In August, it will be one year since I finished up grad school. Nine months out, and I’m ready to get back in a classroom.

Not full-time, but at least doing one class a semester. I love the academic world and the pursuit of knowledge. Were finances not a problem, I’d be quite content pursuing as many degrees as Buster Bluth.

The only problem is that the more education you have, the harder it is to find the appropriate program. Chattanooga is a wonderful, wonderful city, but lacking in communication PhD programs. Ideally, I’d like to stay in Chattanooga forever. At the very least, I plan on staying here five to seven more years. That eliminates moving anywhere for school since Maryland, UNC and UGA are my top picks. That also postpones the completion of my education for a long time. The longer you’re out, the harder it is to go back. Lastly, I’d be starting a post-graduate program in my thirties. (That’s painful to write!)

UTC provides two alternatives. If anyone knows anything about these two programs, please comment or email.

A certificate in nonprofit management.
After three consecutive jobs at very different nonprofits, I’m starting to see a trend. Getting a certificate wouldn’t take that long and UTC is pretty cheap. One class is equal to the cost of a single credit hour at American. I did 30 hours in 11 months including comprehensive exams, a thesis and working 30 hours a week. An 18 hour program covering topics that I deal with on a day-to-day basis doesn’t sound that bad.

Learning and Leadership Ed.D.
I’ve never considered earning an Ed.D. before, but there aren’t that many post-graduate options around here. This program looks intriguing. On paper it looks like it could mesh with a communications background. From what I’ve read, there’s some organizational theory in the program. Next to communications, I love organizational theory and took about 15 hours as an undergrad in the field. My goal in getting a doctorate is to teach. While I would love to devote three or four years of my life to systematically debunking the Excellence Theory*, eradicating the Grunig name from public relations and researching how the web is altering the way we communicate, that may not be in the cards. (A few people understand and appreciate those thoughts).

Any guidance from my wise readers?

*While Excellence Theory may be dead at the graduate level, Grunig wrote most of the undergraduate textbooks. It still runs rampant in many undergrad programs. I truly believe that further research on how the web is changing communications will prove something closer to Relationship Management as a general theory of public relations. (That was the most complex thinking that I’ve written in nine months. My brain hurts now.)

Saturday, the roomie threw a going-away party and many of the SOC kids came over. Thanks to Karin’s paparazzi photog skills, almost every moment of the party is documented on Facebook.

Karin was kind enough to include this pix of the mount o’ stuff currently stashed in the living room. There was some talk of using it as a backdrop to take portrait pixs. That was abandoned, thankfully.

What you can’t see is the pet gate around it to keep the dogs from investigating the mount ‘o stuff. Also note all the empty boxes in the front. I saved all my boxes from my previous move and seem to have extras. I take this to mean that I have less stuff now.

This is about 75% of what I own. My closet, bathroom and furniture haven’t made it to the pile yet. The roomie also agrees that this is significantly less stuff than I had when I moved into the Apartment Brought To You by IKEA. I guess I’m at step 6 or 7 of Pack Rats Anonymous.

Moving in 11 more days…

Over the weekend, I got this IM from John Brown:

John: whoo, Tennessee plays American in round 1! who will Adrienne pull for?!

In a bizarre match-up, both of my alma maters will play each other in the first round of the NCAA Basketball tournament.

The no. 2 seeded University of Tennessee Volunteers (B.S. ‘04) will play the Patriot League champions, American University Eagles (M.A. ‘07). I never saw that one coming.

While I enjoyed grad school at AU, my blood runs orange, John.

Actually it’s kind of funny to see this at AU. The school is better known for activism than sports. It’s a new type of excitement for AU students. Usually, it takes a Barack Obama visit to campus or a Karl Rove protest to get them riled up. Without realizing it, the NCAA is bringing two completely different types of fans together.

UT Fans

vs. typical AU Students

One of the strange things about living in DC is seeing stories about people you know in the media. This article in The Hill and linked on Drudge is about my professor for political communication at AU. He worked in Texas politics for decades before moving to DC. We refer to him as the Master of Metaphors because of the strange comparisons that he makes.

He may be a Dem, but he knows his stuff. He frequently quoted Frank Luntz, and this memo looks like one of his lectures from class.

Tonight I made it to the DC premiere of Indoctrinate U at the Kennedy Center! It’s a really great documentary and much sharper than it’s predecessor, Brainwashing 101.

