Mark/Kristen/Amuna/Heather: https://prezi.

com/tuxt0towfj6k/bateman-project/
Shannon/Jackie/Ashley/Olivia/Cheyyene: http://benefits-of-student-veterans.tumblr.com/
2016 Publicity Club of New England Bell Ringer Awards
Category Entered:
Title of Entry:
Organization Submitting Entry:

Situation Analysis:
When we hear veteran, what do we think? The first thing that would naturally come to our
minds is the word hero. However, the thrust of public opinion and the media message is
PTSD, suicide, drug addiction-- all qualities deemed undesirable by society and employers.
Theyre heroes that you dont want to get anywhere near. Not to mention that veterans on
campus are typically invisible. Were so busy feeling bad for these veterans that we fail to see
the qualities that made them heroes in the first place; organizational skills, resilience, and
loyalty.
Thought leaders, the media, and employers have been fed a negative perception of todays
veterans. The Bateman Campaign, a national campaign competition sponsored by the Public
Relations Society of America, has chosen the stigma of veterans as this years campaign. We
took on this campaign in order to challenge the broken image of veterans and to change it.
Instead of supporting the conventionally negative image, we want to highlight the qualities that
make them extraordinary.

Statement of Objectives:
Our campaigns goal is to educate our campus community on the stigma of the broken veterans.
Many students and faculty might not recognize the existence of the ongoing problems they face.
To which we devised our objectives being:

Shed light on veterans and their accomplishments to change their negative image.
Educate the campus on resources available to Veterans.
Motivate students to show how they could support veterans.
Make the invisible veterans on campus visible to the student body.

Program Planning & Strategy:

Planning:
Objective 1: Gather information and Interview the president of Salem State's veterans affairs
and administrator, Pitch Letters, Planning Events
Objective 2: Showed the accomplishments of highly successful veterans
Objective 3: Create T-shirts, Social Media post it notes and brochures
Objective 4: Pitch feature story with student president of Salem State Veterans Affairs
Research
Primary Research:

Invited a highly accomplished married veteran couple to our Public Relations class to conduct a
panel. They talked about their lives as civilians and their accomplishments which include a
spread in Glamour Magazine and a position as an assistant professorship at Fairfield University
as well as two books and two book contracts. They talked about their difficulties and their
successes in transitioning back to civilian life once they came back from their tour in
Afghanistan.

Conducted a face-to-face interview with the campuss President of Student Veteran Affairs from
which we generated a feature article targeted to the campus newspaper. Her story shared how
her discovery of Student Veterans Affairs after her post-discharge led her to become more
involved so that she could help give other people like her some guidance and support.

Met with the campus Coordinator of Student Veteran Affairs. Veterans on our campus come to
the Coordinator for face to face guidance and general check-ups and with knowing this our
group became aware that our Student Veteran Affairs office not only serves to assist veterans,
but that it also serves for regular students to come in and hangout so that they may get to know
the invisible faces that deserve to be known.

Organized a conversation with a full-time student veteran on campus. His interview provided
information on how he wakes up, goes to his classes, and then goes back home to be with his
family. Outside of school, he interns for a Veteran Center in a nearby city. He aspires to work for
ESPN when he graduates. Meeting with him helped us understand a veterans daily routine and
their challenges that they might face throughout the day.
Secondary Research

PRSSA Bateman Competition Case Study

The top bachelor degree fields for student veterans are business, social sciences, homeland
security, law enforcement and firefighting, and computer and information sciences.
Article from Insidehighred.com about completion of academic programs pursued by student
veterans.
51.7 percent of a sample of 788,915 former military service members who pursued some kind of
postsecondary credential earned a degree within a 10-year time frame.
National vets website
Article from Entrepreneur about veteran owned businesses.
More than 2.4 million U.S. businesses are owned by veterans
Target Publics

Students
Student campus veterans
Faculty
University administration
University Trustees
North Shore employer

Social Media communities

Print and Broadcast media
Program Planning & Execution

Designed T-shirts and pitched to sell them on campus.

Partnered with the Vice President of University Relations to have t-shirts featured in the
universitys bookstore.
Crafted large posters composed of post-it notes in the dining halls that featured positive
experiences students had with veterans.
Created and distributed brochures to promote the campaigns mission, campaign events
on campus, information about the SVA, and the universitys SVA chapter.
Wrote pitch letters to local media outlets (including WRKO AM) to generate media
awareness about the campaign.
Appeared on Salem State Universitys official podcast Viking Voices and spoke about
the effectiveness of the campaign.
Created a Tumblr page to create visibility in the student veteran community.
Wrote a blog post about the campaign and influenced a university trustee member to
publish one to raise awareness of the campaign and its mission.

Results Documentation:
Objective 1) Shed light on veterans and their accomplishments to change their negative image.

 Displayed navy veteran Lauren Hallorans Glamour

Magazine spread along with her accomplishments as an editor for two books.

Displayed veteran Collin Hallorans two books that he wrote.

Students attitudes, opinions, and images of veterans were changed almost immediately by their
experience of meeting with accomplished veterans face to face, based on feedback during and
after class.
Objective 2) Educate the campus on resources available to Veterans.

Created and distributed brochures to promote the campaigns mission, campaign events on
campus, information about the SVA, and the universitys SVA chapter.

Created a Tumblr page to create visibility in the student veteran community.

Objective 3) Motivate students to show how

they could support veterans.

Presented PRSSAs Bateman challenge and campaign to a Public Relation class

Organized a meeting to appear in the Viking Voices podcast, Salem State University's official
site that raises awareness about our campaign to not only students but the community as well.
Influenced Salem State University trustee member who published a blog about the campaign
SSUPRSSA will be publishing a blog on their professional site creating even more awareness to
students and the local community.
Students who had a positive experience with veterans wrote about it on post-it notes that were
displayed on a poster board prominently placed in
the campus residence and dining halls..

Objective 4) Make the invisible veterans on

campus visible to the student body.

Our campaign team drafted a

feature article about the SVA
President, which was displayed
in a Public Relations class. She
was present when it was shared
and then led a short discussion
on how she felt regular students
made her feel visible thanks to
our campaign.