Bizilia’s Birthday Bash

Bizilia’s Cafe in downtown Auburn is hosting a birthday bash to celebrate five years of success in Auburn, Ala. The event will take place on April 30, which is a study day for students at Auburn University. The birthday party will be open to college students and families with children all day from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Bizilia’s will be providing cake, door prizes and even free paninis to the first 50 customers that day.

The event is being planned by a group of students from Auburn University who are currently enrolled in the public relations campaigns class. Ten percent of the proceeds that day will be donated to Harvest Evangelism, which provides shelter and fellowship to men, women and children who are unable to support themselves at this time. Harvest also goes on mission trips all over the world to help others.

Bizilia’s is giving back to the community in an amazing way and expecting a huge turnout all day on April 30.

A New Tradition

The Auburn student government association recently hosted a new event, The Final Lecture in the Foy Ballroom. The Final Lecture was completely planned by the SGA and created by Auburn President, Dr. Jay Gogue. A previous school that Gogue had worked with allowed the juniors and seniors to vote on a professor to give a speech to these young adults before graduating and entering the real world.

The first final lecture was completely packed and proved to be a big hit. Auburn SGA plans to continue this event and allow it to become a new Auburn tradition. Upon the huge success of this year’s Final Lecture, the SGA plans for next year to have even more participants.

Big Names to Auburn

The University Program Council, UPC, at Auburn University takes pride in bringing big names in entertainment to Auburn. The organization has held many concerts on Auburn’s campus, including Diamond Rio, Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley, Ludacris and many others. The upcoming concert will feature Akon and Soulja Boy on April 9, 2008.

These concerts are free to students, but they must pick up tickets using their student IDs the week of the concert. Other than concerts, UPC has brought comedians to Auburn, and also organizes Tiger Nights, which is an event for students and the community to enjoy food and games. This concert is sure to be a success, so students should plan on arriving early to the event.

Campus Tragedies Raise Safety Awareness

After the recent tragedies at Auburn University and at the University of North Carolina, college campuses are doing everything they can to bring a safe feeling back to their students. Since the Virginia Tech shooting less than a year ago, universities have been trying to plan for a crisis, and now they are making a safety plan.

Auburn immediately increased the amount of campus police and intends to keep it that way until further notice. The night shuttle is now running 24 hours so that no student is left stranded at odd hours. Auburn is also providing escorts to walk students to their cars from the library if they want one.

While it can’t take back the damage that has been done, it gives comfort to the students and parents at Auburn and will hopefully prevent any other tragedies from occurring.

Bootcamp Trains Students on Social Media

Edelman held a digital bootcamp this Saturday, March 1, 2008, to let undergraduate and graduate students in the field gain experience with social media.

The conference was open to students of all levels in public relations or related fields. While there were mostly students from UGA, students from Auburn University, Tennessee, Kennesaw State, and other universities attended the event.

The students were divided into teams and worked on a campaign for various clients to get practical work experience. These type of events are great ways for students to know what to expect once they enter their first job after graduation. Other agencies will most likely follow Edelman’s example and start training students as early on as possible.

Academy Flop

The 80th Academy Awards were on Sunday night and proved to be a disappointment. Nielsen Media Research said preliminary polls were down 14 percent lower than the least-watched ceremony ever. So who is to blame for these low ratings, the movies or the actors or the host? Many would probably claim it is a combination of many things and I would have to agree.

The movies this year were disappointing overall and the experience of going to the movies has been changing drastically over the past years. This is because of many reason such as, the low cost of DVDs versus the cost of going to the movies, TiVo and other inventions have made it easier to view movies at home. Though the writers strike ended before the Academy Awards, it seemed to be too little too late. Perhaps there was still some animosity between the writers and the actors, but there’s no way for us to tell.

Since the strike, people have been watching less television and it’s possible that we need to readjust television back into our lives again. If the ratings continue to decline there is a chance that the Academy Awards will no longer be televised in the future, so the Academy needs to rethink the approach they are currently taking and update the awards ceremony for its audience.

http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/entertainment/index.ssf/2008/02/academy_award_ratings_were_a_d.html

Who Cares What Perez Says

Perez Hilton is a celebrity gossip blogger and is praised way too often for it. Perez has made a living from making fun of other people on his blog. This obviously shows the power that social media is having on the world and public relations, although it is also showing a negative in my opinion.

I am not defending celebrities or any of the things they do, but I don’t understand why this man has a right to criticize them so publicly and gain fame from it. He simply creates witty remarks in response to another person’s mistakes and shares it with the world. Perez Hilton would have never been able to gain this type of exposure without social media.

While blogs are a great tool to use, we must realize there will be negative outcomes from them. And isn’t it ironic that I have shared my dislike for this type of bloggers through my own blog. I guess social media is more powerful than I thought.

Always Dissatisfied

Wal-Mart is famous for its reasonable prices, however Wal-Mart employees have been faced with many cases of unfairness and an unequal opportunity for women. There are more campaigns against this superstore everyday, many of them focusing on the way the female employees of Wal-Mart are treated, less opportunity to move up, less pay and fewer benefits. Wal-Mart battles hate-sites and nonprofit organizations trying to rid the world of this unfairness, yet Wal-Mart prevails.

The employee relations at Wal-Mart is in desperate need of help, but this giant and successful superstore has ignored the cries for help for now.

http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/badbusiness.html

Starbucks Brings Delight

Starbucks is obviously a successful business and I think that has a lot to do with its attitude. Starbucks cares about its customers, but more importantly, its employees, which will lead to better customer relations. This is a great example of public relations going to work. Starbucks is being recognized for its efforts by being on the top 10 on Fortune’s “America’s Most Admired Companies” list. Starbucks has been able to make a mission statement and actually stick with it, unlike many companies. Its mission focuses on providing a great work environment and treating employees with respect. As long as Starbucks continues to emphasize its mission in all of its stores, it will maintain its reputation as being a favorite among customers and employees for years to come.

http://www.workforce.com/section/02/feature/23/52/96/index_printer.html

Auburn Student Goes Abroad

Allison McDonald, a senior in human resource management, discusses the benefits of going abroad. Auburn University offers many different programs for students to see different parts of the world.

Some students take classes, while some participate in internships and get great experience in international business. Studying abroad is not just for foreign language majors and minors, but can create life experiences for all students. Students can learn all about the world while receiving class credits.