DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Thomas Kovach, head of the German studies department, sits at his desk yesterday afternoon after President Pete Likins announced possible mergers.

Media arts may move from College of Fine Arts to join journalism, communication

When Michael Dues, head of the communication department, read the list of proposed mergers and reconstructions, he saw exactly what he wanted.

Not only was the department of communication spared from a merger, but it was also included in a proposal to create a new college focused on "communication, journalism, and the media."

No immediate action will be taken to combine communication and journalism because President Pete Likins said too little is known about the complexities.

"You're not going to have a president and a provost go into a dark room and come out with an idea," he said.

However, Likins and Provost George Davis have asked the dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences to examine the viability of a new college with the help of faculty members from across campus.

"I see everything as an opportunity for us to develop a cutting-edge curriculum, to do some very aggressive fundraising, and make this college one of the leaders in this area," said Jacqueline Sharkey, head of the journalism department.

Although administrators focused mainly on communication and journalism as the foundations for a new college, they did say media arts might join the two.

In the proposals to reorganize various programs on campus, the future of media arts at UA was left hanging. Administrators said they were unsure where media arts belongs among colleges that currently exist.

It does not make sense to incorporate media arts into the college of fine arts, where it currently resides, said media arts administrative associate Toni Dorame. But media arts, communication and journalism fit together well, she said.

In addition to including media arts in the new college, Sharkey and Dues said they would also like to see the School of Information Resources and Library Science join the effort.

"There's no question that SIRLS fits into this initiative," Sharkey said.

However, whether SIRLS will be included in plans for a new college is uncertain.

Last week administrators targeted SIRLS for possible elimination.

Brook Sheldon, director of SIRLS, said she had hoped her school would be listed with journalism and communication in the proposals for reorganization.

"I'm not sure what that (exclusion means), but the president and the provost have said they'd like to see us more self-sustaining," she said.

Library science graduate students sat silently at the press conference yesterday adorned with yellow ribbons and "Save SIRLS" stickers to declare their support for the library science school.

Tony Olivas, president of the Library Students' Organization, said that she would support combining SIRLS with communication and journalism if it were the only way to save her school.

"I just want to see us survive," she said.

For Dues, the future of SIRLS fits into the vision he has for his own department.

"Why not save SIRLS and put them into (a new college)?" he said.

Dues has been hoping administrators would give the go-ahead for a new college since the mid-1990s, but he still urges people to be cautious about the new proposal.

He said last week that creating a new college would require major investments from outside donors. At universities where similar colleges have recently been opened, donations have sometimes exceeded $100 million.

"The devil's in the details," he said. "It excites me as long as we can put together our own proposal and not make it seem as if it's just slapped together."

Aaron Mackey contributed to this report.