THE
INNOVATION FUND
T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E X A S C O L L E G E O F C O M M U N I C AT I O N
how do we support innovation? The University of Texas College of Communication introduces the Innovation Fund, an “idea fund� that will invest in new curricula, cutting-edge courses, extended and online education, faculty research, and student activities that show special promise for the future.
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T H E I N N O VAT I O N F U N D
All kids need is a little help, a little hope, and somebody who believes in them. MAGIC JOHNSON
what is communication worth? Communication is the basis of politics and power, of education and economy. It can make the difference between knowledge and ignorance, success and failure, life and death. Everything—from how we use words and images to how we perceive each other to how we tell a story—comes down to the exchange of ideas. And nurturing the best ideas is how we change the world.
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The Semester in Los Angeles Program was started in May 2005 as a way for U.T. students to live, study, and intern in the entertainment industry capital of the world. The program is offered year-round, with a permanent staff at the UTLA Center in Burbank, California. The program provides opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience and open doors in the entertainment industry. Not surprisingly, many of the program’s graduates remain in LA to start successful careers. The annual Hollywood Showcase, a screening of selected student work, draws capacity crowds of entertainment industry professionals and alumni. Films screened here have garnered numerous awards, have played at festivals from Cannes to Sundance, and have been carried on regional and national broadcasts.
Example
Speech and Hearing Center
The College’s Speech and Hearing Center provides clinical services to individuals with communication problems and serves as a training site for students wanting to become speech language pathologists and audiologists. The Center’s location on the U.T. campus makes it easily accessible to the Central Texas population, including its underserved communities, even as it creates a legacy of trained professionals for the state of Texas. The Center’s Externship Program gives students clinical experience for twenty hours a week in area schools, medical facilities, nursing homes and early childhood programs under the direction of trained therapists. Because such programs are expensive, the Clinic is especially in need of additional graduate fellowships. To speak is to be. To listen is to learn. The clinicians-in-training in the Speech and Hearing Center make both possible. SEED MONEY: $75,000 RETURN:
1,000 clients seen each year for speech assessment, hearing tests, language disorders, and stuttering issues.
Student stars shine brightly at the One Show College Competition, which honors the best work in print, radio, television, design, interactive, and new media. The Department of Advertising and Public Relations sponsors students for this event each year, organized by the One Club for Art & Copy in New York City. Countless of them have returned to Austin as winners.
Funded Innovations
everything.
An entirely student-organized annual conference sponsored by U.T.’s Departments of Linguistics, Anthropology, and Communication Studies, the Symposium About Language and Society—Austin (SALSA) is internationally recognized as a prestigious, interdisciplinary venue for presenting cuttingedge work on the relationship of language and culture to society.
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T H E I N N O VAT I O N F U N D
I think there's only one or two films where I've had all the financial support I needed. All the rest, I wish I'd had the money to shoot another ten days. M A R T I N S C O R S E S E
Should you invest in ideas? The College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin is the largest, most comprehensive, and highest ranked program of its kind in the country. With the addition of the Belo Center for New Media, the College is poised to define and lead a new era of communication education and scholarship. The College Innovation Fund will build on the momentum of the Belo Center by fostering even greater dialogue and discovery around the role of communication. From the psychology of advertising to the physiology of speech to the art of film, it will enable the pursuit of ideas that can shape behaviors and impact lives. The $54 million, 120,000-square-foot Belo Center for New Media, a landmark new building at a major University gateway, will be the nation’s premier center for research and teaching on media convergence.
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U.T. student-filmmakers and the residents of East Austin create the fascinating East Austin Stories, short documentaries that showcase the rich culture, creativity, and characters of a diverse community. Free, public screenings of the films bring the community together to laugh, listen, and learn. The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas (founded with a $2 million grant from the Knight Foundation) offers support, resources, and hope to journalists working in Latin America and the Caribbean, helping to raise the ethical and professional levels of journalism and fostering freedom of press and democracy.
