The future starts here, at Kent State UniversityDr. Lester A. Lefton, PresidentKent State University has opened another portal to the future. Some of you who remember creaky old Franklin Hall — built in 1926 — from your undergraduate days will be amazed at the transformation it has made to a high-tech home for our beyond-the-curve School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC). The $22-million upgrade created more than just new space and 21st-century technology. The building is designed to reflect the profession that trains there — open, interactive, transparent, creative and wrapped around the new media reality: “convergence.” Convergence refers to the future of media in which journalists with a variety of skills — print reporting, video, digital photography, Web design and even blogging — will converge to produce a single story. Generations of mistrust and competition between, say, print and broadcast journalists, is being swept away by technology and audience demand. Franklin Hall will help our JMC faculty produce graduates with the multimedia skills to lead this media revolution. Much credit goes to JMC Director Jeff Fruit and the active, innovative faculty of the school. They saw this future and brought it back to the university. That spirit infects Franklin and JMC students, and puts Kent State among a handful of top universities whose students are truly ready for the new age of information and ideas — the world’s most valuable currency. You can read this fascinating story in this issue of Kent State Magazine. And come by Franklin Hall sometime. Jeff and the faculty are proud to show what they have brought about in Franklin Hall. Another type of media convergence happens this summer as Kent State’s own WKSU hosts a live performance of Garrison Keillor and his Prairie Home Companion at Blossom Music Center, summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra and Kent Blossom. This will be Keillor’s fourth Blossom appearance, a testament to this stunning outdoor facility and to the worldwide reach and influence of WKSU-FM. You can share in the pride that Kent State, your university, is leading on several fronts in the next wave of media innovation. It is the same spirit of creativity and foresight Kent State brings to its role as a major research university, preparing our students to compete in the global marketplace. As alumni, you remain our most important product and the measure of our success. We hope Kent State Magazine helps all 180,000 of you stay connected to this great university and engaged in its future. |
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