The level of entrenched liberal groupthink at our universities is staggering. It’s so shocking that we don’t even realize that something is wrong until we see this film. We should not be forced to suck it up and regurgigate a liberal professor’s personal views on Iraq for a test on British Lit. Before tonight, I just thought, “Oh well, that’s college. So what if the professor is a marxist lunatic who claims that Soviet Russia was a much better place to live than the US (true story).” If higher ed is a marketplace of ideas, liberal, left-wing, progressive or socialist ideas shouldn’t be the only ones sold.

What surprises me is that Maloney visited about twenty schools and not one university official would speak to him. He interviewed several professors, including one guy at the Massachusetts Institute of Art who said that the term “white” was inherently oppressive and would continue to oppress until no longer used. He interviewed several African-American professors who were ostracized for disagreeing with affirmative action. Another woman was literally told by her academic colleagues that she would have never been hired if the faculty knew she was a Republican.

I guess diversity of thought isn’t that important in higher ed.

Maloney makes it pretty clear that academia is so dominated by the left that they forget that there’s an alternative ideology. I encountered this in grad school. I spent 4.5 months examining the “ideological gap in online activism” and my professor couldn’t understand why I kept analyzing Republican activities. I’m not sure if she ever figured out that I was conservative.

The stories in Indoctrinate U were great. Compared to the Cal Poly situation, we had it easy at UT. Even if the Issue Committee members had attempted to shoot Sukhmani in the f—ing face, he probably would have pulled out one of his many handguns and protected himself. If anyone is ever prepared for a death threat, it’s him. Thankfully, we didn’t have to face a year-long court trial with our academic careers on the line. We only suffered intimidation and run-around from the administration.

The UT gang is in it, including yours truly. Thankfully, I only appear on screen for about a minute. It was unbelievably scary see a college version of GFTS reappear. I look so different now. However, I have to admit that it was damn cool to see your own name, and the names of your friends, appear in the credits.

I’m still surprised that I got a ticket. I really wanted the gang to come for a visit and see it with me. However, everyone is still wrapped up with school. I put off buying my ticket and was surprised to see it sold out this week. Apparently, it pays to be a blogger since I met the PR person for the Motion Picture Institute this week at Heritage’s Blogger Briefing. I gave her a call, and not only did they hook me up with a ticket, but I got into the after-party. I’ve been the poor PR person responsible for accomodating last minute guests, so I really appreciated it. At the party, I overheard “Hello Kitty” girl talking to a friend. I told her that she should have brought the stuffed animal to the screening. It would have been really funny. I also asked the PR team to hold a blogger screening with wi-fi since I would love to liveblog the documentary. There are too many funny or thought-provoking lines to remember.

It also struck me how tenuous my desired career in academia may be. If an established professor in psychology was nearly fired for her political affliiation that she kept secret, will I even get into a doctoral program? I want my PhD in political communication for heaven’s sake. How many conservatives have that degree? A simple Google search of my name reveals a paper trail leading to the extreme right. I’m proud of my background and hope to continue in the conservative movement, but I may have some challenges thrown at me in the near future.

If you want to see the film, go to Indoctrinate U and request a screening. Cities with more than 500 requests will get one. DVDs will also be for sale soon. I know that I plan to buy one.

Edelman and PRWeek just released the Next Generation of Communicators, a report from their New Media Academic Summit 2007.

I wish that I had known about this conference! One of my major problems with academia is the wall between research and professionals. By the time a paper is peer-reviewed and published in a journal, it’s irrelevant. It’s frustrating to wait for studies to be released when you need the data now. More coordination is needed like this conference and subsequent report.

The PR field is better than most. Since the development of academic programs for public relations in the 1970s, the professional world has been deeply involved in most college programs. However, the average professor is not technologically savvy. Furthermore, the PR field just woke up last year to the world of new media. Too many communications departments are still operating under traditional media relations models, which were developed by Burneys and Lee in the 1920s. Hard to believe that even with technology, the PR field operates with 80-year-old methods, but I witness it everyday.

As Julia Hood, editor-in-chief of PRWeek notes:

Unfortunately, there are still PR programs that have not kept pace with industry momentum. Some students are exiting colleges without any notion that the everyday communication activities they engage in with their friends and family have very real applications in their future careers.

Hello! That captures my bachelor’s degree. Tennessee has an incredibly solid program for the technical aspects of communications. Thanks to UT’s School of Communication, I can write a mean press release and plan amazing events, but I learned nothing innovative. Too many PR programs are based on antiquated communications formulas.

