Seth Gitner advises student Rebecca Beckas on shooting techniques at the Empire State Winter Games in Lake Placid last March. (Photo by Alexa Hernandez)
Academic-Industry Partnerships Focus on Student Success and Faculty Expertise
A recent campus event fueled by faculty expertise and passion brought accomplished professionals together with students for hands-on learning and training. It was the outgrowth of an industry partnership that could serve as a model for similar connections across campus.
Brad Horn, a professor of practice in public relations who previously served as the Newhouse School’s associate dean for strategic initiatives, is the inaugural Provost’s Innovation Fellow. In that role, he is developing a Universitywide academic-industry strategy and working to support faculty in creating partnerships that provide experiential learning opportunities and professional connections for students.
We sat down with Horn to learn about how the Newhouse School’s thriving partnership with Sony Electronics has expanded to additional stakeholders across campus and how comparable partnerships might be developed at other schools and colleges to enhance student success.
Earlier this month, two award-winning sports photographers visited the Newhouse School for a panel discussion and a weekend-long workshop for students in a sports photography course developed and led by associate professor Seth Gitner. The photographers, Jean Fruth and Patrick Murphy-Racey, are designated as Sony Artisans of Imagery, an elite group of world-renowned photographers, filmmakers and visual educators.
This was a direct result of the school’s relationship with Sony, which has evolved over time. The story behind the workshop shows the true value of cultivating academic-industry partnerships, which open doors for students and can only happen through the passion and work of the faculty and staff in the schools and colleges.
Professor Gitner has built a strong model for Newhouse students to engage with the sports industry, particularly through his passion for photography. It began when he and professor of practice Jon Glass built an opportunity for students to cover and photograph the Empire State Games in Lake Placid, New York, which they have done annually since 2022. The following year, students returned to Lake Placid to cover the FISU Winter World University Games. Sony has supported the ventures as sports photography workshops and supplied camera gear.
Sony is a leading product provider for Dick Clark Studios. Additionally, strong engagement around shared values has marked the company’s relationship with the school for many years. This started with personal relationship-building between individuals at Sony and studios manager Neal Coffey, and more recently through work with creative projects led by faculty members like Bruce Strong, Milton Santiago, Olivia Stomski and Gitner, among others.
Newhouse has demonstrated to Sony that we can deliver a pipeline of students who are job-ready and prepared to be strategic contributors to media and industry organizations on day one. It was clear that our academic and creative programs could help meet Sony’s needs. And for Sony, delivering life-changing experiences for students has been even more rewarding.
The relationship culminated in a purchasing agreement and programmatic support from Sony for key Newhouse initiatives. This effort has led to Sony’s engagement with other units, including esports and Athletics, as they continue to build pathways for students across the University.
Faculty across the University are engaged with incredible work and industry partners in so many fields and sectors, building distinctive excellence and giving students creative and unique experiences and projects. The vision is to help faculty and others maximize their potential for industry engagement. This will take the form of strengthening existing relationships, building new alliances and ultimately introducing new models for academic excellence focused on industry engagement.
We’ll be working with faculty on best practices and training to ensure we’re connecting with industry in ways that directly correlate to student success. For faculty and staff, the best opportunities to engage with industry happen when the relationship centers on student success and our own expertise. What can we do together with an industry partner that elevates our impact in creating unique experiences, developing new creative efforts or applied research and continuing to open doors for students across Syracuse University? By working collaboratively with industry, we can create life-changing opportunities for students because of the access a project provides and the expertise with which a faculty member guides.
