We are in the second week of spring semester now. My four classes filled early, and there were long waiting lists for each one. I hate to have to turn students away, but class size is important. I did let in a number of students in order from my waiting lists sign-ups, so my classes are somewhat larger than normal. Larger, but manageable.
I have only one class, a 400-level strategic and integrated communication/PR course, that previous students can take in the PR Track. My other three classes are 200- and 300-level courses filled with new students. Since my schedule this semester includes a 200 level PR principles course, I may be able to have some students for as many as three more courses. That would be special. That is, if they don’t get sick of me.
Our student PR Group, comprised of PRSSA and IABC student chapters, is off and running. We are hosting a reception next week for a contingent of Russian PR students who will be studying with us. The students are from St. Petersberg Electrotechnical University, an institution with which we have had a long and successful working relationship. It will be good for us all to get to know one another and share information about public relations.
My fascination with Millennials is fueled by my many new students. I have four good classes populated with eager young minds. This is going to be a memorable semester.
Good luck and have fun!!!
=)
Thank you, Ling. I miss you in class, but I am proud of you for securing your first job after graduating in December. I am also extremely proud of you for joining IABC. I firmly believe that professional association membership is critically important to career success. Plus, it adds professional and social depth to your career.
You are off to a terrific start, dear Ling. I will follow your career progress with affection and respect.
Les
I think you are off to a good start. I am sure everything will be fine. Stay cool and continue caring and everything else will fall in place.
Plus never give tricky test. You know what I mean? =)
Faith
Hi Les,
The program with Russian students sounds very interesting! I bet the perspectives from both groups of students will lead to very memorable discussions! You’ll have to keep your readers updated!
Take care,
Meg
Faith, you are so funny! Who, me? Give a tricky test? Never. I learned early in education career to never trick students. I never do.
In fact, if you read my Rate My Professor file, you see rater after rater telling the world that my exams are easy. Of all the nerve!
Actually, it’s true. Multiple choice and some simple short answer questions from time to time. That’s it.
Meg, thanks for the comment. Yes, the Russian visitors will be a pleasant break from the everyday class work. I think my students will enjoy their visit, and vice versa.
I have invited them to join my PR Principles class and my Strategic Communication Planning and Management class. I plan to briefly introduce the course to them and tell them where we are and what we are doing, maybe covering a little of the assigned reading for that day. Then, we’ll open it up for a long discussion. I’ll ask them to tell my classes about their PR studies, career desires, prospects, etc. Hopefully, there will be a lively interchange.
I think it will be interesting to see how they view PR in Russia and what they think about our practice. I wish you could be here with us. Funny, in some ways you are. I have talked about you so much to my students that they are probably reading your blog as we speak! I hope so, for they will benefit from it.
Take care, my friend, and thanks for commenting.
Hey, do any of you “Millennials” resent Les’s expressed interest in you as a monolithic wad of young humanity?
I would have wanted to know my favorite English professor and advisor Jack Null was interested in me as a young writer, not as a member of Generation X.
The thing is, Les, I don’t believe you ARE all that interested in the “Millennials.”
Of course every generation has its peculiarities, Les, but I believe that if you’re fascinated with them it is for the good, old-fashioned reason ANYONE should have for being interested in college students: because they’re young, and full of beans.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Potter!
Your pal,
David
If I didn’t know better, Murray, I’d say you were a cynical, jaded Baby Boomer. But I know better. You’re not that old. You just act like it from time to time.
You know Les well enough to know that he pigeonholes no one. If anybody seeks to know and understand people for who they are as individuals, it’s Les Potter. I believe his fascination with Millennial (or Gen-Y) students, however, is valid. This generation does possess some commonalities, as every generation does, and they are worth studying as a group. That doesn’t suggest treating them as a “monolithic wad of young humanity”(your words, not his, by the way), but it does suggest understanding the factors and influences that shape the generation.
Frankly, I would have appreciated a college professor who took such an interest in my generation, much less a personal interest in me.
Robert
Robert, are you the bouncer on this blog? I need to hear from Les on this!
Nope, not the bouncer. Just someone who believes your caustic comment needed a third-party response.
Mr. Murray, try some decaf.
My true Brother and bff Robert defended me quite nicely, thank you. I deeply appreciate Robert’s speaking on my behalf. But if you need to hear from me, here goes:
If you wish to know whether or not my students resent my interest in them, please go to links in my blog and check out Rate My Professor. I’ll let my students tell you how they feel.
I’ll also share my official Towson University student ratings with you for every semester I’ve taught. I score 4.8 to 4.9 total out of a max of 5.0. Again, let my students tell you how they feel.