To put it in perspective, I graduated in 2004. That was the same year that Facebook was released, Google launched their own e-mail platform and purchased a free program called Blogger. Things have snowballed just a little. Had you told me that working part-time in the IT department and blogging would help my career development, I would have sworn on my dog-eared AP Styleguide that you were crazy.

I fear that programs aren’t adapting quickly enough. It’s difficult enough to convince existing practitioners that the world has changed. The last thing we need is inadequately equipped new graduates.

H/T SixtySecondView

For those of us who are masochistic enough to pursue a PhD knowing that it will actually decrease our earning potential, here’s the National Communication Association’s 2004 PhD program rankings.

Yep, I’ve decided to pursue a doctorate. I want three letters after my name instead of two. Plus my GRE scores are only good for two or three more years.

Actually, I’m just mesmerized by studying how we communicate and how the Internet continues to change the way that we communicate. As technology evolves, the need for research continues to grow. Professionals and academics need to work closer together to get information out. In other words, we need someone besides Pew researching this stuff.

Apparently, in PhD programs they pay you to research. They don’t pay you much, but you get to write jargon-filled tomes of important research that generally states the blaring obvious. You then get fellowships to travel all over the world and present your blood, sweat and tears to academics at various conferences, who may or may not reject your work for publication!

Who wouldn’t want that life? Plus, you get to teach! A classroom of malleable young minds for me to sway to conservatism!

Then there’s the concept of tenure. As much as I enjoy broadcasting my opinions to the known blogosphere, tenure is my best hope for a lifetime of employment.

After some preliminary research, here are my top choices:

1. Annenburg School for Communication at University of  Pennsylvania–the best political communication program in the country. Downside–only about 30 people are accepted each year, and it’s a five year program. Plus, I’d have to move to Philadelphia.

2. University of Maryland-College Park. Pros–ranked pretty high and located in the DC metro area. Downside–Grunig’s legacy. Can I handle 3 years of the Excellence Theory?

3. Manship School at LSU: Pros–it’s a respected program on culture and communication. Also have added benefit of entire family having attended LSU, and my life literally started there while McGuyver Dad was in vet school. Baton Rouge is a pleasant city, and I wouldn’t mind living there. Cons: Baton Rouge is actually farther away from Tennessee than the District. Baton Rouge also has issues since Katrina.

4. University of Tennessee: Pros-I know the program and the faculty. Knoxville is cheap, and I have roots there. Three more years of Volunteer Football! Cons: Been there. Done That. Got the sorority t-shirt.

5. UGA or Bama: Both good programs. Solid research institutions. Cons: It’s UGA or Bama. Ughh. Neither Athens nor Tuscaloosa seem very appealing.

My last class in grad school is political communication, which seems fitting. The professor is a communication director on the Hill with a wealth of experience in Texas politics. He may be a liberal Democrat, but liberals from Texas are generally fun.

Throughout the class, we’ve had numerous professionals come to class–a pollster, micotargeter, VP at an agency, new media strategist, an a couple of communications people from advocacy groups. Last night Amy Walker from the Hotline and  Mike Allen from Politico visited. They were by far the best speakers  that we’ve had.

Walker and Allen led a Q&A, which at the graduate level is far more interesting than a lecture. Allen stayed for the entire class. After two hours, the discussion veered towards our media viewing habits. He started asking about what blogs we read, if we watch TV other than Stewart and Colbert, and how much time we spend reading the news all day.

Then he pulled out his BlackBerry and started taking notes.

Suddenly, it started feeling like an informal focus group of twentysomethings and their political and media habits.

The interesting thing was that our habits weren’t that different from national averages. While we all read different blogs that vary with out individual interests, Drudge, the WaPo and other popular publications topped the list.

If you read Politico and ever come across a reference to an unidentified group of graduate students from American University, I’m the outspoken conservative.

I have to write a 5 page paper on a rumor or urban legend for my crisis comm class tomorrow night. (What? Me procrastinate?) Any suggestions?

This summer there was one class that I was excited about–Internet advocacy. Apparently, I was the only SOC student excited about it because no one else registered for the course. On very last day of spring semester (two weeks ago) the department sent out an e-mail saying that it was cancelled.

Tonight I was in the AU bookstore buying materials for my crisis communication class when I found the books for the Internet advocacy course. The professor must have ordered them before it was cancelled.

“Oh!” I thought. “I could probably read the books on my own and e-mail the professor for the syllabus.” Then I looked at the books. I had already read five of the required ones on my own. Two of the remaining ones were on my reading list for summer fun books, and I wrote down the the third title.

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