A 100th anniversary celebration for the University of Montana’s Journalism School took place at the state capitol today.
It was 1914 when Dean Arthur Stone set up tents for journalism classes on the Missoula campus because no classrooms were available for the program’s twelve students. By the mid-seventies, when the Watergate scandal turned reporters into heroes, enrollment hit three hundred students. Today the UM Journalism program counts several Pulitzer Prize winners among its alumni.
At today’s ceremony in the state capitol, Governor Steve Bullock praised the reputation UM's Journalis school has earned.
“You’ve set a model that’s contrary to the sensationalist trends in national media, that sets out to fear-monger and confuse. Instead you seek to clarify, to educate, and to engage," Bullock said.
The ceremony not only paid tribute to the UM Journalism program, but also to some of Montana’s best-known reporters: Capitol correspondents Chuck Johnson and Mike Dennison, both Montana graduates, and Sally Mauk, former Montana Public Radio News Director who has mentored a generation of radio reporters.
