The Iowa Gazette - 2001
The View from the Chair
To borrow a line from Charles Dicken's wonderful novel, A Tale of Two Cities, these are the "best of times" and the "worst of times" for the Department of Communication Studies.
I note with great pride and satisfaction that the first Samuel L. Becker Distinguished Lecture in Communication Studies took place on October 15. We were pleased and grateful for the alumni who returned to campus to share this event with us and to all of you who contributed to its endowment. The inaugural speaker was the internationally renowned scholar, Professor Elihu Katz from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. We created the Becker Lecture with the vision of having it be the premier lecture in Communication Studies. Elihu Katz set a high standard that we are determined to match every year with the scholars we invite to present the Becker Lecture.
On the positive side also, all indicators suggest the department is thriving. We maintain close to 900 undergraduate majors, making us the third largest department, in terms of majors, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. (Yes, the college recently added "Science" to its title.) The Graduate College recognizes us as one of the University of Iowa's premier graduate programs and, more importantly, we continue to maintain a vibrant cadre of about seventy graduate students, all of whom come to us with outstanding credentials. Our faculty continues to publish well and often; represents us well at regional, national, and international conferences; and receives prestigious awards with amazing frequency. For example, we were delighted to learn this fall that Steve Duck was awarded the Graduate College's first-ever Outstanding Mentor Award for the Arts and Humanities. (Details in the faculty section of this newsletter.) We were also very pleased to learn at this fall's National Communication Association conference that Leslie Baxter received the Franklin K. Knower award, given annually by the Interpersonal Communication Division of NCA for the best article of the last five years, and John Peters was honored with the NCA's prestigious 2000 Winans-Wichelns Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address. These awards, I believe, honor not only John, Steve, and Leslie's fine work, but also our department as a whole. I am extremely proud of our students and faculty, and there is much to be proud of.
Despite the quality of our faculty and students, these may turn out to be among the worst of times for the University of Iowa. As many of you know, because of the economic conditions in Iowa, we suffered a large cut in state appropriations last spring for the current fiscal year. Now, to make matters worse, we face a reversion of a goodly percentage of that already diminished appropriation. We do not yet know how the university is going to manage these latest cuts. We only know that we already are teaching more students this fall with fewer resources. This state has always valued education and we can only hope that, in the end, we Iowans will find a way to maintain the quality of our educational institutions, including this one. In the absence of adequate state support for our institution and department, I cannot overstate how much we value your generosity. Without the financial support of our alumni, we would be unable to provide our faculty and students with the kind of teaching and research support that makes us such a fine department.One of the reasons this department has been able to retain its quality over the years is that we are constantly working to improve it. One of the most recent improvements is a new undergraduate curriculum that we mounted this fall for the first time. One feature of this new curriculum is a new course required of all majors, Core Concepts in Communication Studies. John Peters is developing and teaching the course this year, though it will eventually rotate among other faculty members. After looking at the syllabus for the course, I would like to enroll in it myself!
We are also working at improving our graduate curriculum, graduate student recruitment, and the department's website. Toward those ends, feedback from you would be greatly appreciated. Visit our website, http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud, and tell us how we might improve it. If you are a former graduate student here, we hope you will let us know what you thought about your experiences in the department. What was good? What was bad? What suggestions do you have for improvement? You can send your comments to me. We look forward to hearing from you.
Finally, it is with great sadness that I report to you that one of the victims of the criminal terrorist attacks on September 11 was Craig Amundson, a 1996 graduate of our department and former staff member on our student-run radio station. An Army specialist, artist, and multi-media illustrator, he was in his office in the Pentagon when it was hit by the hijacked airliner. Craig, who left a wife and two children, aged two and five, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. We grieve for Craig and his family, as well as the many others whose lives were shattered on that September morning.
--Randy Hirokawa
The Faculty
As usual, our faculty has been busy developing and teaching new courses, refining and continuing to teach basic courses in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, doing research and writing, reviewing manuscripts for journals, and serving on a wide variety of key committees in the department, college, university, and for our national associations.
Leslie Baxter was honored this fall by the Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association. She received the Franklin K. Knower Award for the best intepersonal communication research article of the past five years. It was for the paper she coauthored with Daena Goldsmith titled "Constituting Relationships in Talk: A Taxonomy of Speech Events in Social and Personal Relationships" that appeared in 'Human Commu'nication Research, 23 (1996). Her paper, "Stepchildren's Perceptions of the Contradictions of Blended Family Communication," coauthored with D.O. Braithwaite, L. Bryant, and Amy Bryant for the NCA this year received a Top Four Competitive Paper award. The Western States Communication Association also honored Leslie at its annual meeting in February with a "Presidential Panel in Honor of the Scholarship of Leslie Baxter." Leslie spotlighted that panel with a paper titled "Relational Dialectic Theory: Past, Present, & Future." She was also the coauthor of two of the top four competitively judged papers at that convention: "Contradictions of Interaction for Wives of Elderly Husbands with Adult Dementia" and "Couple Perceptions of Their Similarities and Differences: A Dialectical Perspective." She presented an invited lecture, "Growing a Theory: Relational Dialectics," at the University of Nebraska in April and another, "Relational Dialectics Theory," at the University of Denver in May.
Barbara Biesecker was the co-organizer of three workshops on Visual Rhetorics this past year, one at Indiana University, one at the University of Iowa, and one at the 2001 Visual Rhetoric Conference. Her co-organizer for two of the workshops was John Lucaites ('84). She was also the plenary speaker on "Political Scandal and Public Memory: Stubborn Stains and the Fabric of Contemporary American Public Culture" at a Syracuse University conference on Framing Public Memory. She spoke at the annual Alta Conference in Utah on "From the Public Sphere to Public Culture, or, A Case Study in Why Argument Studies is Not Enough" and at Arizona State University on "Renovating the National Imaginary: A a?N?L?New' Body for the Patriotic Public Sphere." While at Arizona State, she also taught a seminar on contemporary rhetorical theory.
David Depew is on development assignment this semester, working on two
books and some edited collections. This montha?N?L
Steve Duck was honored by the university's Graduate College this year with its first ever Outstanding Mentoring Award: Humanities and Fine Arts. The many statements of support from some of his graduate students made clear their gratitude for his open-door policy, both at the office and at home, his sensitivity to the human factors which touch on students' lives, and his support and patience at difficult times. Some former students wrote that he is a model for them as they embark on careers as faculty members. Steve also received a Mentoring Award and a Distinguished Service Award from the International Network on Personal Relationships. . In addition, he was elected Chair of the Fellows of the International Communication Association and was appointed to the editorial board of the 'Journal of Communication and 'Electronic Journal of Communication/Revue Electronique de Communication. His latest books are 'Human Relationships, 3d ed, Japanese edition (ed. & transl. M. Wada. Tokyo: Nakanishiya Shippan Pub., 2001) and 'Personal Relationships: Their Implications for Community and Clinical Psychology (Chichester, UK: Wiley, 2001) that he edited with B.R.Sarason and in which he, Badr, Acitelli, and Carl have a chapter, "Weaving Social Support and Relationships Together." He also had an article, "Breaking Up: The Dissolution of Relationships," in 'Psychology Review (7:2-5) and co-authored "Interpersonal Relations" with Erin Sahlstein that appeared in Giles & Robinson's 'Handbook of Language and Social Behavior (Wiley: Chichester, UK, 2001). His book, 'Meaningful Relationships, was translated and published in Romania last year by Polirom under the title Relatii Interpersonale: A Gindi, a Simti, a Interactiona.
