The University received permission from the State Board of Higher Education to create a new communication ethics graduate degree during a two-day meeting Thursday and Friday in La Grande. The Board also authorized the University to ask the state’s Legislative Emergency Board to establish funding caps for Hayward Field improvements and to increase funding limits for School of Music and Dance and EMU International Lounge renovations.
The new graduate certificate in Communication Ethics, to be offered by the School of Journalism and Communication, will initially serve two to four students per year beginning this fall. The program will be the first in the nation to offer a graduate level certificate in communication ethics, according to board documents.
Students “will exit this program with an ability to apply and teach both theoretical and applied ethical decision-making strategies covering a variety of media from print to broadcast journalism to advertising and public relations, including both message construction and multiple delivery systems associated with modern mass media,” according to meeting materials.
The board also approved requests to establish or change the limitations placed on three construction programs at the University.
The limitations are budget caps placed on projects by the Legislative Emergency Board and must be changed in order to spend and raise more money for a project, Oregon University
System spokeswoman Di Saunders said.
The board approved the University’s request to seek a $2 million increase to the School of Music’s initial $15.2 million renovation budget. The amount, as proposed in 2003, would be inadequate for finishing the project because of inflation and the rising costs associated with construction, said Brad Foley, dean of the School of Music. The planned renovations will add two new sections to the school’s building, totaling 29,000 square feet, and renovate older sections of the building.
The board also approved a similar request to seek an authorization from the Emergency Board for an $305,000 in bonds to renovate the EMU International Lounge.
The University is also now permitted to request a $7,390,000 budget cap for the Hayward Field Improvements Project, which will be entirely funded from gifts. The renovations will prepare the field for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team trials.
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