As Walter Hussman Jr. addressed the crowd at UNC’s journalism school naming ceremony on Friday, he shared his initial reservations when first approached with the idea of naming the school after him. He said he couldn’t help comparing himself and his family to other people with named journalism schools in the country.
“I thought [about] the Newhouse School at Syracuse, the Annenberg School at USC, the Medill School at Northwestern, and the Cronkite School at Arizona State,” Hussman said. “Walter Cronkite and I have one thing in common and that’s our first name. Very few people would compare [my family] to that icon of American journalism.”
But the school’s dean, Susan King, believes Hussman ought to be in the same conversation as those names. As a third-generation newsman and newspaper publisher for 45 years, Hussman has had plenty of success in the industry. He’s the president of a media company that owns both daily and weekly papers, as well as cable television stations in three states.
But in addition to the expanse of coverage he has brought to communities in his home state of Arkansas, Hussman also has brought a high quality of coverage throughout the decades of his leadership. He promotes his core values of providing integrity, impartiality, and credibility to readers by printing them every day in his newspapers. Those values are why King approached Hussman about renaming the school and providing a gift to help it remain one of the top journalism programs in the country for years to come.
An alumnus from UNC’s class of 1968, Hussman remembered what the journalism school was like when he was an undergraduate student.
“We were across campus over in Howell Hall,” he said, “and the school was much smaller than it is today. But what has not changed is the bedrock principles, values, and standards of good journalism.”
UNC Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, Walter Hussman Jr., Dean Susan King, and the Hussman family pose for a photo following the official naming ceremony of the journalism school.
That bedrock has been established and taught by the school’s faculty over many years. When Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz spoke at the ceremony, he thanked both Hussman for his commitment to the school’s future, but also the staff for their efforts. He pointed to the school’s success at the Hearst Journalism Awards, where UNC has won first place overall in four of the last five years, as an example of the faculty’s effectiveness beyond the establishment of core values within students.
“I am so proud of how far we’ve come,” said Guskiewicz. “And yet, this gift will take us even further into the future thanks to one of the school’s illustrious alums.”
As Hussman expressed his gratitude to everyone for attending the ceremony, he said it all still felt like a dream. It was certainly a good one, though, as he said he was so thankful Dean King convinced him to embark on an investment and renaming.
“This school has got a great dean, great faculty, a great student body, and now they have a great statement of core values that will [remain] in the lobby,” Hussman said. “It’s hard to think of a better place where our family could invest money right now.”
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