J-School Breaking News
| School of Journalism | The University of Montana | October 1999 |
School wins $200,000 Hearst Foundation grant for visiting professionals
The School of Journalism is in the process of selecting visiting professionals with a $200,000 grant made last July by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.
In awarding the grant, Thomas Easton, vice president and western director of the Hearst Foundation, noted examples of the schools excellence, such as the school's success in the annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program, where it placed fifth in 1999, and the Native News Honors Project.
The Hearst Foundation states that the purpose of the grant is to "help build bridges between those who teach journalism and those who practice it." The grant will establish the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Visiting Professionals and will enable the school to bring professional journalists to campus for lectures and short visits.
Dean Jerry Brown said that the school is grateful to the Hearst Foundation, and commended Prof. Carol Van Valkenburg and the late Prof. Joe Durso Jr. for their hard work in obtaining the grant. "It's good for students to have (professional) role models present," said Brown.
The school hopes to have its first visiting professional under the Hearst grant next spring.
J-School prepares for accreditation visits
A team of journalism educators will visit the School of Journalism in February to review the journalism program for the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
Accreditation reviews by ACEJMC normally take place every six years; accreditation automatically places the journalism program in the top tier of programs across the country. Of the 400 journalism programs nationwide, only about 100 are accredited by ACEJMC. Accreditation allows the journalism program to attract better students, to recruit and retain well-qualified faculty, and to compete for grants from philanthropic organizations.
Criteria to be reviewed include administration, budget, curriculum, instruction, faculty, scholarship and creativity, internships, facilities, public service and diversity.
Over the past year, the faculty and staff have been preparing a self-study. As stated in an ACEJMC pamphlet, "the heart of the accrediting process is the self-study, a systematic examination by the (program) of the environment in which it operates, its mission, range of activities, accomplishments, and plans for the future." The ACEJMC will use the self-study to determine if the UM journalism program is accomplishing its goals, including compliance with accrediting standards, and if there is a credible plan of action to improve and meet its own goals into the future.
The ACEJMC visit team will be led by Will Norton, the dean of the University of Nebraska's School of Journalism. The team will be on campus Feb. 20 through Feb 23.
The school will also participate in the accreditation visit by representatives of The Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges, which is reviewing the accreditation of UM this year. Prof. Gerald Fetz, dean of the Davidson Honors College, is the chair of UM's Accreditation 2000 Steering Committee.
The committee is refining the colleges mission statement and plans to complete the self-study by the March 1, 2000 deadline.
Carroll and Nancy O'Connor visit their alma mater
Actor Carroll O'Connor, a generous supporter of UM and the School of Journalism, spoke his mind to journalism students Sept. 7, discussing ethics, the role of journalists in society and the right to privacy. O'Connor and his wife Nancy Fields O'Connor have deep ties to Montana.
Carroll O'Connor earned a master's degree in speech at UM. Nancy O'Connor is a native Montanan and also a UM graduate. A few years ago, the couple started an endowment fund, setting up four $5,000 scholarships. The Ralph and Hulda Fields scholarships are awarded every year to a Native American student choosing to major in journalism, forestry, law or pharmacy at UM. The scholarships are renewable over a four year period.
The O'Connors recently donated $1 million to the University of Montana's Center for the Rocky Mountain West. In a ceremony on Sept. 8 the center was renamed the Carroll and Nancy Fields O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West. The center is a regional studies and public policy institute designed to help scholars and visitors explore elements of culture in the West. Mrs. O'Connor is particularly interested in the center's work on tribal issues.
O'Connor is best known for his Archie Bunker role in the hit series, "All in the Family," a satirical show that poked fun at bigotry. The series ran for 12 years, starting in 1971. Time magazine rated his performance in 1989 as "the finest sustained acting ever done on U.S. television."
We're looking for two excellent broadcast professors
The search is on for two broadcast journalism professors to replace the late Joe Durso, Jr., and Professor Greg MacDonald, who is retiring at the end of this year.
The new professors will teach in two general areas. One will concentrate on directing, videography, lighting, programming and production, while the other will be responsible for broadcast news writing, reporting, production and editing.
The most important criteria will be experience, and the committee will be looking for candidates with "new ideas and a fresh approach," noted Professor Bill Knowles, chair of the search committee.
For the first time, finalists will be required to submit tapes of their best work. Knowles said, "This will (help the search committee) weed out frivolous applications and let the candidates know that UM is deadly serious about the candidates experience."
There will be ample opportunity for the students to meet with the candidates, including a meeting between four or five students and the candidates, as well as have the candidates give a lecture in the documentary class.
One of the open positions is that of the late Joe Durso, Jr. He came to the UM School of Journalism in 1984 as chairman of the Department of Radio-Television after a career in broadcast journalism with CBS Radio. Durso was appointed interim dean in 1993-94 and again in 1997-98. He died of a massive sudden heart attack on July 24, at the age of 52.
Department chair Greg MacDonald, professor of radio/television production, will be retiring at the end of the 1999-2000 academic year, after 26 years at UM.
R-TV students win acclaim, add new productions
Television documentaries and news shows produced by Radio-TV students in the School of Journalism have recently been broadcast statewide and have won national and regional awards.
A production by the Student Documentary Unit, "Hard Rocks, Hard Choices," won an E. B. Craney first-place award last spring in the non-commercial television category from the Greater Montana Foundation and the Montana Broadcasters Assn. The same program won a national first-place award in the SPJ Mark of Excellence competition.
The Radio-TV department also finished in fourth place nationally in the Hearst Competition--the first year the School's broadcast students had entered the competition.
"Seven Nations: Preserving the Past, Preparing for the Future," a student documentary produced in conjunction with the Native News honors class, was aired in July on Montana PBS (KUFM-TV in Missoula and KUSM-TV in Bozeman).
The sixth installment of "Business: Made in Montana," produced by juniors in television production, aired in September on Montana PBS. The program featured several successful Montana businesses, including Counter-Assault Bear Spray in Kalispell, Montana Wood Designs log furniture in Eureka, Strong Bicycle Racing Frames and Big Sky Laser Technology in Bozeman and Rand Custom Hatters in Billings.
The newest program to be aired is "Montana PBS News Brief," featuring 90-second news breaks twice a night on weekdays. Broadcast-journalism and R-TV production students produce the show.
Visiting professor's production airs on PBS
Using historic photographs, rare home movies and first-hand accounts, visiting professor Ray Ekness tells the story of the beloved Columbia Gardens amusement park that operated in Butte from 1899 to 1973.
"Remembering the Columbia Gardens" will air on KUFM/Montana PBS on Sunday, October 17 at 8 p.m.
Ekness, a producer for the Broadcast Media Center at UM, has been teaching production classes in the R-TV Department.
