J-School News
| School of Journalism | The University of Montana |
February 2001
Archives: October 2000 November 2000, December 2000, Issues before 10/2000
Architects put J-School building plans online
A building site has been suggested for a proposed $14 million journalism building, and architectural plans for the building have made their first appearance online.
The plans for the building as designed by Overland Partners in Bozeman can be found at http:www.overlandpartners.com/Projects/design/Proj-design.htm. The design shows the building as it would be if built behind Jeanette Rankin Hall.
But even with plans and a site, it is likely the building won’t be completed for five to seven years, Dean Jerry Brown said.
The school outgrew its
1930s-era building in the mid-1980s, forcing the Radio-Television Department
to be scattered in three buildings across campus. The proposed 75,500-square
foot building will allow photo, broadcast and print students to be in the same
building, Brown said. 
A
new building will also allow the school to take full advantage of technology
to teach courses in multimedia. Faculty at the school are considering creating
a fifth option by adding multimedia journalism studies to already-existing options
in print, photojournalism, broadcast reporting and broadcast production. And
that means new classrooms are needed for the increased students and more equipment.
"The separation of print and broadcast departments does not provide students with the physical setting needed for the media-convergence education now in demand," Brown wrote in a proposal for the new building.
In addition, the current buildings for print, photojournalism, and broadcast are too small to contain the school's growing enrollment, Brown said.
Funding for the building will come from private donors, and Brown said he will ask the "state (government) to help with the difference." He said he will make a formal announcement asking for donors in the spring.
Once construction starts, the building will take one year to complete, said Mark Headley, an architect with Overland Partners.
Brown said people in charge of campus facilities have told him that the School of Forestry will probably take over the old journalism building once the new one has been completed.
J-school helps Missoula high school start newspaper
Students at Loyola-Sacred Heart High School in Missoula are gearing up for careers in journalism with help from the Missoulian newspaper, University of Montana journalism students and a $4,500 grant.
The school recently joined with UM and the Missoulian to apply for the grant from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The funds that Loyola received will cover printing and equipment costs to publish a monthly newspaper.
The Missoulian will provide
speakers for the Loyola journalism class as well as "job shadowing" opportunities,
which allow the students to watch 
the
staff at work. Three UM students – Olivia Nisbet, Jason Begay and Jennifer Perez
– will help students with writing, photography and designing the scholastic
newspaper.
Shaun Gant, Loyola's journalism teacher, said the grant will allow the school to purchase a digital camera and a "really nice computer" for the class of 15 students.
The students will write articles, shoot photographs and design the newspaper with Pagemaker and Photoshop software, Gant said. The first issue of the newspaper, named the Rampage after the school’s mascot (a ram), will appear on March 23.
Although Loyola only has 250 students, the Missoulian will print 1,500 copies of each issue, Gant said. Copies will be mailed to Loyola alumni and other Montana high schools.
Gant applied for the grant at the urging of Lynn Schwanke, the Missoulian's Youth Editor and a School of Journalism alumna. "She's a real champion for all schools in town," Gant said.
Loyola has offered newspaper, literary magazine and yearbook classes, but the programs have published sporadically because of lack of funds, Gant said. The school has never had the funds to print a newspaper or magazine; photocopies of the students’ journalism have been all Loyola could manage, Gant said. She said she hopes ASNE dubs Loyola a success and renews the one-year grant, or that advertising allows the newspaper to continue once the grant runs out.
Gant said she’s also keeping a journal with the intent to help other schools that start scholastic newspapers. This year the ASNE awarded $117,500 to 31 schools, school districts and 27 daily newspapers to revive or dramatically improve scholastic newspapers, according to a press release from the ASNE. Other partnerships include schools from urban, suburban and rural communities in 20 states and the District of Columbia. At each school, the newspapers either publish sporadically or have lapsed. Each school’s effort at journalism is in need of professional support.
Obituaries: Jeff Cole, Kevin Crough, Laura Blumberg Loewen
Two University of Montana School of Journalism alumni and the daughter of a former dean of the journalism school died in January.
Jeff Cole: One of the "finest business reporters in the country."
The tenanciousness that led Jeff Cole to report for The Wall Street Journal, Seattle Times and other newspapers was easy to see during his days at the University of Montana’s School of Journalism, professor Carol Van Valkenburg, said.
"He wasn’t the best student, he wasn’t the best writer, but he was eager to learn," said Van Valkenburg, who worked with Cole at the Missoulian in the 1980s. "Once he got out and got a job those reporting qualities were really evident."
Cole, The Wall Street Journal's aerospace editor, was killed Jan. 24 in a plane crash near Denver. He was 45. The pilot of the Czech-built jet fighter, Atlas Air Chairman Michael Chowdry, was also killed.
Cole had interviewed Chowdry earlier the day of the plane crash, according to The Wall Street Journal. Later, Chowdry invited Cole for a short flight from Front Range Airport near Watkins, Colo.
The plane crashed two minutes after takeoff. The cause of the crash was unknown and the National Transportation Safety Board was investigating, said a Jan. 25 wire story in the Missoulian.
Cole had worked for The Wall Street Journal since 1992, with a year-long stint at The Seattle Times in between.
He graduated from UM’s School of Journalism in 1981. Cole will probably be remembered as one of the "finest business reporters in the country," Van Valkenburg said. "He was certainly the best reporter about the aerospace industry."
Cole worked his way through UM to support his family, and he later was hired as the Missoulian’s Deer Lodge correspondent; he drove a UPS truck at the same time, Van Valkenburg said.
