Journalism School Places 50 Graduates Each Year
BY JOHNNY HERRINGTON
About 50 University journalism school graduates are placed each year on newspapers, magazines and radio stations throughout the country by the school placement bureau.
Since the fall of 1941, when Elmer F. Beth, professor of journalism, took over as chairman of the placement service about 500 journalism graduates have been placed by the bureau.
Ever though job placings have been relatively easy in recent years, there never was a real problem of placing graduates with good records, Mr. Beth said.
The bureau places graduates in both news and advertising fields of work. And, according to Mr. Beth, neither field seems to predominate over the other.
"Any graduate who had done even a fair job while he was here could be placed with little difficulty," Mr. Betch said. "And in recent years, we've been able to place almost everyone."
In the news side, the agency puts graduates on newspapers as reporters, reporter-photographers, telegraph editors and in certain specialty
Students also are placed on trade journals and industrial publications. During the war, several graduates went directly into press association jobs. This situation has changed somewhat since the war.
As well as being placed as advertising solicitors for newspapers, advertising graduates are put in advertising jobs on trade journals and specialized publications. They also are found jobs as advertising managers for department stores and in public relations work.
Graduates of both sides of the journalism field are put into positions in radio stations.
jobs such as sports, society and women's editors.
The only real difficulty met in finding jobs for students, he said, is when they request a job in a certain area of the country. In such a case the applicant will probably have to find his own job.
But even then, the bureau, with a great number of contacts all over the country, can help in placing the graduate.
Much of the success of the placement bureau can be attributed to the close contact the agency keeps with journalism school graduates.
A complete card file is kept on each graduate. After he leaves the University and a job opening appears, he can be contacted by the bureau and informed of the opening.
"A lot of our success." Mr. Beth said, "comes from our honest recommendations. If a student was a poor one while he was here, we tell the prospective employer." At the same time the bureau does its best to place every job-hunting graduate of the school.
Mr. Beth started working with placements at the University of Idaho in 1930. In his 10 years there, he helped about 80 graduates find jobs. He came to the University in 1940 and was appointed chairman of the placement bureau in 1941. In that time he has placed 500 students.
Beth Revised KU Journalism Program
Following in the footsteps of Prof. L. N. Flint, pioneer in journalism education, Prof. Elmer F. Beth mode a number of notable innovations and strides while serving as acting chairman of the department of journalism from 1941 to 1948.
Two major contributions were a new emphasis on laboratory-type, practical training in as many courses as possible and close integration of
Friday, Feb. 22, 1952 University Daily Kansas B—Page 3
Press Group Has Full Membership
The Kansas Press association, an organization of weekly and daily newspapers in Kansas, is the only state press association that has 100 per cent membership of the papers in its state.
Guiding light in the association's success has been Larry Miller, secretary-manager with offices in Topeka.
The KPA has improved the publishing and editing of Kansas newspapers by funneling helpful information through its channels.
The KPA led efforts to attain the "ideal" newspaper. It helped found the Kansas Historical society and establish the office of the state printer.
To promote national advertising for Kansas newspapers, the Kansas Press Service incorporated as a corporate institution, was begun by the KPA in 1945.
The KPA was one of four state associations represented at the establishment of Newspaper Advertising Service incorporated, a national organization to promote general advertising, especially in weekly newspapers.
Leonard McCalla, publisher of the Garnett Anderson Countian, is president of the KPA this year, Harry Valentine, editor and publisher of the Clay Center Dispatch, is vicepresident and Wharton Hoch, editor of the Marion Record-Review, is treasurer.
The Kansas Press Service signs only one contract for the entire list of newspapers at each paper's current national rate and writes and individual contracts with each advertising agency for the publisher.
H. A. Meyer Jr., past president, is a KU graduate. The first full-time secretary-manager, ejected in 1938, Rusco, who is also a KU graduate.
This service saves both time and money for the advertiser and the publisher.
The University Daily Kansan is a member of the second district of the KPA, which includes Douglas, Johnson, Franklin, Anderson, Linn, Allen, Bourbon, Miami and Wyandotte counties.
journalism education at the University with the humanities and the liberal arts.
Wherever possible, Professor Beth revised courses to include actual practice at the skills involved in the courses. For example, he pointed out, Editing I was primarily a discussion course in 1940, when he came to the University from the University of Idaho.
