The Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications began using Saint Anselm’s NHIOP for their cirriculum’s workshops earlier this fall semester. Its connection to the college and to the college’s Communications program was unclear, and members of the Communication faculty voiced their concerns. Dr. Sheila Liotta, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Dean Mark Cronin, spoke with the Crier about the Loeb School’s connection to Saint A’s, and addressed the concerns of the Saint Anselm faculty after a meeting with the Communications faculty on Oct. 27.
Several weeks ago, Prof. Marchiselli of the Communications program, voiced her concerns about the Loeb School being implemented on the Saint Anselm campus. Marchiselli said, “for us, the main issue is probably just about working out the optics” regarding future students coming to the campus, and potential confusion about the Loeb School of Communications compared to the Communications program at Saint Anselm. The Communications faculty are mainly concerned about how those kinds of issues will be handled and addressed.
Another concern addressed by Marchiselli was the lack of knowledge amongst the Communications faculty about the Loeb School’s presence prior to its official announcement. Due to the lack of knowledge beforehand, Marchiselli said “we’re disappointed that we weren’t given an opportunity to work out these problems in advance,” in regards to the optics problems that she had spoken about. Without any prior knowledge, the issues that Marchiselli spoke about seemed heightened.
Given these concerns, a meeting was held on Oct. 27 with several members of the Communications faculty at Saint Anselm and Dr. Liotta and Dean Cronin. Contrary to the Communications faculty, Cronin said “we learned about it before the announcement in a senior leadership meeting,” evidently a different situation than the faculty. “That was obviously not an ideal situation,” Liotta said. “There was no bad intention but it was unfortunate,” Liotta added.
The lack of prior involvement with the Communications faculty had no malintent, and was mainly due to the fact that Neil Levesque, Executive Director of NHIOP, “set up the partnership, [and] he did not perceive their to be any connection to our academic program,” so he did not think of the potential interference or confusion, Liotta said. Those potential issues have been voiced by the Communications faculty, “so we’ve been working to reassure people,” Cronin said.
In regards to the concerns made by the Communications faculty about the optics of the school and if it will be affiliated with the college, Cronin said “I want to give sort of a yes and no.” The Loeb School needed a space for their workshops, and Neil Levesque “who’s very connected in the community thought this would be a nice partnership,” which is essentially the beginning of the relationship between Saint Anselm and the Loeb School.
The workshops offered by the Loeb School are “open to the community and they are open to everyone,” Liotta said. Workshop lengths and meeting times vary, but students are welcome to participate if they wish, but “it doesn’t compare [to Saint Anselm], and there’s no academic credit associated with it,” Liotta said. Though the Loeb School holds its courses at the college, there are no current exceptions to Loeb courses being offered for academic credit at the college.
Though there is no current partnership between Saint Anselm and the Loeb School, Liotta said “there’s some interest in the department” for possible future collaborations. “It’s possible but I don’t think it would be an academic partnership,” Liotta said. Since the college and the school are two separate institutions, academic credit cannot be transferred between the two.
Regarding the current relationship between the two institutions, Liotta said “there could be ways that the presence of that [school] actually helps us elevate our communication faculty.” The Loeb School’s presence could be beneficial to the college and to the students, and Cronin said “I think they’d like to build a bridge to the school or to our students and see what they can do that might be beneficial to our students, and we’re saying the same thing.” Though in the early stages, look out for possible connections between the two.
Future follow-up conversations about the Loeb School will be held throughout the rest of the year, but the school’s current connection to the college remains separate. Faculty have been reassured about their concerns, and potential interference and confusion are being addressed and handled.