Smeal College Students Develop Plans To Market Academic Integrity

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (April 20, 2004) – Undergraduate students enrolled in the “Advertising and Sales Promotion Management” course in Penn State’s Smeal College of Business have developed plans to market one of the most important but intangible concepts in the University community: academic integrity.

Taught by Jennifer Chang Coupland, clinical professor of marketing, students applied various alternative research methods learned throughout the semester to determine how students and faculty truthfully view academic integrity. They then used the opinions gathered to develop campaigns incorporating advertising, public relations, marketing, publicity, sales promotions, and interactive marketing for possible use by Smeal’s undergraduate programs office.

Every semester Coupland assigns students in her Marketing 422 classes a semester-long project on integrated marketing communications, challenging students to promote either a local product or a service, such as the Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State All-Sports Museum, the Agri-Business major, or the Food Science major. The academic integrity assignment emerged from a presentation to the Penn State Marketing Association by David Christy, associate dean for undergraduate programs.

“Dave Christy’s speech was so inspiring,” Coupland said. “I've never seen students more engaged. The challenge was taking that emotion and viewing it through a marketing lens. When approached, of course everybody says, ‘Yes, I agree with academic integrity,’ but the students are challenged to research further and find out which aspects actually resonate.”

In mid-April, Coupland’s classes presented their final ideas to their “client,” Christy.

“Our group’s overall theme is to create a positive learning environment,” said marketing major Lisa Wasser. “We feel that teachers need to create a learning environment in which students and teachers are held accountable.”

“Our slogan is ‘It starts with you!’” Wasser added. “We want this to show teachers that they are in control of academic integrity, and that by stating their expectations to students, they can cut down on the amount of cheating,” she said.

According to Coupland, past clients have left the presentations enthusiastic, impressed, and with notebooks full of ideas. One former client, the food science major, has already implemented some of the ideas proposed by her marketing classes.

“The experience for the students is extremely valuable,” said Coupland. They’re working on a real-world project, with real-world issues, for real-world consumers.”