PR students to defend top spot

Cal State Long Beach students are set to defend their championship after advancing to the final round of the Bateman Case Study Competition.

In the 46-school contest ranking public relations programs nationwide, judges narrowed the competition to three national winners -- CSULB, the University of Florida and University of Loyola, New Orleans.

Advised by a faculty coach, five students formed the team, which developed and implemented a comprehensive public relations campaign.

This year, competing students designed a program to attract their campuses to the Solobiz.com Web site, which provides information to young people interested in becoming entrepreneurs.

"Preparation of the entry was grueling," said Juliane Weitzberg, a student on the CSULB team. "We spent many long nights developing it, but staging activities for students on our campus was a lot of fun.  Students were really excited about Solobiz."

Under the guidance of public relations journalism professor Emma Daugherty, public relations students Katie Gahagan, LaTreisha Gee, Tim Gilman, Leslie Torres and Weitzberg hosted a series of events for Solobiz.com at CSULB that attracted the attention of the judges.

They hosted a "Shoot-out" during the site's launch week and worked with CSULB's Career Development Center and 49er athletics to stage activities during Homecoming Week. The Shoot-out featured disc jockeys and a basketball-shooting contest.

To follow up launch week, the team sponsored a seminar for students featuring entrepreneurs who addressed the challenges women and minority business owners face.

The first round of judging took place in New York City late last month. Entries were judged on research, planning, execution, evaluation, effectiveness and creativity.

CSULB was awarded 98 out of 100 points for its entry.  On the scoring sheet, the judges wrote: "Overall, superb execution, research, planning and evaluation!"

"The hard part isn't over yet," Weitzberg said. "We have more long nights ahead of us as we continue to refine our PowerPoint presentation."

The CSULB team, which defeated the University of Georgia and the University of Florida last year, will compete in the final round May 20 in Chicago. They will be judged on a 30-minute oral presentation and 15-minute question-and-answer session.

Almost every year since 1994, CSULB has placed among the top three universities in the Bateman Competition, which is sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America.

Eight schools received an honorable mention, including Cal State Fresno, the University of Georgia and Seton Hall University.