Topic: College of Communication Information and Media

March 18, 2009

Marilyn Weaver is the Scripps Howard Foundation's journalism administrator of the year, but she credits her fellow faculty and staff at Ball State University for the honor.
 
Weaver, chair of Ball State' journalism department and a longtime faculty member, will receive $10,000 and the Charles E. Scripps award. Ball State also receives a $5,000 grant. The award is given in cooperation with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
 
"I have faculty and staff who are very loyal and supportive," she said. "That's how I've been able to accomplish anything. None of us can do these things alone. So it's not about me. I couldn't begin to be successful on my own."


Among her achievements, Weaver helped start the Ingelhart News Scholars  to attract bright, passionate students and J-Ideas to increase First Amendment awareness among high school students and principals.
 
Terry King, Ball State's provost and vice president for academic affairs, said Weaver is the guiding force behind the success of the Department of Journalism and its many publications.
 
"Marilyn is a skilled administrator who has consistently demonstrated the importance of the freedom of the press both to her students and the university community at large," he said. "She is known for challenging her students and faculty and holding them to the highest standards, while also being innovative in the use of journalism pedagogy and technological advances. Scripps Howard couldn't have picked a more fitting winner."
 
Roger Lavery, dean of Ball State's College of Communication, Information, and Media, describes Weaver as a tireless leader who inspires faculty and staff by her many contributions to journalism education at both the secondary and college levels.
 
"Chairs like Marilyn Weaver make a dean's job considerably easier, since they set clear goals for their departments and can be counted on to reach and exceed those lofty goals in a timely manner," he said. 

In a nominating letter from Frederick Blevins of Florida International University and Daniel Waechter, Ball State assistant professor of journalism, Weaver is credited with bringing the university's journalism program and its students to the apex of communication education.
 
Along with advising an award-winning collegiate yearbook, overseeing a curriculum revision that joined telecommunications and journalism news courses, Weaver developed a summer high school journalism program — her proudest achievement.
 
"I see that as a trickle down," Weaver said. "You know, they came to Ball State, they got excited about journalism, and I hope that was infectious with other students at their schools or their advisers."
 
The Scripps Howard Foundation's annual National Journalism Awards honors the best in print, Web and electronic journalism and journalism education in 2008. The awards will be presented April 24 during a dinner at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

By Marc Ransford, Senior Communications Strategist