A $400,000 donation from the Leader-Post Foundation, which was dissolved earlier this year, will establish a new teaching Chair at the University of Regina School of Journalism.
The donation represents a legacy honouring the educational mandate of the Foundation, which was founded more than 30 years ago with a board of community leaders and representatives from the newspaper.
“It’s a huge vote of confidence for not just the J School but for journalism,” said Mark Taylor, Department Head of the School of Journalism. “We’re certainly grateful that the Foundation board shares our passion for journalism and has chosen to support our school at a time when the industry is facing many challenges. To see this donation at this time truly shows how important journalism is.”
“The board chose to donate this money for one fundamental reason and that is to support to the largest extent possible, the development, through the U of R Journalism School, of trained journalists in print and electronic media,” said Bill Johnson, a Regina lawyer and founding member of the board.
“Now more than ever, it’s fundamentally important to our democratic institutions and the function of our democracy to graduate journalists who are experts in presenting impartial news,” Johnson added.
After over 30 years of operations, the Leader-Post Foundation recently dissolved and the donation to the Journalism School represents the last of the Foundation’s remaining assets.
The responsibilities of the Chair will include developing and delivering new courses; teaching essential skills for students to become successful journalists; and updating and enhancing program delivery. Most important, the Chair will need to be a working journalist.
“Journalism is an industry that is changing quickly, so by having someone with that experience in how to navigate those challenges in today’s newsrooms will only benefit the next generation of journalists coming out of the J School,” Taylor said. “Hopefully, a working journalist will not just inspire young journalism students but teach them industry standard approaches and techniques so they can succeed.”
“The hope is by supporting the Journalism School, with the Chair, we in some way contribute to the ongoing success and allow the school to continue to meet its objectives,” said Janice Dockham, a long-time board member and former editor-in-chief of the Leader-Post “If this can help the School of Journalism sustain a portion of its program every year and continues to produce good solid well-rounded journalists, then we will have met our objective.”
