JMC celebrates 1987 merger of Journalism & Telecommunications

The first faculty meeting of the new School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1987. Seated from left: Ed Kaminski, Tom Olson (deceased), Carl Schierhorn, Zoe McCathrin (deceased), Stan Wearden, Fred Endres; second row: LuEtt Hanson, Barb Hipsman, Joe Harper, Ann Schierhorn, Ralph Darrow (deceased); back row: Greg Blase, Alan Rubin, Bob West, Gene Stebbins, Tim Smith, Charlie Brill (deceased), Ben Whaley and Greg Moore.

"On a chilly day in the late fall of 1985, five university faculty members met for lunch at an Italian restaurant on the far west side of Kent [Missimi's, now the Bistro].

Arriving in separate cars and glancing around, concerned that someone from the university might see them, the five huddled around a table and, over plates of spaghetti and lasagna, began to plot an academic mini-revolution.

The conspirators -- Ben Whaley, Ed Kaminski and Tom Olson from Telecommunications, and Fred Endres and Joe Harper from Journalism -- talked about what might happen if the two units were brought together and how that might be accomplished.

They had no university mandate, no charge from a dean or vice president. They were there on their own. Other faculty members in the two programs didn't know of this lunch or others that followed it.

Joe Harper (left) restored integrity and professionalism into the journalism program as director and later oversaw the 1987 merger of the journalism and telecommunications programs. He's seen here around 1985 with Al Fitzpatrick (center) and Dave Meeker, both winners of the William Taylor Distinguished Alumnus award and now adjunct faculty members in Kent JMC.

Since the Division of Radio had been formed in 1948, the two units had lived lives of for-the-most-part peaceful co-existence. They recognized each other's turf and, largely, left each other alone. Despite the growing number of commonalities, representatives of the two programs never had sat down to talk about those commonalities. Students had talked about common courses and had worked on cross media. But, no substantive discussions involving decision makers had been held. Thus, the discussion that day truly was revolutionary and foreshadowed later issues involving media convergence.

By the early 1980s, all that remained of E. Turner Stump's 50-year-old School of Speech was the division of rhetoric and communication and the Division of Telecommunications, and by the mid-1980s, Telecommunications was looking for a new home. That led to informal discussions about possible "cooperation" between Telecommunications and Journalism, i.e., the lunches.

Within a matter of months, the group had developed some fundamental agreements that were represented in a position paper presented to F&PA Dean Tom Barber. After discussions with the president and provost, Barber approved more formal--and public--exploration of a possible merger.

TOUGH QUESTIONS, NOISY MEETINGS

By now, both faculties knew what was being suggested, and formal meetings between the two groups got underway. There was general agreement that the two units had far more in common than they had differences.

But then, and even after formal merger took place, there were hard, bedrock questions: what would the new unit be called, would ACEJMC accreditation be endangered, what about courses that overlap content, how would the unit be governed, what about the differing admission standards, how would budgetary matters be handled, what kinds of scholarship and professional work would count toward tenure and promotion?

Tough questions led to long, noisy meetings. In the end, however, most problems were worked out, and in the fall of 1987, the new School of Journalism and Mass Communication came into existence.

The merger really was the logical and natural outcome of an evolutionary process, the direct result of long-standing academic and political disaffection of a group of faculty, and the then-faint recognition of some future reconfiguration of mass media. Somehow, it seemed right for faculty and students.

Ten years later, the School would validate those assumptions by completing the most radical curricular transformation since the 1940s. All was based on the notion of media convergence, a joining of the various disciplines to produce the complete communicator of the 21st century.

The secret lunches in 1985 had paid huge dividends."

Read more about the history of JMC in "Pathways"

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