Another function developed by Professor Beth was the job placement system for graduates.
He and Thomas C. Ryther, assistant professor of journalism and superintendent of the University of Kansas Press, visited the buildings of schools and departments of journalism on five university campuses to supplement their ideas on quantification of journalism and the University Press Man on their observations were applied in the final plans for the new building.
nalism occupied Jan. 25 of this year
The department soon set up laboratory procedure, under which the students actually checked news stories for accuracy, clarity, organization and other factors making for good news writing, and then wrote headlines and made up pages.
As Professor Beth took steps to integrate journalism closely with the humanities and liberal arts, he personally became involved in some of the innovations such as Western Civilization. He is a member of the faculty committee responsible for planning and administering the Western Civilization course.
The first actual steps toward laying out and construction of the new journalism building took place during Professor Beth's administration as acting chairman.
Practice in setting type was added to History and Art of Printing, and students in Reporting of Public Affairs were required to work a certain number of hours each week on daily newspapers in this area. A course in Retail Advertising was set up with the University Daily Kansan as the laboratory in which students serviced retail advertising accounts in Lawrence.
He made the first rough drafts of the floor plan for remodeled Fowler Shops, which the School of Jour-
This system, which he started working out in 1941, is operating smoothly today and has as its principal feature a "perpetual inventory" card on which is recorded detailed information about each graduate. The key to the system is constant contact with each graduate.
In June, 1948, the School of Journalism was accredited by the American Council on Education for Journalism after an exhaustive investigation of facilities, faculties and course offerings by questionnaire and personal visitation.
Professor Beth is secretary-treasurer of the Association for Education in Journalism, the Association of Accredited Schools and Departments of Journalism and the American Society of Journalism School Administrators.
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ONE-TIME ACTING DIRECTOR—One of the leaders in the move to modernize the journalism curriculum has been Prof. Elmer F. Beth. He served as acting director of the department of journalism from 1941 to 1948.-Kansan photo by Jim Murray.
KU Serves As Headquarters For U.S. Journalistic Training
The national executive center for college training in journalism is in the new Journalism building, the office of Elmer F. Beth, professor of journalism.
Mr. Beth is secretary-treasurer of three national associations and is director of a national teacher-placement bureau maintained by the associations. He has been re-elected annually since he took office in 1948.
The Association for Education in Journalism is the largest of the groups and has about 500 college teachers as individual members besides two societies which are coordinate institution members.
During the five years, the bureau has job openings for more than a hundred colleges and universities—
The other is the American Society of Journalism School Administrators, a group of 23 schools most of which have not been accredited.
One of the latter is the Association of Accredited Schools and Departments of Journalism made up of the 40 schools which have been accredited as professional schools by the American Council on Education for Journalism.
The AEJ Placement bureau was founded in 1947, and Professor Beth has directed it since 1948. The bureau is a central clearing house for most college teaching jobs in most public relations, public relations, About a hundred teachers a year register as job prospects.
jobs ranging from instructorships to deanships. All the direct-mail promotion, correspondence, data collection, record-keeping, and financial work is done here.
As secretary-treasurer of AEJ, AASDJ and ASJA斯. Professor Beth collects all membership dues, keeps funds for the Journalism Quarterly (a professional journal supported by the associations), answers about ten business a day, advises other officers, prepares briefed materials including that required in joint convention, acts as convention registrar and secretary, and writes the convention proceedings for official publication.
In 1948, the name was changed to Association of Accredited Schools and Departments of Journalism after announcement had been made of the 34 schools which had been accredited for the first time; the University of Kansas was on that list.
The University of Kansas has been a member of AASDJ since it was founded in 1917 as the American Association of Schools and Departments of Journalism.
The accrediting agency, the American Council of Education for Journalism, is a body of five educator
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Journalism School Equipped With New Underwood Deluxe Rhythm Shift Standard Typewriters
Known the world over for its ease of operation and durability. The newly designed Underwood will contribute to the speed and efficiency of the Daily Kansan staff.
We are happy to have had a part in the redesigning of the new William Allen White School of Journalism.
CRANE & CO. Inc.
643 Mass.
Lawrence
Phone 501