Communications Center: 1953-97

(Scroll down to read memories of the Communications Center.)

UI Photo Service

The Communications Center, on Madison Street just east of the Main Library, was a welcome and much-needed facilities improvement for the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of funds, plans for an auditorium and fourth-floor studios for film and broadcasting had to be abandoned. Those facilities remained in other buildings, and the School was still spread across several different campus locations.

The School moved to Seashore Hall in 1997 so the Communications Center could be renovated.

What do you remember about taking classes in the Communications Center, teaching there, or doing newspaper work for The Daily Iowan?

Please send your Building Memories for addition to those below.

Visit a timeline of journalism and mass communication history at the UI. Read alumni news.

Memories of the Communications Center:

When I first started in journalism, the Communications Center was only four years old. It seemed like a modern, up-to-date building! I spent most of my time there. This was pre-urban renewal, and a bar called The Annex was just out the back door. We sometimes took layout sheets and typewriters to a back table at The Annex and worked there on the next day's edition.
—Anne Stearns Tanner (B.A. 1961)

My career in writing began on the city police beat with Sarah Holm (now Sarah de Tagyos). Working with Sarah was great fun. She could open any and every door at both the Iowa City police station and the Johnson County Sheriff's Department. We knew a lot of the officers by name (or at least Sarah did). If it were left to me, I would never get the story. They all LOVED Sarah. I was just that "other guy" that was always tagging along.
—Dave Dierks (B.A. 1970)

I remember waiting for call-backs on a beat-up, black rotary phone, my feet balanced comfortably on one of the DI's well-used, metal desks.  Our stories were pounded out on manual typewriters, then carefully reviewed and questioned by our editors (I learned so much from my fellow students!).
—Elizabeth Isham Cory (B.A. 1982)

Horrible bathrooms. You could see over the stalls when you stood up!
—Karla Tonella (former graduate student)

The “Day the Music Died.” Interviewing students for a DI story after Buddy Holly’s plane crashed.

I remember the physical condition of the Communications Center. The electrical conduit was still exposed, the plumbing looked like something out of a third world country, and the elevator shaft went to a non-existent fourth floor. The air handling system (the cool air system was handled by opening a window) never worked, or if it did it was like a sauna.

Working at The Daily Iowan and taking cigarette breaks outside next to the dumpster in the alley. Also, parking in the lot behind the building. You could place a soda can on the concrete in a certain spot in order to open the gate.

I spent a lot of late nights at the Communications Center when I worked at the DI. Many times I ran downstairs to open the locked door for a fellow reporter who was throwing rocks at the window.

Walking up the hill to The Mill after Tuesday Ph.D. seminar.

Ancient, dumb computer terminals in 1985.

The bus ran outside my office. Noise. Lousy lighting, ventilation, and heat. But it was home.