AY10 in Brief – The College of Communication Annual Report

Executive Summary:

AY10 was an active and productive year in the College of Communication.  With almost 1400 undergraduate majors, almost 50 graduate students, and an impressive number of general education courses, we provided over 13,000 course seats.  As in the past, we achieved a high level of efficiency in the college, filling courses to 99% of capacity.  Departments in the college undertook major assessment and curricular efforts, continuing to improve the offerings in communication at Rowan.  The members of the college were extremely active in their research/creative scholarship this academic year, producing 16 journal articles, 58 conference papers/presentations, 9 book chapters/selections, 36 professional publications, as well as a variety of books, media productions, journal reviews, etc. Our faculty and students also contributed to the Rowan prestige with an impressive array of regional and national awards.

What follows is a brief representation of the 2009-2010 academic year in the College of Communication.

Major Initiatives:

• The Department of Journalism introduced an investigative journalism class that researched and produced An In-Depth Look at the New Jersey State Budget and How It Affects Teachers, Students, Parents and the Public (http://rowaninvestigates.com).  The Online Journalism class also continued its multimedia magazine (http://nj1134.org)
• The Writing Arts Department welcomed its first class of dual BA/MA students this year. The program allows students to complete both the BA in Writing Arts and the Masters in Writing in 5 years. Three students completed their senior year/first year of the MA in 2009-10.
• The Writing Arts Department established a newly reconfigured Writing Center on the Library’s fourth floor. The new director, Dr. Deb Martin, reports that walk-in students made 600 appointments in fall 09 and 700 appointments in spring 2010.  In addition, the Writing Center served 120 students from the department’s Integrated College Composition I course in each of fall and spring semesters. These students completed one of the three class-meetings per week as tutorial sessions in the Writing Center.
• The departments of the college proposed a New Media Communication Concentration, which is currently moving through the curriculum process, planned for launch in AY11. 

Major Accomplishments:

Program

• The Department of Public Relations and Advertising had external evaluations for both programs.  The outside reviewers were very impressed with the offerings at Rowan and have provided feedback for continued excellence.  The department expects to receive its CEPR recertification from the Public Relations Society of America in October.
• Public Relations and Advertising held a successful master class in Crisis School Public Relations.  Hosted by the graduate class in School Public Relations (boasting 18 students), this master class featured Rick Kaufman who handled the Columbine tragedy as the PR person onsite and Rich Bagin, head of the National School Public Relations Association.
• The Department of Writing Arts brought two speakers to campus as part of the Harrah’s Emerging Voices Series. Spoken word artist Sarah Kay performed at Rowan on November 23, followed by two workshops for Rowan students. And on February 4, Maja Wilson, author of Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment, met with a Writing Arts class and delivered a public lecture, “Responsive Assessment: What Would Grandma Do?”