Kathleen Farrell spent last spring semester lecturing in such exotic places as Bangkok,Thailand and Lincoln, Nebraska, serving on a federal grand jury, and program planning for the biennial Alta Argumentation Conference at which she also was a panelist. She is currently serving on the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library's Board of Directors and is board president of the Johnson County Crisis Center.
Kristine Fitch must have one of the most politically sensitive jobs in the university just now. She is chairing the Human Subjects Committee that is charged with overseeing all non-medical human subjects research. If you follow the national academic news, you know that these committees have been under tremendous strain lately because of conflicting pressures, from one side to quickly approve proposed studies and from the other side to examine them more carefully and turn down any that have the slightest chance of harming some subjects. All of us sympathize with Kristine, but none of us wants to take her place. Despite all of the time devoted to that committee, Kristine continues to move her own research program forward. She published "The Actual Practice of Compliance Seeking" in Communication Theory (11, 263-289) with coauthor Bob Sanders ('71) and "The Ethnography of Speaking" in Wetherll, Taylor, and Yate's book, Discourse Theory and Practice (London: Sage, 2001). She lectured at the University of Arizona this past year on "Cultural Persuadables and Ideology," at Rutgers University on "Relationships, Culture and Ideology at the Intersection of Public and Private Life," and at the NCA meeting on "Culture and Identity in (televised) Everyday Talk," a study she did with graduate student Evelyn Ho.
Bruce Gronbeck ('70) had his usual busy and diverse year. He started the year as one of the scholars from nineteen countries invited to participate in an American Studies Seminar, "Presidential Leadership and Media Democracy," at the Salzburg Seminars Center in Austria. He and two others in his team published their project, "Preference Poll Stories in the Last Two Weeks of Campaign 2000" in the American Behaviorial Scientist last spring. He also brought out the 14th edition of Principles of Public Speaking with coauthor Kathleen German ('76). This fall he taught two short courses in Communication and Political Science at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. While in Finland, Bruce collected materials for the new University of Iowa Center for Media Studies and Political Culture that he is building. You can watch it developing at http://www.uiowa.edu/~politcult
Randy Hirokawa presented the commencement address at the Liberal Arts College's Spring convocation and lectured on "Communication and Group Decision-making Error" at the Space and Naval Warfare Center in San Diego. The faculty and dean talked him into serving a second three-year term as chair of the department.
David Hingstman presented a paper last summer at the Alta Conference on Argumentation. His topic was the ways argument criticism can contribute to an understanding of political and technical disputes over government liability for child abuse by foster parents. He has been elected First Vice President of the American Forensic Association and will become President in 2002.
We are sorry to report that Mike McGee has taken early retirement, for health reasons. However, although he seldom ventures from his condo in town, he is not inactive. In the spring he began an on-line course for the University of Memphis. He is also writing a regular column for the American Communication Association's on-line journal. You can find it on the internet at http://acjournal.org/holdings. Mike's first piece can be found in Volume 4, Issue 3. Its title is "On Objectivity and Politics in Rhetoric."
Kembrew McLeod's first book, Owning Culture: Authorship, Ownership and Intellectual Property Law, was published in the summer. This fall we also viewed the one-hour documentary he produced about the music industry, Money for Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music. It is being distributed by the Media Education Foundation. If you live in the Minneapolis area, you may have seen the out-of-Iowa City premiere of Kembrew's documentary last month at the Walker Art Center. His short video collage, Won't You Be My Neighbor, was featured at the same film festival at the Walker. He also appeared on two panels there. His paper, "Genres, Subgenres, Sub-Subgrenres and More: Musical and Social Differentiation Within Electronic/Dance Music Communities" appeared in The Journal of Popular Music Studies (Spring 2001) and "One and a Half Stars: A Critique of Rock Criticism in North America" in Popular Music (Spring 2001). He also published another hundred or so music reviews and articles this year in national and local newspapers and magazines.
Robert Newman is a visiting faculty member at the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill this semester. His most interesting experience of the past year was delivering the keynote address at Georgetown University in July for the Leadership Training Conference of the American Muslim Alliance. His latest book, Enola Gay and the Court of History was published by the Presidio Press in September. Robert also has a review of Gordon Mitchell's Strategic Deception: Rhetoric, Science, and Politics in Missile Defense Advocacy vol. 1, 2001, of Reviews in Communication
John Peters, in a sense, is spearheading the department's new undergraduate curriculum in that he has designed and this fall is teaching the basic course for that curriculum, Core Concepts in Communication Studies. He outdid even Bruce Gronbeck in travel this year, presenting two lectures at the University of Tampere in Finland in January; teaching two seminars and giving a public lecture, "Democracy and Numbers," at the University of Stockholm in March where he held the Albert Bonnier Jr. Visiting Professorship; teaching a two-week course on Historical-Critical Methods at the University of Pennsylvania in July; teaching an English class in Russia in August, as a guest instructor; and presenting a paper later in August at a Philosophy of Communication conference in Rhodes, Greece, that was on the 2400th anniversary of Socrates' death. We received the news too late for last fall's newsletter, but John's book, Speaking Into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication (U of Chicago Press, 1999), won the James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address at the November 2000 National Communication Association convention. That book and John were also the focus of two special programs at the conference. John, by the way, was promoted to full Professor this year.
Joanna Ploeger presented a variety of papers this year across the country. In the spring she lectured on "The Art of Science at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory: The Rhetoric of Aesthetics and Humanism in the National Laboratory System in the late 1960s" at the Laboratory History Conference, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Laboratory, Newport News, VA. Last summer, at the Alta Argumentation Conference, she presented "Try to See It My Way: Competing Interpretations of a?N?L?Precaution' in the Discourse and Performance of Risk Management in the National Laboratory System." And this fall, at the National Communication Association Meeting in Atlanta, she presented a paper titled "From Texts to Relationships and Back Again: The Impact of Participant-Ethnographer Relationships on Analysis of Scientific and Technological Rhetorics." She also participated at NCA in a workshop on creative approaches to teaching the rhetoric of science and technology and was respondent to a panel on the rhetoric of public science and technology.
Eric Rothenbuhler has also been promoted to full Professor. He is on leave this year, directing the graduate program in Communication at the New School University in New York City. He also got overseas. He was one of four experts brought to the University of Dortmund, Germany, for an international graduate student workshop on media anthropology.
Doug Trank has been recruited once againa?N?L
We are pleased to have Vida Zei ('91, '95) with us this semester as an Adjunct Assistant Professor, teaching in the Saturday and Evening program. She will be teaching at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia during the spring term. She has published a number of papers recently: "Looking East, Thinking West: A Review Essay," in Communications, 24: 117-124; "An Essay on Nostalgia and Tito in Mercedes," in Javnost/The Public, vol. 7; and "Money: National Currency, Culture, Aesthetics, and Politics," in Casopis Za Kritiko Znarnosti, 26: 47-62. You need to know Slovene to read the last two.
Former Faculty Members
John Waite Bowers ('62) writes us that he "sacrificed a day of his perfect retirement in Bend, OR" to lecture on rhetoric and social change at Willamette University. Two weeks later, he "sacrificed another retirement day" to be guest of honor and main speaker at a meeting of Oregon rhetoricians.
