Meek School Assistant Dean Charlie Mitchell, left, and student...

Meek School Assistant Dean Charlie Mitchell, left, and student dancers performed with Lecturer Robin Street as Lady Gaga in a rock video shown during Diversity Rocks week, a week dedicated to encouraging acceptance of minorities with an anti-bullying theme.

“Diversity Rocks!” campaign attracts international attention

By Chris Ruple

When Meek School Lecturer Robin Street and her public relations students developed a campaign in 2011 called “Diversity Rocks!” that inspired hundreds of students on the Ole Miss campus, little did they know someone halfway around the world would also notice.

The campaign — centered on celebrating diversity and discouraging bullying — won many awards, including best in show at the Public Relations Association of Mississippi, best in show at the Southern Public Relations Federation and a Silver Anvil Award of Excellence from the Public Relations Society of America. And it also caught the eye of a student studying public relations at Howest University in Belgium.

Els Carrette was given an assignment in her public relations case studies class at Howest this semester, and decided to focus her project on the “Diversity Rocks!” campaign.

“I chose Diversity Rocks because first of all, it was a campaign made by a university,”Carrette said. “You don’t see that very often.”

Carrette chose the “Diversity Rocks!” campaign from a list of winners of the PRSA Silver Anvil Award and said she was thoroughly impressed with the evaluation and overall success of the campaign.

The comprehensive campaign took place in April 2011 and was a celebration of diversity, whether through race, ethnic origin, disability or sexual orientation, with a special emphasis on anti-bullying. Students developed the ideas, a budget and raised funds. They coordinated a roster of speakers, events and presentations that were promoted across all media — including social media — and created a lasting Internet resource.

“I came up with the idea of Diversity Rocks one evening at home,” Street said. “I thought it would be a great learning experience for my PR students, while doing a service to the School of Journalism at the same time.”

Special events included a tent festival where faculty members dressed up as rock stars, and a rock video with student dancers, Street “became” Lady Gaga, and Assistant Dean Charlie Mitchell “played” the guitar.

“The thing that surprised me the most about the campaign was it was mainly organized by the students themselves,” Carrette said. “It really surprised me because these are people who are just learning how to do this stuff, they managed to pull it off, and even beat some of the best in the game.” http://on.fb.me/TOEDwL

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