The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

J-School nixes summer workshops

J-School+nixes+summer+workshops

The University of Iowa summer journalism workshops are being discontinued this year.

By Alyssa Guzman

[email protected]

Summer journalism workshops have been on campus for 63 years. There won’t be a 64th.

The University of Iowa’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication will have to find a new director as well as solutions to budgetary issues before the programs are put back into action.

“We are putting these workshops on a very brief one-year hiatus,” said David Ryfe, director of the journalism school.

UI research assistant Dave Schwartz has been directing and running the workshops for the past eight years, but his contract is up. (Disclosure: Schwartz is also the sports coach for The Daily Iowan.)

Directing the program was part of Schwartz’s full-time job from 2007 to 2012. Afterwards, he signed a three-year contract to continue it from 2013 to 2015.

Ryfe said Schwartz and an assistant have run the program as long as Ryfe has been director.

“[Journalism school administrator] Becky Kick and I are relatively new to our roles,” Ryfe said. “Therefore, neither Becky nor I have had much time to learn about the program and its goals.”

Ryfe hopes the yearlong hiatus will allow other people to learn about the workshop program and continue to run it as effectively as in the past. 

“We need to learn more about the program,” he said. “When it started, what its goals were [and are], what community of students it serves and is intended to serve, how it is structured and run, how its budget works, and so on.”

Financial issues were another factor in the discontinuation. The workshops became too expensive and went over budget.

Ryfe said he also hopes to work to keep the budget within set boundaries during the break.

“The program has experienced a few budgetary issues the past year or so, which is all the more reason for us to take a year and learn about the program and where it needs to go in the future,” he said.

As costs go up, the need for students to enroll has become more of a priority. Enrollment has been down a bit in the workshops over the past few years.

Jonathan Rogers, an educator who has sent his students to the UI workshops for years, has been a part of the journalism workshops for the last seven years and serves as president of the Iowa High School Press Association.

Rogers said he has sent two to 10 students to the camps every year. Despite the decrease in enrollment, Rogers still thinks the program is very important.

“The Iowa summer camps have been an important educational opportunity for my students,” he said. “From design to writing to digital media, the camp elevated students’ abilities.”

Michael Geheren, a student at the University of South Dakota and the online editor of USD’s Volante, said he attended the UI summer workshops for three consecutive summers when he was in high school.

“It helped me in a couple of different ways,” Geheren said. “It helped prepare me for collegiate journalism well before I was even in college, and it also gave me a lot of connections.”

Though Geheren didn’t attend the UI after attending the workshops, some believe the camps serve as an effective recruiting tool.

Natalie Niemeyer, a teacher at East High School in Des Moines, taught sports writing at last summer’s workshops. She also sends her high-school students to the camps.

“I think the workshops were a huge recruiting tool for the university,” she said. “Of the 20 kids that I have taken to camp over the last five years, I know at least five of them have ended up as students at [the UI]. Kids really fall in love with the campus while they are at camp.”

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