|
For immediate release:
May 2, 2007
OU
Journalism Expansion Launched
Building
Addition to House Conference Site, Student Operated.
By James S. Tyree
Staff Writer NewsOK.com
NORMAN — Gaylord Hall, home of the University of Oklahoma's
Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, will expand
to house advertising and public relations facilities that OU
President David Boren said will "absolutely, inarguably be the
best in the United States."
The new three-story phase will add about 44,000
square feet to the existing building's 61,000 square feet. Boren
made his comments during Tuesday's groundbreaking ceremony for the
Phase II expansion.
Gaylord College Dean Joe Foote said the $19 million expansion to
the north of Gaylord Hall is expected to be completed by about
January 2009. Boren said an archway will connect the two parts.
Ethics and Excellence in Journalism and the Inasmuch Foundation,
both established by the late Edith Kinney Gaylord, have given a
combined $9 million, while the E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation
donated $2 million for the expansion.
The Gaylord family's commitment of $22 million in 2000 helped
finance the original building.
The new phase will include a conference center for national and
regional journalism events, a 180-seat, theater-style classroom and
resources for a student-operated public relations and advertising
agency.
Phase II will be home to the Graduate Studies
Center, which
will support the professional master's and new doctoral degree
programs.
College
growth
Boren said the expansion parallels the college's growth. In 1995,
OU had more than 300 undergraduate and graduate journalism
students; now the number exceeds 1,500.
"It's the fastest-growing college at OU," he said.
Robert Gonzales, an advertising major from Flower Mound, Texas, spoke of opportunities Gaylord College afforded him and
fellow students and said the new facilities will build on those.
"It's going to make coming to class such a pleasure," he
said.
< back to press
releases
< back to
press releases |