"It was part of his whole tenaciousness, part of what made him a good reporter," Van Valkenburg said. "The fact that he was so driven is what made him succeed."
His career began at the Missoulian, where he became business editor before leaving in 1986. He went on to work for the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minn., Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune and The Herald in Everett, Wash.
Cole’s sources always said he was a fair and accurate reporter, Van Valkenburg said. And he was always going to get a story no matter what, she said.
A Jan. 30 article in the online Wall Street Journal reported that Cole’s sources always trusted him. He made an effort to get to know even the janitors in the aerospace plants he covered. "Best way to get sources, man, is in the bars around a factory at shift change," Cole used to say, according to Bryan Gruley, a Wall Street Journal editor.
Cole was known to turn heads with his good looks, according to the Journal article. A Butte native, he often wore cowboy boots and blue jeans, and he talked about reporting the way a cowboy would talk about roping a big steer, said Steve Lipin, a Journal editor. Cole used to say, "Together we’re gonna lasso this baby down." Or, "We’re gonna let some line out and watch this sucker come to us."
Part of what kept Cole driven in his career was the fact that he didn’t ignore other parts of his life, said his editor, Jonathan Friedland in the Journal article. "While working on half a dozen different things for the Journal, he’d still manage quicksilver trips to Montana to care for an ailing friend or to clear brush for the house he and his wife planned to build, late-night bull sessions with his friends in some seedy bar or crack-of-dawn bike rides up some insane embankment," Friedland said.
He also noted that Cole’s top priority were his grown children.
Cole is survived by his wife and his two children from a former marriage.
Kevin Crough will be remembered as "someone who was enthusiastic and had great passion and love for journalism," professor Carol Van Valkenburg said. A 1998 graduate of the School of Journalism, Crough died on Jan. 14 at age 26.
He died of alcohol and drug-related causes, according to reports published in the Kaimin.
"His most memorable trait was he had great enthusiasm about journalism," Van Valkenburg said. "He really wanted to be a reporter."
Crough had been the managing editor of his hometown newspaper, the Bigfork Eagle, since October 1999. He also wrote for Entertainment NOW, a weekly arts and events publication, and he was named its first coordinator.
Lee Enterprises hired Crough to report for the Whitefish Pilot, the Eagle and the Hungry Horse News in December 1998, the same month he graduated from UM.
Crough had served as the Kaimin editor for a short time and was a sports reporter and general assignments reporter. He also worked in the Grizzly sports information office while studying at UM.
Van Valkenburg said Crough did a challenging project on the 100-year history of the Montana Kaimin during his senior year. She said she remembers how pleased he was at the end of his senior year when he finished the project.
A scholarship fund has been set up in Crough’s name. Donations can be sent to Kevin Crough Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Paul Sullivan, Big Fork High School, Box 188, Bigfork, Montana 59911.
Laura Blumberg Loewen: daughter of former Dean Nathaniel Blumberg
The daughter of former dean Nathaniel Blumberg died Jan. 7 of hypothermia.
Josephine Laura Blumberg Loewen was 46. Her father was dean of the School of Journalism from 1956 until 1968.
Loewen earned a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from the University of Montana in 1994, according to an obituary in the Missoulian. She was also a photographer for the Missoulian for a time.
Condolences can be sent to Nathaniel Blumberg, 9230 East Shore, Bigfork, Montana 59911.
UM students continue to place well in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Recently, Josh Jaeger finished 18th in radio broadcast features; Aaron T. Murphy finished 20th in television broadcast features. Jim Wilkson finished tied for 19th in in-depth print reporting. UM ranks eighth among all schools in the print and photojournalism categories for this year. ... Radio-TV assistant professor Ray Ekness has received two awards for television programs and segments he produced, wrote and photographed. Ekness received an Award of Distinction from the Communicator Awards for his production "Remembering the Columbia Gardens." The Communicator Awards is a national awards program founded by communications professionals to recognize excellence in the communication field. A story from a recent episode of "Backroads of Montana" earned second place honors in the TV News category of the Broadcast Education Association's 2001 Faculty Production Competition. ... "Joseph Kinsey Howard: A Life Outside the Margins" is the newest documentary from Gus Chambers, an adjunct teaching in the school's Radio-Television department. Chambers, the award-winning producer of a documentary about the U.S. Army's African-American bicycle corp, premiered his Howard documentary on Montana Public Television on Feb. 7. The show aired again on Montana PBS on Feb. 9 and Feb. 11. Howard (1906-51) worked as a reporter and editor for the Great Falls Leader in 1923 and is a member of the Montana Newspaper Hall of Fame, but he is best known for his book "Montana: High, Wide and Handsome." ... School of Journalism faculty and newspaper professionals throughout Montana will judge the Montana Interscholastic Editorial Association's Better High School Newspapers Contest. The deadline for entry is March 16, 2001. For more information, go to www.umt.edu/journalism. ... The Missoulian featured Drew Winterer and Nick Gevock, two journalism graduate students, on the front page of a recent outdoors section. The feature story focused on the pair's thesis: a fishing guide to the Lewis and Clark Trail. Read the article at http://missoulian.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2001/February/08-481-od01.txt. Gevock is now a reporter for the Bozeman Chronicle.
J-School News
| School of Journalism | The University of Montana |
February 2001
Editor: Michael Downs, visiting assistant professor
Reporter: Eva Dunn-Froebig
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