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Part 2: How Duke University doubled their media hits by showcasing faculty
Last week we shared the first five major rules of Expert Marketing that are currently being used by Duke University to double their media hits (READ PART I). We also developed some strategies and best practices for higher education institutions to better market their experts. In this blog post, we are going to share our team’s final insights into how to better leverage your experts. Rule #6: Create Once, Publish Everywhere At one time we just had to focus on creating a news site. That’s now expanded to a multi- screen environment that requires we thread content into sites that are being accessed from desktops, mobile devices and even digital signage that is often scattered throughout the campus. Sit down with your digital team and map out how to distribute media across multiple channels such as social networks, news-feeds, homepages, faculty sites, as well as faculty profiles in your expert center or speakers bureau. Many schools still don’t have the “responsive” capability to push their news content out to mobile users. Insiders Tip: Duke applies a “create once publish everywhere” model to ensure that time-crunched journalists can easily connect with their expert commentary, whether they access the website’s desktop or mobile versions, or through a wide range of social channels. Rule #7: Get Your Expert Quotes Ready for the Real-Time News Cycle Organizing a system with your faculty to publish pre-approved expert quotes on your website can pay huge dividends, as news outlets have fewer reporters covering more territory. Many of our clients tell us they are seeing less experienced reporters who have much less time to research and interact with media departments. Having pre-approved quotes ready to go makes it much simpler for media, making you much more attractive to them. This pre-planning can minimize the strain on faculty experts during class hours. An added bonus is that it also minimizes misquotes. Insiders Tip: Duke University aims to provide daily quotes on its website by midday as part of its “news tips” section. While these quotes generally take less than one hour to produce, they have proven most effective. Almost all of their news tips have been used by the media since they started producing them in June 2014. Rule #8: Promote Your Core Areas of Expertise First With so much going on throughout the campus there are a lot of opportunities to promote a diverse range of topics to the media. However, it’s really important to identify the core topics where you have expert commentary in demand. The best media relations people have established their school as go-to sources for select topics. You should also stake your claim. What groundbreaking research can you find on the campus that relates to key news events? Think about what reporters need to communicate to their audiences. Do you have faculty who are credible, approachable and engaging on these topics? Invest the time with your team to develop a master topics list and tune this list regularly based on upcoming faculty contributions and news cycle developments. Insiders Tip: Duke University identified a number of key factors that contribute to the media take-up rate such as the degree of media interest in a story; the relative supply of experts available to media and timing considerations. While it’s impossible to control all these variables, They learned, based on trial and error, that concentrating on core topics where they have an academic focus such as politics, law and the environment generated more coverage. Rule #9: Focus your Editorial Calendar on Key Event Anniversaries It is important to get the mix right when looking for media opportunities. While it will always be to your advantage to leverage breaking news if you can mobilize your faculty experts, there is also a predefined editorial flow to the news across a calendar of special and recurring events. It’s crucial that you get some of these major opportunities on the calendar and develop a campaign to enlist faculty experts. For example, Black History Month and the Super Bowl are both annual recurring events happening in February. It’s good to map these along with other special events that are periodically staged or non- recurring such as a G8 Summit or the upcoming papal visit to the US. If you can mobilize your experts to provide value for media who need to start researching these events well in advance you increase your chances of coverage. Insiders Tip: The Duke University media relations team actively monitors upcoming anniversaries and other timely events that reporters are likely to write about. Events that have the potential to generate stories that Duke can leverage with their experts are reviewed by the communications team in twice weekly scrum meetings. Rule #10: Leverage Tools such as Twitter to Grow your Media Contacts Much of the success you will have with faculty experts hinges on your ability to take your message to the market. So it’s important to focus on grooming and growing your media contacts. Besides buying access to media lists from vendors such as Cision, PR Newswire, Marketwired and Meltwater; don’t forget about Twitter. It provides a huge opportunity to build a list of influencers and key opinion leaders. Using a simple topic and hashtag searches on Twitter, you can begin to map various clusters of people who are following specific news beats that may be relevant to your institution. Remember that media outlets tend to follow other media outlets for story angles and media sources. Having a well organized list of people that have interacted with you in the past is a large part of distributing your news faster to a larger audience. It’s important to do Twitter searches to research specific reporters you want to pitch to see where their interests lie. Insiders Tip: Duke University refines its media lists continually using Twitter. It looks at the social graph of reporters who make use its online news tips to identify other journalists to add to their database.