Last spring the University of Texas dedicated the Oscar G. Brockett Theatre. Brock served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Director of the Center for Dramatic and Performance Studies at Texas for many years. Primarily, though, he has continued the fine teaching and scholarly writing that he started as a young faculty member at Iowa.
Greg Shepherd has moved from Kansas to Ohio University where he is now Professor and Director of the School of Interpersonal Communication.
We are extremely sorry to report that Professor Emeritus Richard Dyer MacCann died on June 28 of this year from complications following surgery. He was 80 years old. All of his degrees were in Political Science, his BA from the University of Kansas, MA from Stanford, and Ph.D. from Harvard. He was on the staff of the Christian Science Monitor from '51 to '57, a faculty member at the University of Southern California from '57 to '62, the University of Kansas from a?N?L?'65 to '69, and the University of Iowa from 1970 until his retirement in 1985. During his career, he published more than forty articles and a dozen books. He also edited Cinema Journal from '67 to '76. Although most of his students and colleagues were not aware of the fact, Dick fought with the 8th Armored Division in Europe during World War II. His wife, Donnarae continues to live in the family home in Iowa City.
New Faces in BCSB
We were happy to welcome Carma Bylund to our faculty this fall. Her scholarly interests are in Interpersonal and Health Communication Research and her appointment is 75% in Communication Studies and 25% in the new College of Public Health. (This year we are searching for another faculty member in Health Communication who will be 25% in our department and 75% in Public Health.) Carma just completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. She earned her B.A. at Brigham Young, her M.A. at the University of Nebraska/Omaha. Last year the Health Communication Division of the National Communication Association announced that the report of her study, titled "Physicians' and New Patients' Talk About Health Risk Behaviors: Form, Forcefulness, and Face" was the top student paper at the annual convention. Carma has published papers on teaching the basic communication course and is the coauthor of a paper on gender and communication that is in press. She is an experienced teacher. Besides Health Communication she has taught Theories of Persuasion, Legal Communication, Family Communication, and Public Speaking.
We mentioned in the last Iowa Gazette that a new chief engineer for our radio and television operation had been hired. Bob Burns has now been on the job for almost a year. He came to us with an extremely fine record of experience. Among other things, he has helped put a number of radio and television stations on the air, worked as an engineer at various stations, and was Director of Engineering for Guy Gannett Communications of Portland, Maine, which owns seven television stations and a variety of other communication properties. While working for Gannett, he spent a number of years at KGAN-TV in Cedar Rapids.
Our Students
Four of our students this year were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the honor
society for the most outstanding student scholars. The four are Jana Dawn
Bodensteiner, Melissa Nicole Hughes, Chris J. Lake, and
Joshua L. Miller. This past year also saw our debate students bring home
our first ever national team championship. Seniors Andrew Peterson and
Andrew Ryan won 55th Annual National Debate Tournament, held this year
at Baylor University. There were 78 teams competing, representing 54 universities
from Harvard in the east to Texas in the west. After four days of intense elimination
debates, they topped Emory University in the finals. Andrew Ryan also received
the tournament's Top-Speaker Award. Craig Baird would have been proud, as is
our present debate coach, Professor David Hingstman.
David says this was more than just another win, it was the culmination of an
outstanding season. Jacob Nelson, a freshman Communication Studies pre-major,
and Michael Roston, a senior, also qualified for the national tournament
by winning the District IV Qualifying Tournament in Minneapolis. Michael, by
the way, is a former participant in the Chicago Debate Commission's high school
project administered by former Baird debater Betty Whilhoite. Betty has
done a great job on the Chicago Debate Commission project which brought public
issues debate back into Chicago's public schools. This fall, our incoming class
include three more graduates of Betty's program.
Communication Studies graduate student Leslie Hahner represented Iowa with distinction at the World Parliamentary Debating Tournament at Edinburgh, Scotland during winter break. Her partner was Political Science graduate student Rob Salmond. Leslie has been helping to coach our undergraduates in international debating styles. This is part of our forensics program's increasing emphasis on international exchange and tournament debate.
We are also encouraging students to engage in value debating. Sophomore Jason Gordon is helping to coordinate a series of campus audience debates on value topics. Our A. Craig Baird Debate Forum presented value debates on different current issues on five Wednesday evenings this fall. These debates, held each year, are also broadcast on WSUI. If you cannot pick up WSUI on your radio, you can now do so through your computer. Just go to the University of Iowa web page and click on the link to WSUI.
Paul Bellus, the university's Coordinator of Forensics, organized the first A. Craig Baird Lincoln-Douglas Round Robin for twenty-eight outstanding high school value debaters from across the country last April.
Not only have our students done well in forensics, they have also done extremely well in other academic endeavors. As a result:
The winner of this year's C. Jay Starr Scholarship is Jessica Lee Malott, a senior from Iowa City.
Katie Anne McNinch, a senior from East Moline, IL was awarded the Jerome Feniger Broadcasting Scholarship.
Aaron J. McAdams, a senior from Cedar Falls, won the Cristen M. Laza de Bighley Undergraduate Scholarship.
Orville Hitchcock Scholarships went to five of our undergraduates: Jeff Geiger, a senior from Morris, IL; Sarah Huisenga, a senior from Sibley, IA; Chris Lake, a junior from Holy Cross, IA; Jessica Malott, who also won the Starr Scholarship; and Kevin Wall, a senior from Clayton, MO.
One of our students has her eyes and her heart set on making the 2004 Olympics in Athens as a representative of her home country, Trinidad and Tobago. Jiselle Providence, as a sophomore last year, won the 100 and 200 meter dash and was part of the winning 400 relay team at the Musco Twilight Invitational in Iowa City.
Our graduate students also won many honors this year. Three of them, David McMahan, Kate Cady, and Chris Smit received University Teaching Awards for their outstanding work as Teaching Assistants.
The department also honors one or two of our graduate students each year with the Douglas Ehninger Award for their outstanding teaching. The Ehninger Award last spring went to Daniel Emery and Chris Smit.
Kyra Pearson won the Ramona Mattson Fellowship for this year and Irene Grau the Carroll Arnold Fellowship. For those of who for whom the names Ramona Mattson and Carroll Arnold do not ring a bell, Ramona completed her Ph.D. here in 1956, Carroll in 1942.
One of the most coveted awards for graduate students is the Seashore-Ballard Dissertation Year Fellowship which provides full tuition and a stipend so that the winner is freed of all other duties in order to devote full time to working on his or her dissertation. Needless to say, the competition for this all-university fellowship is quite stiff, so we were especially happy to see it awarded to one of our doctoral candidates, Katherine Battles.
The Ph.D. Job Market
The job market continues to look good for our Ph.D.s. We graduated fifteen of them this past year and all seem to be gainfully employed.
Marilyn Bordwell, Rhetorical Studies, adviser Gronbeck, is teaching at Allegheny College, PA.
Walter Carl, Interpersonal Communication, adviser Duck, Rochester Institute of Technology. Walter's dissertation was the first one from our department submitted to the Graduate College on CD-ROM and one of the first few in the university. Being in digital form, it was easy to put on line, so you can now read it at http://etd.lib.uiowa.edu/etd.html.
Simon Dixon, Film Studies, adviser Andrew, is an adjunct instructor of English at Montana State University.
