School of Communication Director Michael Wirth will be saying goodbye to the University of Denver, after calling it home for 29 years, to turn over a new leaf at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he will become dean at the Tennessee’s College of Communication and Information. Wirth will be leaving his position at the end of the academic year.
Although Tennessee has had a communication department, the college was created in 2002 after a rearrangement of public relations, journalism, broadcast and communication studies departments.
In a decision that Wirth calls “bittersweet,” he will be internally managing Tennessee’s reputable communications department, spending a great deal of time fundraising and representing the college alumni, donors, friends and media.
Although the opportunity is an exciting one for Wirth, he said it wasn’t an easy decision to make. Wirth leaves behind an extensive career at DU that included serving in positions as professor and chair of the Department of Mass Communications and Journalism Studies as well as an adjunct professor of law in College of Law and a senior fellow of the Magness Institute for Cable Telecommunications.
“Leaving is hard, but you look back and you feel a sense of accomplishment,” explained Wirth. These accomplishments include creating joint programs in communications with the School of Art and Graduate School of International Studies, creating a degree (both bachelor’s and master’s) in digital media studies and international communication, overseeing the development of the Cable Center and creating the Edward W. Estlow Center for Journalism and New Media.
Under his leadership, the School of Communication was formed in October 1991, currently serving about 350 majors. When Wirth took over, there was only a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mass communications.
“Now we’re a lot more complicated,” he explained. But for Wirth, complication means a richer curriculum and a wider variety in a choice of degrees and study.
The School of Communication has nearly doubled in size on both the undergraduate and graduate level, partly due to those reasons. “There’s a real spirit and desire to innovate and build interesting and exciting programs,” he said.
Wirth’s parting wish for the school is to see communications facilities housed in a new building. At the present some of the classes are conducted in Sturm Hall while the majority are in an old building at 2490 S. Gaylord St.
Wirth received his B.A. in journalism from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a M.A. in television and radio and a Ph.D. in mass media from University of Michigan. Among his most memorable experiences are attending the School of Communication Summits each year, co-editing and co-authoring three books and meeting a variety of media bigwigs including Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch and Peter Jennings. But his favorite aspect of the university was forming relationships in the school and seeing the school flourish in growth.
“Any success is due to great faculty, great staff and great students,” said Wirth.
