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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1983)
Journalism school receives research grants By Randy Malat Of the Emerald Under the leadership of Dean Everett Dennis, the journalism school has received $80,000 for a major study on the future of journalism education in this country. The Gannett Foundation contributed $64,000, its largest research grant ever, and the Northwest Area Foundation ad ded a $16,000 grant The study, which will take at least a year, aims to provide a series of models for possible new jour nalism programs. "We have on our hands, here and elsewhere, a curriculum that's pretty static, while the fields that we are trying to serve are going through radical changes," Dennis says "It's really incumbent upon us not only to reflect and respond to that kind of change, but also to lead the way in some in stances." Ed Bassett, a former director of the University of Southern California's journalism school and now editor of the Salem Statesman-Journal, encour aged Gannett to make the grant Bassett says educational reform has lagged behind changes in the communication industries "in part because it was a pretty tentative field prior to 1960 "Programs were small They tended to be industry-oriented," he says "With the great growth in enrollment the last 20 years, we've missed some opportuni ties, particularly because re source support for journalism education has not been com mensurate with the growth in the number of journalism students." Dennis first presented the idea of a major study with the journalism faculty when he was being interviewed for the posi tion as dean nearly two years ago Proposals subsequently submitted to the two founda tions stressed the productivity and original research of faculty members that would work on a study Dennis suspects that the journalism educators aren't treating certain areas in enough depth, such as the economics of mass communication He says the craft area of in formation gathering, of infor mation acquisition from the use r of documents and records in libraries, interviewing tech niques, to the use of data bases, also aren't being addressed thoroughly The study will address those questions, he says. Dennis and Bassett both stress that a future journalist should have a broad liberal arts education as well as “hands on'' training with new computer technology Dennis will speak later this term at symposiums offered by the American Society of News paper Editors and the Amer ican Newspaper Publishers As sociation "We think it's very important that we come up with the kind of yield that is expected of us as a result of this very expensive study," Dennis says. "The main reward is that we end up doing a better job Beyond that, there’s a certain amount of pride that people take in providing some national leadership "It will be exciting for in dividual faculty members to break old stereotypes and to create new courses, to move into things they have thought about for a long time but not been able to do." The journalism school, housed in Allen Hall, has received $80,000 in grants for research. Dogfighting Continued from Page 1 Oregon Paulhus said he could not comment on the case and that he was not aware of Boga rosh’s investigation Pit bulls recently suffered bad press in Lane County when Springfield police had one im pounded for running at large The same dog had been im pounded at the LCARA several times before and was suspected of killing several cats and mauling other dogs But Springfield police did not press charges and the dog was released to its owner Some believe that pit bulls are an inherently mean, aggressive dog and that ownership should be severely restricted A resolu tion was passed recently in Hol lywood, Fla , requiring pit bull owners to carry $50,000 liability insurance for damages the dogs may incur. Stuart Benoit of Junction City recently purchased a pit bull terrier because of the breed's protective reputation "I wanted it to go camping with me, to kind of act as a back door, to watch for bears and things," says Benoit Benoit accepted his pit bull s aggressive nature until he walked in his house one day to discover that the dog was rough-housing with his 13-month-old daughter. “He just got a hold of her arm and was shaking it around," says Benoit, "Luckily the bite didn't break the skin. "It just got to the point where I didn't trust the dog around my wife and daughter," says Ben oit "I’d say they're 50 percent more aggressive than other dogs," says Benoit. "And if you couple that with any kind of training, you're going to have one hell of a mean dog “It's not the Kind of dog that should be bred or raised," says Benoit “They (pit bull owners) might get mad at me for'saying that, but that's what I believe.” But for every pit bull owner disenchanted with the breed, it's easy to find at least one more who will strongly defend their right to own one David Carlton, a University student, says his 65-pound pit bull loves people and presents no threat to strangers “His tail wags so hard that his rear end moves back and forth,” says Carlton "It's all in how you raise them — they can be con trolled. A mean pit bull is no worse than a mean Doberman or a mean German shepherd." Carlton emphasizes that his dog is not used for fighting and that he has no knowledge of pit bulls being fought in the area Paulhus says it is unlikely that there will be widespread movement for restrictions on pit bull ownership “It is wrong to say that simply because a dog is a pit bull it is always dangerous around peo ple," says Paulhus “Aggres siveness is a trait, an elusive trait, but one nevertheless that can be inherited I don't think people need to be raising ag gressive dogs “But the best way of con trolling pit bulls is by cracking down on dogfighting,” says Paulhus "We re getting more information on dogfights than we've ever gotten before — people are more willing to come forward Last year there were dozens of arrests around the country for dogfighting It used to be there were only two or three each year." Photo by Bob Baker Bookstore passes bucks to library Money changes hands as Scott Essig (right), president of the University Book store Board of Directors, officially passes the bucks to Librarian George Shipman Monday The $800 donation by the bookstore will enable the library to purchase seven Webster's Third International thumb-in dexed dictionaries and seven wooden stands The money was made available through the National Blank Book Com pany's promotion "One for the Books " Shipman expressed his gratitude to * the bookstore "The purchase of these dictionaries will be very helpful." he says ,o,ji ON YOU* CftMP,1S .GU^;fSo ssese^ Have a . . . Complaint? Suggestion? ' . Tell us about it! SUAB We act on your input See us at Suite 3 EMU or at the Information and Grievance Booth EMU lobby ✓
