By: Lizzy Lankford
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The School of Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Arkansas is celebrating its 90th year as an institution.
The School was founded in the basement of Old Main in 1930 by Walter J. Lemke, the department would move to various buildings on campus until it found its home at Kimpel Hall.
The School of Journalism and Strategic Media has grown from a tiny department to a multi-million dollar institution with many esteemed alumni like TJ Holmes, James “Skip” Rutherford and Taylor McGregor.
The School of Journalism completed the Student Media Center in 2018 and consists of a newsroom for all forms of journalism to come together and collaborate.
Professor Larry Foley, the department chair for the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, and has been with the School of Journalism for over 20 years.
Foley said that his heart and soul are with the university and the school of journalism and has been his life for over 40 years.
“I got to campus, and I read in the catalog that they not only had a journalism department” Foley said, “but a brand new broadcast journalism degree and a campus radio station.”
Foley said he’s loved teaching and getting to mentor students and watch where students go within the industry and turn into friends.
“What I hold most dear, are the relationships with the students down through time, they are why I wanted to teach and why I still teach.” said Foley.
Alum and former visiting professor to the U of A, Skip Rutherford, was the editor of the Arkansas Traveler newspaper in the 1970s and went on to work for former president Bill Clinton
Rutherford said he had always enjoyed journalism and that how on the Traveler staff, everyone came from all diverse backgrounds.
“I’ve always been a newspaper junkie” Rutherford said, “I remember in college, on Sunday mornings, I would go down to, what was then Palace Drug by the old train station, and they carried all these different newspapers… I would spend Sunday afternoons, reading the afternoon away.
Professor Rick Stockdell started teaching at the University of Arkansas in 1980; he has taught the longest at the School of Journalism out of any other professor.
Professor Stockdell said he’s enjoyed being able to watch the growth and changes happen during the time he’s been at the U of A.
“Back then [in 1980] there wasn’t any media to speak of, the Traveler was around and the Razorback yearbook, KUAF was a 10 watt radio station” Stockdell said, “now we have UATV, KUAF is a 100 thousand watt, professional NPR station and a 500 watt student run station.”
Professor Stockdell said the most rewarding part of being a journalism professor is getting to work with students.
“I’ve always felt lucky to teach the first broadcast course that broadcast students take” Stockdell said, “even thought it’s a required course, it’s not one they have to take like a math course, or history course, they want to be there.”
Alum Taylor McGregor, grew from a reporter in Casper, Wyoming to a sideline reporter for the Chicago Cubs and ESPN College Football.
McGregor said that adaptability and kindness are some of the most valuable skills she’s learned from being a sideline reporter.
“Enjoy the journey, enjoy the people around you and just be nice” McGregor said, “there’s always going to be somebody that’s more talented than you are, but if you are kind and you work hard, that’s going to win every time.”
McGregor talked about how she learned a lot of valuable information from all of her professors and from being involved with student media and that she was able to take her experiences and use them in her profession.
Another alum, Ginny Monk was the Arkansas Traveler Newspaper editor in 2016 and 2017, Monk went on to be a reporter for the Arkansas Democratic Gazette covering Juvenile Justice.
Monk said that being the editor for the 2016 presidential election was a transformative experience for her.
“I think it was wild for a lot of journalists, not just student media” Monk said, “we actually had the paper designed and ready to go and it was 11 [p.m.] when we had to change it to the Donald Trump paper we had sketched out.”
Click here to listen what journalism means to these professors and alumni