Stone Urges School of Communications at N.C. Central

By Courtnee Rascoe and Rony Camille
Black College Wire

Veteran journalist Chuck Stone, brainstorming with English and mass communication faculty, recommended that North Carolina Central University's communications major be developed into an independent department and then into a school of communications.

Photo credit: Wyconda Sanders/Campus Echo Chuck Stone speaks in the Campus Echo office, as Editor Lovemore Masakadza listens.

�They should incorporate courses that leading schools, such as Northwestern, Missouri and UNC have. Courses like media law, constitutional law and magazine writing,� Stone said as he met with the instructors in the departments' faculty lounge.

Stone, the Walter Spearman Professor at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and first president of the National Association of Black Journalists, visited North Carolina Central at the invitation of Chancellor James H. Ammons and Provost Lucy J. Reuben.

Stone said he was impressed with the direction the university was taking in improving the mass communication department, but he said the program had a long way to go.

�You have a good chancellor. He has good vision, and he is in the right track. You will see some changes because he has vision for changes,� said Stone.

Department of English Chair Louise C. Maynor said the faculty learned a lot. Bruce dePyssler, Campus Echo adviser and associate professor, was also impressed.

�Chuck Stone has a wealth of experience to bring to the table. He had a lot of useful suggestions,� said dePyssler.

Courtnee Rascoe and Rony Camille, students at North Carolina Central University, write for The Campus Echo.

Posted March 1, 2004