Through discussion with Dean Carol Shanklin, six years ago I invested in the Graduate School’s Excellence Fund for Enhancing Science Communication. “Our students must demonstrate the ability to communicate the value of their research and other scholarly work to the public and to their future employers,” she wrote to me. That made a lot of sense to me, so I decided to support the program.
My bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kansas State University are in communication (English Department). After leaving Manhattan, the first eight years of my career were spent as a science and research communicator at the University of Minnesota as I pursued my Ph.D. in higher education and public policy. In addition to teaching agricultural journalism, I spent time translating science and research to various audiences, both internationally and on campus and to various stakeholders, such as the state legislature and the general public.
At the time, my colleagues and I debated whether it was better to have a communicator try to understand the science or the scientist try to understand communication. I always argued that it was both—a partnership. Communicators have to understand and appreciate scholarly endeavor to accurately convey the meaning and intent to the targeted audience. Researchers and scientists, at minimum, have be able to provide leadership in the translation process or they will find themselves “misrepresented and misquoted” which usually only serves to widen the abyss. All scientists and scholars need to be able to speak and write about their knowledge to lay audiences.
As I ended my career four years ago (as a senior advisor at the National Science Foundation), I reflected that many of the challenges I experienced around communication and science early in my career remained. Indeed, the gulf between science and public understanding was, if anything, growing. Covid-19, is just the current ongoing example of how important it is for knowledge to be quickly and accurately conveyed to the public and to various special interest groups. I do not think it hyperbolical to say our future as a democracy depends on an informed electorate—one that understands science and scholarship and how that forms the factual basis for responsible decision-making and action.
I’m an enthusiastic supporter of the Graduate School’s Enhancing Science Communication programs and offerings. To me the Graduate School is a natural place to assume leadership in making sure all scientists and scholars interact and have knowledge and experience with one another and in communicating the facts and the implications of that knowledge. While individual disciplines and fields can and should enhance communication expertise, the Graduate School offers an opportunity for more cross disciplinary interaction which fosters appreciation and builds productive networks. Very few scholars become professional communicators, but they will all increasingly carry the burden of making sure that what they know is accurately and consistently conveyed to assure greater social and economic wellbeing.
As she steps down, I offer congratulations to Carol Shanklin on her distinguished career as a faculty member and graduate dean. I appreciate her leadership and the opportunity she gave me to invest in the Graduate School Excellence Fund for Enhancing Science Communication. I wish her well as she retires and enters the next phase of her journey. Best wishes to the incoming dean who will certainly enhance KSU’s tradition of Graduate School leadership.
I remain a proud alumna of KSU, a great institution that gave me the jump-start I needed.
Gail McClure
BA 1967
MA 1970