Part 1: How Duke University doubled their media hits by showcasing faculty
In the February 2015 issue of CASE Currents, Steve Hartsoe, a Senior Editor at Duke University and former Editor for the Associated Press, shares some powerful strategies for working with experts on campus. This article is a must read for any organization looking to build reputation through more focused media relations. Now you might be thinking that Duke is an already renowned university with an extensive network of media contacts so this stuff is easy for them. Not true. Doubling your media hits isn’t easy for any organization. Duke made some major improvements that set them up as a go-to destination for journalists to find credible, relevant sources. However, even implementing just a few of their ideas could drive some big results for your organization – without having to blow out the size of your marketing team or budget. Spoiler alert. The Duke strategy centers on being more strategic and collaborating better with faculty experts. The best practices that the Duke media relations team employed should inspire any organization that wants to generate more coverage. Whether you are looking for media visibility to help drive student enrolment, alumni giving, or corporate partnerships, there are valuable lessons to be found in this article. For the full article check out the January/February issue of CASE Currents at www.case.org. Please note you will need a subscription to view. So what’s going on at Duke that’s driving all this media coverage? To examine this further, our ExpertFile team weighs in below with the first five major rules of Expert Marketing for Schools and summarizes some insider tips they shared from their experience. Tune in next week for the finale! Rule #1: Organize a Team to Help Focus on Expert Marketing As with most initiatives, it’s vitally important to get the support of senior people in the organization when developing an increased focus on faculty experts. Gaining the support of a group of progressive deans within the school as well as notable faculty can be critical. Appoint a specialized team that can help you establish media visibility as a priority for your school. Build your case for an expert marketing program and ask for their support in developing your plan, then set up some regular meetings and make this team visible on the campus. It will help you develop a sense of collaboration and continuity. Insiders Tip: Duke built a “rapid response team” within their media relations department that had a clearly defined meeting schedule. They met twice a week and kept meetings to just 30 minutes in length. These regular check-ins helped identify breaking news opportunities and inspired a sense of priority and established momentum. Rule #2: Strategize with your Experts It’s amazing how many colleges and universities’ media relations departments we talk with that are disconnected from the interesting research conducted by their faculty. Ironically, it’s this research, as well the academic interests and passions of your faculty that feed the most engaging stories you can tell to the media. Make sure you have a good understanding of current and upcoming research that you can pitch. You should also identify what publications and books are being planned by faculty and see how you can collaborate with them. Insiders Tip: Duke invested the time to meet personally with faculty members to get a deeper understanding of their research and identify relevant topics that could be pitched to the media. They also invited some faculty to media meetings to brainstorm on potential news stories. It’s this kind of contact that helped make faculty more responsive to media opportunities and respond to deadlines. Rule #3: “Opt-In” your Experts for Different Types of Contributions It’s becoming more understood by faculty that media coverage can be a very good thing for their career and their organization. However, be careful of one size fits all approaches in recruiting faculty to contribute their expertise. Contribution from faculty comes in different forms. Faculty can be engaged in a broad spectrum of activities that run from broadcast TV interviews, blogging, and even helping speak at recruiting or alumni events. It’s good practice to create a master checklist of possible engagement types and to take an inventory of what your faculty experts may want to opt-in for. Having this inventory allows you to better plan for content development projects and also ensures that faculty clearly understand the duties that are expected of them in a media relations capacity. Insiders Tip: Duke’s media team recruited their experts for a range of contributions based on the level of interest and comfort level of faculty. And they made it clear that agreeing to be a media source meant responding promptly to incoming media inquiries. Rule #4: Provide Media Training and Support While every campus has it’s faculty “rockstars”, who can rise to the challenge of any breaking news opportunity, many experts on the campus can benefit from some form of media training. It’s critical to your media strategy’s success that you provide the experts with support and opportunities to practice their speaking skills in front of a camera. If you expect more experts to step up to the podium, it’s important to make the investment. However, make sure you design these programs to be engaging and don’t overwhelm your faculty by making them too exhaustive. Often they can be coordinated over lunch or in the early morning before classes start and can be focused on key areas such as: public speaking, blogging tips, video training, and social networking guidelines. Get a sense of where your key gaps are among faculty before you dive in. Also remember these sessions can provide valuable opportunities to shoot video interviews, B-Roll clips and even headshots that can be used to provide media assets for your website, alumni magazine and other properties. Insiders Tip: Duke invests in media training for its faculty experts and administrators offering a two and a half hour media training workshop each year to participating faculty, covering interview techniques via phone, video and social media. Rule #5: Meet Journalists on Their Terms Reporters appreciate media relations contacts that help them get their job done. Operating under tighter breaking news cycles they have less time to discover and research experts. In todays competitive media market what sells papers or builds ratings is often what gets covered. You have to focus your experts on helping journalists tell stories that matter to all those “eyeballs”. The best media relations professionals understand the value in building relationships with journalists. These connections are often essential in establishing your organization as a relevant, trusted source of expert commentary. Given the importance of these relationships, we’re also seeing the renewed popularity of industry conferences hosted by organizations such as the MAKI Network (www.thembasite.com) and Wynne Events – BAM Conference (www.wynneevents.com). These events give schools a unique opportunity to listen to and meet journalists from major news networks. ExpertFile sponsored both MAKI and Wynne events this past year, and we were impressed by the roster of global media attending. Insiders Tip: While Duke still distributes the requisite daily news on campus events and other university happenings, they don’t get mired in all of this content. They also focus a great deal of their activities on expert content that positions their university as a go-to source that is both credible and relevant to a variety of media audiences. READ PART II of How Duke University doubled its media hits by showcasing faculty experts.
