Robel recommends journalism merger

Updated: 7:23 p.m.

Provost Lauren Robel will indeed recommend the IU School of Journalism merge with the IU departments of Telecommunications and Communication and Culture.

She also recommended the new merged units reside within the College of Arts and Sciences and be located in Franklin Hall. 

Robel made the announcement at the State of the campus speech this afternoon. It follows months of debate surrounding the proposed merger.

“I have concluded that the programs have a bright future and will best serve students if they are combined into a single school, if the campus can invest the appropriate resources in facilities and faculty and if the departments can repurpose their existing resources away from administrative overhead and towards their shared academic mission,” Robel said in her Tuesday afternoon address.

The recommendation will now go to the Board of Trustees and President Michael McRobbie.

Interim Dean of the School of Journalism Michael Evans is in communication with the provost’s office to clarify questions not addressed in the speech, according to a School of Journalism statement released after Robel's remarks.

In an email to School of Journalism students, Evans said Robel is still working out specific details. He also said Robel is encouraging the public to look at the new School for Global and International Studies as a model for future direction.

Evans was publicly supportive of a merger arrangement in recent months, but insisted journalism remain its own school.

"As many of you know, I have argued vigorously that the new school, if it were created, should be free-standing outside the College," Evans said in the email. "The Provost listened to my concerns and those expressed by many of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni, but in the end she made the decision to recommend that the new unit exist inside COAS."

— Matthew Glowicki