New Building Plans Move Into Final Phase

Southwest view of new J-School building

By Jesse Nation-Ames
J-School Web Reporter

Fund raising is on a roll, the University president is on board, and drawings are being made for a shiny new $12 million building that will bring all of the J-School under one roof again.

Ground could be broken as early as spring 2004, said UM President George M. Dennison. It will be a champagne and golden-shovel event, he said, with the actual construction starting in the summer or fall. The new facility will house the broadcast, photo and print departments.

“We really need to provide a showcase for our excellence in journalism,” said Dennison, who acknowledged that the J-School long ago outgrew its building.
So far $10 million of the $12 million needed to begin construction in spring 2004 has been pledged. The $10 million represents generous donations from distinguished alumni such as Penny Peabody, chair of the UM Foundation board of trustees, and national news organizations including Lee Newspapers. Families of former students, including the Pollner family, also have donated to the building.

“It’s really exceeded any of our expectations,” said J-School Development Officer Curtis F. Cox. He is confident that the roughly $2 million to be raised will come from private sources.

“Many professors and students can be helped and honored far into the future with generous donations such as the Peabodys’,” said J-School Dean Jerry Brown. Donors now have a classroom naming opportunity, he added, and the $10 million benchmark that fund raising recently reached officially clears groundbreaking for the spring.

“ This is my way of giving back for all that the University and, especially, the Journalism School did for me,” wrote Penny Peabody, who graduated with the class of 1961 and earned her M.A. from the J-School in 1967. During the 1960s she worked as a reporter and/or editor at the Missoulian, the Billings Gazette and The Associated Press, and later held several government and consulting positions. She is past chair of the UM Foundation Board of Trustees.

“We’ve had amazing good fortune in having prominent donors who respect the reputation of this school, who know what this school contributes to the university and the profession and who express their confidence through their contributions,” said Brown.

Preliminary plans for second floor of the new Journalism Building. J-School alum Penny Peabody (Class of '61)has donated funds for the classroom adjacent to the Kaimin newsroom.

Since 1936 the J-School has called the three-story brick building on the south side of campus home. Over the years the school has grown to include not just print, photo, and broadcast but also production and design, which require facilities that the 67-year-old building isn’t equipped to provide. The result has been a schism of sorts, which has scattered the R-TV and production offices and classes around the campus.

“We need the laboratories and the facilities to make these students competitive when they enter the job market,” said Dennison. J-School graduates are known for being ready to work when they enter the profession, he added.

Where the new 57,000-square-foot facility will be built will be determined by a university building committee. Overland Partners of Bozeman is drafting the plans for the new building, and faculty and students will have input before the plans are final. The building will feature a 350-seat auditorium, several computer labs and a new office for the student newspaper, the Montana Kaimin, which received its own substantial donation.

“Now we’re at the point in this process where we get down to details,” said Brown — such as how many computer labs and what kind of technologies the classrooms will be fitted with.

Some preliminary drawings are available but changes are being made to them regularly. Watch this Web site for monthly updates on building plans and fund raising.

And, if you’d like to donate to the J-School Building Fund, contact either Dean Brown either by e-mail or at 406-243-5250 or Development Officer Curtis Cox at 406-243-2585.

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