San Diego State University plans to launch a campaign today to raise $1.5 million for a new public relations center to be named in honor of a longtime professor.
The fundraising effort will pay for the Glen M. Broom Center for Professional Development in Public Relations, according to SDSU.
Broom was a professor at the university for 30 years and has been the author or co-author of the last five editions of "Effective Public Relations," the textbook used in public relations classrooms worldwide. He retired in 2008 and now serves as professor emeritus, mentors students and is a leader in the San Diego chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
San Diego State President Elliot Hirshman and Dean Joyce Gattas are scheduled to kick off the campaign at 11:30 a.m. at the Payne Parma Goodall Center on the SDSU campus. The event will be attended by university donors, public relations alumni and faculty, and public relations executives.
Once open, the center will administer an internship program for public relations students, offer career development counseling, provide training for working professionals, and support research activities for faculty and graduate students, according to SDSU.
"Nothing else like this center exists in the nation," said Gattas, dean of the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts.
"It is a model for excellence, just like Glen Broom. No one has done more for the public relations profession than Glen, and we are so fortunate to be able to continue his tradition of excellence."
SDSU estimates that Broom taught more than 3,000 public relations students and authored more than 50 scholarly articles and papers.
Founding donors to the campaign include San Francisco-based public relations man Scott Allison and his partner Scott Pansky; Larry Thomas, the retired communications director of the Irvine Co.; and Bill Trumpfheller, an executive with the San Diego PR firm Nuffer, Smith, Tucker.