Case in point
U.T. Film Institute
The University of Texas Film Institute, established in 2003 with help from the College and the Office of the Provost, employs a new model of film education to create skilled professionals, artistic visionaries, and pioneers of an ever-changing medium. With its commercial partner, Burnt Orange Productions, UTFI has provided an unparalleled opportunity for students to participate directly in the films’ creation. Now UTFI is piloting an innovative cross-campus process in which students from multiple departments collaborate on a film. From a scriptwriting course at the Michener Center for Writers to a production class in the Department of RTF to a marketing class at the McCombs School of Business to a score composition course in the School of Music, multidisciplinary teams will gain invaluable real-world skills while creating a commercially viable product. SEED MONEY: $50,000 RETURN:
Four feature films completed. 300 U.T. students with professional movie-making experience.
The University of Texas Documentary Center showcases the work of perhaps the country’s strongest team of documentary filmmakers and photojournalists. One faculty member has won the prestigious National Board of Review award, while another has earned two Peabody awards and three national Emmy awards for documentary work.
Funded Innovations
yes.
The Carnegie-Knight Initiative on Journalism Education, founded with a $250,000 grant, brings together prominent editors, professors, journalism students, and deans from twelve leading journalism schools to chart the course of next-generation media and develop new ways of teaching journalism to a new generation of students.
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T H E I N N O VAT I O N F U N D
All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant’s revolving door. A L B E R T C A M U S
Should you invest ideas? Does a theory havein value? The College Innovation Fund is an investment fund, not a charitable fund. It will give faculty and students start-up money to explore new ideas while giving the College the ability to attract—and match—external gifts and grants. It will enable faculty to pilot and vet new projects before launching them. Having such a fund will make the College more competitive when trying to attract the best faculty and students. And it will help make the College the birthplace of the most important digital narratives being told in the 21st century.
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Funded Innovations yes.
Example.
International Symposium on Online Journalism
The pervasive influence of sports in our world touches everything from politics and economics to health and education. Thanks to funding from the McGarr Family of Dallas, the McGarr Symposium on Sports and Media brings industry experts and media professionals to campus to address the growing impact of sports’ media extravaganzas on all aspects of society. The College co-sponsors the Global Fusion Conference Series, which brings together scholars from various communication disciplines throughout the world to examine how new technologies can facilitate global dialogues in search of peace and understanding. The College of Communication sponsors The New Agenda Series, a series of ten academic conferences over three years featuring young scholars from across the globe. The findings of each conference will be published in separate volumes by Taylor & Francis Publishers.
The annual International Symposium on Online Journalism, hosted by the School of Journalism, attracts editors, producers, executives, and academics from around the world to examine the evolution of online journalism and its effect on global communication. Now in its tenth year, the Knight Symposium attracts well over a hundred people each year (plus an online audience) to discuss what happens when the news becomes digital and omnipresent. SEED MONEY: $15,000 RETURN:
Over 100 participants attend each year, plus a world-wide audience via the Internet.
The U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project captures the compelling stories of Latinos who served in World War II, a group largely omitted in general histories of the period. With more than 500 interviews captured in two published books, the Project is creating an important archive of information for future generations. The Edward. R. Murrow Journalism Program, an innovative public-private partnership among the Department of State, the Aspen Institute, and seven leading U.S. universities (including U.T.), brings journalists from independent media outlets around the world to the U.S. to expose them to the rights and responsibilities of a free press. 7
T H E I N N O VAT I O N F U N D
It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. LEONARDO DA VINCI
Should invest inonideas? Can youyou capitalize enthusiam? Our goal is to build a $20 million endowment that will generate approximately $1,000,000 per year in disbursable funds. A College-wide committee will examine faculty and student proposals and make funding recommendations to the Dean. Both short-term and long-term projects will be supported, as will both teaching and research projects. Special consideration will be given to projects that:
Significant contributions to the College Innovation Fund will permit naming opportunities in the Belo Center for New Media. More modest contributions will permit naming opportunities in other buildings in the Jesse Jones Complex.