Baylor Study: Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Plus Social Media Connections Can Equal Happiness
FOMO – aka the “fear of missing out” – can have a positive impact on well-being when it leads to social media use that increases social connections, according to a new Baylor University study. James A. Roberts, Ph.D., The Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing, and Meredith David, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, coauthored the study, “The Social Media Party: Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), Social Media Intensity, Connection, and Well-Being,” published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. Roberts and David collaborate often and are nationally recognized experts on the effects of technology and social media on relationships and well-being. For this collaboration, the researchers conducted two studies consisting of 565 college students from a large U.S. university to determine the effect FOMO has on social media use, social connection to others and psychological well-being. FOMO is defined in the study as apprehension that others might be having a rewarding experience from which one is absent. According to Roberts, approximately 75% of young adults struggle with FOMO. “The human need to belong is an innate drive that dictates much of our behavior. Social media capitalizes on this need to belong,” Roberts said. “Social media has a dual nature. It lets us interact with others, which is good, but it also exposes us to more social opportunities than we can take part in that fosters a sense of missing out and inadequacy.” The study found: FOMO is a significant predictor of subjective well-being, and social media intensity had a slight significant effect on well-being. Social media is an omnipresent conduit for attempting to make such connections. It is likely that FOMO encourages the use of social media to stay connected. From the first study of 107 college students, David and Roberts gathered data to measure FOMO, social media intensity and social connection. Although FOMO typically has a negative connotation on social interactions, the study showed that the fear of missing out can lead to greater feelings of social connection. “We found that FOMO might actually have a positive impact on social connection through its impact on social media intensity and attachment,” Roberts said. “FOMO drives our use of social media to connect socially with others. Being socially connected leads to happier people.” The second study of 458 college students used the same measures, but also included an assessment on subjective well-being (happiness). The study tested their complete conceptual model in which subjective well-being is an ultimate outcome of FOMO (through its impact on social media intensity and social connection). Roberts said that social media can be a positive resource to help those with FOMO create social interactions, if it is being used actively through online actions such as posting, liking and commenting. “The problem is that people often turn to social media but use it passively – such as creeping on people or viewing pages without interacting – which can then lead to lower levels of happiness because creeping does not foster social connection,” Roberts said. “FOMO can lead to happier people if it drives people to use social media to connect but not simply to ‘creep’ on others.” ABOUT THE STUDY AND AUTHORS James A. Roberts, Ph.D., The Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing, and Meredith David, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing in Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, coauthored the study, “The Social Media Party: Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), Social Media Intensity, Connection, and Well-Being,” which is published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. OTHER RESEARCH BY ROBERTS AND DAVID Cellphones Can Damage Romantic Relationships, Lead to Depression People Who Are “Phone Snubbed” By Others Often Turn To Their Own Phones, Social Media For Acceptance Bosses Who “Phone Snub” Their Employees Risk Losing Trust and Engagement When ‘Religiosity’ Competes with Materialism, Charitable Giving Takes a Hit ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY At Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, integrity stands shoulder-to-shoulder with analytic and strategic strengths. The School’s top-ranked programs combine rigorous classroom learning, hands-on experience in the real world, a solid foundation in Christian values and a global outlook. Making up approximately 25 percent of the University’s total enrollment, undergraduate students choose from 16 major areas of study. Graduate students choose from full-time, executive or online MBA or other specialized master’s programs, and Ph.D. programs in Information Systems, Entrepreneurship or Health Services Research. The Business School also has campuses located in Austin and Dallas, Texas. Visit www.baylor.edu/business and follow on Twitter at twitter.com/Baylor_Business.
School Nurses Positioned to Help Solve School Shooting Epidemic
Since 2018 school nurses have responded to 38 school shootings, and they find themselves on the front line of gun violence, whether the act is by an active shooter in a school, a mass shooting in the community or anywhere in the country. "The epidemic of gun violence is a public health crisis affecting the whole country, but school nurses are ideally positioned to work alongside others who are committed to public health approaches to solve the issue of mass shootings," says Sunny G. Hallowell, PhD, assistant professor at Villanova University's M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing. Every school day, 95,000 school nurses enter U.S. schools prepared and ready to serve more than 55 million children for six and a half hours, 180 days a year. Families, school districts and communities entrust their children to school environments with the expectation that they will be kept safe from harm. School nurses are first responders whose skills are crucial to ensuring the health and safety of students, staff and faculty within schools and the surrounding community. Hallowell is coauthor of "School Nurses Share their Voices, Trauma and Solutions by Sounding the Alarm on Gun Violence," published recently in the medical journal Current Trauma Reports. She and her coauthors shed light on the impact of gun violence within schools from the perspective of school nurses, whose expertise is critical to the design and implementation of programs that keep students safe. "Nurses are trained both in the emergency trauma care and clinical responses necessary for addressing traumatic gun violence, as well as the mental health outcomes resulting from tragedy," says Hallowell. "There is a critical need for research that guides the selection of evidence-based safety programs that consider the developmental and the mental health needs of school communities." Standard response protocols such as school safety drills, fire drills and tornado, hurricane and earthquake drills have been implemented as early as the First World War. The memory of air raid drills and the lingering effect of the experiences have been well documented. As Hallowell's journal article shows, fear has long dictated how schools invest their resources in response to gun violence.