Timothy Dun, Interpersonal/Small Group Communication, adviser Baxter, Northeastern College/Chicago.
Kakita Hideki, Rhetorical Studies, adviser Gronbeck, Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan.Edgar Johnson, Rhetorical Studies, adviser Gronbeck, is teaching at Georgetown College, KY.
Kakita Hideki, Rhetorical Studies, adviser Christian Keathley, Film Studies, adviser Andrew, now teaching at Clemson.
Brenton Malin, Rhetorical Studies, adviser Gronbeck, like Bordwell is at Allegheny College.
Masahiro Masuda, Interpersonal/Small Group Communication, adviser Duck, is at Hiroshima International University, Japan.
Rosanna Maule, Film Studies, adviser Andrew, now at Concordia University/Montreal.
David McMahan, Interpersonal/Small Group Communication, adviser Duck, Western Missouri StateAlfred Mueller, Rhetorical Studies, adviser Farrell, at Penn State/Mont Alto.
Roberto Rodriguez-Moya, Film Studies, adviser Andrew, University of Minnesota/Morris.
Lee West, Interpersonal/Small Group Communication, adviser Duck, University of Illinois.
Steve Wurtzler, Film Studies, adviser Altman, Georgetown University.
More Faculty and Graduate Student Accomplishments
According to a study published in the July 2000 issue of Communication Education, the University of Iowa ranked 6th among all Ph.D. granting institutions in the United States in the number of top-ranked papers at the National Communication Association conventions during the 1994-1998 period. It tied with the University of Wisconsin/Madison. For top-ranked papers in Rhetoric and Public Address we were 4th.
That reminds us of a memo we received this year from Les Sims, our former graduate dean, now Executive Director of the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington. Les is an expert on the National Research Council ratings of graduate programs, with which he has been involved for some years. He regrets that programs in Communication Studies are not included in those rankings, as are we. In this memo, though, he reports that the National Communication Association’s last rankings of doctoral programs in Communication are quite comparable to those of the NRC because the same methodology was used. He notes that three of the areas in our department ranked in the top ten nationally: our Rhetorical Studies program was rated 1st among all such programs in the country, our Critical-Cultural/Media Studies program was rated 4th, and our Communication Theory and Research program (which we call Interpersonal and Small Group Communication) was 6th. Our goal, of course, is to have all three rated #1.
Alums of the ‘30s and ‘40s
Ernie Bundgaard (’43), now a Minnesotan, may have set a record on names. He tells us that when he worked at Radio Station KFAB in Omaha many years ago, the management thought Bundgaard was too complicated a name to write to for “mail pull,” so he became Ernie Allen for three years. Then, when he worked for CBS, they dubbed him Allen Gray, a name with which he operated for almost fifty years. Now in Minnesota, the owner of KLKS, he says he has taken on a new handle: GABE for Gray, Allen, Bundgaard, and Ernest. Ernie—or Gabe—also says that “’Doc’ Harshbarger had a profound effect on me, the only instructor I ever had whom I literally revered.”
Wayne Bundy (’40, ’50), another of Doc Harshbarger’s students, is the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He is still living in Albuquerque, NM.
If you see the film, Just Visiting, watch for the old lady who is on screen for about ten seconds. That’s Helen Caro (’46). She says that was all that was left from the two days of filming in which she was involved.
The 2000 International Documentary Association Career Achievement Award went to Charles Guggenheim (’48). In April, the New York Times ran a feature on him and his latest project, a documentary film about American servicemen in World War II who were captured by the Germans. Those who were Jewish or even looked Jewish, were separated from other prisoners of war and made slave laborers. The Germans then tried to annihilate them through work. The film will appear on PBS.
Ed “The Jenks” Jenkins (’43), reminiscing about his days at WSUI, says “I think I attended every graduation exercise that was held at the University for four years, but missed my own [because of going into the army]. I was always the engineer on duty as we broadcast . . . the graduation exercises. I can still hear the click, click of the girls’ high heels as they walked across that wooden platform. . . . The microphones on the stage picked up that sound wonderfully. We just did not know how to eliminate it.”
Herb Kanzell (’47) is now retired from the Bed and Breakfast business, as well as the Public Relations and Promotion business. He even moved out of London to Bath. However, he is still involved in theatre, as a member of two drama groups in Bath. By the end of his first year in Bath, he had appeared in six productions! He was never one to do things half-way, even when he was a student. By the way, did you see the 1946 photo of Herb, Sam Becker (’47, ’49, ’53), and Seymour Barchat (1948) on the inside back page of the fall issue of the Alumni Magazine?
The Institute for Intrapersonal Processes has established an annual Ralph Nichols (’34, ’48) Research Award for work on listening or intrapersonal communication. Ralph is spending his retirement years in Port Charlotte, FL.
Loren Reid (’30, ’32) is a wonderful model for all scholars. Each of us should complete yet another in a long line of books when we are in our nineties, as he has done. Loren’s is titled Reflections. Among those reflections are his on the problem of finding a job when one completes his Ph.D. in the depths of the great depression.
"We women were just breaking ground in the broadcasting world then [1943]. Not many jobs open to us. I was lucky enough to audition and land a job as the first woman in the Farm Dept. at WLW in Cincinnati, when I graduated in April 1943.” Those reflections on the past are from Carol McConaha Rhodes (’43), whose radio name at WSUI and WLW was Connie Kay. That job at WLW was the beginning of a long and productive career in broadcasting. In retirement, she now writes a column for her home town (Centerville, IN) weekly.
We learned last spring that Nona Seberg Roe (’40), after being away from Iowa City for over fifty years, moved back here with her husband after retirement. After completing her undergraduate degree and doing some graduate work in the department, Nona left to work with the Red Cross during World War II. She then returned to the university as Social Director for the Iowa Memorial Union from 1945 to 1948, before leaving again. We are delighted to have Nona back in town for good.
Gen Slemmons McLaughlin (’43) recently reminisced about the time she thought she was going to be thrown off the air at WSUI. She was hosting the show From Our Boys in Service. “We were having to hurry to close on time and I announced with great emphasis that one of the local servicemen had been honored by receiving a great ‘condemnation’ for something he had done. There was dead silence in the studio until suddenly our live organist started playing our theme song, When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again, as loud as she could.”
Shirley Rich (’44) was back on campus during the year, teaching master classes for actors. She reports that she is a volunteer at the Continuing Care Residence and reads to a hundred-year-old woman each week. She is obviously continuing to make use of her acting talents.
Many of our alumni continue to help the University of Iowa. Virginia Rosenberg Stafford (’48) does so in a variety of ways. The latest is her service on the advisory committee for the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Pam Mabie Stewart (‘48) is on the advisory committee also, so we get to see her when she is back on campus for meetings.
Another of the WSUI gang from the forties is Muriel Abrams Washer (’46). She recently wrote us about one of the most embarrassing moments of her broadcasting career. “I was announcing Dr. Willard M. Lampe [Director of the School of Religion]. It was at the start of my radio days. I said ‘And now here is Dr. Millard L. Wampe.’ Needless to say, it didn’t get a smile from him—just from the engineer.” After graduation, Muriel had a semi-classical “disc jockey” show in New York until her marriage in 1950.
