City Manager's Project Seeks Advice From Public Relations Class From: University Currents Date: June 9, 2000 By: Marianne Kunnen-Jones Phone: (513) 556-1826 Archive: Campus News, General News UC adjunct professor of communication Lisa Newman has a reputation for giving her public relations students a 10-week dose of reality by assigning her classes to a real-life client with a real-life problem to solve. This spring the 22 students enrolled in her Case Studies in Public Relations class not only felt the pressure of coping with a real client, they also had a high-ranking and visible one: Cincinnati City Manager John Shirey. Working for a government official as visible as John Shirey proved intimidating, at least at first, for some students, including Mandy Fisher. "It was really neat that he came into our class and spoke to us. We met with him one time. But after we got into the project, it was less about him," she said. Shirey turned to Newman's students with a dilemma that faces the city government on a daily basis. While citizens may be the best judges of what their neighborhood needs, they often don't know how to reach out to the local government for help. In May 1995, Shirey created a special initiative, the Cincinnati Neighborhood Action Strategy (CNAS), which today targets the city's 52 core neighborhoods with 14 teams of city workers to help overcome that gap. Yet many Cincinnatians are still unaware that CNAS exists. This quarter's class was instructed to create CNAS public relations plans with a hypothetical budget of less than $5,000. The students drew from previous research done by UC's Institute for Policy Research, which found that only about 11 percent of citizens are aware of CNAS. To tackle the problem, Newman divided her class into three teams, which conducted their own surveys and focus groups, developed media plans and presented their ideas in a competition held June 1. Adding even more pressure on the contestants was the fact that their judges, in addition to Newman, were Greg Vehr, UC's vice president for Governmental Relations, and Greg Hand, UC director of Public Relations. The assistant to the city manager and six other representatives of the city of Cincinnati also attended the students' final presentations. Shirey was unable to attend because Cincinnati City Council met at the same time. Although the winner was a team that called itself Outside the Box, the good news for the city of Cincinnati is that it can implement any part of each team's proposal it wishes, said Gina Ruffin-Moore, the city manager's spokeswoman. The winning team's plan included a waterproof banner, which students arranged to have donated by a local sign company and proclaims, "Do You Have Problems in Your Neighborhood That You Would Like Addressed?" and lists the CNAS hotline phone number, 352-4857. The banner, the students suggested, should be displayed at major events such as Taste of Cincinnati, Oktoberfest and Ujima Cincibration. The same team also created a video news release, or public service announcement, that they hope local television stations will air. (Clips from the video were shown on WLWT news during the 11 p.m. broadcast on June 1). Other student ideas included a recommendation to create a Scout and Youth Badge in Government Action, CNAS magnets and following up CNAS "Sweep Up" days with Cook Outs.