The difficulty of writing about the present is obvious: it has no past. The luxury of perspective, so necessary to understanding the context, meaning and importance of events, is absent. Yet, given the nature of the defining moments that have come earlier, there is the opportunity to surmise, fairly safely, those current happenings that may be significant somewhere down the road.

The past is prologue

The basic storyline of Kent JMC in the Nineties is the resolve to lead students into the 21st century armed with the skills, knowledge and confidence to succeed--the same gifts given to the graduates of the Thirties, Fifties or Seventies, the Forties, Sixties or Eighties. A former New York Times editor and reporter, writing in Columbia Journalism Review in 1994, said Kent JMC was one of the top eight schools in the country where employers could find graduates "ready to hit the ground running."

A review of the history of the Journalism and Telecommun-ications programs at Kent presents compelling evidence that it has always been that way. The goal of the present School is to prepare students to not only hit the ground running, but to keep right on racing into the new century. To that extent, this final chapter is less a review of what has come before, and more an assessment of where we are, where we want to go and how we plan to get there.

Program stability

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication entered the Nineties with the greatest stability in leadership and faculty since the early 1970s or, before that perhaps, the late 1940s. There was no post-war or post-Watergate enrollment boom, but there was a quality foundation of almost 800 undergraduate majors and nearly 100 master's students. In 2004, enrollment has pushed upward to about 1,200, with graduate enrollment now about 50.

Median ACT scores had risen to 23, compared to the university median of 21. There were more minority students each year, with special attention given to not only recruitment, but also retention. In April 1997, a Kent chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists was installed, with Prof. Evonne Whitmore as adviser.

Recent JMC Directors have included Tim Smith, Pam Creedon and Jeff Fruit.

Women outnumbered men, and not because there was a war going on. Public relations, advertising and radio/television production majors represented a higher proportions of students than in the past, although the news sequence (newspaper, magazine, broadcast, photojournalism) still enrolled the most students. And, in all fields, there was a solid base of liberal arts and social sciences courses, with a commitment to professional education, that would make Bill Taylor and Walt Clarke smile.

The return to leadership stability started in the 1980s with Joe Harper and his commitment to a renewed sense of professionalism, both in the faculty and in the curriculum, as the previous chapter indicates. Directors who followed him added to, never detracted from, the professional orientation. For three years, from 1988-1991, Judy VanSlyke Turk, the first woman director of the Journalism, Telecommunication or JMC units, added to the professional core an emphasis on research, creative activities, professional development and service. Kent JMC faculty became nationally known for their work in leading academic and professional publications. Turk went on to become Dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of South Carolina.

Tim Smith serves as Interim Director

From 1991-1994, Timothy D. Smith, former managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, served as Interim Director. A veteran reporter and editor, who also had earned a law degree, Smith maintained the School's practical and phil-osophical orientations to professional education. In 1991, he added greater stature for the School and assistance to Ohio news media by establishing and directing the Ohio Center for Privacy and the First Amendment within Kent JMC. He also deftly directed the School through some very rocky budgetary times.

Of course, there were some problems for leadership to worry about in the early Nineties. Taylor Hall had hit middle age, as

Greg Blase cleans his office after another flood.

buildings go, and the leaky roof that greeted faculty in 1967 still leaked. Ralph Darrow, former resident faculty punster, once quipped (to groans) that "Those who claim that the roof is fixed are all wet!" Nor had their been any new wings added to the structure, so space problem remained critical. On top of that, although RTV and Journalism had merged on paper seven years earlier, they still were operating out of separate and outdated facilities.

The job is yours. Can you swim?

That was part of the picture in the summer of 1994 when F&PA dean, Tom Barber, called Pamela Creedon to tell her she had been named the new director of the School. Creedon says she only half joked with Barber when she said, "I'll accept the job if the Taylor Hall roof is fixed before I start!"

When she began her duties on August 1, the roof still leaked and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was investigating a complaint about the unsafe condition. Said Creedon, "Faculty called the plastic tarps with hoses descending into large garbage cans in their offices 'diapers.' An annual report had suggested that the School give swimming lessons as a fundraising activity. When I arrived, we took photographs of the areas and forwarded them to KSU President Carol Cartwright. I don't think she realized how bad our situation was." Creedon, who brought 15 years of public relations and 10 years teaching experience to the faculty, had been on the faculty at Ohio State University.

