Building Relationships

News & Updates

Building relationships For more than a century, Bradley University has cultivated and maintained a mutually beneficial relationship with the Peoria community. Nearly every aspect of its citizens’ personal and professional lives has in some way benefited from the Bradley community.

Chuck Ebeling ’66, experienced this relationship first hand as a Bradley student and has always relished the close-knit sense of community the Peoria area provides. “During my years at Bradley, I experienced the type of community relationship between Peoria and Bradley that makes the area so successful and special,” said Ebeling.

“There is a unique relationship between the two which has been perpetuated through community service and volunteerism of Bradley students, alumni, faculty and staff.”

Chuck Ebeling ’66

Initially a journalism major, Ebeling developed a passion for public relations which was cultivated by his service as a public affairs officer in the Army. He later held public relations positions with several major agencies and national corporations before joining McDonald’s Corporation, where he rose to the position of chief spokesman and vice president of corporate communications. Upon retirement, Ebeling began a relationship with the University as a friend and mentor to public relations students.

“Bradley University is doing a great job remaining relevant to the broader community in a changing time. Bradley has raised the bar in the depth and breadth of what it offers the community,” said Ebeling. “In challenging economic times, when many people cannot

give monetary contributions, alumni can offer their expertise, time and talent to the students and thereby enrich their academic career and real world working experiences.”

Ebeling would prefer the field of public relations to be called “public relationships.” In fact, he believes that a strong relationship is a key to successful communities, and that building these relationships can be especially useful in a close-knit community. He believes in the importance and value of community relationships—especially between a university and its surrounding community—which led to the development of the Ebeling PR-ize™ in 2003.

Conceived by Ebeling and Bradley’s Dr. Ron Koperski, the Ebeling PR-ize™ is a competitive program among Bradley’s senior public relations students in their capstone course. Ebeling has donated nearly $15,000 in support of the public relations competition.

“The course presents us with the opportunity for seniors to bring together all the learned strategies, skills and techniques from their public relations studies and apply it all to real client needs,” Koperski said. “Requiring students to create campaigns that serve both the commercial clients and local public service organizations teach that public relations can really be about building public relationships that are quantitatively and qualitatively productive.”

During the past 11 semesters, Bradley public relations seniors have broken into more than 50 small agency teams. These agency teams are responsible for planning and implementing a real, coordinated public relations campaign on behalf of a local business and a compatible community service organization. Campaign submissions and judging criteria are based on nationally recognized Silver Anvil Award Competition administered by the Public Relations Society of America. Winning team members each receive a check for $500, a personal letter of recommendation from Ebeling and a luncheon in their honor.

According to Ebeling, “Real student achievements in building public relationships deserve real awards and recognition.” The inspiration for the award came from an idea Ebeling had while reading a Fortune magazine article about the valuable role “prizes” have played in society, from the legendary Nobel Prizes to the Orteig prize won by Charles Lindbergh for making the first non-stop cross-Atlantic flight.

Looking inside the word “prize,” Ebeling saw the “pr” as representing public relations, and thus the PR-ize™ concept emerged. Ebeling thought it would be a natural name for an award recognizing student excellence in public relations studies and decided to trademark the concept.

Ebeling, a favorite mentor of Bradley public relations majors, active alumnus and industry professional notes that the Ebeling PR-ize™ has set a wonderful example for the students that you can do good and do well in the world at the same time.