PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 22, No. 6, Sept. 18, 2003

College of Communications to assemble task force to address concerns

By Craig Chamberlain, News Bureau Staff Writer
(217) 333-2894; cdchambe@uiuc.edu

The College of Communications will need to take its own hard look at issues raised by a committee appointed by Provost Richard Herman, which recently presented Herman with its report following a summer of work.

Ron Yates, interim dean of the college, said Sept. 16 he would soon begin to assemble a task force within the college, which will represent “everybody who has a stake in the college,” to address the concerns of the committee and the provost. “There are no predetermined outcomes to this whole process,” Yates said.

Herman met Sept. 16 with tenure-track faculty members within the college to discuss his impressions of the report and what needs to happen next.

One potential outcome may be reorganization within the college, Yates said, but if so “it needs to be done constructively and collectively, and in that regard we need a collective vision for the college. We cannot maintain the status quo, obviously, given the situation.”

“We have to be objective and willing to look at this criticism, these impressions, these recommendations, with an open mind,” Yates said. “It’s not time to circle the wagons here. We have to figure out where we want to go now, and how we’re going to fix what needs to be fixed.”

Yates said he expected to have at least a preliminary report to the provost by early in the spring semester.

The College of Communications comprises the departments of journalism and advertising, the Institute of Communications Research, and the Division of Broadcasting, including the WILL radio and television stations. Yates became acting interim dean Aug. 21, after the retirement of Dean Kim Rotzoll. The committee appointed by Herman to assess the college was chaired by Jim Coleman, professor of electrical and computer engineering and, for the last two years, chair of the Campus Budget Oversight Committee.

Contrary to some speculation, Yates said that dismantling the college “was never part of the agenda.” He also said any impressions of deep rifts within the college are mistaken, and he is optimistic about the outcome of the task force process, which would provide an opportunity for “some really intense self-study and self-criticism.”

The college has many strengths, Yates noted, and impressions of discord came largely from a few faculty members raising legitimate issues, but maybe not raising them in the most constructive way. Yates said that he expects the task force to address those issues and others, such as whether to make the college a four-year college.

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