E-ALERT - June 1, 2006

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

The cell phone may be the metaphor for China's extraordinary technological and commercial advance. Everyone's got one, and they all seem to go off at once. Amusingly, I was often the only person in the room without a cell phone on my 15-day trip to China and Korea. For the duration of the trip, at least, I did not need one. But there were moments I felt myself an unwired Marco Polo in a strange land.

The trip several USC deans and administrators-including the President and Provost-made in mid-May explored student and faculty exchanges and collaboration with Chinese and Korean communications programs. The initial contacts indicate interest and potential.

This was my first trip to China since I was among the press corps on a brief presidential visit 15 years ago (Bush 41). Note to Bush 43: It's not your father's China.

The cell phone and Internet are transforming technologies in this still Communist land. Over time they may open more contacts for the Chinese people than did Richard Nixon's ping-pong diplomacy, though that can hardly be discounted in its time.

On this trip, I visited journalism programs in Beijing, Chengdu, Hong Kong and Shanghai, as well as Seoul, Korea. I was asked to lecture or participate in forums at four universities and an international symposium of deans of journalism and communications programs at Shanghai International Studies University.

This degree of openness is significant, though the changes in China are not absolute. At one university, students openly voiced their disappointment that the Internet as they know it is a censored version of what we employ. At another, an official expressed concern about the sudden increase in communications programs whose graduates may not be able to find jobs. And at a third, the program director lamented the precarious status, low pay and lack of job security for Chinese journalists.

While this trip was focused on journalism programs, I was also able to identify some opportunities for our Library School to also engage internationally.

In the weeks ahead, the faculty and I will assess the programs I've visited. We are fortunate to have an international faculty-Prof. Ran Wei from China, Prof. Feili Tu from Taiwan, and Professors Sooyoung Cho and Jinmook Kim from Korea. Professor Kent Sidel is heading the effort of the journalism school to create more study abroad possibilities for our students.

Having been a foreign correspondent for more than a decade, I believe these can be extremely valuable experiences for students and faculty. Exchanges can be meaningful for South Carolina, too, as we better understand our competitors in global commerce and communications.

We'll keep you posted.

* Meanwhile, if you've got contacts around the world in other places where our students might travel and study, we'd like to hear about it. In Hong Kong, I dropped in on some old CNN friends and USC journalism alumnus Andrew Henstock, senior international editor in the CNN Hong Kong bureau.

* The long farewells have started for a trio of retiring (not their demeanor) faculty in the College. Nearly 200 friends and fans of Dr. Dan Barron turned the Russell House ballroom into a luau for the outgoing (in every sense) director of the School of Library and Information Science. Dan will be wearing his Hawaiian shirts in the North Carolina mountains come fall.

* Another 100 tipped their hats, but not the boat, on a Lake Murray cruise to send off Journalism School Professors Pat McNeely and Beth Dickey. The cruise notwithstanding, Pat and Beth will be staying closer to Columbia.

* Summer sessions are under way. Dr. Samantha Hastings, incoming director of the Library School, was on campus last weekend to welcome new students starting their masters program. Sam will officially become director on August 1.

* SAVE THE DATE: Homecoming Weekend 2006, "Rock On Carolina: A Tribute to Gamecock Pride", November 3-4. The College's Alumni Society is planning another kickin' good time and we hope you'll make plans to join us. Stay tuned for more details!

If you have some exciting news to share about alumni of either School, please email Cindy Kellett, Director of Development for the College, at kellett@sc.edu.

More info about more things, as always, on www.sc.edu/cmcis. If you have an address, phone, email or job change, send those to Elaine Taylor at etaylor@sc.edu.

Sincerely,

Charles Bierbauer
Dean