Journalism education was first introduced at UMass in 1915 by Robert Wilson Neal, one of the founding members of the Assn. Instruction was offered through courses by several professors in the English Department from 1946-1970. Howard Ziff facilitated the move of journalism into a separate degree program called Journalistic Studies (later called the Journalism Department) in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. Early chairs included Prof. Larry Pinkham and Prof. Jim Boylan. Norm Sims was chair for 13 years, ending in 2005. In 2005, the Journalism Department was moved into the Department of Communication in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and its status changed to a program within that Department. Since 2005, Prof. Karen List has been Director of the Journalism Program. In 2013, Journalism was returned to department status and Prof. Kathy Forde was hired to start running the department in Fall 2014. The Journalism Department also moved into the Integrative Learning Center in the summer of 2014. As of Fall 2017, Prof. Brian McDermott is the Journalism Department Chair.
