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2001 letter
September 21, 2001
Dear Faculty, Staff, Students, and the General Public:
I hope you will take a few moments to read this,
my annual update on our progress. The College of Communications
and Information Studies continues to grow, enhancing its stature
nationally by moving forward in a number of areas.
Students
This last spring we graduated nearly 300
students. Our courses are in high demand. The College's major
enrollment continues to grow to the current figure of over 1,100
undergraduates. In addition, our service courses, particularly
those related to oral communication, also are experiencing
considerable enrollment pressures.
Ashley Roberts, Communication, was named
Outstanding UK sophomore at the annual UK Honors and Recognition
program this last Spring. Senior ISC major Shaneka Edwards
was recognized by the American Advertising foundation as one of
the Top 25 Promising Minority Students. Our Student American
Advertising Federation competition team finished in first-place
at the Regional AAF competition.
Over the last year many of our graduate students
also received signal honors: Chandra K. Arts received the
2000 Mary A. Gardner Graduate research award from AEJMC and Shea
Buckman was selected as an intern for the National Cancer
Institute.
People
Our alumni, faculty, and staff continue to
accomplish wonderful things.
Bill Niekirk (Journalism 1960) shared in
a staff Pulitzer Prize awarded to the Chicago Tribune for their
series on air traffic control systems, "Gateway to
Gridlock." Dana Canedy (Journalism 1988) shared in a
staff Pulitzer Prize awarded to the New York Times for their
series, "How race is lived in America." Thomas
L. Preston (Journalism 1956) received the first UK Lifetime
Achievement Award for Public Relations. Jody Carbiener Dreyer
(CIS 1983) has been named to a new position as Senior Vice
President for Corporate Public Service for the Walt Disney
Company.
Former Dean Doug Boyd continues his
service as the Director of the Office of International Affairs.
Dr. James Applegate will be on loan as Vice-President for
Academic Affairs at the Council on Postsecondary Education. Dr. Thomas
Lindlof has begun his term as Editor of the prestigious Journal
of Broadcasting and Electronic Media with his first issue
published in Winter 2001. Professor Roy Moore has been
awarded an American Council on Education fellowship for the
coming year and has been assigned to the University of Georgia.
Professor Richard Labunski's book The Second
Constitutional Convention has been well received and was
featured on CSPAN2 on July 8. Buck Ryan's Citizen
Kentucky program was aired on KET in June following a public
forum in April.
We welcomed two new junior faculty members this
year, John Clark and Leola McClure, while we also
celebrated the career of our recent retirees, Professors Jack
Baseheart and Robert Orndorff, who both had served UK
for nearly three decades.
Graduate Programs
Our School of Library and Information Science
provides critical service to the Commonwealth as a leader in
distance learning and is its sole source of trained librarians.
The School recently received a $329,427grant from the U.S.
Institute of Museum and Library Services to continue to develop
their innovative distance learning programs in Louisville. The
School will work with the Jefferson County Schools to train
critically needed school media personnel through an innovative
job sharing program. The School graduated nearly one hundred
students with degrees in library science this last year. Current
student Kitty McLanahan received the Southern Ohio
Chapter Member of the Year Award for establishing a chapter of
ASIST at UK.
Our doctoral program continues its excellent
record of success for our recent graduates. For example, Donald
Helme, Jr. (Ph.D., Fall 2000), who is now at AMC Cancer
Center in Colorado, recently was awarded a three year $885,740
grant to test Professor Donohew and Palmgreen's
sensation seeking model in adolescent tobacco use control
programs.
Research
Many of our current graduate and research
programs already have been identified as achieving Top Twenty
status, largely because of the success of our cohort of health
communication researchers in attracting nearly $30,000,000 in
outside research funding over the last decade. The National
Communication Association, after surveying its member
departments, recently recognized the Department of Communication
as the leading grant getter over the last decade. This research
has resulted in important national policy changes in how we
deliver drug abuse prevention messages to adolescents. Because
of his foundational role in these efforts, Dr. R. Lewis
Donohew was chosen as the NCA-ICA Outstanding Health
Communication Scholar for 2001.
Development
As you can see, securing resources and attaining
excellence go hand-in-hand for a modern university. Over the
next two decades, building on a successful capital campaign and
the advantages that only private support can bring, we aspire to
achieve top five status, with all of our College's programs
recognized for their excellence. We appreciate your support of
our faculty and students. Your gifts have made a difference.
They have helped us to provide much-needed scholarships and are
the source of endowed professorships and teaching awards. Janice
Birdwhistell, our Development Officer, will be instrumental
in helping us raise our level of private giving and awareness of
our College's needs. If you have any questions regarding our
scholarship or our endowment programs, please contact her. Our
annual phonothan will be conducted October 28 through
November 1.
The Scripps Howard Foundation has continued its
generous support of our School of Journalism and
Telecommunications. We hosted a very successful first Bowling
Executive-in-Residence lecture last October 19th featuring Mr. Harold
Burson. This annual lecture was funded largely by
contributions from Mr. Joseph Cullman. Jack Guthrie
has spearheaded the campaign to raise matching funds for this
program that also includes student scholarships. We are looking
forward to this year's event, scheduled for November 1-2,
featuring Frasier P. Seitel.
Alumni Events
We have two major alumni events scheduled for
this fall. First, the School of Library and Information Science
will have its Alumni Reunion and Alumni of the Year Awards
Banquet on October 6-7. Second, the College is scheduled to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of Grehan Building on November 9th.
Second Annual College Recognition Ceremony and Dinner
This month over 70 alumni, friends, staff,
faculty, and students celebrated with the college award winners,
with recognition given to:
- Outstanding Alumnus - Kathryn R. Costello
- Friend of the College - Richard Wilson
- Outstanding Staff Member - Julie Berry
- Excellence in Teaching Award - Lois Chan
- Faculty Research Award - Rick Zimmerman
.
We hope you will able to join us next fall for this dinner that
also recognizes the students who have received major awards over
the last year.
In this letter, I have celebrated the
achievements of our alumni, students, faculty, and staff over
the last year. We hope that you can join with us in achieving
our goals, goals that will ensure the Commonwealth of Kentucky
is ready for its future in 2020.
Sincerely,
J. David Johnson, Dean
College of Communications and Information Studies
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