Scripps Howard Foundation recognizes leader’s forward-looking direction
By Valory Schoenecker
Murphy News Service
Albert Tims, the director of the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has been named the 2014 Administrator of the Year by the Scripps Howard Foundation.
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“I have no reservations about telling incoming students that they picked a good major. Not one reservation at all” — SJMC Director Albert Tims.
Murphy News Service photo by Louis Fine
The award is given annually to journalism and mass communication administrators who demonstrate excellence in leadership, vision and creativity. Tims will receive the award and a $10,000 cash prize at an AEJMC conference on Thursday, Aug. 6 in San Francisco.
“The evolution of the news industry is abundantly clear in the entries received in this year’s competition,” said Mike Phillips, president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation. “We saw more collaborations among media outlets than ever before and greater use of digital tools. Our judges were impressed with not only the high quality of journalism they saw but the courage, tenacity, enterprise and resourcefulness of the journalists who produced it.”
For Tims, this award reflects the commitment of the faculty and staff of SJMC. He said that these types of awards are not about him, but rather about what the institution and the community has been able to accomplish.
Tims, who started working at the University of Minnesota in 1987 as an assistant professor, said that the university was one of the first places in the country to really focus on new media and what that meant for journalism and strategic communication.
Tims became the director of SJMC in 1997 and had the unique opportunity to revitalize the building with a new focus for the school. He said it was his good fortune to have been in the right place at the right time.
And Tims isn’t the only one to recognize his good fortune. “Albert Tims doesn’t just talk excellence, but walks the proverbial walk when it comes to developing 21st century media experiences for his students and faculty,” wrote the Scripps Howard Foundation judges in agreement with similar sentiments in the letter of nomination.
When Tims started as the director, he not only oversaw the remodeling of the interior of the journalism school, but also restructured the curriculum to stay relevant to changing media, and added more faculty positions that are still in place today.
One of his main focus areas has been hiring “professionals of practice” onto the SJMC staff. He thinks it is important for students to learn from professionals who are currently practicing in the industry or who recently worked in the industry, rather than being taught strictly by academics.
“What these people bring to the school is irreplaceably important. They are a council to me, they are a council to my colleagues. They bring a depth of experience into the classroom that we just can’t begin to replicate. And they’re eager to work with young people,” Tims said.
Tims said he is lucky to have begun his director position with a new building, a new concept for a collaborative-friendly workplace that was ahead of the rest of the nation, and with faculty who were willing to embrace this new approach.
“What I always tell people who come here and say, ‘Well journalism is dead. Look at what’s happened to newspapers.’ And politely I’ll tell them, look, we’ve never been a school of newspapers,” Tims said. “Everyone is interested in people who can tell stories, can understand audience, and can find and organize information effectively.”
Tims said that the best students are the ones who are intellectually curious, well read, current on popular culture, who chase ideas and give 100 percent of effort to their work.
“I have no reservations about telling incoming students that they picked a good major. Not one reservation at all. If they love storytelling, if they love being a communicator, if they understand why it is important for all conversations to have effective communication, then they’re in the right place,” Tims said.
Some of Tims’ recent accomplishments include implementing a professional master’s degree in strategic communication, creating a dual degree with the university’s law school, and being the first institution to develop a bachelor’s and master’s degree in health communication.
But Tims recognizes that the school still has a lot of work to do to become the best it can be. For example, he would like to make it easier for students to study abroad without disrupting their education. With the quality of today’s technology, he sees no reason why students can’t take certain classes online. Lastly, he joins many journalism and strategic communication professionals in the desire for more diversity in the school, and ultimately, in the industry.
SJMC also helps students gain first-hand, professional experiences in the field. For example, journalism students have the opportunity to write stories for publication in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio and smaller community newspapers for the student-produced Murphy News Service during their undergraduate education at SJMC.
“This is such a robust community. Our students are so well placed in the community and there is a real understanding that the students coming out of this program are really going to add value,” Tims said.
Other finalists for this year’s award were Michael Bugeja, director of Iowa State’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and Eileen Wirth, chair of Creighton’s Department of Journalism, Media, and Computing.
“This award is not about me,” Tims said. “It’s about the privilege I’ve had to work with so many people and to be in an institution that recognizes what’s possible. I think that this could easily become one of the most prominent journalism schools in the history of the nation over the next 20 years if we leverage wisely all of the things that exist around us even more than we have today.”
Reporter Valory Schoenecker studies journalism at the University of Minnesota.