Genuine Do-Gooder

Here's a bet. Talk to Bill Coplin about his undergraduate students for five minutes and count the number of times he mentions they are trained to "do well and do good." Five is a good wager.

While that kind of sloganeering might sometimes spur eye rolling among peers, Coplin, professor and director of the Public Affairs program, is largely revered among his students. And for some very good reasons.

He’s passionate about what he does. The former international relations scholar—who spent more than 20 years forecasting political and economic conditions overseas—has spent a decade crafting a brand of education he says better serves employment-focused undergraduates. The author of 10 Things Employers Want You to Learn in College and 25 Ways to Make College Pay Off: Advice for Anxious Parents from a Professor Who’s Seen It All, Coplin consults with high schools across New York state. He advises the Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central, a new city high school that combines career preparation and academic learning; and serves as curriculum consultant to the High School for Leadership and Public Service, founded in 1993 by the New York City school board in partnership with Maxwell.

In addition to his students at SU, Coplin has influenced the education of thousands of high school seniors. His public affairs course, Introduction to the Analysis of Public Policy, has been taken by more than 10,000 high school seniors at 65 New York high schools through SU's Project Advance. In addition, the course served as the model for the New York Regents' "participation in government" curriculum, required of all Regents-diploma high schoolers in the state.

He's a straight shooter. If you're doing well, you'll know. If you're screwing up, you'll know that, too. If he thinks something is stupid, you'll hear why. This may be impolitic among academic colleagues, but it works wonders with college students, whose "B.S. filter" is always set to high.

He practices what he preaches. Given that his students are involved in projects all over the greater Syracuse community, that's where you'll find him—at the Wilson Park Community Center, or at Tech Central High School. He’s a board member of the Syracuse Boys & Girls Club and has held leadership and volunteer positions with many community organizations. Royalties from his book How You Can Help: An Easy Guide to Doing Good in Your Everyday Life support Syracuse city youth programs.

He's always finding avenues through which to recruit. Each year, for example, admitted prospective SU students are invited to participate in a citizenship education conference and essay contest. In April, participants write on a prescribed topic—last spring they were asked for ideas to address illegal immigration in the U.S.—and the top 25 students are awarded $225,000 in scholarship money and invited to live in the Citizenship Education Learning Community (on the first floor of Brewster-Boland Hall) as freshmen. Many ultimately major in Coplin's program.

And then there's his car: a shiny Lexus GS 300 that sports a "Do Good" vanity plate. "Many students think I'm a hypocrite," he says, "but I’m really reinforcing the main point of my book, How You Can Help. You can do well and do good. I’m out to mainstream do-gooding."

                                                                                     — R.G.L.