Charlotte Grimes Out as J-Head at Hampton
Charlotte Grimes, a former national correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who was brought in two years ago to head Hampton University’s Department of Mass Media Arts when the Scripps Howard Foundation committed $2.3 million for the development of journalism at the school, this week was ousted as head of the program.
“I am not the director. I am not the head of the program anymore,” Grimes told Journal-isms. “There were fundamental differences between me and the president over the mission, the vision and what we should teach and my role in it.”
Hampton President William R. Harvey named Rosalynne (Roz) Whitaker-Heck , who teaches in the department, as director of the new school of journalism on an interim basis. “There is no more department of journalism and communication,” Harvey told Journal-isms. “I just named a director of the new school. There will be a nationwide search for a director to head the school. Anybody may apply. We expect this school is going to be one of the top 10 journalism schools in the country.”
Of the significance of his naming Whitaker-Heck, not Grimes, to head it, Harvey said, “Somebody is trying to make something out of nothing.”
Said Grimes: “I’m considering what I really want to do about journalism and teaching.”
The arrival of Grimes at Hampton was considered significant in that she came from the mainstream media, unlike many who head journalism departments at historically black colleges and universities. Grimes had been director of the Scripps Howard Foundation’s Semester in Washington program, and with her appointment, also became the first recipient of the Scripps Howard Professorship of Journalism. Before the Semester in Washington program, Grimes was a visiting assistant professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and before that was at the Post-Dispatch.
Grimes said she was proud of what she had accomplished in the last two years. She said she revised the curriculum to reflect “professional skills and high standards.” She is teaching an ethics course this year, she said, and wanted students to have an appreciation of the theory of communications law and ethics. All students were required to take courses in multicultural reporting, online reporting and entrepreneurship. Grimes said she believed the two basic skills in life – for journalists as well as non-journalists — were reporting and writing.
Just Tuesday, the same day Harvey’s appointment of the interim director was made, the Daily Press in Hampton Roads, Va., wrote about the school.
“Today, as HU students start a new academic year, some will begin using the $5.7 million building funded by the corporate foundation of the E.W. Scripps Co., a media company and the ninth-largest newspaper publisher in the country,” the story said.
“Grimes thinks HU will attract more students as the new building becomes a selling point. Every year, HU graduates about 80 students from its media programs, which include concentrations in print and broadcast journalism, advertising, public relations and media management. About 300 students, from sophomores to seniors, are enrolled in those programs. ‘I think this is going to be a great recruitment tool,’ Grimes said. ‘Of course, what goes on in a building is more important than the building itself. But it’s always great to have state-of-the-art facilities. It’s conducive to good teaching and learning.’ “
The article noted that Hampton University was planning. a week-long series of events starting Sept. 23 to celebrate the opening of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications. Events will include an alumni gathering, workshops for students and events for media professionals. The event’s ribbon cutting and festival will be open to the public on Wednesday, Sept. 25, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Scripps Howard building.
