UNT’s journalism department to become its own college

by Hailey Persinger of North Texas Daily

NT's aspiring journalists may soon have a school to call their own.

The journalism department, which currently sits under the College of Arts and Sciences umbrella, is planning a break from the Arts and Sciences to become its own college in fall 2009.

Though formal plans for the school have yet to be nailed down, Mitch Land, director of NT's Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism, said the department will become an official journalism school in 2009 if everything runs according to plan.

"We're in the midst of writing proposals," Land said. "If we get approvals all along the way, according to our process, I would say a formal ribbon cutting would come by then."

Getting money for the school will be a difficult part of the founding process, Land said. Since the journalism department is part of a larger college, it gets part of the money that is allocated for the College of Arts and Sciences. Land said when journalism becomes its own school, it will simply take the portion of money it is already receiving.

"That percentage would move with us and then we would request new funding," Land said. "We've got to be proactive about seeking outside funding."

Though the journalism department will stand on its own, Land said all classes would be held in the General Academic Building unless more funds are received to build a new building.

"I would love to have a new building," Land said, but acknowledged that there is little room for a new building on campus. "We will stay right where we are. The demands are high with the growth that we've had."

Though the news of journalism's break from Arts and Sciences is recent, the idea isn't.

Land said that after several years of discussion, the concept was laid aside. But the conversation was "re-ignited" when NT President Gretchen Bataille took office in 2006 and brought with her a new administration.

Richard Wells of the journalism faculty and former journalism department chairman, said the discussions began in 1977 when the then dean of the College of Arts and Sciences asked Reg Westmoreland, journalism department chairman, to draft a proposal for a free-standing journalism school. The proposal was rejected when it was taken to Austin for approval.

Building on Westmoreland's original plans, Wells also proposed a college of journalism when he became chairman in 1980.

"During my time as chairman, I did it twice," he said. "One at the request of the dean of the Arts and Sciences…and one at the request of someone in the administration."

Wells said both proposals included the departments of communication studies and radio, television and film. Both of Wells' proposals were rejected by NT administration and never reached Austin for approval.

Since then, Wells said the department has applied for grants and has been turned down because of its status.

"A couple times we applied for some pretty lucrative grants and we were turned down because we were a department and not a school," he said.

He said the journalism school's free-standing status would make it easier to get such grants but would also make competition for them more intense.

"It's not like being a department," he said. "It's a whole different world."