MTSU’s College of Mass Communication is welcoming a veteran First Amendment scholar as its new dean.
Dr. Roy L. Moore, the current associate vice president for academic affairs at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Ga., and former executive director of the First Amendment Center at the University of Kentucky, is traveling back and forth to Murfreesboro this summer for meetings, house-hunting excursions and development discussions before he assumes his new post Sept. 1.
“I was attracted to MTSU by the mission and accomplishments of the College of Mass Communication and its potential for growth, as it continues to build on its successful undergraduate and graduate programs,” Moore says. “I was particularly impressed by the quality of its students, faculty and staff.
“The college has so many programs and areas in which I have a strong interest and experience. It is gratifying to see so many of them in the same college: the three academic units (recording industry, journalism and electronic media communication), graduate studies, two great radio stations, the Office of Communication Research and the Seigenthaler Chair (of Excellence in First Amendment Studies). It is unusual to find so many of these elements, all in one college.”
Moore replaces Dr. Anantha S. Babbili, who left the mass comm deanship last fall after five years to become the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Associate Dean John Omachonu has served as interim dean during the 10-month national search process.
“We are so pleased to have Dr. Moore joining us,” says Dr. Kaylene Gebert, MTSU executive vice president and provost. “He has extensive experience in academic leadership and management as a faculty member, director, dean, and associate vice president.
“Dr. Moore has a law degree, in addition to a Ph.D. in mass communication, and is a certified mediator and arbitrator as well as a licensed attorney. He has worked with master’s and doctoral programs and served as a faculty trustee on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees. ... We expect great progress from the College of Mass Communication as they pursue their strategic plans under his leadership.”
Moore, a veteran academic administrator who also has taught communications since 1974, notes that he wants to move the college’s academic programs toward even greater national and international prominence. One of the major steps in that effort, he says, is preparing for re-accreditation in 2011 by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
“All of our programs must be essential to the central mission of the university and play a key role in the success of MTSU,” Moore says. “We do that by retaining and hiring the best faculty members, recruiting outstanding students and attracting external resources to allow the college to progress even further. We can continue to be seen as one of the premier colleges of mass communication, as a result.”
The new dean adds that encouraging and supporting faculty and staff development in the college is a key to a great working and learning environment for students.
“It really rejuvenates you, as a professor, when you walk into the classroom with cutting-edge ideas, knowledge and information,” he says. “We have to be flexible and adaptable and know the market for our students because it is always changing … So many career opportunities today are in specialized media. We want our graduates to be prepared as effective communicators across the mass media.”
Before joining GSCU, Moore served as associate dean in the University of Kentucky College of Communications and Information Studies for 12 years. His primary teaching areas are media law and ethics, regulation of strategic communication, and media law and public policy. He has also taught honors courses and has taught an international media course four times in London.
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