The Phoenix

Issue date: 11/19/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Zayil Cuaya Dean Donald Heider in front of The Clare in Chicago

It didn't take long for the tables to turn. Students who came to meet new School of Communication Dean Don Heider, Ph.D., and ask questions about the school were soon answering Heider's questions. The event, hosted by Beta Rho, Loyola's communication honors society, was a chance for students to learn about the new School of Communication, but nearly half of the time Heider asked the students questions.

"I appreciated the fact that the new dean wanted to hear back from the students and have them share and talk to him," freshman advertising and public relations major Lizzy Mack said. 

Before the event, the Phoenix had a chance to ask Heider a few questions. 

Phoenix: You've taught at multiple universities all over the country. What, from your experiences at those schools, would you like to bring to Loyola's new School of Communication? 

Don Heider: I mean, what's funny is there's no model I would try to take and impose on Loyola. I think what you try to do, having taught at American, Ole Miss, University of Colorado, University of Texas and Maryland is you sort of draw good ideas from all of them. Then you try to bring those good ideas to bear on what's good here. So what I'm trying to do is bring some ideas, but also, sort of harness the faculty that's here.

There's been a Department of Communication here for a long time, and it's sort of grown and added people. I mean, that was the other thing that appealed to me about launching a new school. It seems to me the perfect time to be launching a School of Communication because the industry, all the industries - are going through a revolution.

I mean there hasn't been a bigger change in communication in … probably since Guttenberg, honestly, because when we introduced television there was a change. But it wasn't this big of a change.

It's changed everything. It's the way you talk to your friends. IM and e-mail has completely changed the way we communicate interpersonally. It's completely changed journalism and how we're getting information through the Internet. It's changed advertising.

So it's a perfect time to be rethinking how we're teaching these things, and are we still pertinent? Just doing everything the way we've done it for the last 50 or 100 years probably isn't the best approach.

Continued...

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