NEW TOPIC: Academia and Industry

David dcw2003 at sbcglobal.net
Wed Dec 6 13:53:05 MST 2006 

As a technical writer for fifteen years, who has done some teaching at Jr. Colleges and for industry as well, your conversation is purely
"academic", if you don't mind the pun.  Corporations will never get serious about funding educational efforts unless you can closely tie that effort to a bottom line. A great example are the vendors who attend STC meetings.  When attending the meetings ceases to help their sales they go elsewhere.  If you can tie your proposals to increased profitability by the firms either short or long term, I believe you will have greater sucess in appealing to corporate America.  In fact, you will benefit your graduates as well if you can tie their learning more closely to their long term earning potential using real
life transferable skills.

One thing I could never understand is why Technical Writing programs don't include more about networking, finding work, writing effective resumes, and learning the most marketable skills in Technical Writing (Like FrameMaker and Robohelp in Dallas), how to network at STC meetings, etc.

These skills in the long run are more important than some of the classes that tech methodology to students.  I've attempted to teach such classes
at Junior Colleges, and couldn't get sufficient enrollment.  I think they'd be welcomed at Universities though!

What do you think?
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Voss, Daniel W 
  To: stc-ac 
  Cc: Wiese, William C ; Murray, Mike 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 11:17 AM
  Subject: [stc-ac] Re: NEW TOPIC: Academia and Industry


  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


  From one hyperactive to another, (one who also has three children with two jobs, one in industry and one in academia as a TA while getting my masters in Tech. com.) I don't know that the door of professionalism will ever open to cooperation with academia. I offered to share my findings from a thesis I have been working on with the company if I could use their resources but they responded by saying it would not be beneficial to the bottom line to use their professionals for the study and use their time to conduct surveys. Capitalism in an all consuming monster with no regard for ethics and reasonability in many matters. Maybe it would look bad for a state government organization like MoDOT to admit to the public that funds  were used to conduct research to tech. writing in its manuals, but we will never know. I agree with Dr. Kathy Northcut in the fact that working in cubicles under deadlines narrows perspectives. 
   
  With engineering, there is a much more openness, it is due to the fact that in transportation, 2% of all federal funding must be tagged for research on more effective engineering methods. So where does the answer lay? Our discipline is new and is just not very well respected yet. Our skills are undermined and in some cases maligned. I will continue my research of the 50 transportation web sites to focus on their manual writing. I am just not sure that I will share it with MoDOT at this time. They will be apathetic to reading it or accepting my proposals. There is the sun shine law that they have to make their manuals open to the public but it does not have to be understandable or readable to there is not push to make it better. You would think they would consider the bottom line issues with that when they are pushing for their 800 Bridges proposal and picking the contractor in May of 07. Good communication makes for smoother running and less loss of money. The 800 Bridges proposal is an agreement with contactors to build and maintain 800 bridges for 25 years while MoDOT pays them one annual payment for that. It is a first time a transportation department is to try such a contract. They will run into problems though because they are not requiring them to use MoDOT's specs. MoDOT is outsourcing to save money and thowing specs out the window. Do we have another Boston Big Dig on our hands. Lives are at stake and not just money.
   
  The below suggestions are good. It should be more embracing but it can only go so far with corporate attitudes being so myopic.

  Bonni Graham <bgraham at manuallabour.com> wrote:
  I'm curious:

  What do you folks see as the best way to forge a tighter 
  link between academia and industry? In my case, it's 
  automatic: I run my own tech comm company and work for an 
  employer (which is why you might see emails from me from 
  either of two addresses), in addition to being adjunct 
  faculty at two UC campuses (plus I have three kids - this 
  is what adult hyperactives do with themselves).

  I see some of the following things that STC can do (and in 
  some cases has done and is continuing to do):

  * Sponsor industry internships for students
  * Sponsor industry fellowships/sabbaticals for professors
  * Provide a list of questions about the practice of tech 
  comm that practitioners would love to or need to know more 
  about but lack the time to research themselves (similar to 
  the article about heading frequency and comprehension that 
  appeared in the most recent Journal)
  * Continue to publish the Journal
  * Reduce conference rates (or seek corporate partnerships, 
  or provide a template for how to seek corporate 
  partnerships)
  * Create an academically-focused annual conference
  * Invite more local academics to speak at local chapters 
  about current research (chapter presidents - are you 
  listening?)

  I'm only one brain - help me out! : )

  b

  Bonni Graham
  Manual Labour, Inc.
  858-366-0170
  www.manuallabour.com
  Making Technology Easier

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