Lowell Matson
As some of you will remember, when we dedicated the beautiful addition to the University Theatre almost twenty years ago, the original theatre was named after the long-time head of the then Speech and Dramatic Arts Department, E.C. Mabie. At that time, a painting of Mr. Mabie was presented to the department, a painting that still hangs in the lobby of the Mabie Theatre. The man behind that gift, the one who dreamed up the idea, raised the money, and had it commissioned, was Lowell Matson (’47,’50,’53). We’re sorry to report that Lowell died in June. He retired from Staten Island’s Wagner College in 1987. He had created Wagner’s Department of Speech and Theatre and was its head for nineteen years.
Another 1st
There has been a stampede in the past few years for colleges, universities, and some private corporations to offer college courses via the Internet. In some cases, students can even earn degrees solely with Internet courses. That has reminded us of another of the UI’s pioneering accomplishments. On June 9, 1925, the University of Iowa awarded its first degree to someone who had accumulated the necessary hours by taking courses broadcast over the radio. This was not only the first degree by radio awarded by Iowa, but the first one in the United States.
Alums of the ‘50s
Ernie Bormann (’53) was honored by the National Communication Association last year with a Mentor Award. It was a wonderful coincidence that his graduate school roommate, Sam Becker (‘47, ‘49,’53), received a Mentor Award at the same ceremony.
We only learned recently that Vince Brann (’50) has been retired from the University of Massachusetts for over a decade. He lives in a retirement condo village in Northampton. Vince was another of the WSUI gang, doing mostly classical music shows, such as “Musical Chats,” that he says he inherited from Herm Cohen, and “The Dinner Hour.” Vince reminded us that he was “in at the birth” of KSUI, “playing mostly classical music non-stop during the brief FM broadcast day.”
And speaking of Herm Cohen(’48,’49,’54), who is now retired from Penn State, the Speech Communication of Pennsylvania has presented him its Lifetime the Achievement Award.
Friends of ours, who were on a round-the-world cruise last winter, reported that the best lecturer aboard ship was Tom Ecker (’57). He lectured on the history of Olympics, a topic on which he has published a book, Olympic Facts and Fables: The Best Stories from the First Century of the Olympics (Mountain View, CA: Track & Field News, 1996). His success as a lecturer did not surprise those of him who knew him as a student. Remember the time he had himself handcuffed and locked into a large wooden box and thrown off the Iowa Avenue Bridge to show his escape trick?
Dave Etzel (’56) tells a great story of how he, Dave, prepared for a career in radio. “Growing up on a Linn County, Iowa farm,” he says, “listening to WSUI, especially Iowa basketball and football games (no other stations carried Hawkeye games then) was a significant part of my life. While driving a tractor over my parents’ farm fields, and with a growing interest in a broadcasting career, I began to emote spontaneous speeches, do play-by-play of imaginary basketball and baseball games, rehearse my lines in school plays, deliver news stories and practice telling jokes. I had to be loud so that I could hear myself over the din of the motor. I later learned that neighbors always knew when my father had sent me to the field because my voice carried far and wide.” Apparently all of that practice paid off for Dave had a long and successful career in broadcasting before switching to marketing and then to music publishing.
In retirement from paid employment Bob Haakenson (’52) has found many other jobs in and around Wyncote, PA. He chaired the Cheltenham Centennial Celebration Committee and the Democratic Committee in the Cheltenham-Jenkintown-Springfield district. He modestly notes that if other Democratic committees had done as well as his last November, the party would now control both houses of Congress and the White House.
David Hall (’53) recently sent us a fascinating audiotape of his 1951 WSUI interview with Dimitri Mitropoulos, conductor of the New York Philharmonic. In the interview, he was able to get Mitropoulos to talk candidly about his protégé, James Dixon, who later became the conductor of the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra. We have deposited the tape in the University of Iowa Archives in University Library. We hope you will think about the University of Iowa Archives also when you are ready to dispose of some of your UI mementos.
After we published the 1950s photo of Milo Hamilton (’50) in last year’s newsletter, we heard from a number of former Iowans about visiting Milo during one of his broadcasts of a Houston Astros’ game. Bill Wolf (’50) reports that Milo has been broadcasting now for almost sixty years and still does “exquisite play-by-play.” Hal Hartvigsen (’51), whom we knew as “Hal Hart” when he did sports for WSUI, says he attended the ceremonies when Milo was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame this year. Hal also was present in 1992 for Milo’s induction into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Coopertown, NY. Hal, by the way, has a new book out, Successful Spokespersons Are Made, Not Born.
We received a flyer from Vantage Press of New York the other day advertising a new book co-authored by our own Paul Heinberg (’56). Its title is One Hand Is No Applauder: Essays on the Structure of Human Relationships. Paul is now retired from the University of Hawaii where he was known as the university’s “father of human communication studies”
If you want to buy or sell a radio station on the west coast, you may want to contact Mergen Media Services in Sylmar, CA. The organization’s CEO, as the name suggests, is Jim Mergen (’53). Jim is another alum of WSUI, as well as of our department.
Readers of the Hawkeye Athletics web site in March were treated to a great story by Bob Reed (’56) about his experience at the Coliseum in Unionville, Long Island, NY the afternoon Iowa’s basketball team beat Connecticut. He says “we [Hawkeye fans] were all dressed up in different variations of black and gold, so when you met somebody in the same colors walking to the concession stands, you raised your finger and nodded just like you were meetin’ him in your car on an Iowa country road. . . . We booed the refs in the polite Iowa way, which astounded the New Yorkers around us.”
Murray Yaeger (’56), who became co-owner of an inn in Kennebunkport, after retiring from Boston University, says “I have just completed my fifteenth year as a waiter. There’s a restaurant in Boston whose waiters are older than God. I’m thinking of trying to get into their union.”
“Doc” Harshbarger
The Theatre Arts Department paid a well-deserved tribute to the late Clay Harshbarger last spring, as part of its New Play Festival 2001. The idea for doing so came from Mel Davidson (’62), who supported the festival with a generous gift. The program for the festival had this to say:
The Iowa New Play Festival 2001 is dedicated to the memory of H. Clay Harshbarger, Professor of Speech and Dramatic Art from 1929 to 1968 and Chair of the Department from 1956 to 1968. Prof. Harshbarger was a pioneer in the study of television and radio drama, as well as a steadfast supporter of the writing and production of new plays.
We would add to this statement that Doc was also a wonderful director of radio
dramas on WSUI. All of us who had the opportunity to act in any of the shows
he directed recall those experiences with great fondness.
In fact, anyone who worked with Doc in any capacity--as an advisee, student,
actor, faculty member under his chairmanship, or anything else--we are sure
look back on that experience with gratitude. He was a special sort of human
being.
Doc also introduced many of us to television. He had his television receiver set up and ready when the first television station in this area went on the air. Going to his home was like going to the theatre for us.
Alums of the ‘60s
Bob Bostrom (’61) writes that “retirement brings a certain amount of reflection, and I have enjoyed reflecting about how much the Iowa experience meant to me and how much I received there. . . . All of us who were at Iowa had a big career advantage. We felt that we were the best because we had been trained by the best.” After Bob’s retirement from the University of Kentucky, the Southern States Communication Association established a Bob Bostrom Award in his honor.
We were delighted to run into Sheridan Cole (’61), who was back on campus for her 40th reunion. She is principal of the Amelia Earhart High School in North Hollywood, CA, a small alternative high school. Says she enjoys the variety: “I’m a teacher, dean, disciplinarian, nurse, custodian of sorts, you name it.” Among her many good memories of Iowa, she reports, are of former faculty member Margaret Hall and fellow student Greg Morris.