Maybe the reason your English professor and advisor showed little interest in you was because of you. I wonder what he would think of you now. Think about how he might view you now by reading your blog. He might wonder how as talented and intelligent a guy as you are became so cynical.
If you do not believe I have a genuine interest in the Millennial generation that largely populates my classroom, then that is your business. Quite frankly, I am blessed to not be burdened by caring what you think.
Yes, every generation has its traits, and I am interested in every generation. I just happen to be teaching mostly Millennials now, and I feel it is my duty to know about them. What a concept: knowing about something before you pop off about it.
Woah, Les!
I meant only to tweak you, mostly lightheartedly (do you really think I tell my enemies to “put their in their pipe and smoke it?”) for what I thought–and was absolutely open to rebuke on, from you–was your over-emphasis on this Millennials business. I am always skeptical of claims that this or that generation is terribly different from every other generation.
I believe you have a real interest in your students, just as my professor had a genuine interest in me! I am certainly not questioning your popularity as a teacher. For heaven sakes, you’re one of my favorite people in the communication business, and I can only imagine how cool these kids think you are and how much you teach them.
I’m only questioning your claim (and asking you to examine it) that these kids are so different from how you were at their age.
But boy oh boy, now I’ve got to go into the weekend wondering why Les Potter finds me so cynical and why, after years of exchanging ideas, he suddenly does not care at all what I think.
What gives?
David, you succeeded. Consider me tweaked.
When tweaked, I tweak back.
Perhaps I did not understand your tone in your original message. For example, you directly challenged my interest in Millennials. Why? Would I lie about it? If so, for what purpose? What would be the point?
I have said that each generation is similar to some degree. It is just that the Millennial generation populates my classroom now, hence the hightened interest in them.
David, you tweaked, and I tweaked back. But in the end, you and I have, as you said, a long history of valued exchanges. That will not stop. So, please my friend, go into the weekend with a happy heart and a clear mind. Nothing “gives” here but lively give and take between two devoted bloggers and long-time friends. I value your experience, your viewpoint, your insights, and your expertise, so never forget that, David.
Les, I appreciate a good tweaking, ask anybody. 🙂 Thus, when your Facebook request asked how we met, I clicked, “We hooked up.”
I did not mean to challenge your interest in Millennials. I just challenged your emphasis on it and asked you: Are you really interested in this particular group of young people or simply in young people in general, and your students, one by unique one.
Meant no harm. Glad we’re good. Now I have to write a terribly nasty book review and off to a happy weekend,
David
David, while I can understand your skepticism about the differences between this generation and that, I also encourage you to examine your own view more closely. While I have not been in the classroom as a teacher for nearly the number of hours Les has, I too have noticed great differences in Millennial students and those who came before (including yours truly). These differences are profound in many ways and they definitely affect the way I approach my teaching. I think this is the point that Les is making, too.
Robert
Yes, I do need to get with a crowd of Millennials, to see what all the fuss is about.
David and Robert, here is a point about Millennials that you two will find interesting. since you both are about the best writers I have ever known.
This is not scientific, but it does illustrate an accepted characteristic of Millennials. This generation is smart and well-educated. For example, I am grading two sections of PR writing today, forty business bios in all. The quality of this assignment, their first writing assignment in my class, is excellent. Their grammar and syntax is good, and the way they express themsleves is quite good, too.
Robert and I have discussed at length how young people can’t write worth a crap these days. But after four years of grading PR writing assignments, I see the quality of writing improving with each semester. Again, this is not scientific, but I think it is an indication that Millennials are a competent bunch. Anyway, it is encouraging for the next batch of PR professionals to have improved in their general writing ability.
In fact, it’s the most encouraging thing I’ve heard about education in a long time. To what do you attribute this–anecdotally, of course–sudden improvement in writing ability?
David, I have been researching (and observing) Millennials for a while now. In all I’ve studied, the word is that Millennials are just smart. In fact, eight in ten Millennials say it is “cool to be smart.”
That is indeed encouraging. I do not know much about K-12 education, so I can’t say it is because of any No Child Left Behind influence or anything like that. But as I said in my post, “More With Les names person of the year”, Many of their collective characteristics must come from the fact that Millennials are the most watched-over generation in memory. They were brought up in closely-managed, highly structured environments by protective parents. Millennials were a wanted generation of kids by their parents. Millennials have been regarded as special since birth and have been obsessed over at every age. They were born into an era of falling divorce and abortion rates, an era characterized by that which harms children is intolerable (Strauss and Howe, 2006).
