Simply Speaking The Official Newsletter of Lambda Pi Eta Spring 2008

Transcription

1 Simply Speaking The Official Newsletter of Lambda Pi Eta Spring 2008 Getting to Know The National Officers 2008 Regional Conferences Southern States Communication Association Annual Convention April 2-6 Savannah, GA Central States Communication Association Annual Conference April 9-13 Madison, WI Eastern States Communication Association Annual Convention May 1-4 Pittsburgh, PA Inside Page 2- Benefits of LPH Page 3- Advertising LPH Page 4- LPH Ceremonies Page 5- Survey Info. Page 6- Submitting Articles Pictures from NCA Conference held in Chicago, Illinois. Pictured on left is Joshua Wright-Vice President and on the right Tim McKenna-President Welcome to the first Simply Speaking put together for you by the National Officers and Advisers. Thanks for reading, we hope that you enjoy it and learn some new and exciting information that will help benefit and maintain your chapter of Lambda Pi Eta. First off I would like to introduce myself, my name in Tim McKenna and I currently attend Wayne State College and am a part of the Mu Gamma chapter. I am the National President. I am determined to get quite a few things accomplished this year, and I do want to hear from any and all of you who have questions, concerns or comments on activities and policy issues that you want your voice heard on. Joshua Wright, Vice President, The College of New Jersey Greetings fellow members! The new year has brought a host of opportunities for improving Lambda Pi Eta, and to that end I m so very pleased to have the privilege of working with Tim, Evan and you! In the research I ve pursued at the College of New Jersey, I ve used the tools of statistics to reveal hidden facts about the role that social forces play in shaping our news media. Moreover, as a Philosophy and Communication major, I m equally interested in discovering ways to apply the fruits of such research to concrete social problems. A principle of better policy through better research is one that will definitely inform my work as your vice president! Evan Aue, Secretary, Hillsdale College It is with great anticipation that I serve Lambda Pi Eta as national secretary. I am currently a junior at Hillsdale College, a small private liberal arts college in south central Michigan, and am the president of the Pi Epsilon chapter of Lambda Pi Eta. When I am not studying, I am a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and chairman of our campus ACS Relay for Life event. I work at the local American Red Cross and as an ambassador for my college.

2 Benefits of LPH on Your Campus Jason Munsell, Columbia College Goals for Update Website, member friendly 2 - NCA Attendance Survey 3 - Promote National Freedom of Speech Week 4 - Finalize Proposal for the Online Elections 5 - Increase Advertising Materials 6 - Initiate National Fundraiser 7 - Work towards Chapter Networking on a Regional and State level Tim McKenna, national president of Lambda Pi Eta, asked me to write this brief article regarding the benefits of a Lambda Pi Eta chapter on your campus. Unfortunately, I can t really provide the possible benefits for your campus since the value of a Lambda Pi Eta chapter is always contextual. Obviously, the organization s mission supplies general ideas regarding benefits, but in this brief article let me simply carve out a few benefits Lambda Pi Eta has supplied for my campus. Columbia College is a small liberal arts school for women in Columbia, SC. Our communication program has about sixty majors and a handful of minors. The college itself has about 1500 students, but that includes an evening program and a few MA programs. Within our communication program, we have two student organizations: C4 (the Columbia College Communication Club) and the Lambda Pi Eta. Because of our small size, the organizations work in tandem. We currently have 11 Lambda Pi Eta members, but several more members of C4; and often LPH members are the leaders in the C4 organization. So, the first benefit is simply the recognition of our best students. We have a nice induction ceremony, the inductees get those fancy pins, fancy gold cords to wear at graduation, fancy certificates. It is a way to both celebrate and encourage excellent academic performance. Additionally, because we have a small campus we have ample opportunity to enact LPH s mission through campus programming. We have sponsored campus debates between members of the College Republicans and Young Democrats, provided programs on ethical communication, and the like. Since we are only a few miles from the University of South Carolina, we have had the opportunity to invite faculty from USC s MA program to discuss their ongoing research and discuss the benefits of graduate school as well as graduate school admission policies. Creating interesting programming has provided a wonderful benefit to our campus. Its mission rooted in traditional rhetorical thinking, LPH has a special responsibility to engage the campus community in civic discourse. An additional benefit LPH has provided our campus is creating social spaces for faculty and students to interact. LPH helps provide such an outlet for students and teachers to establish and maintain those important relationships. Benefits, again, are contextual. At Columbia College the main benefits I ve seen include student recognition and motivation for strong academic performance, excellent programming both campus-wide and within the major, and crafting social spaces for students and faculty to build better relationships. I would urge all chapters to consider how they can perform LPH s mission and make unique contributions to their campus.