Faculty

• Faculty member Mark Berkey-Gerard (Journalism) served on the Awards Committee for the Online News Association, the world’s largest membership organization of digital journalists.
• Dr. Carl Hausman (Journalism) served as coordinator for the judging of the National Headliner Awards, one of the nation’s oldest broadcast journalism-excellence awards.
• Mark Berkey-Gerard, Claudia Cuddy, and Kathryn Quigley (Journalism) were selected as judges for the National Headliner Awards.
• Mark Berkey-Gerard (Journalism) continued production of the popular Campfire Journalism blog and created a series of video tutorials for multimedia instruction (http://markberkeygerard.com).
• Candace Kelley (Journalism) produced a program, League of the Extraordinary, heard on WGLS (http://wgls.rowan.edu/podcasts.html).
• Carl Hausman (Journalism) this year completed his tenth year as editor of Ethics Newsline, a web-based publication covering ethics in government, media, medicine, and business.
• Faculty members in the Department of Writing Arts contributed two book chapters to the edited collection What We Are Becoming: Developments in Undergraduate Writing Majors, a volume on the theory and practice of majors in writing studies. In addition, the department was given significant mention in the February lead article “The Undergraduate Writing Major: What is it? What Should it Be?” in College Composition and Communication, the premiere journal in the field.
• Writing Arts faculty member Dr. Martin Itzkowitz served as Associate Editor and editorial board member of the Atlantic Journal of Communication.
• Dr. Deb Martin (Writing Arts), in her capacity as director of the Writing Center, organized a student and faculty panel presentation at the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Conference at the University of Delaware. The panel “On the Ashes of the Old: Creating an Identity for a New Writing Center” included presentations by Writing Arts faculty member Dr. Drew Kopp, professional tutor/Writing Arts adjunct faculty member Andrew Liss and two graduate students, Sharada Krishnamurthy from Writing Arts and David Dinn from Educational Leadership, as well as Writing Arts major Loralynne Yost.
• Carla Spataro and Julia Chang (Writing Arts) served as the co-publisher/fiction editor and the non-fiction editor, respectively, of the regional literary journal Philadelphia Stories. In addition, the editorial board includes three Writing Arts graduate students, Steven Harbold, Jacqueline Cassidy, and Diane Stopyra. Professors Spataro and Chang are also editors of the book Philadelphia Stories, a collection of the best pieces published in the journal.

Students

• Journalism senior Alexandra Harcharek was featured in The New York Times for her food blog (http://www.afoodcoma.com).
• Journalism senior Emily Kostic and 2009 graduate Julia Hayes presented How to Use Social Networking as a Reporting Tool at the News Innovation Conference at Temple University in April.
• For the first time, students in Broadcast Writing were encouraged to compete in Campus Moviefest where they were given laptops and had two days to make a 5-minute film of their choice. As a result of the new way that Broadcast Writing is taught, two students seized the opportunity and competed in this national contest. 
• Several Communication Studies students were accepted into excellent graduate programs, including Jillian Beley, who was accepted in the graduate program at the University of Illinois with a full assistantship.
• Four students (Jillian Beley, Kate Harman, Kevin Lessard, and Lisa Pontelandolfo) from the Communication Studies program presented their research in a competitive program at the Eastern Communication Association.
• Three students in Writing Arts had their video compositions accepted for the competitive online journal Jump.  Two of those compositions (by Michael Pfister and Christopher Cullen) were published in vol. 1, issue 2 of the fledging journal (http://jump.cwrl.utexas.edu/v1.2).  The third project, (by Sarah Gould), is awaiting publication.
• Three Writing Arts students (with faculty Drew Kopp, Deb Martin, and Andrew Liss) were selected to present a panel at the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association Conference.
• Lynn Albanese (Writing Arts) and Josh Potchen (Biology) published creative work that they developed and workshopped in Rowan creative writing courses.
• Many students received outstanding internship opportunities, including placements at NBC40, NBC10, The David Letterman show, BBC America, and Conde Nast publications.

Scholarship Summary:

• 6 Books
• 9 Book chapters/selections
• 16 Journal articles
• 36 Professional publications
• 6 Media productions
• 58 Conference papers/presentations
• 4 Juried media screenings
• 3 Book translations/editorial work
• 1 Workbook
• 6 Reviews for journals
• 6 Editorial positions for national/regional journals
• 18 Campus/local presentations
  1 Monthly radio interview programs

New Programs:

• Several new courses were proposed and approved, including: Sports Journalism I, Sports Journalism II, Investigative Journalism, Participatory Media, Ethics for Public Relations, Television History Two, Film Noir, Sound Communication Two.
• An interdisciplinary concentration in New Media Communication was submitted and approved by the Senate committee for announcement at the first meeting in AY11.

