Dean Search at Columbia Journalism School Stalled

NEW YORK—Harvard journalism guru Alex S. Jones’ bid to become dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism was put on hold this week, as Columbia’s president announced Tuesday that the university is postponing its search for a new dean.

Jones, who is director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and a lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government, was one of two candidates who had been recommended for the deanship by a search committee.

The other candidate recommended by the committee was James M. Fallows ’70, a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and a former Crimson president.

Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger announced the suspension of the dean search in an e-mail to the faculty, students and staff of the school of journalism, citing a need to redefine the school’s mission and to place greater emphasis on academic aspects of the curriculum.

The unexpected postponement stems from a lack of clarity regarding “what a modern school of journalism ought to be,” Bollinger wrote.

“To teach the craft of journalism is a worthy goal but clearly insufficient in this new world and within the setting of a great university,” Bollinger said in the message.

David A. Klatell, who was named acting dean of the school on Tuesday, said a task force will be formed to advise Bollinger in choosing the school’s direction. He added that the school’s future curriculum will not focus as exclusively upon less-academic facets of journalism, such as interviewing, editing and reporting.

“[Students] might take courses in the business school,” Klatell said. “They might take courses on international politics if that’s their beat. The students should be exposed to subject matter in the other schools.”

Klatell stressed the fact that the specifics of the changes have not yet been decided.

“There is no proposal on the table. We’re in the very early stages,” he said. “[The changes] are many months—maybe years-off. There will be no changes to the curriculum this year.”

Columbia’s journalism school administers the Pulitzer Prizes and is the only school of journalism affiliated with an Ivy League university. It is widely regarded as the elite graduate school in the field.

Bollinger’s announcement has spurred significant reaction—both positive and negative.

Klatell said some of the opposition to the changes arose from Bollinger’s use of the word “communications” in his e-mail.

“People thought we were talking about teaching a watered-down college curriculum,” Klatell said. “We absolutely have no intention of doing anything like that.”

Jones and Fallows applauded Bollinger’s announcement.

“I think that the decision President Bollinger announced to postpone the decision is quite a shrewd and wise one,” Fallows said. “It’s a good sign of his commitment to the subject.”

Jones expressed a similar sentiment.

“I think that there’s wide consensus that the school needs to evolve,” Jones said. “I think it bodes well that [Bollinger] is so involved in the process.”

Jones also dismissed the notion that the “craft” of journalism would lose significance at the school.

“It’s my sense that the academic approach should be in addition to what they do now, not instead of,” Jones said.

Fallows said the potential implications of the changes are “important and positive,” due largely to the school’s prestige and its location in New York City, considered one of the nation’s journalistic hubs.

“It has unique power of example among journalism schools,” Fallows said. “It could have a useful ripple effect among journalism schools and in journalism.”

Jones said it was unlikely, though, that the changes would prompt Harvard to create a school of journalism.

Harvard administers the prestigious Nieman Fellowship for professional journalists but has not recently explored the possibility of devoting a school to journalism, Jones said.

One of the aims of realigning the Columbia journalism school’s priorities, according to Klatell, is to attract college graduates who would not otherwise have applied for admission.

Klatell observed that collegiate newspaper editors regularly choose not to attend journalism school.

“A real analysis needs to be done on why they don’t go to graduate schools [of journalism],” he said. “Some may have intended to go to law school. An editor for The Crimson may feel he doesn’t need journalism school. But he does.”

Fallows, though, said that journalism benefits from not requiring interested individuals to follow a rigid course of education or earn a certain degree.

“One of the best things about journalism is precisely its openness, and that should never change,” he said. “You would never want journalism to be like law and medicine.”

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.