CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The College of Communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign not only should remain intact, it should expand to become a four-year college, a task force appointed by the interim dean of the college recommended today to the provost.
The recommendation is one of 13 conclusions of the 19-member task force led by Walter G. Harrington, a professor of journalism. The report was requested in September 2003 by Ron Yates, interim dean of the college, several months after a committee report to Richard Herman, the provost, raised a number of concerns about the college. The college comprises the departments of journalism and advertising, the Institute of Communications Research and the Division of Broadcasting, including WILL radio and TV stations.
"I'm very pleased that the college has come together to address a number of important issues," Herman said today. "I'm also pleased with the thoroughness of the task force report."
Yates had asked the task force to examine the work of the earlier committee, address the issues it raised and offer solutions.
"One of the things the task force found is that we have three powerful brands within our college: advertising, which is known all over the country; journalism, which is in the top seven nationally; and the world-renowned Institute for Communications Research," Yates said. "Through its benchmarking process, the task force also found that although there are comparable programs at other universities, no one has all three programs in one place - except us."
In concluding that the college should be preserved, task force members said it is an intellectually coherent unit, "explicitly committed to democracy, responsible citizenship, and public engagement - to what Chancellor Nancy Cantor has called 'lived democracy.' "
The task force also said the department of advertising should not be disbanded, as the earlier report recommended, but needs to "be repaired," in part because leadership issues have challenged the department for some time. A search for a permanent head of the department should be the top priority of the college, the task force report concluded.
Other task force conclusions:
• Dramatically expand the media studies program within the Institute for Communications Research and, to signify the importance of the change, alter the name of the unit to the Institute for Communications Research and Media Studies. Media studies now has 94 majors; the task force concurred with the institute's recommendation that the number be expanded to at least 200 students during the next three years. Historically, the program has been small, the task force said, because the journalism department feared a larger program would take away undergraduates from its program. Additionally, a larger media studies program would have meant more faculty members would have been required in the institute to teach undergraduate classes. In response to the first committee's report, ICR faculty recommended dramatically expanding the size of the media studies program.
• Yates should be appointed permanent dean. "In the last four months, during Professor Yates' tenure," the task force report says, "he has won the confidence of many faculty members. When a member of the ICR faculty who sits on the task force proposed that Professor Yates be recommended for appointment to a full term as dean, task force members were unanimous in their support."
• The college should become a four-year college. Historically a two-year college, to which undergraduates apply after their first semester of their sophomore year, the college would be better served if its students were able to take more varied courses within the college and also developed a better sense of identity with the college. Senior surveys have indicated that the only source of student dissatisfaction with the college is a sense of "not belonging" during their first two years. A four-year college also would be advantageous for students seeking internships, attracting high school students and providing study-abroad opportunities.
• Increase the involvement of WILL in the college's educational mission. The task force recommended that the dean begin planning for a dramatic expansion of
student-learning opportunities at WILL through the creation of a series of formal internships in journalism and marketing.
• Independently review the fund-raising effort of the college. The task force report makes clear that while it was not being critical of the fund raising within the college, an outside review is imperative in light of "the present and future realities of higher education."
• Improve college administrative procedures. The college executive committee, traditionally a body that kept the college informed of events and accomplishments, should become a policy-planning body committed to openness in its deliberations, especially with regard to salaries, unit budgets and teaching loads. The dean also should begin a review to see whether it would make sense to create a centralized office and position to oversee and coordinate internship and career planning for students. Similarly, the task force recommended the dean and the college technology committee examine the feasibility of creating a centralized records office that would include a student database for admissions, advising, placement, course-scheduling, tracking alumni career progress and contact information, evaluating intern and job placement outcomes and enhancing fund-raising efforts.
• The campus should commit to a plan to get the college on sound financial footing, which includes addressing unit budget and faculty salary issues.
Finally, the task force recommended the college institute a $150 per semester tuition increase for technology needs, and that the campus affirm its public commitment to the college.
The latter recommendation arose in part because of the speed with which the "bad news" of the previous committee's report spread. "The Task Force believes its recommendations will lead to a better college. Yet scrutiny can be a bad thing if its ends up destroying the village in an effort to save it. The Task Force believes the College of Communications is a village worth saving."
The full members of the task force consisted of faculty members from units within the college: Nancy Benson, journalism; William Berry, ICR; Jason Chambers, advertising; Ivy Glennon, ICR; Steven Hall, advertising; Harrington; Louis Liebovich, journalism; Howard Maclay, advertising; Robert McChesney, ICR; Donald Mullally, Division of Broadcasting; Teresa Savage, college administration and journalism; Dan Simeone, WILL; Paula Treichler, ICR.
The six advisory/ex-officio members of the task force: Andrew O'Baoill, Thomas Galer-Unti, Rhonda Kornegay, Sarah Perry, Abigail Rhodes and Cassandra Whipple.