Journalism School Gets Downtown Home
ASU's Cronkite School To Move Into $71 Million, State-of-the-Art Facility
by Jahna Berry - Jun. 25, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Next month, Arizona State University's journalism school will move into a sleek, six-story bronze cube on Central Avenue.
The $71 million building will raise the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication's national profile and put a big-city stamp on ASU's downtown Phoenix campus, university officials said.
The move will add about 1,400 students to the Phoenix campus. About 3,400 students were talking classes downtown last fall, according to university figures.
The Cronkite School joins other journalism schools in investing in upgrades to help students marry shoe-leather reporting and digital technology, said Sara Quinn, a faculty member at the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., for example, last year dedicated a new, $21 million journalism facility, Quinn said.
Northwestern and Michigan State universities have hired more staff with an eye for technology, she said.
"A lot of people are beefing up their programs," said Quinn, the co-director of a fellowship program for recent college graduates.
The basics - such as journalistic ethics and interviewing skills - are still important; but after graduation, "recruiters are looking to hire people with multimedia skills," Quinn said.
There is no ranking system for journalism programs - because vetting such schools is "totally subjective," Quinn said - so it's hard to say where the Cronkite School stands nationally.
But ASU officials say the upgrades will help move the journalism school to the head of the pack.
"The Cronkite building's design, space and technology will make it unparalleled in journalism education," said Christopher Callahan, the Cronkite School's dean, adding its journalism program is "one of the best two or three" in the United States.
The school offers bachelor's degrees in digital media, public relations, broadcast or print and master's degrees in mass communication.
Nearly 290 students graduated from the Cronkite School in the 2007-2008 academic year.
The new building is light-years ahead of the 1970s-era Stauffer Hall in Tempe, the school's home until this summer.
It will have 280 digital workstations for everything from Web production to digital video editing, two TV studios and an electronic news ticker outside, Callahan said.
The school's Tempe building only has a few computer labs, a tiny newsroom, a TV studio and basic classrooms, the dean and students said.
"Our old journalism building is kind of a dump," said Celeste Sepessy, 21, who will be a senior in the fall and who has interned at The Arizona Republic. "It will be nice to be in a building with new computers and upgraded equipment."
Journalism classes currently are taught all over the Tempe campus because Stauffer Hall doesn't have enough computers for students, said Sepessy, who hopes to work for a magazine when she graduates.
The only downside, Sepessy said, is that she will be on the road a lot: She still lives in Tempe, and her internship is in north Scottsdale.
Other students, including those with double majors, may be in the same boat this fall, she said.
The journalism school will share the Central Avenue building with Channel 8 and KBAQ, a classical-music radio station, said Deputy City Manager David Cavazos.
The building was funded by a $220 million, voter-approved bond. Phoenix owns it until it will transfer to ASU in 25 years, Cavazos said.
ASU wanted a distinctive look for the journalism school, because it's the first custom-built academic building on the downtown campus, said ASU planner Richard Stanley.
The other university buildings downtown were remodeled office buildings, he added.
"We wanted to put in place the notion that this was for an urban campus," said Stanley. "It's not just another office building."
The accordionlike folds and the shifting shades of brown on the outside of the building are a nod to a radio frequency's band, said Kent Bosworth, a project director for builder Sundt Construction Inc.
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