A Message From the Dean

Dear Students,

As we begin our fifteenth year, I want to extend a warm welcome to the Class of 2021. Given the global pandemic, we are in the unprecedented situation of having to welcome you from a distance, and I certainly wish that wasn’t the case. That said, we’re thrilled to have you joining us, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that you have an excellent experience.

As with our previous classes, you are smart, enterprising and diverse. You went to a wide variety of schools – from top-ranked private colleges such as Yale, Wesleyan, Northwestern and Johns Hopkins, to excellent public universities such as CUNY, SUNY, Clemson, the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin.

The Class of 2021 comes from a wide variety of backgrounds. Yes, many of you have worked or interned at newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, or websites. But your class also includes a park ranger, a body painter, Division 1 athletes, and several stand-up comedians. Six of you hail from countries outside the U.S., including South Africa, Mexico, France, Brazil, Venezuela, and Canada.

Partly as a result of these diverse backgrounds, you come here with different journalistic experiences and skills. Our job is to challenge all of you at your own level and raise you from there. Submit story ideas to our School’s online news service. Add audio and video to a text-based story. Or sign up for courses in computer coding, data visualization or cinematography. In sum, go for it!

We are here not to create just another journalism school. We are here to build a great school, one of the best in the world. As you know, this is a critical time for journalism, and not just because we’re in the midst of a pivotal presidential election. We are also experiencing a profound loss of trust in institutions, including the press.

Our profession is simultaneously being transformed by dramatic shifts in technology and a business model that is under great financial stress. Despite all these pressures, we see on a daily basis that journalism has never been more important in holding power to account.

We want our school to make a difference. We have a constantly renewed curriculum, a strong faculty, a cutting-edge facility, and we aim to add a dose of fresh thinking. We wouldn’t be here if we thought journalism was dead. Change is necessary, but I hope the values and standards that have distinguished our profession – a commitment to accuracy and fairness, in particular – will endure. We are out to forge a synthesis between the best of the old world and the best of the new.

I hope we’ll have a lot of fun during our time together. And I hope, years from now, that you’ll look back at your experience here as one of the great turning points of your professional life – the launching pad for a very successful career. Good luck to you all.

Sarah Bartlett, Dean July 2020