As students taking summer classes in the Coliseum may have noticed, journalism faculty and staff are preparing to begin the next school year in their new facilities, located conveniently on the Horseshoe.
"So far everyone seems to be really excited about the new building, and I think we’re all really looking forward to moving to a well-lit, beautiful piece of campus," public relations professor Jeffrey Ranta said. "We’re moving back to the Horseshoe, which will be exciting, and we’ll also be much closer to Russell House and all of the activities that are going on on campus.”
The journalism school's current home has been the Carolina Coliseum ever since the building was erected in 1968. Since the late 1990s however, increased university enrollment has prompted university administrators to consider the future of the journalism program and the resources it had at its disposal.
“I think part of it was the opportunity to upgrade everything," Ranta said. "We’re going to have a gorgeous, brand new TV studio, a gorgeous atrium that’s two stories tall. We’re melding a historical part of the Horseshoe with new technology. The old greenhouses are going to be a new studio, which is going to be just beautiful. I think from the perspective of automation in the classroom, we’re going to have a lot more opportunities to use that technology, and I think that we’ll also be excited to not feel cast-off."
What Ranta is referring to are the isolating characteristics that come with the location of the Coliseum being across Assembly Street.
"Up until the new Moore school went up, it was really just us and the HRTM school, so it’s just nice to be a bit closer to everybody else,” Ranta said.
“The good news was, we always knew we were safe from tornadoes, down in the Coliseum,” he added with a laugh.
Though the new facility will offer state-of-the-art amenities, there are still concerns being voiced over some of the common problems with being located in the center of campus.
“I think that we’re still gonna have the same problem that everyone has, and that parking’s going to be a challenge," Ranta said. "We’re all going to have to become better at public transportation, but I think it’s a minor adjustment considering the payoff.”
The new building will offer 55,000 square feet of space, compared to the currently-used 30,000 square feet in the Coliseum. Additionally, the move will place the school closer to its sister institution, the School of Library and Information Science, which will place the two schools the closest they've been to each other since their merging in 2002.
The building will be completed for the beginning of the 2015 academic year.