The history of public relations in American higher education in the twentieth century: From self-interest to national interest

This paper traces the development of public relations work in American higher education in general, and the development of a collective approach to the enhancement of public confidence in higher education in particular. The traditional objectives of the public relations programs of American colleges and universities are identified, and critiqued.;With the close of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, American institutions of higher education began to formalize their programs of public relations by assigning specific departments to the task of mediating their relationships with the public. Factors which contributed to the formalization of the publicity (as it was then known), or public relations function included the growth of competition in higher education, the rise of the mass media, a general trend toward formalizing administrative functions on campus, and the changing role of the college and university president.;In its formative years, the objectives of college publicity work in higher education were rooted in the ideals of the creation of good will for an institution, the enhancement of its reputation, and the interpretation of its place in the community. Through the first half of the twentieth century, public relations work in higher education was conceived nearly exclusively in terms of institutional needs and inter-institutional competition.;In the years immediately following World War II, the role of higher education in American society changed dramatically. Consequently, by the mid-1950s, concern about the need for broad based public confidence in institutions of higher learning as a group began to surface.;A special meeting of the American College Public Relations Association was called in 1958 to begin to explore in depth the need for cooperative strategies for the improvement of the public image of higher education. However, it was not until the late 1970s that a general cooperative program designed to enhance public confidence in higher education in America actually came to fruition. This program, coordinated by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, was known as the "Mindpower" campaign. With the institution of this campaign, a change in the objectives of public relations work at individual colleges and universities was affected. The need to engender public confidence in American higher education on a broad based level began to receive some acceptance as a component of institutional programs of public relations.