{"id":20021,"date":"2019-04-11T11:32:01","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T15:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?p=20021"},"modified":"2022-06-28T16:08:06","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T20:08:06","slug":"tackling-communications-lack-of-diversity","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/tackling-communications-lack-of-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Tackling Communications’ Lack of Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Ermolande Jean-Simon walked into her first master\u2019s degree class at COM, she had a thought familiar to many people of color entering the communications business: where are all the people who look like me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was the only Black person,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although COM does well by some diversity measures\u201428 percent of all students are from overseas and 11 percent are Hispanic\/Latinx\u2014just 4 percent of students identify as African American or Black. That lack of students of color reflects the broader communications industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public relations\u2014Jean-Simon\u2019s chosen profession\u2014is 87.9 percent white. Most communications occupations can only muster single-digit proportions of black and African American employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Simon (CAS\u201998, COM\u201915) says she felt like she didn\u2019t fit in at college: there was no one to talk to about being Black at COM; she typically completed group projects with other students from diverse backgrounds. As she neared graduation, she told COM\u2019s dean, Tom Fiedler (\u201971), about her experiences. She also offered to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2017, Jean-Simon joined Fiedler on a trip to Orangeburg, S.C., to make a pitch for COM to students at the state\u2019s oldest historically black college or university, Claflin University<\/a>. But, even though BU had just received a donation to launch the Claflin Scholarship<\/a>\u2014a $10,000 merit scholarship for a minority student pursuing a master\u2019s degree at COM\u2014her talk wasn\u2019t a straightforward great faculty, amazing internships, free money<\/em> plug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI told them I want them to come to BU because things need to change, and we have to be the changemakers and not the people who are told to be quiet,\u201d she says. \u201cI also said to them that the communications industry has a lot of storytellers, but who\u2019s actually telling our story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost agencies were formed by middle-aged white men. I feel like now is the time to push those organizations to do a lot more around diversity and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At COM, part of the push means restoring a historic connection with Claflin University, formed in the same year as BU\u2014and by one of the same people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Ashes of the Civil War<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In December 1869, just seven months after cofounding Boston University, shoe factory magnate Lee Claflin helped launch Claflin University. Like BU, it had Methodist roots and was to be open to all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The institution, named in recognition of the financial support it received from Claflin and his son William (the Massachusetts governor who signed BU\u2019s founding charter), pledged to admit students \u201cregardless of race, complexion, or religious opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in the Yankee North, the Claflins\u2019 vision of a school educating men and women and people of different races together was unusual; in a South still smoldering from defeat in the Civil War, it was virtually treasonous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that was so inspirational,\u201d says Fiedler. \u201cThey were talking about creating a university where, quite literally, a former slave and a former slave owner could sit in a classroom together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiedler first read the Claflins\u2019 story while studying BU\u2019s history shortly after becoming dean in 2008, and decided the connection between the two schools was worth celebrating. He reached out to Claflin University and began to lay the foundation for a program<\/a> allowing Claflin undergraduates to spend a semester at BU (the scholarship would come later). Since the exchange program launched in 2010, about 40 Claflin students have ventured the 1,000 miles north to BU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most agencies were formed by middle-aged white men. I feel like now is the time to push those organizations to do a lot more around diversity and inclusion.<\/p>

<\/p>Ermolande Jean-Simon<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Donna Gough, professor and chair of Claflin\u2019s department of mass communications, describes her school as rural: its 2,000 students live in a community of just 14,000. Because of BU\u2019s size, she says, students \u201cget some exposure to the wider world\u201d with a broader selection of programs and faculty. \u201cAny time people are challenged and given the opportunity to experience something new, something they\u2019d never thought about before, it really does help,\u201d says Gough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiedler says that from a BU perspective, the program is an affirmation of its founders\u2019 vision of a university open to all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s critically important that we have more diversity among our student body and our faculty,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it enriches the experience of everyone in the classroom to have people who come from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities and countries. This is a small way of being able to achieve it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Shortcuts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The scholarship, which was established by an anonymous donor in 2016, gives COM the means to turn the exchange program into a pipeline of potential master\u2019s students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kayla Richardson (\u201920) applied for the scholarship after spending a semester at COM in the exchange program as an undergraduate; now, she\u2019s studying for an MFA in screenwriting. She says those first few months sampling Boston proved to be life changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore that, I was so against getting a master\u2019s,\u201d she says. \u201cI loved BU and I loved Boston, so I was just like, \u2018You know, I\u2019m going to take the chance.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiye Barnes (\u201919) had a different journey to BU. After graduating from Claflin with a degree in mass communications, Barnes landed a sales job at tech company Oracle. She spent her days chasing potential leads\u2014and itching for something else. Raised by a single mom who valued education, Barnes says a master\u2019s degree was \u201calways on my mind, but it was a matter of when and how.\u201d When a former professor called to tell her about the new scholarship, she says, \u201cthe opportunity was like divine intervention.\u201d Barnes was the scholarship\u2019s first recipient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a PR student, Barnes worked with COM\u2019s student-run agency PRLab, interned with medical supplies company Fresenius Medical Care and interviewed Ayanna Pressley, then a city councilor, now a congresswoman for Massachusetts, for a writing assignment. Today, she works at the PR firm LaVoie Health Science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe classes are intense,\u201d says Barnes. \u201cComing to BU, it\u2019s a lot of hands-on work; you\u2019re doing a lot of networking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richardson\u2019s ambition is to land a writing gig in Los Angeles; eventually, she wants to emulate showrunner Shonda Rhimes and become an executive producer. She credits the real-world experiences woven into the COM program for confirming what she\u2019d like to do with her life\u2014and what she wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had an internship at Boston Public Schools and found I hated PR,\u201d says Richardson, who by contrast has loved her time with student-run BUTV10. \u201cAt Claflin, there wasn\u2019t a place where you could do that and experience that right away. At BU, you can really find yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Richardson studies with COM students from different cultures and countries\u2014and says her professors do a good job incorporating diverse films and writers into their classes\u2014she\u2019s still the only black person in the room. It was the same for Barnes, just as it was for Jean-Simon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would hope that we reach a point that when a student of color or of a diverse background goes into a classroom,\u201d says Fiedler, \u201cshe or he will see that there are people like them there\u2014and ideally faculty members like them\u2014and the message will be that not just this classroom, but the profession, is open to me and people like me. That\u2019s ultimately the goal here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiedler admits that the partnership with Claflin\u2014where 97 percent of students are African American\u2014is just a small step in that direction. \u201cI wish there was a shortcut,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He hopes donors will step up to endow and expand the scholarship and others like it; Ray Kotcher (\u201983), a professor of the practice and former Ketchum CEO and chair, recently endowed the Kotcher\u2013Ketchum Scholarship and Internship for African American PR undergraduates. Other initiatives at COM include the formation of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team to help make diversity a formal part of hiring practices, student outreach and course syllabi; Jean-Simon is one of the founding members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of us in the communications industry,\u201d says Jean-Simon, now marketing and events specialist at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University, \u201cand we need all the support that we can get. For a lot of minority people, there are a lot of factors that fall into place of whether or not you go to graduate school; if there\u2019s not someone supporting your dream to do that, you\u2019re going to end up stuck in a position you don\u2019t want to be stuck in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story originally appeared in <\/em>COM\/365, an annual publication from COM.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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