In the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, we nurture curious and creative minds to thrive in the ever-changing media and communication professions. Our vision is to be a national leader in experiential journalism and mass communication education. To realize that vision, we are investing in our future and our “Do from Day One” approach, grounded in hard work, collaborative problem-solving and the ethical pursuit of truth to uphold democracy.
In 2022, we taught new courses on Trusting News in a Hyper-polarized Era, Social Media Data Mining, Racial Reckoning in Sports Culture and the Changing Business Models of News. We welcomed high-profile guest speakers to campus through the Seline Lecture Series and Roper Visiting Professorship. We hosted a congressional debate, promoted Democracy Day and covered election night in Nebraska. We also covered high school and Husker sports across our media outlets and worked with community businesses and nonprofit organizations in our student-run agencies and webzine.
We cut the ribbon on the Don and Lorena Meier Studio, opened the Phil Perry Family Photography Studio and Classroom, erected a new radio tower and antenna on Oldfather Hall, broadcast our first pre-game show from the Pepsi Unlimited Sports Lab and added Digital Sky, Eleanor Creative and Union Bank & Trust as sponsors in The Agency.
We launched an afterschool program at Lincoln Public School’s Bay High, ran multiple summer camps and workshops and welcomed more than 750 students and teachers to campus for the Nebraska High School Press Association Fall Convention.
Thanks to an unprecedented $4.65 million gift to establish the Deepe Family Endowed Chairs, we continued our preeminence in depth reporting and won our third Robert F. Kennedy Award for College Journalism. For the first time in the history of the college, our students also won the Public Relations Society of America’s Bateman Case Competition and an Edward R. Murrow Award. Meanwhile, our faculty won the university-wide Research Slam for the second year in a row and five of our current and recently retired faculty were inducted into an industry Hall of Fame. Plus, three of our amazing staff won university-wide service awards and another won the university system-wide Employee Kudos Award.
The drive and determination demonstrated every day by our incredible students, faculty and staff is unmatched. There is truly no place like Nebraska, and I am happy to share that our investment in the future is already paying off.
Our college led the university in growth in incoming freshmen with a 16.3% increase over last year. Transfer student enrollment in the college more than doubled. For the second year in a row, we will award more than 300 undergraduate and graduate degrees. Bolstered by the expansion of the Experience Lab, our student-led programs published over 500 stories and worked with more than 50 individual clients. More experience leads to stronger portfolios. In 2022, we racked up over 150 awards across the college.
None of this would have been possible without the continued support of our alumni, donors and industry partners. Thank you for investing in our students and the future of journalism and mass communications at Nebraska.
I am proud of our college and all we accomplished in 2022. This is only the beginning.
