UO 101: History of the School of Journalism and Communication

A timeline and images can be found here.

 Exactly 110 years ago, in the spring of 1912, President Prince L. Campbell sent a letter to a young editor, Eric W. Allen, to visit the University of Oregon and solve its lack of journalism training on campus. This very correspondence is what inspired the School of Journalism and Communication.

1912
After Allen attended the university in the spring of 1912, President Campbell was impressed with Allen’s ideas and requested that he begin the journalism department at the university in the fall of 1912. The SOJC, then known as the School of Journalism, was formally founded in 1916, with a mere four students in the first graduating class of 1916.

1916–1946
From 1916 to a 1946 Old Oregon article celebrating the first thirty years of the school’s success, many milestone moments took place: advertising classes started to be offered (1917), the first female faculty members were hired (1922), a new journalism building was built (1923), and the J-school began to receive national recognition.

1950
Numerous pieces of new technology have been introduced to the SOJC over the past century, one being a campus radio station. In 1950, the J-school started KDUX, which allowed SOJC students to gain experience in the field.

1954
The era of “Shackdom” came to an end in 1954 with the completion of Allen Hall. From 1912 to 1954, early journalism students studied in McClure Hall; the self-proclaimed “Shack Rats” worked on the Oregon Daily Emerald in the wooden structure next door. McClure Hall became so run down and crowded by the mid-1940s that it was replaced by Quonset Hut, and later Allen Hall, which became the home of the SOJC in 1954.


With over 17,000 alumni, the SOJC has evolved from a few classes in 1912 to four undergraduate and six graduate programs in 2022, and the nationally recognized school is continuing to grow today .