Iowa State journalism and mass communication professors presented ideas for the new Greenlee School of Journalism at a recent meeting, but some advisory committee members had other ideas about how the $9 to $18 million endowment should be allocated.

“I was really quite upset that out of 14 endowed chairs [proposed, the professors] neglected to think about family and consumer sciences journalism,” said Allison Engel, a freelance writer from Grimes who is an alumna of ISU.

Bob and Diane Greenlee, alumni of ISU’s journalism department, recently donated $9 million to ISU for a new school of journalism. The university plans to raise matching funds. Engel said one way the department plans to raise money is to set up endowed chairs that will bring in donations.

In the past, the journalism department offered majors in agricultural journalism, home economics journalism and engineering journalism, Engel said. Journalism majors were not confined to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, so they graduated with more varied and specialized backgrounds.

She said the combined majors were extremely popular and brought many out-of-state students to ISU.

Engel said she would like to see more emphasis today on combining journalism and another areas of study.

“Probably half of the people that work at Meredith [Corporation in Des Moines] came from those majors,” Engel said.

The Meredith Corporation prints several magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens and Successful Farming.

Mark Halverson, another member of the advisory committee, agreed that ISU’s journalism school should help students prepare to work at Iowa businesses. Halverson works for the WHO radio station in Des Moines.

Halverson said as a businessperson, he would like to see the journalism department focus on areas that “would lead to usefulness to the business community of Iowa and beyond.”

However, Halverson added that “anything that enhances the effectiveness of undergraduate education is something I’m in favor of.”

Engel said although she is not necessarily against the proposed chairs, she would like to emphasize the unique aspects of a land grant university.

“I see [the new journalism school] as a wonderful opportunity to use Iowa State’s strengths,” she said.

Halverson said he thinks many universities “become too caught up in the publish-or-perish dilemma.”

Engel agreed, adding that while many universities seem to be leaning toward communications research, she feels science journalism is more in the interest of the ISU community.

“I think science journalism is very hot, and it’s such an important thing,” Engel said. “Why not go with one of our strengths?”

Joel Geske, associate professor of journalism and mass communication, said no firm decisions have been made, but that both the professional and the research aspects will be represented by endowed chairs.

“There’s going to be a nice mix between the chairs,” Geske said. He said some of the chairs that are being considered are in science and technical communications, organizational communications, international communications and a visiting professional-in-residence.

Geske said the professional-in-residence chair would be a rotating position, and may include, but not be limited to, professionals in magazine publishing, editorial writing and broadcast journalism.

“During a student’s career at Iowa State, he or she would have an opportunity to work with a professional in their area of study,” Geske said.

Engel said journalism faculty members apologized for their oversight. She said the discussion has been very open and that nothing has been decided yet.

“President Jischke gave a great speech about journalism and mass communications being central to the mission of the university, which was very gratifying to hear,” Engel said.

Engel, Halverson and Geske all said they are very excited about the new school.

“I do think that there’s no question the donation from the Greenlees is exciting,” Engel said. “It’s a far cry from almost losing the journalism department several years ago. The Greenlees really assured the future of the department.”

Engel said the advisory committee, which met three times since the spring of 1997, consists of “a range of people from all over the country.”

She said all of the committee members have been asked by Diane Greenlee to become Order of the Knoll contributors to ISU, which involves a donation of at least $15,000.

Some committee members include Diane Greenlee, Dick Doak from the Des Moines Register, Dirk VanderLinden from the Belmond Independent, Chuck Kuster from Pioneer and Louis Thompson from the National Investor Relations Institute. Thompson’s father was a former agriculture dean at ISU.

“We all feel very strongly about the journalism department,” Engel said.

Engel said several people on the advisory committee from small newspapers in Iowa are concerned about keeping the journalism internship program at ISU strong.

She said one suggestion from the committee was to create a chair that would help students obtain internships and jobs after graduation.

Engel said students should be the No. 1 focus of the department.

“I hope the faculty would be reflecting the students’ needs [in their decisions],” Engel said. “I doubt that students are asking for more research,” she said.