Lake Victoria, the largest lake on the African continent and the largest tropical lake in the world, has the potential to dry up more quickly than researchers previously realized, and the White Nile tributary (the only outlet for Lake Victoria) could disappear within a decade, according to a new study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The drying up of these bodies of water, which the project’s researchers say is driven by climate change, could be devastating to large swaths of East Africa and millions of people, according to the study, “Rapid Pleistocene desiccation and the future of Africa's Lake Victoria.” Baylor University faculty members Daniel J. Peppe, Ph.D., associate professor of geosciences, and Joseph D. White, Ph.D., professor of biology in Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences, were part of a team of researchers led by Emily Beverly, Ph.D., assistant professor of sedimentary geology at the University of Houston. Beverly earned her doctoral degree in geology at Baylor in 2015. The research team developed a model for Lake Victoria to help understand how changes in rainfall and temperature, due to climate change, would affect the future of the lake. They discovered that relatively small changes in climate could cause lake levels to drop rapidly. “Using future climate projections, our model also predicts that at current rates of temperature change and previous rates of lake level fall, Lake Victoria could have no outlet to the White Nile within 10 years, and Kenya could lose access to the lake in less than 400 years, which would significantly affect the economic resources supplied by Lake Victoria to the East African community,” the researchers wrote. Water Budget Model Peppe said he and his colleagues developed a water budget model for Lake Victoria in Kenya that examines how changes in rainfall and temperature cause changes in water levels in the lake. “Modeling indicates Lake Victoria can transition back and forth between modern lake levels and being completely dried up in centuries to a few millennia,” Peppe said. The water budget model used information related to: The lake’s size The catchment area, which drains into the lake How much water enters the lake The flow out of the lake Modern climate to estimate lake evaporation Discharge out of the lake and the size of lake The model showed the desiccation and refilling of Lake Victoria can happen over short periods and is directly tied to the mean annual precipitation levels and associated runoff. The research team was also able to use the model to predict the effects of future climate change on Lake Victoria. “We input different climate parameters in the model based on past reconstructions and future projections to see what happened to lake levels in the past and what will happen in the future,” Peppe said. Combined observations from this new modeling and estimates of ancient precipitation indicate that Lake Victoria was likely dried up between 36,000 to 100,000 years ago, Peppe said. “As Lake Victoria dried up, this affected the dispersal patterns of early modern humans and other mammals as grasslands expanded with the retreat of the lake,” he said. Repercussions of Disappearance Peppe said the disappearance of the White Nile could have broad repercussions, including depriving Uganda of its primary source of electricity via hydropower and the water that sustains the Nile during non-flood stages. “In addition, every major port city around Lake Victoria could become landlocked in as little as 100 years. In 400 years, Kenya would have no access to the lake while Uganda and Tanzania would gain huge areas of potential farmland setting up a potentially dangerous dynamic between countries that currently fight over the lucrative fishing rights to the lake,” Peppe said. The researchers wrote that additional regional climate modeling is urgently needed to understand the effects of climate change on the region. ABOUT THE STUDY The new study, “Rapid Pleistocene desiccation and the future of Africa's Lake Victoria,” is published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The research team was led by Emily J. Beverly, Ph.D., assistant professor of sedimentary geology at the University of Houston; Joseph D. White, Ph.D., professor of biology in Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences; Daniel J. Peppe, Ph.D., associate professor of geosciences in Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences; J. Tyler Faith, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology, at University of Utah; Nick Blegen, Ph.D., Royal Society Eric Shooter International Fellow, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge; and Christian A. Tryon, Ph.D., professor of anthropology, University of Connecticut. ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit www.baylor.edu/artsandsciences.
Baylor Expert Shares Six Lessons We Can Learn From Mr. Rogers About Being a Good Neighbor
WACO, Texas (Nov. 14, 2019) – In this polarized time, when it requires little effort to tear a stranger apart on social media or lash out at a family member because of a difference of opinion, the gentle cadence of Fred Rogers singing a simple song about neighbors loving and helping each other is a welcome respite. The much-anticipated movie, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” starring Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks as Rogers – known to generations simply as “Mr. Rogers,” the host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” – will be released in theaters on Nov. 22. The official movie trailer posted on YouTube has drawn nearly 12 million views. Civics education expert Brooke Blevins, Ph.D., associate professor of social studies education and chair of Baylor University’s department of curriculum and instruction, said the renewed focus on the beloved and soft-spoken TV personality, who died in 2003, might be coming at just the right time. “When you watch Mr. Rogers, time slows down, and you are able to take a deep breath as complicated issues become more understandable and the beauty of relationships is reinforced,” Blevins said. “Imagine if we all walked into the world with the belief that each person was inherently worthy. Imagine if our goal was to help each other recognize that we are worthy of being loved. Imagine if we sought to listen more than we spoke,” she said. “I imagine if this was the case, that our conversation would change, our understanding of those around us would shift, and our national conversations would be more civil.” Below, Blevins shares six lessons we can learn from Mr. Rogers about being better citizens. Each person is worthy to be loved and heard. Like Mr. Rogers, we must recognize that each person we interact with is worthy to be loved and listened to. We must recognize that each person has unique experiences, fears, losses and triumphs that shape the way they understand what’s happening around them. We need to do much more listening and far less talking. We should work together to tackle tough issues in reasoned and evidenced-based ways with civility and a genuine desire to understand those around us. Use your platform for good. Mr. Rogers was deeply committed to creating a better world. Mr. Rogers did not take his role on TV lightly. He saw it as an opportunity to help young people make sense of the world around them and to become more knowledgeable and engaged citizens. He saw television as an opportunity to create community and a shared sense of purpose. As he once noted, “The space between the television screen and whoever happens to be receiving it, I consider that holy ground. A lot happens there.” Lessons we often think are for children are for adults as well. Mr. Rogers was a teacher, a pastor and a friend. His lessons were drawn from the everyday experiences of children’s lives, from current political events to personal and emotional trials children experience. Not only were these lessons for children, but for their parents who were also watching. His lessons focused on cultivating civic discourse, reasoned judgment and evidence-based decision-making, but most importantly, his lessons cultivated understanding and empathy for one’s neighbor. In his conversations