Two prominent black journalists – one of them a woman – are among the four finalists for dean of the Medill School of Journalism, the head of the search committee said Monday.
Medill Prof. Dick Schwarzlose said he forwarded the four names to Provost Lawrence Dumas and University President Henry Bienen, who he said might decide on a finalist by the end of the month.
Although Schwarzlose would not confirm the names of the candidates, the Chicago Reader reported that they are Chicago Reporter editor Laura Washington; Newsweek editor Ellis Cose; Loren Ghiglione, director of University of Southern California’s journalism school; and Medill Prof. Abe Peck, who is currently associate dean. Washington and Cose are black.
In the nationwide search to replace Dean Ken Bode, who announced his resignation in June, committee members solicited applications from all Medill alumni and combed the professional field for candidates, Schwarzlose said.
He said this approach has helped the committee depart from the traditional pool of white men who hold the most high-profile positions in the American media. It also generated double the number of applications from Bode’s search and allowed Medill administrators to discard applicants that they seriously considered during their last dean search, Schwarzlose said.
“Over the years, (white men) have been the kind of people who have been trained to do this work,” he said. “We just felt is was really important to the professional journalism school and the community to make a special effort to find minorities and women. Members of the committee were really willing to go out and beat the bushes.”
Schwarzlose said the candidates were chosen from a pool of 120 applicants for their combination of “star power” and administrative ability, including their fund-raising experience. If Northwestern administrators choose one of the two black candidates, that person will become the first black dean in Medill’s history, Schwarzlose said.
“We think we’ve got a good list,” he said. “We were making a serious effort to find both women and minorities to put in the pool. We wanted to give them an honest opportunity.”
Ghiglione declined to comment Monday on whether NU is considering him, but said the Medill dean’s position was highly regarded in the journalism community.
“Medill is a great journalism school,” he said. “Anybody approached about the deanship there would have to take an overture seriously.”
The other reported candidates declined to comment on the search process.
Washington earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Medill in 1978 and 1980. In addition to her tenure at the Chicago Reporter, she worked as press secretary for former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington in 1985, wrote a monthly column for the Chicago Tribune and served as WBBM-TV producer.
Cose worked as chairman of The New York Daily News’ editorial board and has worked as a contributing editor for Newsweek since 1993. He serves on the board of contributors for USA Today and has written four books in the last eight years. In 1997 he won the National Association of Black Journalists Award.
Ghiglione has taught a seminar at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, served as editor of The News in Southbridge, Mass., and served as editor and publisher of The Bristol (Conn.) Press.
Peck, the only finalist from within Medill, has written for Rolling Stone, Esquire and GQ magazines. He won two Illinois Associated Press awards while working for Chicago’s Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times.
Schwarzlose said he is happy with the four finalists, whose print experience represents a departure from Dean Ken Bode’s broadcast background.
Schwarzlose said the committee chose the finalists after phone and face-to-face interviews with nearly a dozen applicants.
Assoc. Provost John Margolis confirmed that the provost’s office is reviewing the recommendations but said he would not set a timetable for a decision.