Creedon said she also "was astonished" to learn on her arrival in fall 1994 that the School was not hooked up to the Internet. "When I arrived on campus and asked about an e-mail account, I was told to go to the library, fill out a form and have it signed by my supervisor in order to open an account! And, I had to sign forms for each JMC student who wanted an account."

Thus, during her first six months on the job, two of Creedon's top priorities became cleaning up some architectural mistakes from the past and acquiring some computer technology needed for the future. Within a matter of months, the leaks had been stopped and Taylor Hall had been wired for "the information highway." Indeed, network technology in Taylor Hall was such that the School could develop its presence on the World Wide Web via a School home page, started in April 1996 (http://jmc.kent.edu).

The rest of this chapter is the story of what she and the faculty have done and are trying to do as the 21st century approaches.

Outreach program, Flash Commun-ications, matches PR students with University Communications and Marketing.

Visual Journalism: When Creedon joined the fac-ulty, she faced more than just getting the roof re-paired and computer net-works installed. The School had maintained a national reputation in the field of photography, esp-ecially news photography

for much of the Forties and Fifties. Even when the well-known Photo Short Course was abandoned after the 1962 program, the School continued a strong academic program.

At the end of the 1993-1994 School year, however, Charlie Brill, who had been on the faculty for 30 years, serving as the major instructor in photojournalism, decided to take early retirement. The dean of the College of Fine & Professional Arts would not allow the School to replace him, as part of a university-wide budget retrenchment move. Creedon established an interdisciplinary task force to study the problem, led by JMC professors Ann Schierhorn and Barbara Hipsman. The task force included representatives from each academic sequence, professional photographers, and representatives from the Visual Communication Design Division of the School of Art, and the School of Theatre. The task force was charged with finding a way to maintain what had been a strong, well-respected photojournalism program, while also introducing a visual dimension across the curriculum.

The result was a recommendation to develop a course or a modular core that presented a visual dimension across the curriculum and a recommendation to develop a visual journalism emphasis under the news sequence. The photojournalism program was moved into the news sequence. After months of work, faculty created a new course for all students that involved photography, visual communication design, and desktop publishing. It also kept visual journalism as a key component of the news sequence and the overall program. The visual journalism line was returned to JMC.

Reaccreditation: The School was reaccredited by the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in the fall of 1996 (and again in 2002). It had been 31 years since Murv Perry and his faculty had gained initial accreditation, a move that former JMC director Joe Harper called "one of the most important things (Perry) did." The School subsequently was re-accredited in 1971 (Perry), 1978 (Perry), 1984 (Harper), and 1990 (Turk). Accreditation by ACEJMC sets high standards for schools and is granted to only about 100 of the thousand or so programs throughout the country.

Even though the program received reaccreditation in 1996, it was found to be in non-compliance with one of the 12 standards ACEJMC investigates: facilities and equipment. For the second consecutive accrediting visit, Kent was warned about the lack of a single, integrated facility for the JMC program. In the 1994-1995 academic year, the School had prepared an elaborate study and request for such a facility. After months of work and discussions with the university Office of Facilities Planning, the School was told by one planner that it was asking for a building twice as large as Taylor Hall. The college dean, Tom Barber, endorsed the JMC request, and other administrators seemed receptive to the proposal. Yet, when the university's list of capital priorities came out in 1996, a new or renovated building for Kent JMC was not on it.

During the 2002 accreditation, JMC again was found to be out of compliance on the issue of facilities. However, the University administration had commited to refurbishing Franklin Hall for the School. (For a multimedia presentation on Franklin Hall and the JMC Vision, click here.)

Faculty, staff and administrators at Poynter Institute.

The Poynter Institute and the New JMC Curriculum: During the preparation of the Self Study for the 1996 reaccreditation visit, the faculty decided it was time to reexamine, and most likely update, the curriculum. As faculty members talked more about the future of mass media, new technologies, and media convergence, it became increasingly clear that the curriculum should be examined from philosophical, content, and practical standpoints.

As part of the process to revise the curriculum, Creedon wrote a proposal to the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. that would allow Kent JMC to work with that organization in developing a forward-looking curriculum. In March 1996 the School was competitively selected to participate in a week-long seminar at the Poynter Institute on the JMC curriculum of the future, "Rethinking Journalism Education in the University."

