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St. Cloud State University
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Three to visit Ground Zero
By Eric O'Link
Published:
Monday, April 8, 2002
Three SCSU students will embark on a two-day adventure this week that will take them to Atlanta and New York City.
Senior Brad Wingate, junior Kate Mehr and sophomore Jeff Welch, all aviation majors, are going to New York to visit Ground Zero as part of a project for "Communication in the Workplace," a Communication Studies class.
Joanna Pucel, associate professor with the Communication Studies department, teaches the class. She said the project has students observe a company and write a 30-page paper about their observations on the company's workplace communications, relating what they have covered in class.
Students then present their findings to the class. Most students pick a company that is local, Pucel said, but Wingate, Mehr and Welch had their sights set on something bigger.
"This group (of students) decided that since they were all aviation majors, what they wanted was to look at the airline industry by itself, the changes that have now been made and the impact that Sept. 11 has had," Pucel said.
The three students thought a Minnesota-based airline - either Mesaba, Northwest or Sun Country - would be a great company to observe for their project. Wingate said new security measures made this almost impossible, however.
"We were unable to (access the airlines) on almost all accounts," he said, "because of the heightened security. We were trying to come up with some idea to get into one of these companies and we came up with a cool idea: we're going to actually go on a flight."
AirTran
As they were debating about where to go, a door opened. While at a conference in Memphis, Tenn., for women in aviation, Mehr met a representative of AirTran Airways, an affordable fare airline based in Atlanta, Ga. The representative offered to help Mehr with getting information about AirTran, and welcomed the trio to observe AirTran for their project.
They wanted to go to a place with a piece of aviation history, Wingate said, so they settled on New York, each spending $220 on their airline tickets.
"We can't think of a better place to go than Ground Zero," he said, "because that changed not only the outlook for our jobs and our job market for the upcoming years, but travel for everybody."
When the students approached Pucel with their proposal, she was shocked. She has been teaching the "Communication in the Workplace" for 10 years, but when she heard about their plan, she "almost fell on the floor."
"My jaw was just in my lap," Pucel said.
Hard work
She said she was initially unsure if the three could pull off such a project. As their plans came together, though, Pucel said she was amazed and impressed by their hard work.
"Everybody around here in our department is going, 'My gosh, this is such a unique thing that they're doing,'" she said.
Wingate, Mehr and Welch are leaving Minneapolis Tuesday. They will fly to Atlanta, where they have a three-hour layover. The three are scheduled to meet with company representatives from AirTran during the layover, and from Atlanta they will fly to New York City.
Once they get to New York, they will tour Ground Zero, at the site of the former World Trade Center. Wingate said they could not afford a hotel, so they will stay up most of the night in New York, and fly back to Minneapolis the following day.
"In order to alleviate some of the cost, we're just going to go until we're dead tired, and then maybe sleep a little bit in the airport, on the floor," Wingate said.
Differences
The trio will pay close attention to the differences in security when they travel, and take note of how people communicate with each other, both in the airport and on the plane.
They are taking voice recorders and video cameras along to record what they observe, Wingate said.
He added they are anticipating the experience of Ground Zero, although he acknowledged it might be emotional.
"From what I've been hearing from other people that have done this is it's kind of sad," he said. "There are a lot of grieving families still visiting, so its kind of sad with a lot of people crying around there. It's going to be a little tough on us in that respect, but I think it will be a great learning experience otherwise."
Pucel echoed those sentiments.
"I think it's going to enrich these students beyond belief," she said. "It's going to give them an insight into how the aviation industry has changed.
"They're looking at nonverbal communication. They're looking at the interaction with customers. They're looking at how the flight attendants are dealing with all of this stuff, how are people handling the frustrations of stuff pulled out of their suitcases, the long lines...all of the security checks people have to go through, taking off your shoes."
Wingate, Mehr and Welch will present their project on April 16. Wingate said AirTran has requested a copy of the paper the three will write.
Eric O'Link can be reached at:
diversions@universitychronicle.com