and examples, he drew on our shared humanity to help young people make sense of an ever-changing world. Slow down. In a time of fast-paced and often silly cartoons that were designed to move quickly from scene to scene, Mr. Rogers maintained a much slower and thoughtful pace. A pace that was compelling to both young and old alike. He explored issues slowly and with depth, without the silly antics that are so often used to keep children and adults’ attention. He used his time with viewers to develop a relationship that valued their experience and honored their emotional complexity. He sent the message that all people are inherently valuable and are capable of loving and being loved. It’s OK to discuss tough issues – even with children. But be civil and understanding when you do it. As an ordained minister and gifted musician, Mr. Rogers utilized his vocational skills to create a safe space in which difficult conversations could occur. He never shied away from the tough conversations. From issues such as divorce, death, assassination and even 9-11, Mr. Rogers’ helped young people navigate emotionally traumatic events with both knowledge and compassion. Mr. Rogers knew that by talking about our fears, losses and misunderstandings, we could work together to build a better future. As he wrestled with these issues, he asked questions, he inquired, he listened, and he had children do the same. He had a deep-rooted commitment to helping children navigate their world. Be a good neighbor. Being a good neighbor is caring about those around you. It’s not just about tolerance, but truly seeking to understand those in your community. Being a good neighbor means helping those around you recognize that they play an important part in making the world a better and more just place. It means working together to solve complex issues and cultivate a world in which all people can fulfill their true purpose. ABOUT DR. BROOKE BLEVINS Brooke Blevins, Ph.D., teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in secondary education, social studies education and multicultural education. As a former secondary teacher, she has a passion for equipping teachers with the resources needed to engage in humanizing social studies education. Dr. Blevins also serves as the co-director for the iEngage Summer Civics Institute, for which she and co-founder Dr. Karon LeCompte have raised more than $250,000 in grant funding. Dr. Blevins’ research focuses on social studies education as a means to prepare active and engaged citizens. In her work, Dr. Blevins examines how to prepare teachers to develop both political clarity and pedagogical content knowledge that encourages them to engage in transformational based and humanizing social studies education. In addition, Dr. Blevins also is interested in how to educate and empower young people to become active civic participants through participation in action civics and digital technologies. ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT BAYLOR SCHOOL OF EDUCATION Founded in 1919, Baylor School of Education ranks among the nation’s top 20 education schools located at private universities. The School’s research portfolio complements its long-standing commitment to excellence in teaching and student mentoring. Baylor’s undergraduate program in teacher education has earned national distinction for innovative partnerships with local schools that provide future teachers deep clinical preparation, while graduate programs culminating in both the Ed.D. and Ph.D. prepare outstanding leaders, teachers and clinicians through an intentional blend of theory and practice. Visit www.baylor.edu/soe to learn more.
Baylor Study: What Does It Take to Be an ‘Ideal Daughter?’
Researchers say new study gives voice to daughters and value to their role in the family WACO, Texas (Nov. 11, 2019) – The roles of daughters in the family structure and in society are difficult to define and they’re rarely understood – even by daughters themselves – said Allison Alford, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor of business communication in Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business. Alford, who served as an editor on the book “Constructing Motherhood and Daughterhood Across the Lifespan,” is the lead author on a new study, “Role Expectations and Role Evaluations in Daughtering: Constructing the Good Daughter,” published in the latest edition of the Journal of Family Communication. “Our research has found that ‘daughtering’ is invisible work that is not often credited, and it’s as unique as the individual women who are doing the work,” Alford said. “This study and subsequent conversations hopefully will bring to light the idea of daughtering. And as more people hear about it and learn about it, then we’ll start to give credit to it and notice it in our own lives.” The study centers on mother-daughter relationships, specifically, and looks at how daughters perceive and define their roles in that relationship. Researchers interviewed 33 women, ages 25-45, who have living mothers under the age of 70. Those age ranges were chosen in order to capture a time period for mothers and daughters with the greatest likelihood that neither individual was the caregiver of the other and both were in relatively good health, the researchers wrote. Expectations of the “Ideal Daughter” Alford said analysis of the interviews with the daughters revealed four themes or role expectations for an “ideal daughter” in relation to her mother: Showing respect Providing protection Eliciting mothering Making time for connection Each of those efforts requires work, and that work often goes unnoticed or is undervalued – even by daughters themselves, Alford said. The study noted that many of the women who were interviewed initially – almost naturally – anticipated talking about their mothers instead of themselves. “When asked to think about themselves as daughters and their communication in the relationship, many found themselves doing so for the very first time,” the researchers wrote. “These women noted that putting the emphasis on themselves and describing their role as adult daughters felt strange or awkward in its newness.” Showing Respect Respect, the study showed, was the most common topic addressed by the daughters. Based on the interviews, a daughter’s respect for her mother could be demonstrated by avoiding conflict, silencing one’s disagreement with her mother, reacting positively to her mother’s messages and supporting her mother’s power position. “Daughters demonstrated respect by adapting their communication to affirm their mothers’ competence or otherwise avoid offending and disregarding them,” the researchers wrote. One woman, identified as Kelsey in the study, said she listens to her mother talk about things she dislikes and sometimes apologizes to her mother even when she doesn’t feel apologetic. “I would never say, ‘Mom, I don’t want to hear it,’ because I would never say that to my mom. Ever. I would listen to her … I would listen to her tell me things I don’t wanna hear all day long, and never tell her,” Kelsey said. Providing Protection A number of the adult daughters interviewed felt there was an expectation that they would actively protect their mothers. This could be a daughter protecting her mother’s wellbeing, protecting her mother from being taken advantage of, or protecting her from the disrespectful actions of others, including siblings. One woman, Sabine, described a time when she had to stand up to her brother because she felt he was taking advantage of their mother’s goodwill. In addition, she said she had to “get after” her mother for not employing boundaries with the brother. The examples in the study illustrated that many daughters were happy to be champions for their mothers, but some noted that it was difficult to be protectors. Eliciting Mothering A number of the daughters who were interviewed said they struggle a bit with their roles as adults – or even as mothers themselves – who still need to engage with their mothers and ask for assistance. Many said they still seek interaction and approval from their mothers as a sense of pride. “When a daughter calls upon her mother for guidance or activates a need for an emotional