They returned with a proposal for a new core curriculum focusing on multi-media courses for all students, regardless of sequence. The curriculum allows students to begin taking JMC courses earlier in their college careers, and it looks toward the 21st century and media convergence while continuing the School's commitment to professional education.

TV-2 now has excellent, up-to-date facilities.

In spring 2004, faculty met in a mini-Poynter, two-day conference to review progress and problems in the new curriculum.

Educational Partners: As part of the effort to move toward the 21st century, the School developed close working relationships with two other units on campus, the Visual Communication Design Division of the School of Art, and the Liquid Crystal Institute.

During the summer of 1996, the faculties of JMC and Visual Communication Design voted to begin discussions that would lead to closer curricular relationships, including possible establishment of a minor from each school in the other unit. A committee was set up to explore possible academic arrangements that would benefit students in an age of media convergence. Another link with the division was through the Scholastic Media Program. Beginning in summer 1996, high school students were able to take a one-week workshop called "The Complete Communicator."

JMC ties to the Liquid Crystal Institute were even closer. The School already had made a commitment to being on the cutting edge of new technological developments in journalism and mass communication. In 1996-1997, the School was able to hire as a professor-in-residence Roger Fidler, former Director of the Knight-Ridder Design Laboratory. Under Fidler's guidance, the School began working with the Liquid Crystal Institute to design the standards of the nation's first newspaper tablet, or portable document reader.

Faculty receive $100,000 grant

Two JMC faculty members, Carl Schierhorn and Stan Wearden, were awarded a $100,000 research grant from the Ohio Board of Regents to study various forms and content of a digitized newspaper tablet.

In 1997, the School initiated an Information Design Laboratory to provide a formal research structure. Research team members besides Fidler, Carl Schierhorn and Wearden, were Ann Schierhorn and Fred Endres. Other faculty also were involved in use of, or development of, new tech-nologies. Barbara Hipsman and Scholastic Media Program Coordinator, Candace Perkins Bowen, taught two of the first four courses chosen for distributed learning. Hipsman and Perkins Bowen were selected to develop multimedia components to use for Reporting Practices and Teaching High School Journalism.

In May 1996, Prof. Joseph Harper previewed his multimedia project, "The Interactive Reporter" in the new Electronic Classroom in the University Library. After the presentation, university Provost Myron Henry appointed an interdisciplinary task force to explore interest in a New Media program at Kent. Creedon headed the committee that developed the New Media certificate program, which enrolled its first students in Fall Semester 1997.

Program Centrality: A key issue in the Nineties for the Kent school, as well as journalism and mass communication programs across the country, was that of centrality to the university's mission. In Ohio and throughout the U.S. universities were questioning whether JMC programs fit into their missions. At Kent, the School's directors and faculty recognized the existence of the issue early on and worked to make it a non-issue. Through the work of Harper, Turk, Smith , Creedon and Fruit, the university's various administrations saw the School as not only acceptable, but essential to the mission of Kent State.

For example, the School developed a University Liberal Education Requirement course, "Media, Power and Culture," first offered in spring 1995. The approval of that course was important in demonstrating the centrality of the School's mission and the importance of media literacy in 21st century society.

The School was granted heightened stature on campus in the late Eighties when it was designated a "Tier I" program by the central administration. That meant it was seen as a strong program deserving of additional enhancement and development. Such a designation, along with a recognition by the president and provost, was especially significant in the mid-nineties. There was a move at some universities away from professional journalism education, toward merging traditional communication studies programs with mass communication professional programs, usually with the doctorate-granting communication studies unit driving the value system that negatively affects the professional journalism and mass communication program.

This all culminated in the establishment of a new College of Communication and Information in 2001. JMC left the College of Fine and Professional Arts, where it had been since 1959, and joined CCI. Other schools in the new college are Visual Communication Design, Communication Studies, and Library and Information Studies.

Outreach Programs: During the early Nineties, the School started two major outreach programs, the Center for Privacy and the First Amendment, and the Scholastic Media Program.

The Center for Privacy was initiated by Prof. Smith in 1991 in an effort to assist news media in the state. The Center publishes a semi-annual newsletter and serves as a resource for reporters and editors in Ohio.

Candace Perkins Bowen is coordinator of the Scholastic Media Program, a program started by Bill Taylor in 1938.