3 Fun Facts about LPH! -The official colors of Lambda Pi Eta are crimson to represent the communication discipline and silver in recognition of speech and oratory skills. -Dr. Stephen A. Smith of the University of Arkansas was the first to recognize the potential of an honor society for communication majors. Advertising Your Club Evan Aue, Hillsdale College Advertising your chapter on campus is advantageous in many facets and is a fairly simple process. One of the easiest steps is utilizing collegiate publications, making sure they follow your events and activities. Making use of such internet resources as Facebook and blogs can update members and non-members about important happenings. Besides posting flyers on local boards and doors, taking the time to express the principles of LPH through forums and informal chats can help advertise your group greatly. Wearing LPH shirts on campus not only creates morale and a sense of identity but also helps present your organization to the college. Ultimately, the goal of your group is to be visible. Sponsoring events gives your chapter recognition, but if funds are not available participate in events as a club, to make your presence known. History on National Freedom of Speech Week Started in 2005, National Freedom of Speech Week was designed to celebrate the first amendment of the Constitution and the right of expression it gives to Americans. It was started by The Media Institute with help from the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation (NABEF) to raise awareness, increase involvement, and promote our right to speak. The 2008 National Freedom of Speech Week will take place October 20-26, and gives each chapter a tremendous opportunity to participate in an important event with several other civic and community groups nationwide. National Fundraiser Tim McKenna, Wayne State College So you are probably thinking what does this new board have in mind for our future. Well we are thinking about YOU our members and we want to see you at the 2008 NCA Convention. We know that it is a valuable experience, but we are also willing to face the issue that it is expensive to attend. This year as a board we are going to look at many fund raiser possibilities that each club could take part in. We are thinking about having each club pay a fund raiser due of say $25 to $50, (we haven t looked into ALL the specific money issues yet) and with this money it would get set aside and come August we would post a NCA Convention scholarship application that anyone who was an LPH member and who wanted to attend convention could have a chance at getting. This would off-set the cost and help the member pay for their flight and hotel while at NCA. What do you think...let me know at lphofficer@gmail.com.

4 LPH Initiation Ceremonies from Across America Delta Iota Greenville College * Source: Kevin Gillen and Alec Hosterman Theta Kappa University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Iota Tau Stetson University Xi Sigma Emporia State University Gamma Upsilon Wake Forest University

5 Survey Information Joshua B. Wright, College of New Jersey For those of us fortunate enough to attend, participation in the annual NCA convention is a highlight of LPH membership. With its graduate school fair, professional presentations and parties, the NCA conference offers an unparalleled opportunity to forge connections for a future career in Communication and receive valuable feedback from scholars on one s own work Lambda Pi Eta National Officers President Tim McKenna Wayne State College Vice President Joshua Wright College of New Jersey * Source: Kevin Gillen and Alec Hosterman Indiana University South Benf Secretary Evan Aue Hillsdale College Unfortunately, the substantial costs of travel, registration and hotel accommodation dissuade many students from ever making a trip to the NCA convention. To better understand the barriers to greater student participation at this event, we need your feedback! In the coming months, the national officers of LPH will prepare a survey that will be distributed to every LPH chapter. This survey will include questions whose answers should help us determine the thresholds (for factors such as cost and duration of stay) at which NCA conference attendance becomes unfeasible for most students. Using this information, we can work with the administration of NCA to adjust conference scheduling, venue selection and registration requirements so that as many of our members may participate as possible Annual Convention was held at the Chicago Hilton. Communicating Worldviews: Faith-Intellect-Ethics was the theme. Remember that it is in NCA s interest to increase student attendance at its conference: the participating LPH members of today are the active NCA members of tomorrow. So be on the lookout for our survey this summer. With your help, we can make conference attendance a reality for far more of our dedicated LPH members! Getting to know the National Advisors Daniel Cochece Davis, Ph.D. My involvement with LPH goes back to working with students at the University of Southern California during the 1990s, and mentoring their work submitted and presented at the NCA conferences. That involvement continued to grow as a I moved to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, and we developed the Lambda Epsilon chapter (go Red Foxes!). I m excited about being involved in LPH s national board, and hope to help the organization play an increasingly developmental role in the national/ international movement promoting undergraduate research occurring across all disciplines.

6 Submitting Articles A diversity of club activities is essential to the vitality of any LPH chapter. For chapter officers, the responsibility of developing, scheduling, funding and implementing such events is a major challenge. Officers aren t without resources in this area, of course. Advisors, teachers, and fellow LPH members are often eager to help. However, there is another major resource that you may not have considered: the several other hundred LPH chapters officers and members! The national officers of LPH want to draw on the collective creativity of our members to suggest new ideas for chapter events and programs. To this end, we heartily encourage you to submit articles regarding interesting chapter activities to our president s personal address, timckenna@hotmail.com. Other suggestions, concerns, questions and comments are also welcome. Send us an , and you may find that your chapter s recent exploits have become the subject of an article in this very newsletter! It takes only one mouse click to give your chapter a boost in prestige and give a hand to hundreds of other LPH chapters in the US and around the world. Web site UPDATED SOON! We need YOUR HELP! If you have any problems, any suggestions of things you would like us to add, or any questions about links with the web site let us know, because we will be updating it come March. A couple of things that are already in the works are adding more resources to the web site this includes working on advertising materials. We would like to add a brochure and a flyer you could print off to help advertise your chapter around campus. We will also be updating information on the 2008 NCA unconventional! in San Diego. Last we want your LPH Pictures for the website and future newsletters. Just us any and all information to lphofficer@gmail. com. Thanks! Simply Speaking Coordinating Editor Tim McKenna Layout/Graphic Design Patrick Doyle Want to share an opportunity with the Lambda Pi Eta community? Send Announcements to lphofficer@gmail.com