E-ALERT - November 2005

Dear Friends of the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies:

We've turned a page on the calendar to November, turned back the clocks to standard time and leapt forward to new initiatives on behalf of the College. In brief, here's what's happening. For more details, visit our website at www.sc.edu/cmcis.

· The School of Library and Information Science celebrated its new statewide literacy initiative, "Children, Libraries and Literacy", Wednesday, October 26, with a reception at the President's house on the Horseshoe. Dr. and Mrs. Sorensen hosted more than 100 - librarians, legislators, teachers, and SLIS alumni - so we could thank them for their support of this exciting and worthy endeavor to carry literacy programs throughout South Carolina.

· The School of Journalism and Mass Communications will honor three alumni Thursday, November 3. The honorees are 2005 Distinguished Alumnus David "Rick" Kiernan, '82, vice president of strategic communications for MPRI; 2005 Outstanding Young Alumnus Brad Walters, '01, copy editor for The Washington Post; and 2005 Outstanding Young Alumna Martha Wright, '02, copy editor and page designer for The Washington Post. A 6:30 p.m. Cocktail Reception will be hosted by the Alumni Society of the College and dinner will begin at 7:00 p.m. If you would like to attend, please RSVP ASAP to Susan Hipp at sbhipp@mailbox.sc.edu.

· Are you ready for the next College Alumni Society gathering? You can find out when and where it will take place by visiting our new Alumni page located at www.sc.edu/cmcis/alumi. We're planning to cheer on the Gamecocks at a basketball game this winter.

· Don't forget to complete the Alumni Society survey located at www.sc.edu/cmcis/alumni so that we can meet your needs and make this a truly successful Society. Your responses are very important to us. Thank you!

· Go ahead and highlight the first week in April on your calendar for I-Comm week. The dates have been set for April 3-8 and activities, speakers, and events are throughout the College. This will be a great week to have alumni back on campus to connect with faculty and reach out to students in the College.

· A reminder that the endowed scholarship being created to honor and recognize advertising professor, Dr. Jon P. Wardrip, is not yet fully funded. If you would like to contribute, please contact Elaine Taylor at etaylor@sc.edu. Our goal is to have the scholarship endowed by the end of this year. Also, if you would like to make a tribute to Jon, please visit www.sc.edu/cmcis.

We want to keep in touch with all of our graduates! If you have an address, phone, email or job change, send those to Elaine Taylor at etaylor@sc.edu. We'd love to see you on campus anytime.

Sincerely,

Charles Bierbauer
Dean, College of Mass Communications & Information Studies