A full history of the Scripps College of Communication was published in the Winter 2006 issue of Ohio Today.

1808
The Rev. Jacob Lindley (right) begins teaching logic and rhetoric, two early communication study areas. By 1889, related departments include Rhetoric and English, and Elocution.

1912
The School of Oratory within the College of Liberal Arts is formed. It is renamed the Department of Public Speaking in 1916 to better reflect the curriculum. In 1945, the program is moved to the College of Fine Art’s School of Dramatic Art and Speech, which includes the areas of Dramatic Art, Radio, Speech and Speech Correction.

1923
Raymond Slutz, an assistant professor and Ohio University alumnus, offers the university’s first journalism courses, in the English department.

1924
George Starr Lasher (right) is hired as director of the new Department of Journalism. Part of the College of
Liberal Arts, the program offers such courses as news reporting and editing, and magazine writing.

1925
Students begin taking elective courses in which they report and edit copy for The Athens Messenger.

1936
The School of Journalism is created as part of the College of Commerce (now the College of Business) and is housed on the ground floor of Ewing Hall.

1947
The journalism program adds public relations to its sequences, which include newswriting and editing, feature and magazine writing, newspaper advertising, business management, radio journalism (in 1954, this becomes radio-TV journalism) and pictorial journalism.

1949
WOUI-FM debuts, becoming the third FM college station in the nation. The station later evolves into WOUB, which today is among numerous
communication outlets operated by the WOUB Center for Public Media, formerly the Telecommunications Center.

1968
The College of Communication is established. It includes the schools of Journalism, Hearing and Speech Sciences (moves to College of Health and Human Services in 1979), Interpersonal Communication and Radio-Television (both had been part of the College of Fine Arts and become schools when the new college is established), and the Center for Communication Studies. The first dean is John Wilhelm, a former World War II correspondent who was among the first reporters to cover D-Day.

1970
The schools of Radio-Television and Journalism move into the new $4.1 million Radio-Television Building.

1978
The School of Journalism and the College of Fine Arts cooperate to create the Institute for Visual Communication, which becomes a school within the College of Communication in 1986.

1980
The Center for Communication Management is created. Five years later, it is designated a school, and in 1988 it becomes the J. Warren McClure School of Communication Systems Management to recognize the contributions of the Ohio University alumnus and former Gannett Co. executive. The youngest of the schools in the college and the first of its kind in the state, it is renamed the J. Warren McClure School of Information and Telecommunication Systems in 2006.

1982
The Scripps Howard Foundation
provides a $1.5 million endowment, and the School of Journalism is renamed the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.

The foundation had supported the School of Journalism and its students since the 1960s, but 1982 is the pivotal year in the relationship between the two entities. Of internships and visiting professionals provided by Scripps, former school Director Ralph Izard says, “Our students got experience that would not have been available to them otherwise.”

1983
The School of Radio-Television becomes the School of Telecommunications, today one of the largest programs of its kind in the United States.

The Associated Press Managing Editors Association names the Scripps School of Journalism one of 10 outstanding journalism schools in the country. Additional national recognition for the college includes five winners of the College Photographer of the Year award since 1978 and 25 Pulitzer Prizes won by its alums.

1984
The renovation of Carnegie Hall into Scripps Hall begins. In 1986, the school moves into the renovated building.

1988
Charles Scripps donates his grandfather’s papers to the university.

School of Visual Communication researchers are the first to digitally transmit an electronic still image from computer to computer for use in a daily newspaper.

1998
The new Scripps Survey Research Center allows results
of student-conducted public opinion polls to
be distributed worldwide by Scripps.

2003
The School of Interpersonal Communication, which has been recognized with top 10 rankings for its organizational and health communication doctoral programs, changes its name to the School of Communication Studies.

2005
The Telecommunications Center changes its name to the WOUB Center for Public Media. The center houses WOUB Radio and Television; the Ohio University Learning Network (OULN) in partnership with Regional Higher Education; Media Distribution, which includes the station's cable channel WOUB II; Interactive Services (such as Wired for Books); “Family Health” in partnership with the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine; Student Professional Development; and other services.

2006
The Game Research and Immersive Design Lab, or GRID Lab, opens to provide research and access to interactive digital game technology.

As the new Baker University Center prepared to open, the former center location goes to the college, which is determining whether the building should be renovated or a new facility constructed. Greg Shepherd, dean of the college, says, “The facility will let us take advantage of ways our programs increasingly cut across old boundaries.”

2008
The School of Telecommunications becomes the School of Media Arts and Studies to better reflect the undergraduate program's primary focus on the collaborative, creative industries.