Doors open at the SOJC’s George S. Turnbull Portland Center
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Construction and outfitting of the George S. Turnbull Portland Center’s temporary location at 2nd and Yamhill (at the current UO Portland Center) was completed last month, and a long-held vision of the UO School of Journalism and Communication is now a reality.
First on the center’s agenda is a visit, from Jackie Spinner, who recently served as the Washington Post’s bureau chief in Baghdad. Spinner, author of “Tell Them I Didn’t Cry,” a memoir of her experiences in Iraq, will visit with fellow journalists at the Turnbull Center on February 27. In April, the school will launch the pilot term for “Senior Experience,” an opportunity for a group of outstanding Eugene-based seniors to complete their public relations capstone classes at the Turnbull Center while managing paid internships at some of Portland’s top PR agencies and organizations.
The ultimate vision for the center is to draw on the school’s strengths in all professional areas. In addition to sponsoring lectures on current topics in journalism and seminars for working professionals, the center will offer courses leading to a master’s degree in strategic communication beginning in fall 2006.
The Center will inhabit the space at 2nd and Yamhill until 2007, when the university will move its entire Portland operation a much larger space in the historic White Stag Building in Northwest Portland. The move will expand the SOJC’s facilities from approximately 1,400 square feet to about 5,000 square feet.
The development of the Turnbull Center was made possible in part by 2 $4.5 million gifts to the school. The first, an anonymous gift, was part of a $6.5 Million gift made to the school in January of 2005; Business Wire CEO Lorry Lokey made the second gift, which named the center for George S. Turnbull, a longtime professor and former dean of the SOJC. Both gifts are contributions to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives, the University of Oregon’s $600 million fund-raising initiative.
