Over the next few weeks, students in a UB public relations class will apply their knowledge and carry out a public relations campaign for a professional organization.
The New York Alliance for Donations, an organization that aims to promote organ and tissue donation, hired students in Professor Deborah Silverman's advanced public relations class to promote awareness for such donations on campus.
The class will set up information tables and hand out pamphlets, surveys, and free water bottles at locations in the Student Union and the SU theatre before the Jay Leno comedic performance to create awareness about the necessity of organ and tissue donation.
Provost Elizabeth Capaldi will speak at the group's first promotional event April 14 in the Student Union. A benefit dinner at The Steer on Main Street is also planned.
Silverman said the work will expose students to the rigors of a public relations campaign, outside of a university setting.
"They're being thrown into it," Silverman said. "It's the way campaigns are run sometimes. It's a taste of real life for them."
The campaign is a learning experience according to its participants.
"(Silverman) said it would feel like a full time job and it has," said Tim Matthews, a senior communication major, " it's been a great experience."
Students will have to work under some time constraints, according to Silverman.
"In the real world, it would be great to have longer to plan it," she said.
Silverman's students will bring a number of speakers to their events. Darlene Aymerick, a donor mother, will speak at a promotional event on April 14. Aymerick will return on April 23, speaking alongside Jeff Loftus, a heart transplant recipient.
A benefit dinner at The Steer on Main Street will be central to the promotional campaign, students in the class said.
Matthews, whose group is in charge of the dinner, said that he has encountered a few challenges during preparation.
"There were a lot of road blocks and last minute changes," Matthews said. "We were trying to get the Buffalo Sabers, but the two players we were trying to get were quarantined with the SARS virus."
Should the campaign make money, students will not be paid, said Silverman. All revenues will go towards next year's class budget and the New York Alliance for Donations.
According to Matthews, possible monetary gain is not a priority.
"It doesn't bother me at all because it's all going to a good cause," he said. "Money isn't a factor when it comes to saving lives."
After the events are over, the class will spend the time reviewing how the public relations campaign went, using an analysis of glitches, a review of diaries, confidential assessment comments, and evaluation of teamwork, according to Silverman.
Silverman said she hopes future classes build on the success of this year's students.
"What we do this year will serve as a benchmark for next year," she said.
Matthews said the group's effort will be worthwhile even if a small group of people respond.
"It's a success if one person registers to donate organs and or tissues," he said. "The whole purpose is educating University at Buffalo students."
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
