Benefits

Why You Should Join Us

There are many benefits in becoming involved in the Industrial Affiliates Program for both academic and industrial institutions.

Student Benefits

Students can enjoy many benefits for becoming involved in the Industrial Affiliates Program. They can learn more about the technical communication industry, and discover the many different roles technical communicators have in today's workplace.

Students can also network with people in the technical communication industry, developing relationships with various companies with a wide range of products. Internships are also available from the Industrial Affiliate companies, providing students with hands-on experience while providing an outlet to apply their coursework to real-world situations.

There are numerous reasons for students to get involved. For more information about the benefits of getting involved in the Industrial Affiliates, contact Mary Wrobel or Laura Gurak.

Industry Benefits

A close relationship with a top university makes good business sense. In this increasingly tight employment market, you need access to the best and brightest graduates. To keep one step ahead of the competition, you need to keep abreast of the latest developments in various technical communication fields. But, with your staff so busy meeting deadlines, it can be difficult to dedicate hours to the endless search for workers and information.

In the university environment, we're in the business of preparing students for the work force and creating and disseminating new knowledge. By joining our Industrial Affiliates Program, you can have priority access to these and other valuable resources. And, you can contribute to the long term research and training objectives of one of the country's top programs in technical communication.

There are many other benefits of becoming an Industrial Affiliate:

Priority Access to Job Candidates and Interns

In our tight market, how do you gain the employment edge? You can do so by having first crack at the best and brightest talent, viewing resumes before other employers and meeting personally with students at special Industrial Affiliates events. Also, you can call our faculty directly to inquire about a graduating student for your company. In addition, you'll have a direct source for undergraduate and graduate students for short and long term internships.

Affiliates-only Programming

Annual Colloquium

Learn about the latest trends in the field. Faculty and graduate students will present findings from their research, and Affiliates will share their project experiences. Faculty from other departments can alert you to trends in related disciplines that could affect your work. In breakout sessions, you can discuss topics of common interest.

Affiliates Newsletter

As an Affiliates member, you'll receive a regularly published update highlighting graduating students (giving you a further edge in recruiting efforts), upcoming events, the latest departmental research activities, news about other affiliated organizations, and other news of interest.

Networking events

Finding executive-level peers in technical communication is a challenging task; we bring you together with a select group of peers in other companies. We also bring you in contact with the university community. Your staff can communicate with the staffs of other affiliate organizations and the university staff through Industrial Affiliates web pages. You also have a direct line to faculty.

Unique Consultation and Research Opportunities

Decision making assistance

Wondering whether research supports your communication plans? Ask one of our internationally recognized researchers in scientific and technical communication. They can provide you with the most current data in relevant areas including usability, interface design, organizational communication, Internet and computer-mediated communication, scientific writing, gender in the workplace communication, and ethics and technical communication.

Joint research activities

Because some of the best research in technical communication is grounded in the practical problems of industry, and because properly executed research can give you a competitive edge, we can collaborate with you on research projects of mutual benefit. Such research projects might include issues of internationalization, user interface design, documentation, online information, and Internet communication.

Faculty visits

To make sure that our curriculum and research activities best reflect the needs of industry, our faculty can make visits. On these visits, our faculty can also give presentations on topics of interest to your staff, and explore any related issues you need to address.

Industrial research project

We'll work with you to design a research project that meets your needs and also provides our graduate students with real live settings for their work. You will receive priority access to their results. We can also work together to obtain research grants from third parties (such as the Society for Technical Communication or other organizations).

Priority Access to University Resources

Access to research and library facilities

To be effective in their work, your staff often seeks a particular reference or needs a citation. Find the information you need in our large library of technical communication books and journals.

Access to Internationally Recognized Technical Communication Experts

Our experts have a combination of business experience and academic training that can help you devise appropriate solutions. To see our list of faculty in technical communication, look here.

Our faculty is also comprised of specialists who study and teach about the relationships between science and technology on the one hand and ethics, society, agriculture, the land, and human values on the other. The juxtaposition of these two bodies of thought creates a unique humanistic perspective in our programs because it forces us to ask questions about how science and technology are related to critical issues in everyday life.

Finally, our graduate students bring with them a range of skills that are useful in industrial settings. Many of our current Ph.D. students, prior to attending graduate school, have worked in software development, technical writing, web design, scientific research, and other relevant areas. Our faculty enjoys a truly collaborative relationship with our graduate students, a relationship we can share with our Affiliates.