Bob Davis (’65) says there has been a rumor floating about that he died. He assures us that it is premature. He is still involved in the politics of Pacific Groves, CA, his retirement home. Says he is a Planning Commissioner and chair of the committee that sets water policies for the city.
Dennis Gouran (’68) received the 2001 College of Liberal Arts Outstanding
Advisor Award at Penn State.
“The memories of the time at U of Iowa are clear and good in my mind,”
says Roger Penn (’67). Roger is still operating Penn Auto Sales
and the Car Ministry in Falls Church, VA. He reports that he sold about 80 cars
at the former operation last year and gave away about 160 at the latter to needy
applicants.
Bob Miller (’60) is in his 28th year as the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Kings Hockey Club. Last November he was inducted into the broadcast wing of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. If you get to Toronto, visit the Hall of Fame and see the plaque with n, you will be able to see the plaque with his photo. Bob is now retired, but still continues his wonderful weekly jazz broadcast on the campus radio station, WRST-FM.
Just recently retired is Bob Tiemens (’62). After nearly thirty years on the faculty at the University of Utah, many of them as either chair of the Department of Communication or Director of the Journalism and Mass Communication Division, he hung it up. During his career, Bob did some of the pioneering research on visual communication. He, along with some of the other Iowa graduates on Utah’s Communication department faculty, deserves much of the credit for building it into one of the country’s first rate departments of communication studies.
Ted Perry (’66) has published a memoir. As you who know him would expect, it is most unusual, integrating his non-film experiences as a child with his experiences with movies. The title, appropriately, is My Reel Story, publisher is Middlebury College Press. It’s a fascinating read. On top of his other duties at Middlebury, Ted is now the chair of the International Studies program, the biggest major in the college.
At the 2000 National Communication Association convention, Larry Rosenfeld (’66) was presented the Donald H. Ecroyd Award for Outstanding Teaching in Higher Education. Larry is on the faculty of the Communication Department at the University of North Carolina.
Bob Snyder (’54,’65) was inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame in June. Bob, the founder of the University of Wisconsin/Oshkosh radio-TV-film program, is one of the few broadcast educators to make it into the Hall of Fame. If you happen into the Wisconsin State Historical Society’s museum and library in Madison,
Alums of the ‘70s
I hope that all of you who were at Iowa in the late seventies saw your contemporary, Bobby Allen (’77) performing on the A&E network last March as one of the major experts in the two-hour documentary, It’s Burlesque.
Georgia State University announced this past year that it has awarded tenure to Joe Anderson (’74).
Chuck Berg (’73) was in Iowa City this summer, playing sax and flute in the annual Jazz Fest. As some of you know, Chuck’s side job is being Professor and Associate Chair of Theatre and Film at the University of Kansas.
Linda Maxson, dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa has announced that Venise Berry (‘77,’79) will be the Interim Director of our School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Almost simultaneously, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association announced that Venise’s second book, All of Me, won its Honor Book Award.
The featured speakers at the Friends of the University of Iowa Libraries’ Annual Friends Event this year were Tom Chehak (’74) and his wife Susan Taylor Chehak. Tom spoke about his experiences in Hollywood, where he was a writer for the Tony Randall Show and WKRP in Cincinnati, directed episodes of Alien Nation, and is currently Executive Producer for Diagnosis Murder with Dick Van Dyke.
The March 5, 2001 issue of The Scientist features an article on the Intellectual Entrepreneurship program at the University of Texas directed by Rick Cherwitz (’74,’75,’78), Professor of Speech Communication and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Texas. This is a program that could be useful at any of our research universities.
We lost track of Dave Jaffe (’72) for many years following his early retirement from the faculty of the University of Oklahoma. We just learned that he had been living in Tel Aviv for a number of years but recently returned to the U.S. so that his younger children could finish high school in this country. He is currently living in south Florida. We are glad to have him back home.
Jin Kim (’78) was through town early this fall, taking his younger son to college. Jin is currently in his second term as chair of the Department of Communication at SUNY/Plattsburgh.
Another long-lost graduate is Ted Marr (’72). A chance meeting on a plane that another Iowa alum had with him helped us locate him in Fremont, CA. We gather that he is involved in the new technologies industry.
Last November we had the pleasure of hearing Ray McKerrow (’74) present his presidential address at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association. Its title was “Coloring Outside the Lines: The Limits of Civility.” We wish we had the space to reproduce all of it, but a copy can be found in the January 2001 newsletter of the association. A few quotations may stimulate you to read it in its entirety. “A civility that masks or covers over the presence of deep disagreement retards social progress rather than, as it would otherwise seem, advancing it. A civility that smothers discontent destroys. . . . From choices we make in our larger role as citizens we can determine the limits of civility, and utilize those opportunities to recognize when incivility may be a positive force for change. . . . Enacting a civil, or at times uncivil discourse, . . . is not simply an option to consider, but a fundamental necessity of being actively human.”
Susan Neeley (‘78) has just been appointed Director of Communications for the new national Office of Home Security. Her office is in the west wing of the White House.
Mike Porter (’75) has been appointed the Director of Special Degree Programs for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Missouri. He will continue to teach one course a year in Communications.
The Southern States Communication Association presented the T. Earle Johnson/Edwin Paget Distinguished Service Award this year to Dick Ranta (’74). Dick, a rhetorician and Dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts at the University of Memphis, was also re-elected chair of the board of the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission.
Churchill Roberts (’72) received the Erik Barnouw Award from the
Organization of American Historians this year for the best historical documentary.
It was for his latest documentary, Freedom Never Dies.
Church also took over as chair of the Telecommunication Department this year
at the University of Florida.
Nan Rutter (’79) reports that, with four and nine-year-old boys, she has cut back to part-time on her consulting and training in strategic planning, change management, and employee communication. Her company is Rutter Communications, in Clive, IA.
Chris Ryg (’70) is Consumer Sales Manager of Kenwood Communications Corp. in Suwanee, GA. The move to sales and marketing followed a number of years of managing public radio stations.
As those of you in academe know, the average tenure of a department chair is between three and eight years. Bob Sadowski (’73) exceeded that average by a good bit. He did it for almost twelve years before deciding to return to full-time teaching and research at the University of Scranton. This academic year, though, he is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Michigan/Flint. Shortly after we went to press last year, The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a feature story on the latest project created by Ron Spatz (’71,’73), a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Alaska/Anchorage. He has developed a web site, http://litsite.alaska.edu/uaa, dedicated to stories about Alaskan culture and people. It is designed to be a reading and writing tool for Alaskan students in elementary, middle, and high school. The project is being supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and by the University of Alaska.
After many years as Director of Research for the American Association of Retired Persons in Washington, Constance Swank (’77) has moved south. She is the new Executive Director of Friendly Force: International Citizenship Exchange Program in Atlanta. Friendly Force is a non-profit organization started by President Jimmy Carter. She is probably in Bangkok while you are reading this letter, or on the way to Vietnam.
