No Respect
Rodney Dangerfield Syndrome haunts ad program at UK

It’s the largest, fastest growing major at the College of Communication, but the academic establishment is trying to cut it down.

In the past six years, the Advertising/PR program has become the hottest major in the College of Communication. Undergraduates in this corner of UK have the choice of four majors – Journalism, Telecommunications, Communication studies, and Advertising/PR, which is known in the College as ISC.

ISC stands for Integrated Strategic Communication, a real mouthful. If you ask why advertising and public relations would require such a fancy title, you’re getting close to the real problem. I think the administrators who rule the roost are simply ashamed of it!

No mention of the advertising program appears on the stationery or signage in front of the building. The official name of the School where advertising is taught is “School of Journalism and Telecommunications.” This School has three majors; the two that are in the name, and Advertising, which happens to be the largest, fastest-growing, and the one that generates the most tuition money. But its name never appears. Rodney, you are not alone!

ISC is a real success story. Since 1994, its enrollment has almost tripled. (Its faculty, on the other hand, has only been increased by one professor.) Nonetheless, the program has grown from relative obscurity to Kentucky’s foremost training ground for professional art directors, copywriters, account managers, researchers and PR practitioners.

Recent graduates of the program have landed key jobs in ad agencies in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Cincinnati, as well as the major shops in Lexington and Louisville.

And now, with its student enrollment at an all-time high, and existing faculty, facilities and equipment strained to the hilt, the College of Communication has decided to solve all these “problems” by cutting the student population back to “1995 levels.”

What? They want to cut their most successful program? They want to send eager students away from UK? If this were a business, the administrators would be scrambling to provide additional classes and instructors. Instead, they’ve reacted with disdain to what they perceive as a mercantile monster in their midst, and decided to cut it off at the knees.

When demand for a product increases in the real world, business gears up to supply it. If they can’t meet the demand, they don’t shoot the customers; they seek alternative sources of supply.

It’s not as if the Ad/PR students are asking for special favors. These people are paying customers! If the College gives them what they want, its graduation statistics will be enhanced, and its income will increase. What’s wrong with that?

Of course, they do offer a reason for the cutback. The College claims it has to limit all skills classes because it’s necessary to keep them small. You can’t work with students individually in a huge lecture hall. And small classes don’t make big bucks. It boils down to the economics of putting the most posteriors in the most seats. Like an airline with no first class.

The situation at the College of Communication is a genuine emergency. But alas, ISC has no friends in high places. One can only hope that UK’s new president will bring his real-world values to the rescue.

After all, the ISC program is a winner! It’s the College’s one major with a proven potential for attracting and holding on to students. Then why cut it back? I think the ivory tower crowd just can’t stand it.

Dennis Altman is an advertising consultant and a UK Professor of Advertising and Public Relations

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