FIU MAGAZINE | FACULTY PROFILE

'Giving back what you've learned'

Former corporate public relations executive receives national accolades as an educator

Bill Adams

William "Bill" Adams, FIU associate professor of Advertising and Public Relations, had entertained the notion for years. He'd even tried it (and liked it) in his role as a public relations professional. But throughout the 1970s and 1980s he resisted the urge with a family that included a wife and three sons, it wasn't practical and could lead to financial hardship. Then one day in the late 1980s, a sudden change in corporate structure left Adams and many of his colleagues searching for work.

And that's when he did it: he joined the world of academia by accepting a teaching position in FIU's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"The kids were pretty much out of school, so I could think about doing something else," said Adams, in discussing his decision to leave full-time corporate life after 25 years. "I really wanted the psychic reward that comes with giving back."

Adams' interest in teaching began, in part, during his tenure as Phillips Petroleum Company public relations director from 1978 to 1988. Adams created an award-winning program in which he and his Phillips colleagues traveling on business spoke to local college communications classes. Adams and his colleagues visited more than 100 college campuses nationwide during the course of the program.

"Giving back what you've learned to do to those just entering the field is something that I feel more people in corporate and nonprofit life should be doing," said Adams.

Adams has garnered the respect of his colleagues and his students since joining the FIU faculty in 1990. A member of the Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) College of Fellows, Adams was named the 2000 Outstanding Educator by PRSA, as well as the 2000 Advisor of the Year by the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). Adams is the first person to receive both awards in the same year. In 1999, Adams was named one of the nation's 10 "Outstanding Public Relations Educators" by the editors of PR Week, a national trade magazine. Additionally, Adams has won three teaching and service awards.

"Practitioners can find it difficult to step into teaching because you can't just stand there and tell war stories," said Adams. "There's a world of difference between going to school one day and doing an hour in front of the class and taking a student from September to December and actually teaching them something. How do you learn to do that?

"You have to be able to make a 180-degree switch in your mental attitude, and you have to have tremendous patience," continued Adams. "You've gone from a corporate setting and having people understand what you're talking about at all levels to 'ground zero.' It's a whole different focus on imparting knowledge."

Adams is responsible for extensive research and writings focusing not only on the teaching of public relations but on the importance of mutual understanding and cooperation between professional practitioners and PRSA. He is passionate about the necessity of linking the theoretical with the practical.

Working "in the field" allows Adams to incorporate his consulting experiences into his class lessons. As a consultant, he has conducted public relations programs for information officers in El Salvador as part of a USAID grant to FIU's International Media Center and is working currently on another USAID communications program in Armenia. Adams also teaches in the Central European Programs of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce and has taught public relations concepts to tourism directors in Aruba and conducted writing workshops for South Florida public relations agencies.

"Bill is so deserving of the accolades he's received over the years," said Pat Rose, chair of FIU's Department of Advertising and Public Relations. "He always has students in his office. And through his efforts with PRSA's Educators Academy (Adams is the current chair), he works to make sure our students are being prepared adequately for careers in public relations."

Adams taught three courses in spring 2001, including the introductory public relations writing course, a class he enjoys teaching because that is the first course taken exclusively by public relations students after declaring their major.

"The introductory public relations writing course gives me a chance to say, 'Now your school work is no longer school work; it's real work. Now it's like working for a client,'" explained Adams. "I tell them I expect them to come to class on time and produce."

Adams takes a personal interest in his public relations students, sending them weekly emails and checking up on them when they miss class. Adams said in all but a few cases the students are "grateful that I chase them down." The advisor to FIU's PRSSA chapter, Adams has secured more than $300,000 in corporate grants for student production of Get Ready, an award-winning hurricane preparedness guide. The annual PRSSA Christmas party is at the home he shares with Barbara, his wife of 34 years.

His caring touch resonates with students.

"There are no other professors out there like him," said senior Cynthia Turcios, vice president of FIU's PRSSA chapter. "I respect his experience. If I find myself unsure of what to do in a particular situation, I try and think of what he would do. He's like my second father."

"I tell them my door's open, come on in. So I may be grumpy some days -- I'm still here. You have to be," said Adams. "We're here to instill the knowledge to make them successful.

"It's my old mantra of 'a mile wide and an inch deep,'" continued Adams. "One assignment I always give is to write about the most important people of the 20th century. The kids know Elvis Presley, Babe Ruth, Harry Truman but they don't know Jack Kerouac, Jane Addams, Edward R. Morrow.

"I teach them you've got to be eclectic in your tastes in order to be an effective public relations person. You have to possess a social awareness," said Adams, warming to his subject matter. "You've got to know there's such a thing as Charlie's Angels as well as Descartes. I read everything from Rolling Stone to Atlantic Monthly. I'm a voracious reader. Kids don't read today. We make them read."

Adams, whose undergraduate and graduate degrees are in journalism with a public relations emphasis, speaks highly of the work being done by Kevin Hall, a former editor at The Miami Herald and director of FIU's Journalism Writing Program. Students wishing to enroll in FIU's School of Journalism and Mass Communication must pass a grammar test and a course in the Journalism Writing Program, prior to taking classes in their major.

"This program is controversial," acknowledged Adams. "There are a lot of people who wonder why we are teaching students grammar when they should have had it in high school. Well, the answer is they didn't."

"It's not about grades, it's about preparing the students," reiterated Adams. "After all, who is it you remember in your life who got you where you are? I love it when I hear from a former student who remembers a course I taught or something they learned from me. It means that something I said is getting through. And that's what we're here for."

Bill Adams