evaluation such as pride, she is fulfilling her role expectations,” the researchers wrote. One woman, Lottie, said of her mother: “She compliments me as a mother. I think I feel like a good daughter when I feel like I am making her proud and she lets me know that she is proud of me … and I guess that makes me feel like a good daughter.” Connection In their descriptions of “good daughters,” a number of the daughters interviewed said it was important to set aside time to connect with their mothers. This, the study showed, could be anything from talking on the phone, meeting face to face, taking grandchildren to visit or even moving to a home nearby. Sometimes the expectations are stated outright by the mothers, but that’s not always the case, the researchers explained. Changing the Language Alford said her research has shown that the “language” of daughtering is almost nonexistent in social discourse as well as in scholarly or popular works. For example, she said, a daughter who is caring or supportive is often described as being “motherly.” “That’s an example of giving credit to mothers as being the only people who care for others, versus saying that the daughter is a caring person or that she’s supportive,” Alford said. “We want to think of daughtering as its own form of work and responsibility and put a value on that, so we can see the value that we’re putting into our family relationships and family systems.” One desired outcome of research into this area, Alford said, is that daughters will be given a voice and their valuable work within the family will be acknowledged. “The work that daughters do is important and valuable and the more that we talk about it and bring it to light, the more that we will understand what daughters can bring to the relationship and improve the mother-daughter relationship,” she said. ABOUT THE STUDY The study, “Role Expectations and Role Evaluations in Daughtering: Constructing the Good Daughter,” is published in the Journal of Family Communication. Authors are Allison Alford, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor of business communication in Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business; and Meredith Marko Harrigan, Ph.D., professor of communication at SUNY Geneseo. ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY At Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, integrity stands shoulder-to-shoulder with analytic and strategic strengths. The School’s top-ranked programs combine rigorous classroom learning, hands-on experience in the real world, a solid foundation in Christian values and a global outlook. Making up approximately 25 percent of the University’s total enrollment, undergraduate students choose from 16 major areas of study. Graduate students choose from full-time, executive or online MBA or other specialized master’s programs, and Ph.D. programs in Information Systems, Entrepreneurship or Health Services Research. The Business School also has campuses located in Austin and Dallas, Texas. Visit www.baylor.edu/business and follow on Twitter at twitter.com/Baylor_Business.
U.S. economy continues to expand, but at a slower pace, reaching about 2 percent growth in 2020
INDIANAPOLIS -- The U.S. economy will continue to expand for a 12th consecutive year in 2020, but by only about 2 percent and struggling to remain at that level by year's end. Indiana's economic output will be more anemic, growing at a rate of about 1.25 percent, according to a forecast released today by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Over the past year, political dysfunction and international trade friction have disrupted supply chains and eroded both consumer and business confidence. U.S. employment has grown during 2019 but will decelerate throughout 2020, well short of 150,000 jobs per month and possibly to about 100,000 by year's end. A tight labor market will continue to be an issue for many companies. "The total number of job openings in the economy peaked in late 2018," said Bill Witte, associate professor emeritus of economics at IU. "Average hours worked have been flat over the past year, and auto sales have been flat for nearly two years. Given the reliance of the U.S. economy on consumer spending, these are disturbing signs. But they are vague signs, and not enough to convince us that the end of the expansion is in sight. "We expect that growth will be weaker than in the past two years, and this outlook is likely a best-case outcome," he added. "There is massive uncertainty in the current situation." The Kelley School presented its forecast this morning to Indianapolis community and business leaders at IUPUI. The Business Outlook Tour panel also will present national, state and local economic forecasts in seven other cities across the state through Nov. 20. Indiana's more meager economic growth expected in 2020 can largely be attributed to the outsized presence of manufacturing and particularly tight labor markets, said Ryan Brewer, associate professor of finance at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus and author of the panel's Indiana forecast. Manufacturing contracts more rapidly versus other areas of the economy, and tight labor markets limit employers' capacity to grow, he said. Expectations about business investment have fallen short, and corporations have been buying back stock instead of making capital investments. The trade war with China and slowing global expansion have also affected state manufacturers. The world is about to record its slowest economic growth since the financial crisis of 2009. Next year, global growth is projected at 3.4 percent, with downside risks continuing to build. China and the European Union each face structural issues amid tariffs imposed by the United States. Brexit remains unresolved. Recent data from the Institute for Supply Management showed that manufacturing activity has slowed to its lowest rate since the beginning of the Great Recession. Indiana has sought to diversify its economy in recent decades, but manufacturing output represents nearly 28 percent of gross state product. Indiana continues to lead the nation in manufacturing employment, with more than 17 percent of its jobs in that sector. "Constrained by a historically tight labor market, Indiana is expected to experience slow growth in jobs and gross output, along with the possibility for continued rising wages," Brewer said. "With fewer and fewer available people to hire, tightness of the Indiana labor markets will serve as a drag to output and employment growth." The outlook for the Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson metropolitan statistical area is slightly better, with expected growth between 1.5 and 2 percent. "Indianapolis continues to draw in talent and investment that should help it exceed the overall state level of growth," said Kyle Anderson, clinical assistant professor of business economics. "However, there is risk that weakness in the broader economy, and especially weakness in manufacturing, could make this forecast too optimistic." Other highlights from the forecast: The national and state unemployment rates will hold steady. The nation's rate could be below 4 percent by year's end, and the state will stay at or below full employment through 2020. Inflation will rise and end 2020 close to the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target. The stock market will struggle to get average returns with headwinds from trade, supply chain disruption and policy uncertainty. Earnings continue to exceed expectations, yet lack of definitive trade consensus continues to drive headwinds. Interest rates will remain low. The 10-year Treasury rate should stay below 2 percent and mortgages below 4 percent. Speculative grade bond yields have been rising, indicating increased risk of insolvency for marginal firms. Entry-level wage growth could cause costs to rise, earnings to fall and growth to stagnate for firms heading into 2020. Energy prices will be relatively stable, with average prices similar to those in 2019. Business investment will remain weak, although a little improved from this year. Housing will achieve a meager increase, ending two years of negative growth. Government spending will grow, but much