A Note From Dean Janet Hill Keefer This is my last letter to you as dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. I am stepping down from this post, effective June 30, 2001. Soon after, Dr. Henry Milam will begin transitional leave into retirement. He will move to Texas at the end of the summer. We are leaving the School in very capable hands. John Lytle, who was named this year as the School's second Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor of Journalism, will become interim dean, and David Wright, GR'89, will become interim associate dean. Both will be great, and I hope you will support them as much as you supported me. When I came to Drake in 1994, I hoped to accomplish the following: First, improve the School's financial condition and its national visibility. Second, create a National Advisory Board that would take an active role in School affairs. Third, win re-accreditation for the SJMC from the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Fourth, improve and enhance technology in the School. Fifth, improve the School's racial and gender diversity. I have accomplished most of my goals.The School has renovated its main computer classroom and its graphics lab and has added a third computer classroom. It has entered the world of digital audio and video editing. There is now in place a technology endowment and an endowment for a Center for Magazine Studies. The annual contribution from Meredith Corp. has underwritten much of the computer technology in the School, provided funds for faculty development and student scholarships, and has made possible production of award-winning capstone magazines that have made our magazine sequence the strongest in the country at the undergraduate level. The SJMC National Advisory Board is indeed active and engaged and positioned to stay that way. The School won re accredidation on all 12 of the ACEJMC standards, and I trust that this summer's midterm accreditation update will give the accrediting council no cause to change its view. The diversity goal is still elusive, but we have made strides under my leadership. None of this would have been possible without the help of dedicated faculty, loyal alumni, concerned professionals and extraordinary students. I have had one howling failure, however. I have been unable to secure the SJMC's long-term autonomy. You will read elsewhere in this newsletter about suggestions to merge the SJMC into a college that would include the School of Fine Arts and several departments from the College of Arts and Sciences. Nobody knows what this all might mean, but the suggestion worries me. I thank you for all your support. The School now needs your help more than ever.
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