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Reach across scholarly disciplines Build bridges between the academic and professional worlds Feature international or intercultural relations Explore the emerging possibilities of digital media
Funded Innovations
Public Understanding of Science and Health (PUSH) fosters interdisciplinary research to improve lay understanding of science’s many wonders. From using mobile devices to convey critical messages to low literacy audiences to facilitating self-diagnoses via simple online forms, PUSH explores changing doctor-patient interactions, family lifestyles, and attitudes toward health. The Telecommunications and Information Policy Institute studies the impact of new communication technologies on people and economies around the world. Working with State and federal agencies, the Institute examines digital information policy, the effects of WiFi on urban neighborhoods, and the impact of the digital divide on underserved communities.
we think so.
The Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation
How can new forms of communication be used to increase voting in the United States? How can we improve civic participation and create better citizens, especially young citizens? These are the questions asked by The Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation, established in 2000 to respond to growing political cynicism and disaffection in the U.S. Building on the legacy of Annette Strauss, a remarkable public servant, philanthropist, and humanitarian, the Institute conducts research and develops programs to engage people in the political process, teach them about the nation’s democratic heritage, and encourage them to take leadership roles. Grant funding from the Pew Charitable Trust, the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Gates Foundation have enabled the Institute to develop ways of increasing democratic understanding.
The Speech Production Lab within the College’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders studies children from infancy through age four to observe stages of typical vocal development, examining and illustrating speech patterns to help clinicians gauge the severity of speech delay or disorder. The Texas Media Research Lab, the only one of its kind in the country, conducts social science research to explore strategic, social, and technological issues of mass media. Using behavior tracking equipment, physiological response tools, and a 15,000-member virtual consumer panel, the lab has generated more than 30 research papers and articles investigating media consumption and the effects of traditional and nontraditional media.
SEED MONEY: $30,000 RETURN:
Over $3 million in grants from 12 foundations and agencies.
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T H E I N N O VAT I O N F U N D
We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know. W. H . AU D E N
Should youreturn invest ideas? What’s the oninbreakthroughs? In the College of Communication, as in any business, experience shows that early investments offer the biggest returns. The innovative programs we have supported in the past have flourished, generating results ranging from marketable products to new treatments to greater understanding. Larger investments would have produced greater bounties sooner, thereby increasing the programs’ impact. We are confident that the Innovation Fund will produce tangible ROI in a short amount of time. Whether we measure success by increased foundation grants, greater national visibility, exciting new courses, improved international collaborations, or closer connections with our constituencies, we will find once again that investing in people and their ideas is the smartest investment of all.
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Cinemakids is a weekend program sponsored by the RTF Department that includes screenings of short films, videos, and computer animations created by young people (18 and below) from around the world, as well as brief workshops in film production for children ages 6 to 12. The U.T. Project on Conflict Resolution, a program of the Department of Communication Studies, helps people deal more effectively with each other, even when they have nothing in common. The Project gives people practical ways of handling conflict and, more important, of discovering how to avoid conflict before it has a chance to develop.
University of Texas Debate Camp.
According to some studies, an average of only one in five high school students living in inner cities across the U.S. can read at their appropriate grade level. Those same studies find that involving these students in competitive debate significantly heightens their academic performance. The annual University of Texas Debate Camp, a summer program of U.T.’s National Institute of Forensics, hosts hundreds of high school students from across the country. Sixteen of those students come from inner cities and receive scholarships to attend the camp. The debate camp is designed to challenge students, and most students chose to spend 13 hours a day, seven days a week, researching and preparing topics for competition. Students are given full access to University libraries and have the invaluable opportunity to learn from highly-trained faculty, including visiting professors. SEED MONEY: $30,000 RETURN:
Over 5,000 high school students from throughout the U.S. have attended since 2000.