more slowly than the past year, as the impact of the 2018 budget deal ends. The starting point for the forecast is an econometric model of the United States, developed by IU's Center for Econometric Model Research, which analyzes numerous statistics to develop a national forecast for the coming year. A similar econometric model of Indiana provides a corresponding forecast for the state economy based on the national forecast plus data specific to Indiana. A select panel of Kelley faculty members, led by Indiana Business Research Center co-director Timothy Slaper, then adjusts the forecast to reflect additional insights it has on the economic situation. A detailed report on the outlook for 2020 will be published in the winter issue of the Indiana Business Review, available online in December. In addition to predictions about the nation, state and Indianapolis, it also will include forecasts for other Indiana cities and key economic sectors. Presenting the forecast at the Indianapolis Business Outlook Tour event were Phil T. Powell, associate dean of Kelley academic programs at Indianapolis and clinical associate professor of business economics and public policy; Cathy Bonser-Neal, associate professor of finance; and Anderson.
Baylor Faculty Member Earns $5 Million Grant to Study Meal Deliveries for Rural Students
Baylor University’s Texas Hunger Initiative has taken an important step this week in helping move the University towards its Research 1/Tier 1 aspirations with the announcement of a $5 million grant to expand access to food for students living in rural Texas communities. Kathy Krey, Ph.D., assistant research professor and director of research and administration for Baylor’s Texas Hunger Initiative, has been awarded the three-year grant from the United States Department of Agriculture for a research project aimed at testing a novel approach to distributing food during the summer to rural students age 18 and under. The grant is from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 3 million children in Texas receive free or reduced-price meals during the school year. During the summer when schools are not in session, food is available to eligible families through federal and state programs, but some students – particularly those who live in rural areas – may have difficulty accessing the food programs, leaving them without consistent access to nutrition. “The current solution to this problem, the federal Summer Food Service Program, doesn’t fit every scenario, because it requires that students congregate at a summer feeding site, often at a school or other central location,” Krey said. “Especially in rural areas, which Texas has a lot of, those meal sites can be less effective because there are transportation, cost or awareness barriers for students who are more broadly dispersed from schools and other potential meal sites.” Improving access to summer meals through mail delivery Krey and her colleagues at THI will be testing a program where families in selected areas of the state who don’t have access to a summer meal site can receive food deliveries through the mail. Grant funding will be used to purchase shelf-stable, nutritionally complete meals, including fruits and vegetables, which are packaged and delivered directly to families. The goal in designing this program, Krey said, is not to eliminate site-based summer feeding programs, but to supplement them with other mechanisms that can be more effective for Texas students whose food needs may not be met by the current system. “We envision a future in which summer feeding sites still exist. In communities where populations are centrally located, the site-based model can make a lot of sense, but we know that it’s going to take a lot of innovative solutions to meet the diversity of the problem especially in a state like Texas that has so many different geographies and different realities in terms of population density,” Krey said. The dual problems of hunger and poverty are closely related since students who don’t have access to healthy meals are at greater risk of low academic achievement and disciplinary problems. A failure to address nutritional deficiencies, Krey said, can contribute to a cycle of poverty that continues from generation to generation. “Research has proven that students need consistent access to healthy food to perform optimally in school,” she said. “If we think about generational poverty, education is such a key factor in students’ being able to break that cycle, and one way they can be equipped to do that learning is by having regular access to nutritious food. “In the summer, there aren’t as many resources and opportunities to get food, which is why it’s so important that we figure out innovative ways to use public and private resources to make sure that low-income kids have access to food during the summer,” she said. The grant also will provide research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Andrea Skipor, graduate student in Baylor’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, said her work with the project provides important experiences in application of the concepts taught in class. “In social work, evidence-based practice is a huge part of what we do,” Skipor said. “We learn so much in a classroom, but we don’t always get the opportunity to use it. This project has really given me a way to use my social work and community research skills in a way that has sparked an interest in research for my future practice.” Krey credits students like Skipor with providing invaluable assistance in carrying out important research. “We’ve been really honored with the student researchers and student workers who have come alongside us and acquired great experience in designing a pilot research project. We’ve been so impressed with the Baylor University students’ talent and commitment and we’re really honored to have them as part of this project,” Krey said. The Texas Hunger Initiative is a multi-disciplinary project dedicated to ending hunger through research and innovation and committed to strengthening public policy to address domestic food insecurity. Jeremy Everett, founder and executive director of THI, said the organization was founded on a realization that complex societal problems like hunger and poverty need solutions that leverage the resources of the public and private sectors, faith-based organizations and university researchers. The initiative’s broad-based approach includes a widely-dispersed staff that can observe problems first-hand to come up with evidence-based solutions. “We have field staff throughout the state working in a learning-lab capacity. The average researcher might have their own laboratory. Our laboratory is the state of Texas,” Everett said. It’s a strategy that Everett said is fundamental to Baylor’s mission to positively impact the lives of people in need. “We want to leave society better than we found it,” Everett said. “Our faculty and students want to be engaged in research and evaluation, but they also want to see how that makes a difference in a young child getting access to food who previously wouldn’t have had it without that engagement.” ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT THE TEXAS HUNGER INITIATIVE AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY The Texas Hunger Initiative (THI) at Baylor University is a capacity-building and collaborative project, which develops and implements strategies to end hunger through policy, education, research, community organizing and community development. THI works to make the state food secure by ensuring that every individual has access to three healthy meals a day, seven days a week. THI convenes federal, state and local government stakeholders with non-profits, faith communities and business leaders to create an efficient system of accountability that increases food security in Texas. THI’s work is supported by the Walmart Foundation, No Kid Hungry, and PepsiCo’s Food for Good. Along with its office located within the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor, THI has offices located in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Lubbock, McAllen and San Angelo. For more information, visit www.baylor.edu/texashunger.