The Scholastic Media Program was begun in fall 1995 with Candace Perkins Bowen as coordinator. The SMP serves as a resource for high school newspaper, yearbook and broadcast advisers, as well as a recruiting tool for the School. It also directs the Northeast Ohio Scholastic Press Association, started in 1938 by Bill Taylor and area high school teachers. More than 1,000 high school students normally attend workshops and speeches, and the trad-itional staged news event draws more than 100 reporters and photographers.

New Computers: By 1997, the School had made major efforts to upgrade the number and quality of computers available to students, based on the belief that students faced a "cyberfuture."

A Macintosh laboratory in Taylor Hall, previously shared with the School of Architecture and Environmental Design, became sole property of the School and was upgraded from 18 SE-30 machines to 18 Power PC Performa CD Macs. Total cost was about $40,000. All machines had access to the Internet and World Wide Web. An older 20-unit PC lab in Taylor Hall was upgraded to Pentium-level machines with access to the Internet and other on-line services. The lab was shared with Architecture.

The broadcast news lab in the Music and Speech Center was upgraded by installing eight IBM-486 workstations linked by a Novell network. "Newsmaker," a newsroom computer system--the same used in two Ohio commercial television newsrooms--was installed at a cost of about $35,000.

In addition, in spring 1997, a media consultant visited Kent and studied the RTV program. The consultant's report stimulated a strong effort to build an electronic production and programming curriculum that more closely integrates other areas of JMC, continuing the effort to find areas of convergence. The report also served as a catalyst for RTV faculty to get involved in development efforts to secure funds for purchase and replacement of equipment for the digital future.

By 2004, the School was almost completely digital, as were all student media. Mac G4s and G5 and E-Macs were in use everywhere. The Hirsch Labratory offered state of the art non-linear editing facilities and fast Ethernet and wireless communication.

Director Jeff Fruit in front of Franklin Hall, which will become our new home in 2006.

Student Media/Awards: Student media in Journalism and Broadcasting have long and proud histories. The Daily Kent Stater, The Burr (now a magazine), TV-2 and WKSR (the campus coverage station ressurrected in the Seventies) all were award winners in the mid-Nineties and all looked toward the future through sites on the World Wide Web.
The Daily Kent Stater, for example, consistently won first place awards and All-American rankings from the Associated College Press. For two consecutive years in the early 1990's, the Stater has taken first place nationally for spot news coverage in SPJ's "Mark of Excellence" contest. The Burr was rated the best student magazine in the country by SPJ in 1990 and 1996 and came in second in the AEJMC Magazine Division contest in 1997. Subsequently, writers from the Burr won six national awards and more than a dozen regional awards for writing and photography. TV-2 captured a major award in 1996, winning the Best Newscast category in Region 4 SPJ competition. Region 4 includes Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania. Four members of the 1995-1996 WKSR staff won Student Leadership Awards from the university Office of Student Life. WKSR and TV-2 also won several first place awards from the Radio-Television Council of Greater Cleveland.
In 1994, Kent JMC students won 14 Scripps Howard Foundation Scholarships. Only three schools in the nation had more. In the prestigious William Randolph Hearst Journalism Awards Program, Kent finished in the Top 20 for nine consecutive years, including six Top Ten finishes.

By 2004, that record remained intact. In spring 2004, student media publications took first place in SPJ Region 4 competition.

Student Internships: The Journalism and Broadcast programs always have had students who won quality internships. In the 1990s and 2000s, however, the list of prestigious media outlets where Kent JMC students were interning grew even longer. That list has included: Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, New York Times and Architectural Record in New York City; CNN, Journal and Constitution, and the Georgia Pacific Corp. in Atlanta; Advertising Age in Detroit; The Cincinnati Enquirer; The Nashville Tennessean; The Wall Street Journal bureau in Pittsburgh; the Columbus Dispatch; the Minneapolis Star Tribune; and Advanstar Communications, American Greetings, Cleveland Magazine, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Penton Publishing, the Plain Dealer, Poppe Tyson Public Relations, and TV channels 3, 5, 8, and 43, all in Cleveland.

And, following the resignation of Pam Creedon in 2001, JMC was fortunate to get Jeff Fruit as director. Fruit was formerly the Business Manager for the Office of Student Media. Under his leadership, the school is on track to move into a renovated Franklin Hall in a few years.

As Kent JMC headed into the 21st century, and as it celebrated 60 years as a major, the record produced by students, faculty and alumni over the past six decades should serve as a strong basis for the future.

A Final Word

Previous Chapter

Return to JMC Home Page