We were delighted to welcome Stella Ting Toomey (’75,’76) back to campus this year. She keynoted a meeting at our International Center and presented a talk at a brown-bagger here in the department. The latest in Stella’s extensive series of books is Communicating Across Cultures (Guilford Press, 1999). She also recently published a fascinating biographical chapter titled “An Intercultural Journey: The Four Seasons.” It appears in a book, Edited by M.H. Bond, titled Working at the Interface of Cultures: Eighteen Lives in the Social Sciences (Routledge). This chapter should be must reading for anyone aspiring to teach and to be a scholar. We also took note of the fact that Stella gives much credit for her success to another Iowa graduate, Mae Arnold Bell (’74), her adviser and mentor in the University of Washington doctoral program, “who sustained me in the programme for the entire four years.”
Tim Wahl (’74) reports that he went to Hollywood after graduation to get into the industry but got sidetracked into the education business. He teaches English at UCLA’s American Language Center, does ESL for adults and distance learning for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and freelances stories for the LA Times, LA Weekly, and other publications.
The Rhetorical Sophistication of Iowa Citians
Ralph Siddall, then of the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, e-mailed Bruce Gronbeck this story about his visit to Iowa City last year:
While I was visiting with you in your office you told me that everyone in Iowa City knew about rhetoric, and you challenged me to ask the gas-station attendant about the topic. I chalked the statement up to zealous hyperbole of a recruiting nature, but the next morning, while paying for my gas before leaving town, I asked the attendant about the housing market in town, and mentioned that I was going to be a student at Iowa. He said, “You look a little old to be a freshman,” and I replied that I had been admitted into the Ph.D. program and offered an assistantship. “Teaching what?” he asked. “Rhetoric,” I replied. And then this kid looked me in the eye and said, “Really? From a Neo-Aristotelian or a Postmodern perspective?”
Alums of the ‘80s
The lure of the west was too much for Glenda Balas (’89). She has resigned from DePauw and taken a position in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico. As some of you will remember, she was working in public television in New Mexico before coming to Iowa to work on her Ph.D. So this is a homecoming.
Maurice Charland (’83) received the Charles H. Woolbert Research Award from the National Communication Association, at its 2000 convention, for his essay “Constitutive Rhetoric: The Case of the Peuple Quebecois,” first published in the 1987 volume of the Quarterly Journal of Speech.
Lill Hallberg (’88) has been promoted to Assistant Dean at Suffolk University’s Sawyer School of Management in Boston. Prior to this she was Director of the school’s MBA Program. Interesting positions for a Ph.D. in Rhetorical Studies. She was also appointed to the Advisory Planning Committee for the 2001 National Graduate Management Admission Council. Lill sends “a million thanks to Donovan Ochs’ advice to interview for this position—‘You only live once, Lill. Go for it!’”
Jim Haney (’81), after serving for nine and a half years in the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office has returned to academe. He is once again on the communication faculty at the University of Wisconsin/Stevens Point. He reports that he is happy to be teaching again.
After seven years as a U.S. Marshal, appointed by President Clinton, Phyllis Henry (’88) has retired to Scottsdale, AZ.
Dale Herbeck (’88) is coauthor of the 4th edition of Freedom of Speech in the United States (Strata Publishing, 2001).
Anyone stopped at a red light behind Helen Sterk (’86) will have no trouble figuring out that she is in the field of communication. See her license plate below.
Kevin Smith (’83) has forsaken the television and computer software business. He is now the Director of Communication for the state of Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety.
Allyn and Bacon recently announced the publication of Principles of Research in Communication by Thom Stewart (’89) of Slippery Rock University.
Lauretta Stribling (’80) pointed out to us an error in last year’s Iowa Gazette. Ginny Darby (’80) teaches at Wahlert, not Dubuque [IA] Senior. The editors appreciate Lauretta’s gentle slap on our wrists.
Web Pages
An increasingly common means of keeping up to date on your friends and former fellow students is to log into their web pages. For example, if you go to http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/55831 you can see some of Orazio “Roger” Fumagalli’s (’63) latest works of art. Or if you go to http://www.clubphoto.com and search csk@internav.com, on pages Estonian Day1-4, you will find Margaret Benson Virkkunen (’45) on Day 3, page 1. Margaret’s home, as we reported last year, is now in Finland.
Of course you can also see and read about all of the current faculty members in our department by checking the Communication Studies web page at http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/ and click on “faculty and staff.”
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Send Us Your News & Photos Graduates of our department are constantly contacting us to find out what has happened to their classmates. So if information about you has not appeared in this newsletter in recent years, please helps us correct that situation. Let us know where you are and what you are doing. Old photos from your days in the department are also welcome. Send to either Carol Schrage or Sam Becker. |
Alums of the ‘90s and ’00
Emperatriz Arreaza (’93), who is currently a Visiting Professor at the University de los Andes, in Merida, Venezuela, lectured at Iowa this fall on “Human Rights and Documentary Film in Venezuela.” Her visit was sponsored by the university’s Latin American Studies Program.
California State University/Northridge has promoted Bernardo Attias (’97) to Associate Professor with tenure.
We are pleased to have Melanie Barnes (’96) with us for the entire 2001-02 academic year. She is on sabbatical from DePauw University studying the way academic communities have consoled their multiple audiences following major traumas to the collective communities. Sounds like a fascinating research project. We are taking advantage of her presence by having her teach a couple of Saturday and Evening courses.
Jack Beck (’93,’95), an Assistant Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, received the institution’s Norman Miles Award for Excellence in Teaching. Not a bad award; it carries a $10,000 honorarium.
Susan Bednar (‘01) has been appointed Assistant Business Manager at Oaknoll of Iowa City.
Steve Book (’96) is now an attorney in Kansas City and reports he finds it very satisfying. He also says “My Communication Studies degree really helped me to achieve my goal.”
When we heard from Richard DeLaurel (’93) last, he was working in the Arkansas State Attorney General’s consumer protection office while completing work on his JD degree at the University of Arkansas.
Larry Erbert (’96), who says he is one of Carol Schrage’s and Iowa’s ardent advocates, has taken a position on the faculty at the University of Texas/El Paso.
Glenn Geiser-Getz (’94), just plain Glenn Getz when he was in graduate school, wrote in February that he was serving as a Fulbright Scholar for the year on the Faculty of Journalism at St. Petersburg State University. He said he was also working with the St. Petersburg State University of Economics of Finance, the National Press Institute, and the Mayakovsky Library while in Russia. We assume Glenn is back at his regular post now, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at East Stroudsberg University (PA).
On the basis of the public relations internship she did with the Chicago White Sox organization while she was still a student, Amanda Golucki (’00) has been hired as the Assistant Director of Operations for the White Sox Training Centers.
The National Association of Broadcasters recently promoted David Gunzerath (’97) to Vice President of Research and Planning.
Jim McDaniel (’98) has taken has taken Horace Greeley‘s advice and moved west. He is now on the faculty of the University of Colorado/Boulder.
If you’re a fan of MSNBC, you will be interested to know that Erin McGarry (’99) is an Associate Producer at this cable news network.
Salome Raheim (’90) is the new Director of the University of Iowa’s School of Social Work. We heard her on a panel titled “Religion, Government, and Community Building” last spring and she was terrific. Her study of communication is obviously paying off.
Jennifer Reagen (’92) is currently the Customer Operations Manager of Paeter Communication Inc. in Ann Arbor, MI.
We were pleased to run into Deb Rutt (’91) at the National Communication Association meeting in Seattle last year. She is now the CEO of DJR Communication Consulting in that city.