When people hear the term “assisted living,” they might think “nursing home” or “old folks’ home.” But what people don’t know is that interior designers are working hard to ensure that these facilities provide a sense of comfort and a sense of home to their residents. “Designing for assisted living environments requires careful consideration of the needs of the residents living there. But really, in that way, it is no different from designing for any population,” said Elise King, assistant professor of interior design in Baylor University’s Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences. Baby boomers would rather live at home or in a residential setting, according to SeniorLiving.org. This will require more locations to have independent and assisted living available. With the baby boomer generation transitioning into retirement, many will require additional care but don’t want to be in nursing homes like their parents. “You should always begin by understanding the users of the space and assessing their needs and requirements,” King said. “And what you’ll find is that across the lifespan, while there are different needs which must be met by various functional requirements, our innate desires are not that different.” 1. Bring outdoors inside by incorporating nature into facility design. One way designers enhance facilities is by incorporating nature into their design and bringing the outdoors inside. At Baylor, Debra Harris, Ph.D., associate professor of interior design — who has researched the impact of health care facility design on patients, families and health care workers — teaches a sustainability course that addresses some aspects of nature in design. “We reinforce all aspects of indoor environmental quality through research activities and through the entire design process,” Harris said. “For years, architects have discussed the concept of organic architecture and more recently, the term ‘biophilic design’ has been used,” King said. “And in the past 30 or so years, we’ve seen a growing body of research that supports what we’ve assumed for a long time, essentially that humans desire a connection with nature and that nature can have a positive impact on health and well-being.” She said one way this can be accomplished is by having ample windows, particularly those that look onto greenspaces or treetops. It also is important to consider that some residents will be using walkers, canes or wheelchairs. Window height should be considered so that all residents can benefit. Another way to incorporate nature into the design is by using natural materials when possible or using materials that have textures or patterns reminiscent of nature. Harris agrees that incorporating nature into a facility’s design is important and beneficial to the residents living there. “Direct access to nature, like gardening or nature walks, and indirect access to nature, through a window, provide real tangible benefits,” Harris said. 2. Access to natural light, as well as artificial light that mimics daylight, provides benefits to seniors that are associated with well-being. Harris said having access to natural light provides benefits associated with well-being, such as reinforcing our natural clock, known as circadian rhythms, which helps with the quality of sleep and may contribute to management of chronic conditions. Designing to provide access to nature through gardening and walking also can increase physical activity and social interactions, she said. Artificial lighting is also an important factor in interior design, especially for seniors. Harris said there are lighting systems that can mimic daylight, changing over the course of the day to support our circadian rhythms, which can lead to an elevated sense of well-being. This may contribute to other aspects, such as social interactions, physical activity, and satisfaction, she said. 3. Designing for all five senses is critical for making a facility feel more like home. King said it’s important to design for all the senses, not just the visual aspect of the facility. She said sound, smell and touch are other critical aspects that need to be taken into consideration to make a facility feel more like a home. “Designers have to use research to understand how we can best address the specific needs of a mature population through design,” King said. “By creating environments that value and support these innate needs — self-actualization, esteem, love and belonging, safety needs and physiological needs — we’re reinforcing a sense of place and hopefully, a sense of home.” ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. It provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT ROBBINS COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY The Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences at Baylor University was established in 2014, a result of identified priorities for strengthening the health sciences through Baylor’s strategic vision, Pro Futuris, and the University’s Illuminate strategic plan. The anchor academic units that form Robbins College – Communication Sciences and Disorders; Family and Consumer Sciences; Health, Human Performance and Recreation; Public Health; and Division of Health Professions – share a common purpose: improving health and the quality of life. The College’s curricula promotes a team-based approach to transformational education and research that has established interdisciplinary research collaborations to advance solutions for improving quality of life for individuals, families and communities. For more information, visit www.baylor.edu/chhs.