The Communication in Adults Research Group, an initiative of the College’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, aims to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and increase knowledge about communication in normal aging, aphasia, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Funded Innovations
Unimaginable.
Filmmaker Spike Lee shared words of wisdom with College of Communication students (and many others via the KUT broadcast) as one of the renowned film and television leaders who participate in the Master Class on Entertainment, sponsored each year by the RTF Department.
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T H E I N N O VAT I O N F U N D
There is no victory at bargain basement prices.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
What does opportunity cost? When given the opportunity, we can achieve great things. The College of Communication has proven this again and again, thanks to the support of those who believe in us. With even greater initial investments, we know that the returns will be even more impressive.
Contributing to the Innovation Fund will help the College attract the best faculty and deliver the most cutting-edge education. It will provide incredible opportunities for hands-on learning and collaboration. It will firmly position The University of Texas as one of the nation’s leading institutions for research and teaching in the areas of new and convergent media. Most important, it will engage and inspire the next generation of communication practitioners.
Naming opportunities range from $5 million to $25,000 for professional, production, student, and teaching facilities in the Belo Center for New Media and the existing CMA, CMB, and TSP Communication Buildings.
Please contact us at 512-475-9165 for more information or to schedule an appointment.
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Distinguished Alumni: Michael Barker BS ’76, co-president, Sony Pictures Classics | Henry Bonilla BJ ’76, Former Congressman, 23rd Dist., Texas | Berke Breathed BJ ‘79, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist | and children’s book author | Earl Campbell BS ’79, president, Earl Campbell Meat Products, Inc., Heisman Trophy winner, Houston Oilers all-pro running back | Liz Carpenter BJ ’42, former press secretary and chief of staff to Lady Bird Johnson; 35-year White House correspondent | Jane Chesnutt BJ ’73, editor-in-chief, Woman’s Day Magazine | George Christian BJ ’71, former press secretary to President Lyndon Johnson and Texas Governor Connally | Jeff Cohen BJ ’76, editor, the Houston
Chronicle | Walter Cronkite ’35, former CBS Evening News anchor | Juliet V. Garcia Ph.D. ’76, president of The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College | Bruce Hendricks, ’76, presi-
Representative Grants to the College of Communication: 2003-06 Federal Government: D.O.E., F.I.P.S.E., N.I.H. N.E.H., N.S.F.
State Agencies: Humanities Texas, Texas Department of Health, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas Lottery Commission Foundations: Annenberg, Pew, Dorot, McDermott, Hatton Sumners, Gates, Carnegie
dent of physical production, Walt Disney Studios | Karen Elliot House BJ ’70, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, senior vice president of Dow Jones and Company, former publisher of the Wall Street Journal | Lady Bird Johnson BJ ’33’34, former first lady of the United States, founder of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center | Bob Levi, BS ’70, former president of worldwide entertainment, Turner Broadcasting | Jordan Levin BS ’89, former CEO of The WB Network | Matthew McConaughey BS ’93, screen actor, director, producer and writer | Bill Moyers BJ ’66, former press secretary to President Lyndon Johnson, public affairs television executive editor, writer, producer and host of public television programs | Arthel Helena Neville BJ ’86, television journalist | Robert Rodriguez ’91, director, producer, filmmaker | Ben Sargent BJ ’70, Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist for the Austin American Statesman | Thomas Schlamme BS ’72, Emmy Award-winning director and executive producer | Liz Smith BJ ’49, syndicated celebrity gossip columnist | Judith Zaffirini MA ’70, Ph.D.’78, senator, Texas State Senate, District 21 | Michael Zinberg, BS ’77, screenwriter, producer, director.
College of Communication Office of the Dean The University of Texas at Austin 1 University Station A0900 Austin, TX 78712-0109 512-471-5775 Director of Development College of Communication 512-475-9165 richard.graw@austin.utexas.edu