Number of Majors:

College total – 1391 (with an additional 49 MA students)

Journalism – 128

Comm Studies – 168

Public Relations – 184 (with an additional 17 MA students)

Advertising – 138

Radio/TV/Film – 397

Writing Arts -376 majors (with an additional 32 MA students)

Grants:

• Mark Berkey-Gerard and Candace Kelley (Journalism) received a $2500 grant in June 2009 from Rowan’s IT Department and the Faculty Center for Excellence. The grant was used to purchase equipment that assisted in merging a portion of two advanced level courses: Online Journalism II and On-Camera Field Reporting. The project expanded the multimedia skill sets of students in the areas of print, broadcast, and online news, producing a framework and technical instruction that continue to be used.

Awards:

Faculty

• Mark Berkey-Gerard (Journalism) was nominated to the Wall of Fame for Advising.
• Joy Cypher (Comm Studies) and Larry Litwin (PR/Adv) received “Wall of Fame” Nominations for teaching.
• Dr. Christa Teston’s (Writing Arts) article, “A Grounded Investigation of Gendered Guidelines in Cancer Care Deliberations” from Written Communication was selected as a finalist for the 2009 John R. Hayes Award for Excellence in Writing Research.
• Writing Arts faculty member Dr. Bill Wolff’s Technical Communication Quarterly article, “Systems of Classification and the Cognitive Properties of Grant Proposal Formal Documents,” was nominated for the 2010 National Council of Teachers of English Best Article Reporting Qualitative or Quantitative Research in Technical or Scientific Communication, with the winner to be announced in September 2010.

Students

• The first recipient of the Craig Monroe Scholarship for Advertising was named this year.
• The first recipients of two NSPRA awards to graduate students in school PR were named this year – Veronica Martinez and Brian Nicholas.
• The first recipient of the David Cromie Communication Scholarship was named this year.
• The university paper, The Whit, was awarded the Online Pacemaker Award for 2009.
• Stephen Hanulec (Producer), Dan Ferrara (Director), Ashley Zazzarino (Camera), and David Monk (Editor). Life Behind Beards (2009).  Documentary, 29m. Diana Nicolae (Executive Producer) – 2009 College Broadcasters, Inc. (CBI) Award – Best Special Broadcast and Honorary Award at Downbeach Film Festival..
• Harry Fleckenstein (Producer), Melissa Stankowski (Co-Producer), Tim Hill (Editor), Steven Klink (Director) and Anthony Mennie (Camera). Generation rX (2008).  Documentary, 27m.  Diana Nicolae (Executive Producer) –  2009 College Broadcasters, Inc. (CBI) Award – Best Documentary/Public Affairs.
• Tara Acquesta (Producer), Patrick McKee (Director), and John Clements (Editor). Empty Room (2009).  Documentary, 31m. Diana Nicolae (Executive Producer) –  2009 CINE Golden Eagle Award and Honorary Award at Downbeach Film Festival.
• Rob Crowthers (Producer), Diana Frack (Director) and Casey Keating (Editor). Breaking Through the Static (2009).  Documentary, 14m.  Diana Nicole (Executive Producer) – 2010 Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival – 3rd place, Best Documentary
• Nini, M. (Producer). Unleashed (2009).  Documentary, 12m. Diana Nicole (Executive Producer) – 2010 Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival – Finalist, Best Documentary
• Monk, D. (Producer). Be Somebody (2008).  Documentary, 13m. Diana Nicole (Executive Producer) –  2010 Re:Image Festival – Best Picture, Young Adult category
• E.J. Campbell, student and staff member at WGLS – Rowan Radio, was recognized for his work at the station, winning two Philadelphia College AIR Awards.
• Joe Staudenmayer and Jim Vassalo (Producers). From First Snap to Stagg: The History of Rowan Football. Radio Documentary. 2009 College Broadcasters, Inc. (CBI) Award – Best Radio Documentary.
• EJ Campbell (Producer). Rowan Sports Minute – Harry Kalas. 2009 College Broadcasters, Inc. (CBI) Award – Finalist Radio Sports Reporting.
• Kate Harman (Journalism and Communication Studies) was accepted as a 2009-2010 Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC) Scholar.