Students and parents will be asked to pause and think about more than just the Syracuse football team’s performance during Friday night’s game against West Virginia in the Carrier Dome.

A public service campaign, PAUSE: drive now. txt l8r., put on by Hill Communications, a student-run public relations firm, aims to discourage students from texting while driving.

Though there was some advertising for the campaign earlier this week, it will be in full swing as of Friday, when two of the larger initiatives of the campaign will take place. At the football game, a public service announcement featuring Jim Boeheim, SU head basketball coach, will be aired and 15,000 thumb bands with the word ‘pause’ printed on them will be distributed, said Tom Millas, director of Hill Communications and senior public relations and international relations major.

The thumb bands — similar to Livestrong bracelets — were provided by Shelly Fisher, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumna. Millas said Fisher has connections to a company that produces medical- and cause-related bracelets and was able to make a donation of 30,000 thumb bands, half of which will be distributed at Friday’s football game.

‘She wanted to do something for the university and have students involved,’ said Robert Kucharavy, faculty adviser of Hill Communications and professor of practice in public relations. ‘She kind of put it forth as a challenge to the students.’

The campaign will be launched in two parts, the first at Friday’s football game and the second at a basketball game in December, Millas said. At each launch, a public service announcement featuring Boeheim will be aired in the Dome and 15,000 thumb bands will be given out.

The team working on the campaign knew it wanted to collaborate with SU Athletics, so they approached Boeheim. He was very supportive of the initiative and agreed to be the spokesman for the campaign, appearing in two public service announcements, said Brianna Quaglia, team member on the PAUSE account and junior public relations and political science major. Quaglia is also a staff writer for The Daily Orange.

Tony Callisto, chief of the Department of Public Safety, said he felt the campaign was valid, as texting while driving is an issue throughout New York state and on campus, where there is heavy pedestrian traffic. He supported the efforts of the campaigns, saying awareness is a key instrument in preventing such accidents.

‘A structured campaign with students reaching out to students will probably be more effective than us reaching out to students,’ Callisto said. ‘Students will listen to each other and talk about this.’

This weekend, students can expect numerous initiatives from the students of Hill Communications, Kucharavy said.

‘We’ll have a table on the Quad, and there will be students in the Dome handing out the thumb bands,’ he said. ‘There will be emails sent to students later this week. It’s a full-blown communications program.’

Hill Communications started in 2001 under the name Campus Hill Communications, though the name was later changed to Hill Communications due to confusion with Campus Hill Apartments, Kucharavy said. It is a full-fledged public relations group that takes on multiple clients per year and is entirely student-run.

Said Quaglia: ‘Every semester we do a pro-bono campaign or one that we don’t do for profit, and we were really drawn to this topic because it’s a really prominent thing in the media right now.’

cffabris@syr.edu 

Published on October 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Casey: cffabris@syr.edu | @caseyfabris