NEW TOPIC: Academia and Industry

[Voss, Daniel W]

Le Ann:
 
As a 28-year veteran of "corporate America" who has kept one foot in the
classroom as an adjunct instructor, I'm not naive enough to disagree
with your observations about the bottom line.  However, I believe you
are treading dangerously close to the line between realism and cynicism.
What you're leaving out is the human element.  It is as easy to malign a
faceless corporate or government monolith as it is difficult to deal
with it.  But what are corporations and government entities other than
aggregations of individuals?  Many of whom, yes, are too focused on the
bottom line (and their own survival and advancement within the corporate
or bureaucratic jungle) to care about outreach to academe.  But just as
we can also find members of the academy who are focused on survival and
self-aggrandizement rather than pedagogy (e.g., "publish or perish"), we
can find people within the corporate "monster" who are genuinely
committed to outreach.
 
As one small example, Mike Murray (an STC director), W.C. Wiese (STC
treasurer), and I all work for Lockheed Martin in Orlando; and we have,
for nearly 2 decades, also been very active within STC, based within the
Orlando Chapter.  We and many other professional practitioners in the
Orlando Chapter who represent several other businesses, both large and
small, in Central Florida, have formed a dynamic partnership with the
University of Central Florida's technical communication faculty within
the English Department.  And the Engineering Department at Lockheed
Martin has an active internship program with UCF.  As an example, I have
a meeting scheduled in January with a UCF professor to give her a point
of contact within Engineering, to explore the possibility of tying
students within the university's new Ph.D. program in technical
communication in to the internship program.  Lockheed Martin, as well as
several other businesses in Central Florida, annually sponsors the
Orlando Chapter's "Operation Rising Stars" fund-raiser that helps
sustain a highly successful scholarship program at UCF and an equally
robust high school tech writing competition.  Once again, it boils down
to people--in this case, the Community Relations manager who governs the
company's philanthropic outreach program and the print shop manager, who
has provided pro bono printing to the chapter each year.  Both are my
professional friends and colleagues at Lockheed Martin.  You couldn't
meet more caring people ... and we all work for the largest defense
company in the world--one which, like any company, is certainly
concerned with the bottom line.  We must meet our responsibility to our
shareholders at the same time we meet our responsibility to those who go
into harm's way to defend the nation.  There's nothing unethical about
that, nor does it preclude outreach to academe.
 
I'm not saying your frustrations are unfounded, and I don't mean to
trivialize the disappointments you have experienced. Nor am I suggesting
there can be a total solution.  But I do believe there are many giving
corporate professionals within STC who, in turn, know many other
like-minded professionals within corporate America.  Together, we can
put a "face" on the corporate monster and open up real dialogue and
cooperation between industry and the academy.
 
My two cents ...
 
:-)
 
Dan Voss, Communications Manager
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando Florida
 
STC Orlando Chapter, AccessAbility and Academic SIGs
 
Adjunct Instructor, Webster University
 


________________________________

From: bounce-stc-ac-277425 at lists.stc.org
[mailto:bounce-stc-ac-277425 at lists.stc.org] On Behalf Of Le Ann Mounce
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 11:16 AM
To: stc-ac
Subject: [stc-ac] Re: NEW TOPIC: Academia and Industry