As a journalist, I was curious about university journalism and what it was like in 1925. I was thrilled to find this paper, Journalism at the Ohio State University: 1893-1958, by James E. Pollard, former head of the Journalism department from 1938 to 1958.
The College of Commerce and Journalism was formed in 1916-1917 school year, with Dr. James E. Hagerty as the dean. It consisted initially as three departments -- Economics, Sociology and Journalism -- and offered only junior or senior work. Courses for the first two years continued to be given mainly in the College of Arts, Philosophy and Science. The College of Commerce and Journalism was authorized to convert to a full four-year college starting with the 1923-24 school year.
I am thankful Ohio State University is so thorough in its online offerings, including the 1924-1925 Course Offerings Bulletin for the College of Commerce and Journalism. I found it fascinating to look at classes both Uncle Charley and Grandpa Fred took. (I was amused to see that the stipends for the Lantern editor and business manager were cut during the depression from $500 to $300 a year each, since that was about what I was paid as photo editor my senior year in 1989.)
Dr. Thompson said in his final annual report in 1925:
The courses in journalism make a steady appeal for the primary reason that instruction in English in high school and college has so changed its form as to render writing a desirable ambition. The changed conditions in the offices of great city dailies and also in the papers of the smaller cities have brought about an increased demand for young men and young women with a college education and special training for journalism. There is no prospect that this call will ever be less imperative. These students in rare instances may become literary writers, but in the great majority of instances they will be efficient agents in providing the daily reading for the increasing multitudes who patronize our papers and our current magazines.
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