Saturday, Nov. 8, the Department of Communication celebrated 30 years of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) at Western Carolina University.
This celebration honored Betty Farmer, professor of communication, for her time at Western and her involvement in developing the PRSSA organization in the communication department.
Farmer was the faculty advisor who began the WCU chapter of PRSSA.“I wanted to honor Betty at this event because she has been a driving force in educating our students, working to provide impactful learning experiences, and using her skills and experience to benefit the wider Western North Carolina region,” said Scott Eldredge, department head of the Department of Communication. “She has been tirelessly doing this work for over 30 years.”
Farmer and her Public Relations Case Study class planned the 30th anniversary celebration. They planned the entire event, from inviting alumni and honoring Janet Oppenheimer to developing the organization’s history. At the center of PRSSA at Western is the work Farmer has done.
As a surprise, Eldredge and Matt Binford, the broadcasting professor put together a video of alumni who had been impacted by Farmer during her time as a professor at Western.
The video was shown at the anniversary celebration along with the presentation of a plaque commemorating the contributions of Farmer over 30 years.
“To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of WCU’s PRSSA chapter without mentioning Dr. Farmer’s contributions would be leaving a key point in the story. We have a PRSSA chapter because she started it,” said Eldredge. “It didn’t just happen. And starting a chapter was just one of the many, many things she has done to benefit students and create meaningful learning opportunities for them. You can’t tell the story and history of Public Relations Education in Western North Carolina without mentioning the driving force behind it….and that driving force is Dr. Betty Farmer.”