I simply could have not worded it better than Nick Daniloff in regards to the Northeastern University school of journalism not renewing the contacts of two of their professors, Gladys and Lincoln McKie.
“This is unbelievably bad administrative management,” Daniloff told the News May 23. “I have to ask myself, ‘Do I want to work for such heartless and inept university management?’
This is indeed unbelievably bad administrative management.
As an alumnus, I have to ask myself:
Do I really want to be associated with such heartless and inept university management?
Do I really want to donate money to a university with such heartless and inept management?
At the end of my third year at Northeastern, I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. That was until I took a public relations course with Gladys McKie, on a whim.
By the end of the semester, I was so enamored with the media, so intrigued with it all, that I took on a double major in journalism, outside of my native College of Criminal Justice and put off what would have been an early graduation.
Professor Gladys McKie, who like most in journalism doesn’t like being called by the formal title, motivated me when no one else could. She is the reason I have come to find some meaning in my whole education.
Because of Gladys McKie’s teachings, personal motivation and the amount of time she dedicates to bettering her students, I came out of college and walked into a managerial role as online editor/coordinator at the Attleboro Sun Chronicle newspaper, one of the top newspapers in the state.
Hundreds of us in the school of journalism will be successful in out careers and in our lives because we found professors like the McKie’s who challenged and engaged us and forced us to realize our potential.
I don’t need a piece of paper hanging on a wall to be motivated. Indeed, the worst professor I ever had at Northeastern was a PhD fresh out of school.
I don’t follow degrees. I follow experience. I follow success. I follow gifted public relations practitioners. I follow journalists who were held captive as political prisoners in Soviet jails. I follow Emmy award-winning producers. I follow authors of definitive books on sports journalism. I follow one of Boston’s most read blogs.
The Northeastern University school of journalism currently has all that.
They should thank their lucky stars that they do.
We, the suffering students, get a pat on the back and a “there, there.” The administration tells us that it’s all going to be ok as they climb to the highest peak and shout “academic investment plan” (their plan to hire professors with advanced degrees) to all that can hear them.
Screw the academic investment plan.
Northeastern needs a student investment plan. It’s high time they started asking what the customers wanted.