the faculty that their expertise was not being promoted," Kaprielian said. "There was a feeling that we needed to separate objective reporting from publicity."
A number of people within the universitv question the necessity of the reorganization in
obtaining the goal of academic publicity.
Before the reorganization Wines said the news bureau did concern itself with communicating the academic excellence of the university to the community.
"When you look at a place like a university, the main thing that vou have to sell is the activities and strength of the faculty. 1 think it would be wrong to make
anv assumptions that that wasn't going on in the day-to-day activity of the news bureau," Wines
said.
In looking at the files of news releases that the news bureau has written and issued, one is sure to find many that deal with the faculty, their research and their activity, Wines said.
Other's feel that any change in the structure of the news bureau represents a move in the right direction.
"As a communications person,
I was not impressed with the news bureau. Granted they did some coverage of what was going on, but I feel it could have been much more aggressive," said Fred Williams, dean of the Annenberg School of Communications.
"Over the past six years we've had a number of significant events in the Annenberg School and it was extremely difficult to get professional cooperation from the news bureau," Williams said.
Other sources also indicated
they had experienced difficulty interacting with the news bureau and felt there was not enough contact between the news bureau and the academic units.
"Traditionally the news bureau has been reactive. It was not their policy to go out and find news but rather to wait for it to come to them," Marburger said
After the reorganization, Peterson decided to divide the
news bureau into two parts; a news service, and a media and public relations office.
The news service would be concerned with the necessary task of news gathering.
Peterson has assigned beats to the four news service writers and he and others in media and public relations will also cover certain areas of the university.
"I am trying to free up time for the people to cover parts of the university that haven't been covered before," Peterson said.
"A good news bureau is one that knows w'hat's going on in different parts of the university, and one that put out iots of copy; copy that includes interesting feature stories on faculty and what's going on at the university," William said.
Many people in the university community have questioned the ability of Peterson to hold the position of public relations director. Thev point out that he does not have any background or degree in public relations and is therefore not qualified.
"Vance Peterson, a verv nice
fellow, is a novice when it comes to professional public relations," said Joe Saltzman. journalism professor. In the short time he has been at the university he has succeeded in taking a professionally run news bureau—a news bureau W illis Duniway and others built up into one of the finest in the country—and reducing it to a PR version of The Gong Show"
Others agreed Peterson had no experience but felt his doctorate in higher education, administration and poiicv analysis made him capable in articulation and decision-making.
"Peterson is |ust acting director, right now. We are looking for real professional people to put us on the map in that area.'' Kaprielian said.
"Peterson's job will be more as coordinator of public relations," he added.
"In a complex institution it is useful to have an overall communications manager who works closely with the administration and understands the academic workings," Williams said.
"He will ensure the orderly flow of information within and without the university."
Peterson said he restructured the news bureau after the model of Stanford's news service.
He met several times with Bob Beyers, director of the Stanford News Service, for advice on how the operation should be run.
The Stanford News Service is considered to be one of the best in the nation, Peterson said.
"The main things I discussed with Peterson involved having a commitment to openness and professionalism and how to conduct a news gathering service," Beyers said.
"The main objective is to get (continued on page 5)
"As tar back as 1972 there has been a widespread feeling among the facultv that the image the university was projecting was out of phase with what the university was accomplishing academically."