Dean's Message: Stepping into a good situation

Dean Paul Voakes

I was appalled at how pathetically I was puffing and panting in the Boulder altitude when I arrived this summer, so I resolved to get in shape quickly: I joined the student rec center. The student who was showing me around the building asked what had brought me to CU. I told her I was the new dean at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"I dunno," she said, shooting me a dubious look, "I thought they closed that school down."

After feigning indignation for a few moments over having been brought west under false pretenses, I set her straight.

I knew that a state legislator had offhandedly suggested, a year ago, that CU could solve its severe budget problems by closing a few of its professional schools and that he had immediately retracted and apologized for the remark. But if that student's perception was typical on the Boulder campus, I wondered, how would this incipient urban legend affect our enrollment?

When the numbers were released this fall, I was astounded. From its recent-years average of about 600, the number of "Pre-Journalism" declarations rose this fall to 995. Combined with the 620 students already enrolled in the School, Journalism/Mass Communication has become the No. 2 major on the Boulder campus (second to psychology).

I don't think we'll be disappearing anytime soon.

In fact, since my arrival I've been impressed with a great deal here, including the campus administration's willingness to invest in our future. To be sure, every school had to cinch belts to an uncomfortable tightness last spring, but this fall the deans have been assured that no budget cuts will be necessary this year. We're recovering; for example, after a six-month hiatus, the School has a new half-time development officer, Kathleen Contrino. And we're not just recovering; we're moving ahead. Provost Phil DiStefano has issued us $60,000 for renovating and remodeling the office and classroom spaces in the Armory. The chancellor has approved our plan to hire an additional full-time academic adviser, to the great relief of Jeanne Brown, the world's hardest-working adviser. And in a time when hiring freezes are the norm at many institutions, we've been approved for searches this year for a new advertising professor and a professor for our endowed James de Castro chair in global media studies.

I feel extremely fortunate to have stepped into the leadership of a School that has been sailing smoothly, despite the churning at the top over the last four years. Associate Dean Stewart Hoover (who served with distinction as interim dean twice in the past four years) and Associate Dean Meg Moritz, along with Horatio Hornblower himself, Assistant Dean Steve Jones, have kept things on such an even keel that I've been able to do some outreach for the School this fall.

It's important to me that we maintain (or, in some cases, establish) close ties with the journalism and advertising industries our students will soon enter. With that in mind, I've visited news managers and reporters at five television stations and two radio stations in Denver; both metro papers in Denver; three papers in Boulder; and newspapers in Sterling, Fort Morgan, Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland, Grand Junction, Silverton, Durango and Cortez. It's been a privilege to meet an array of dedicated and interesting journalists, and it's been great to see how many are CU alums. But I can't fail to mention the event that allowed me to meet 30 SJMC alumni at once: our reception in Hollywood, the details of which you can read about here.

Maybe it's because I'm writing this a few days before Thanksgiving, but I feel I've got more than a few blessings to count this fall. Our faculty continues its high energy in scholarship as well as teaching. Professors Hoover, Robert Trager, Lynn Schofield Clark, Lee Hood and Kirby Moss are all authors or co-authors of books published this year. Faculty members have traveled far and wide to speak at academic conferences – as far as Slovenia for Professors Andrew Calabrese and Janice Peck. The faculty has undertaken two enormous projects this fall: revision of the master's degree curriculum and a plan for assessing student learning. And they're still brimming with new initiatives – programs that will further distinguish our School. I'm eager to do what I can to facilitate their dreams.

Our staff continues to work at an extraordinary clip in support of the goals of the faculty and deans. And our students, whom I'm meeting in the halls and at "Cokes with Voakes" open houses, seem brighter and more motivated than any I've seen.

As if that weren't enough, I'm the beneficiary of an advisory board that is truly committed to the success of this School. At my first advisory board meeting, Nov. 14, I became fully aware of the board's wisdom and generosity. The board was also instrumental last spring in eliciting a firm commitment of support for the School from the campus administration.

Far from closing down, this School is on the verge of ascendance to a new level of excellence, and I'm proud to be a part of its future.