Journalism Center at Maryland

Knight Foundation Gift to Establish Journalism Center at Maryland

A multifaceted center to house some of America’s most important journalism programs and publications will be part of a future new journalism building at the University of Maryland. University and foundation officials have announced a lead gift of $3 million to establish the John S. and James L. Knight Journalism Center at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

The lead challenge grant from the Miami-based Knight Foundation, to be paid over four years, helps the Merrill College of Journalism move a step closer to a proposed new, $30 million home.

The Knight Center is expected to be a hub of journalism activity at Maryland, bringing under one roof several programs now scattered across the College Park campus. The center will house the college’s national monthly magazine, American Journalism Review, double the space for the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, and will include a state-of-the-art conference room training facility for use by working journalists.

The Knight Center will also be home for theCasey Journalism Center on Children and Families, the Hubert Humphrey Journalism Fellows, and the College’s Journalism Fellowships in Child and Family Policy program. It will include offices for the National Association of Black Journalists (now located in college space off campus), the American Association for Sunday and Feature Editors and Knight Chair in Journalism Haynes Johnson. The college also hopes to attract a number of other headquarters offices of national organizations representing journalists of color.

"Our faculty see this Journalism Center as the creative spark that can unlock the full potential of this place," said Merrill College Dean Thomas Kunkel. "The Knight Journalism Center can be the engine that drives the networking, professional development and training and the improvement of journalism education here."

The grant is expected to help the Merrill College and the University of Maryland raise an additional $7 million from private sources, which university officials believe will encourage the State of Maryland to move up a new journalism building on its construction priority list. The college currently operates from a building constructed in 1957, with its broadcast news program and several of its professional centers and fellowship programs scattered in nearby satellite office space.