Paul Erickson has more than 30 years of experience working in the communications industry. Since 1996, he’s been a part of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, first working as the sports information director and now as the director of Communications and public information officer.
Erickson said it’s fun to see the way technology has impacted communications. When he first started in athletics, he would have to call in box scores to six different media outlets. “Then came the fax machine and I could send the information; it saved three hours of work every night,” he said. “You have to keep up with technology not just to help save time off your job, but also to figure out how to reach your audiences and what technology your audiences are using.”
Outside of campus, Erickson enjoys spending time with his family.
You are involved in many different aspects on campus including internal and external communications, overseeing public relations and printing and postal services, university-wide projects, emergency communications and serving as the public information officer. What are the most challenging and rewarding parts of your job?
The most challenging part of the job is emergency communications. You can’t adequately be prepared for everything that comes up in an emergency, but we, as a public information officers group and the emergency responders group, practice scenarios so we know what type of questions to ask. I study when something happens at somebody else’s campus or in a community. I find myself asking, how would we respond to this? Every scenario is going to be a little bit different but I try to think what questions we would ask, to respond.
I do think of the 2014 tornado. It was great how the campus community came together and responded to a campus emergency like that. It’s a part of my job I enjoy and take very seriously.
What are some of your proudest moments working at UW-Platteville?
There have been a lot of proud moments, whether it be national championships with basketball or getting to know Coach Bo Ryan and his teams. We have also done things in communications such as launching the mascot, we brought two U.S. secretaries – one of education and one of ag – to Pioneer Farm for a roundtable discussion, that was a lot of fun.
I have been really fortunate to have worked in two great departments, athletics and communications, with outstanding people who are not only really good colleagues, but really good friends.
What I’m most proud of is the Brett and Nick Erickson Family Scholarship. My wife Mary and I established this in 2015, and it’s for families who have children with disabilities. Our oldest son is severely autistic, and it takes time and also limits your earning potential because you can’t quite commit your whole career because there are a lot of doctor appointments and seeing specialists. We felt that this was a way to help families throughout the college process. Also, the siblings of students with disabilities are some of the most amazing people you can find. They learn a lot of life lessons early and we think they are going to be our next leaders. We established the scholarship not only here at UW-Platteville, but also at UW-Eau Claire, our alma-mater and also where our youngest son Nick attended.
You have been at UW-Platteville more than 20 years. What do you like about working in a university environment?
Number one, getting to know the students watching them progress throughout their collegiate career. It’s cyclical. I love the fall, I love the start to the new semester, I love when the football team takes the field for the first time, just watching the excitement, watching the students coming in here for the first time. New student registration in the summer is always a fun thing to see, how excited people are for college. I would hope we would never forget that these students are coming here for the experience and education. Every year we have whole new crop of students and we have a whole new crop of students graduating going out into the workforce; it’s a really exciting part of our jobs.
Is there anything new in the communications office this year?
The communications office has under gone a little bit of a transformation for 2019-20. The publications office has moved to our new marketing department. The public relations portion of our office is going to be focusing a lot more on media contacts and getting our stories out. We have a new news site on the website. We have a staff of really talented writers and photographers. We are excited to be able to put those skills in use in this new format. And, in really big news for the Pioneer Printing and Postal Services, we are finally getting our new mail truck. So goodbye to the blue bomber!
You oversee student workers throughout the school year. What do you hope they take away from working with you?
With any job we want to prepare them for their careers. We do give them a high-level of responsibility whether it’s working in public relations, photography, or Pioneer Printing and Postal Services.
It is nice to keep in touch with them, too. Last November we were in Minneapolis and happened to run into a bunch of former football players from almost 20 years ago. I was in Kansas City earlier this month and I ran into a former student worker just by chance. It’s always nice to catch up with them and hear their successes.