The University of South Carolina has promoted Roy J. Schwartzman (’94) to Associate Professor with tenure.
We were also happy to get a press release from ESPN last summer announcing that Mark Shapiro (’92) has been named the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Programming for ESPN’s networks. Prior to this promotion he was Vice President and General Manager of ESPN’s Original Entertainment Division and ESPN Classic.
Jennifer Taylor (’91) was on campus in September for a meeting of the Dean’s Advisory Board. (She chairs the board’s Alumni Relations, Recruiting, and Mentoring Committee.) After a decade of experience as a marketing executive in various firms, this year she started her own marketing consulting and copywriting business near Vail, CO. She is a past-president of the Denver Chapter of the Iowa Alumni Association and is now active in the Rocky Mountain Iowa Club.
We saw a great recruiting poster for Minnesota Life insurance company recently. It featured a photo and story about one of their business coordinators, Amanda DeTimmerman (2001). It reminded us of the good work Amanda did for ODK and the Panhellenic Council when she was a student.
David Wendt (’96), current president of the Iowa Communication Association, was honored by the National Communication Association with the Marcella E. Oberle Award for Outstanding Teaching. He is on the faculty of Keokuk (IA) High School. At the Iowa Communication Association meeting last year, Dave and seven other Iowa graduates were also honored by our department for their outstanding teaching at the secondary level. The others were Cindy Schneider (’89), Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School; Cindy Cochran (’87), Iowa City High School and Kirkwood Community College; David Faris (’90), Carroll High School; Ginny Darby (’80), Wahlert High; Karen Tilton (’81), Maquoketa High; the late Paul Slappey (’86), and Kathy Dowd Ulrich, Cedar Rapids Washington High who has done graduate work in the department..
We hope that you who live in the Los Angeles area saw the award-winning documentary by Lane Wyrick (’90), The Nazi Drawings, that was shown at the Directors Guild Theatre on October 14. We understand that it pulled a large crowd of western Hawkeyes.
Alumni DeathsWe are saddened by the unusually large number of our graduates who died this year. We miss them. David C. Arneson, ’90, Iowa City, IA |
Honor Roll of Contributors
This honor roll gratefully recognizes graduates, faculty, and friends who contributed $100 or more from January 1, 2000, through December 31, 2000, to the Department of Communication Studies through The University of Iowa Foundation, the University’s preferred channel for private support.
Contributors are listed alphabetically. A (DC) follows the names of those who qualified for membership in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean’s Club by contributing $1,000 or more to any area of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences in 2000.
| Ahlman, Jay T., Glen Ellyn, Ill. Albertson, John H., San Diego, Calif. Allen, Teri A., Glendale, Calif. Appelt, Kathi A., College Station, Texas Appelt, Kenneth L., College Station, Texas Arnold, Carroll C., Estate, State College, Pa. (DC) Ashford, Matthew C., Schaumburg, Ill. Aubuchon, Denise, Woodland Hills, Calif. (DC) Auer, Thomas A., Racine, Wis. Balcer, Charles L., Sioux Falls, S.D. Bangs, Betty Paisley, Boulder, Colo. Baran, Lisa M., Elgin, Ill. Baran, Timothy R., Elgin, Ill. Bartanen, Kristine M., Fircrest, Wash. Bavendam, James M., Mercer Island, Wash. Baxter, Marilynn R., Rockford, Ill. Becker, Ruth H., Iowa City, Iowa (DC) Becker, Samuel L., Iowa City, Iowa (DC) Bell, Donald R., Federal Way, Wash. Bell, Mae Arnold, Federal Way, Wash. Bennison, Helen S., Madison, Wis. Bennison, Jacob H., Madison, Wis. Bighley, Mark S., Tulsa, Okla. Bishop, David L., Barrington, Ill. Black, Paul M., Fairway, Kan. Bode, Ronald H., Madison, Wis. Bode, Susan H., Madison, Wis. Boo, James W., La Grange, Ill. Boo, Lori M., La Grange, Ill. Book, Virginia Alm, Lincoln, Neb. Boudra, Ruby Elizabeth, Russellville, Ark. Bouffides, Evan, Los Angeles, Calif. Bowers, John W., Bend, Ore. Branda, Madeline S., St. Louis Park, Minn. Bundgaard, Ernest, Breezy Point, Minn. Bundgaard, Mary Lee, Breezy Point, Minn. Buresh, Dean Arthur, Edina, Minn. Busse-Hatting, Kimberly K., Okemos, MI (DC) Caillet, Janice L., New York, N.Y. Cheslik, Julie M., Fairway, Kan. Conway, Jeffrey H., Chicago, Ill. Cosnett, Garry C., Queenstown, Md. Cosnett, Teresa Totty, Queenstown, Md. Crockett, Julie, Highlands Ranch, Colo. Daniel, Arlie, Ada, Okla. Deiters, Sandra L., Dallas, Texas Diamond, Arlen E., Springfield, Mo. Dooley, Janet Ferguson, West Des Moines, Iowa Dooley, Robert F., West Des Moines, Iowa Dunham, Joan, Lake Geneva, Wis. Edwards, Connie M., Waco, Texas Edwards, Richard E., Waco, Texas Etling, Sheryl B., Vermillion, S.D. Fane, Cathie D., El Campo, Texas Fane, Larry R., El Campo, Texas Farrell, Kathleen M., Iowa City, Iowa Felton, Norman F., Woodland Hills, Calif. (DC) Feniger, Jerome, New York, NY Feng, Lingling, St. Paul, Minn. Foley, Joseph M., Columbus, Ohio Franz, Kevin E., Richmond Hill, N.Y. Gerami, Renee C., Elk Grove Village, Ill. Giardinelli, Rob, New Port Richey, Fla. Gibson, Wendy Clark, Los Altos, Calif. Gillespie, Ashley A., Chicago, Ill. Gordon, Denise Jackson, Louisville, Ky. (DC) Gouran, Dennis S., State College, Pa. Gouran, Marilyn Kamman, State College, Pa. Gronbeck, Bruce E., Williamsburg, Iowa Gunzerath, David J., Alexandria, Va. Hansen, Mal L., Omaha, Neb. Hansen, Mildred Paule, Omaha, Neb. Hatting, Patrick D., Okemos, Mich. (DC) Hayes, John V., Louisville, Ky. Hepp, Jason, Minnetonka, Minn. Hepp, Lynne M., Minnetonka, Minn. Hewlett, Marilyn Nesper, Bethesda, Md. (DC) Hogeboom, Charles E., Annandale, Va. Hogg, Mary C., Iowa City, Iowa Holliday, Jennifer A., Clive, Iowa Jeffrey, Robert C., Estate, Austin, Texas (DC) Jordan, Patricia, Alexandria, Va. Joy, James R., San Francisco, Calif. Kandl, Victoria E., Upton, Mass. Kelshaw, Laurie J., Owasso, Okla. Klinger, Shantel, Chicago, Ill. |
Kohlhaas, Philip V., Austin, Texas |
For more information about how you can support the Department of Communication Studies through annual gifts, life-income gifts, or other forms of charitable contributions, contact Jeff Liebermann at The University of Iowa Foundation, Levitt Center for University Advancement, P.O. Box 4550, Iowa City, Iowa 52244-4550; (319) 335-3305 or (800) 648-6973; e-mail: jeff-liebermann@uiowa.edu