Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 3, No. 3

Three years ago, the Corporation began a dialogue with various deans of journalism schools to see how America's major research universities could improve journalism curricula and thus challenge both students and the news industry at this pivotal time of change for American journalism. Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation, asked five journalism leaders at America's most prestigious universities (see below) to develop a vision for journalism education in the 21st century. Gregorian created a partnership with Hodding Carter, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, one of America's leading foundations focused on journalism, so that both philanthropic institutions could contribute their expertise and experience to the more than $6 million undertaking, which is called the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.

The Carnegie-Knight Initiative involves three distinct efforts:

1. Curriculum Enrichment that will integrate the schools of journalism more deeply into the life of the university.

2. News 21 Incubators: annual national investigative reporting projects overseen by campus professors and distributed nationally through both traditional and innovative media.

3. The Carnegie-Knight Task Force, focusing on research and creating a platform for educators to speak on policy and journalism education issues.

On May 26, 2005, the initiative was formally launched at the Corporation's offices, with a press event and luncheon discussion attended by Gregorian, Carter, and the five journalism deans and director along with representatives of the participating universities. More information about the initiative can be found on the Corporation's web site at http://www.carnegie.org/sub/program/initiative.html.

In June, Gregorian hosted a reception at the Corporation for ten students from the schools involved in the initiative who had been chosen to participate in a lead-off program for the effort: a one-time summer institute at ABC News, designed to provide the students with the opportunity to experience and observe all the constellations of the ABC Network from World News Tonight to ABC Radio to ABC.com. As part of the institute, the students were also trained in ABC News ethics and procedures and on new digital equipment that permits both taping and editing of news material.

In August, the Corporation announced that five additional journalism schools at major research universities had been asked to submit proposals for curriculum enrichment aimed at revitalizing journalism education. Those schools are the College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida; Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland; Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri; S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; and the School of Communication, University of Texas at Austin.

Commenting on the scope and intent of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative, Vartan Gregorian said, "Schools of journalism at exemplary American research universities, where the academic disciplines still coexist, are positioned to draw upon the full intellectual and educational resources of the university environment to help produce the skilled, responsible, expert, knowledgeable and highly proficient journalism leaders that our society--indeed the world--has need of, especially in these complex and challenging times. Our democracy depends on journalism to keep its institutions challenged and responsive to the public's needs, and the quality of the profession demands the best a university can offer."

2005 Academic Leadership Awards

Support for higher education has a long history at Carnegie Corporation of New York. In particular, the Corporation has traditionally recognized the importance of leadership in fostering curricular, administrative and social change on American campuses. Back in 1959, under the presidency of educational visionary John Gardner, the grants program sought to be "as responsive as possible to the expressed concerns of college and university leaders" and to "lend itself to the kinds of giving which will strengthen the institution in terms which the president considers necessary."

In March 2005, the Corporation demonstrated a renewed commitment to this core goal by presenting its inaugural Academic Leadership Awards to three outstanding university presidents: Jared L. Cohon of Carnegie Mellon University, Henry S. Bienen of Northwestern University and Don M. Randel of the University of Chicago. (Randel will assume the presidency of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in July 2006). These leaders have been recognized for achievements in higher education that lift an institution from the ordinary to the exemplary, energizing not only the campus but also the larger community, engaging all in a broad sense of reform, purpose and commitment. Each honoree will receive $500,000 to be used for their academic priorities. More than an award, this is an investment intended to further Carnegie Corporation's long-standing goals for higher education by affording each president, in Gardner's words, "money to do the things for which he could not get money elsewhere."

For the past several years, the Corporation's president and program officers have visited universities across the nation to obtain firsthand knowledge of their work. And they've seen, time after time, how engaged leadership sets a university apart. "These academic leaders have been articulate voices in defense of liberal arts, robust undergraduate education, the university's role in K-12 education and commitment to their cities and communities," said president Vartan Gregorian in making the awards. "All three have demonstrated the fact that true leadership is much more than effective management. They all believe in a tradition of academic excellence and have proven that presidential leadership and faculty quality are the critical elements that distinguish one university from another."

University-Level Education for Women in the Developing World: Questions for Public Policy--A Carnegie Challenge Paper is Launched

In the developing nations of Africa, there is a growing understanding that women have an important role to play in helping their countries become full and active participants in the global community, including the worldwide economic marketplace. Still, there has been little documentation or research that articulates how individuals, communities and society are benefited when women in development become doctors, lawyers, professors and senior civil servants.

In order to encourage an international dialogue about ways to increase access to higher education for women in Africa and promote a research agenda that will document its benefits, Carnegie Corporation of New York recently released a Challenge Paper entitled University-Level Education for Women in the Developing World: Questions for Public Policy, which explores relevant issues such as cost, cultural barriers and political will. To launch the report, the Corporation provided support to the Washington, D.C.-based Women's Foreign Policy Group to host a roundtable discussion with leading experts on women and higher education that focused on the importance of university-level education for women in development. Participants included Edith Ssempala, the Ugandan Ambassador to the United States; Mary Kanya, the Swaziland Ambassador to the U.S.; and Barbara Herz, author of the Carnegie Challenge Paper. Audience members who joined in the discussion were a cross- section of national and international representatives from the foreign policy, educational, nonprofit, government and diplomatic communities.

"Education is, obviously, today, the foundation for women's empowerment," said Edith Ssempala. "It bridges the inequality gap between women and men. I know for sure that, personally [without higher education], I would not be addressing you now. I would not be in Washington. I don't know even where I would be: maybe in a remote village somewhere."

Mary Kanya raised the issue of HIV/AIDS and the impact that it is having on all levels of education in sub-Saharan Africa, since it is now the leading cause of death in the region. "For example," she said, because of AIDS-related factors such as children being removed from school to care for ill parents and family members, orphanhood, and even children not living long enough to complete their schooling, "in the Central African Republic and Swaziland, school enrollment is reported to have fallen by 20-36 percent."

Barbara Herz, the economist who wrote the Challenge Paper, said, "We know that education is the single best way to accelerate a shift to smaller, healthier, better-educated families, and at the secondary level, the evidence for that is very strong. We also know that education empowers women. But, unfortunately, we don't yet have the research evidence to make this case at the university level, and we don't have the evidence on the broader social benefits. We can all see it and we believe it, but we need documented research results so that governments and international agencies will be prompted to invest more heavily in higher education for women in countries where they might need it the most." She added, "Gender-fair women's higher education can contribute not only to the transformation of women's lives but also to the advancement of society itself."

Copies of University-Level Education for Women in the Developing World: Questions for Public Policy can be downloaded from the Corporation's web site at http://www.carnegie.org/pdf/wom_edu_dev_world.pdf.