Based on that, I think Millennial parents worked with their kids to help them succeed. I do know that parental involvement and influence is critical to any child’s success in school. Maybe it is as simple as that.
Les:
I don’t know what’s more disturbing . . . . that you’re having a debate with Mur about Millennials when, as far as I can tell, he’s never actually met one (All David’s best friends are over 40, and most are over 50; at 41, I’m the baby in the group), or that Mur used one of those little smiley things in his post.
It’s all just so disturbing.
But that IS good news that your kids can write. What with texting and all lowercase e-mails and acronyms for everything, I worry that the days of great writers are coming to an end.
You bring good tidings, Professor.
Steve C.
Hail, Bombasticles!!
What a treat to see your name in my comments, Steve. Yep, me and our little pal Mur have had quite the interchange today. Between us, I am not sure what generation he is a member of.
He looks young enough to be a Gen-Xer, and he seems to embody their motto: “Life sucks, and then you die.”
But he has an old-fartness about him that hints of Baby Boomer.
He simply cannot be a Millennial because he has no concept of who or what they are.
No, Bombasticles, with you and Mur and Robert J. Holland still active, the days of great writing is upon us. These new guys coming up can learn from you, building on the skills they seem to have already.
But Mur using that little smiley thing…well, I am disturbed, too.
And to continue the lovefest, Professor, as long as you’re standing in front of a classroom, we will have a chance to create great writers and great communicators.
Mur is part of no generation. His writing belongs in the era with H.L. Mencken and E.B. White. His contrariness is most certainly Gen. X. His socialist leanings would have been perfectly placed in Eugene Debs’ time (and would that we could send them back there now). You’ve heard of “The Me Generation. He is part of what has to be called “The Mur Generation,” and it is a generation in and of itself.
My pal Jim Ylisela and I are coming to DC this March 12, 13, and 14. Any chance I could take you and Mr. Holland to dinner on Thursday the 13th?
Bombasticles
Standing . . . sitting . . . you know what I meant. As long as you’re up there, streams of wise-beyond-their-years writers and communicators will flow into the workplace.
B
Bombasticles, I ‘d love to have dinner with you in March. March 13 or 14 works best for me.
I’ll coerce and/or persuade our Gen-X pal Robert J. Holland to join in the fellowship. I know he’d not want to miss out on this BS Fest.
Hail, Bombasticles! Father of rant! (Mur is a wannabe).
Done and done, Professor!!! Let’s lock in Thursday, March 13th for dinner in DC. You name the kind of food you have a taste for, and we’ll do it right! We finish up the seminar about 4 or so, then Jim and I usually like to have a couple of drinks with the attendees (that’s when the good stories come out!).
You might enjoy that . . . sitting around with a bunch of communicators swapping horror stories. We’ll be in the hotel bar (I’m not sure which hotel yet, but I’ll let you know) from 4 to about 5:30 or 6; come over anytime you want, after 4. Or, if you’re having a bad day, go to the bar at noon and wait for us. Then we’ll head out for dinner somewhere around the hotel at about 6.
I, too, will prevail upon young Mr. Holland to make the drive and join us.
Bombasticles
Thursday, March 13, it is, Bombasticles. I can’t wait.
Hey, we can sit in the lobby bar and take photos with our cell phones of Millennials and send them to Mur.
You leave a blog for a few hours and this is what happens.
Hey, Steverino! Good to see you joining the fray. I wouldn’t miss the chance to have dinner with two of my favorite people in the world. I’ll trek up to the DC area on March 13 for sure. I’m marking my calendar now.
I wish I could be as optimistic about the writing skills of this generation as Les is. Unfortunately, my experience has been not as good. The students I teach (which is admittedly a smaller number than those who are learning at the knee of the master) often struggle to put a complete sentence together. Ah, but at least these kids won’t escape MY class without learning how to write!
Still, I am happy to hear that Les is seeing improvement.
I do generally agree with you, Les, that the current generation of students has been fawned over more than previous generations. And I also agree, based on my current living arrangements with an almost-16-year-old and an 11-year-old, that it’s “cool to be smart” these days. Being a slacker in school is frowned upon, at least in this school system (and definitely in this household). And at least one smart kid I know is getting dates with some pretty smart girls, too!
Robert
Robert!!!
I’m so happy that you’re finally getting dates with smart girls!!! THAT is a long time coming, my friend!
Can’t wait to see you in DC . . . it’ll be a hoot nanny. We’ll talk politics and NASCAR and IABC and generally ridicule Murray.
Steve C.