I can’t escape the theme of new beginnings as I reflect on this year and anticipate the next. It’s been a year of inauguration and commencement, births, birthdays and rebirths. We celebrated the inauguration of our new university president, Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., with Diederich College students front and center. Alex Johnson, Comm ’12, spoke in one of eight Calls to Service, and theatre students starred in a video of What I Have Learned So Far, the great Mary Oliver poem selected by Father Pilarz. Journalism students from the class of Professional in Residence Herb Lowe tweeted the event, and their coverage resulted in the event trending on Twitter in Milwaukee. We celebrated the first birthday of the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, a joint project of the college and United Neighborhood Centers of Milwaukee, to cover stories in vibrant inner-city neighborhoods. Rewards have followed: an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital and Online News Association; support for two new Milwaukee Public Policy Forum graduate fellowships to increase coverage of local government; and selection as one of 20 national winners in the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Community Information Challenge, with $382,000 in support to come through a match with the Zilber Family Foundation and the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. It was a year marked by the 10th anniversary of 9/11. We remembered with a showing of the documentary Rebirth, a project from Professional in Residence Danielle Beverly following five people profoundly affected by the tragedy. Shown on Showtime and permanently at the 9/11 museum in New York, it premiered at Sundance and received a Peabody Award, the most prestigious recognition in electronic media for public service.
These births and birthdays suggest a great metaphor — that we are pregnant with possibilities in the college! We begin this academic year with new initiatives in communication ethics and social justice; our Nieman Conference in October on Media, Technology and Politics; continued focus on social media and other digital innovations; and the exciting news that, with Board of Trustees approval, the university will use the sale of federal tax-exempt bonds to finance full infrastructure upgrades and renovation of Johnston Hall to begin in spring 2013. The sense of beginnings, the sense of family, the circle of life came home to me when I shared a lunch with alumni this summer in San Francisco. I mentioned that one of our students interning in Washington, D.C., was $700 shy of covering her summer housing. Something clicked for one thoughtful alumna. “Let me pay for that,” she said. A check to cover the costs for that student arrived a few days later. What strikes me about that simple act of generosity is how it reflects the nature of support our alumni provide to the college and our students. It’s the kind of thing you do for family — not out of obligation, not out of responsibility, simply out of love. And that’s the context, too, for births and birthdays, transitions, celebrations, support and joy in the success of those you celebrate and come to expect great things from in the future. We’re excited by what’s ahead for all of us in the Diederich College!
We had a baby boom this year among the faculty in the Diederich College — a delightful surprise. We’ve watched the joy that five Class of 2034 babies brought to faculty moms and dads, and the energy it takes to pull that off is matched only by the creative energy those faculty bring to their research and teaching.
diederich.marquette.edu
Lori Bergen, Ph.D., Dean of the Diederich College of Communication and William R. Burleigh and E.W. Scripps Professor
letter from the dean
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