The Department of Journalism celebrates its 100th anniversary

This year, the Department of Journalism, the oldest department within the College of Journalism and Communications, celebrated its 100th anniversary. For the past century, the department has grown from a single class in the basement of Anderson Hall into a robust network of 22 faculty and more than 550 students, all working together to mold the next generation of journalists and communicators.

“Our Journalism Department is still going strong after one hundred years. No one knows what the next hundred years will bring, but journalism has a bright future at UF,” said CJC Dean Hub Brown.

The Department of Journalism didn’t always look like this; it took a while for the department to find its home here at Weimer Hall. It can trace its roots back to 1916, when a graduate from the University of Missouri named Maxwell Newton Beeler began the first journalism course at UF, Agricultural Journalism. This course was moved to the College of Arts and Sciences in 1920, where it inspired the creation of another class in the form of Newspaper Writing. In 1925, the Department of Journalism was established with its inaugural class of students being taught by just one full-time professor: Orland Kay “O.K.” Armstrong. Three years later, the first journalism degrees were conferred to three students: William Jerrold Bulloch, Malcolm LaMar Fordham and Paul Rutherford Robertson.

The Department of Journalism changed hands a few times before finding the permanent home it has today. In 1927 it became part of the College of Business Administration and Journalism, but in 1933 it was moved back to the College of Arts and Sciences. In 1949, the department became its own independent entity known simply as the School of Journalism under the leadership of Rae O. Weimer. Finally, in 1968, the department found its final home when the school became the College of Journalism and Communications, and in 1980 the department moved to Weimer Hall. 

During the department’s formative years, several staples of the department and school today were established. In 1928, just three years after the department’s creation, WRUF-AM was established and began airing, making it not just one of the first university-run radio broadcasts, but the fifth oldest radio station in the state of Florida. Twenty years later, WRUF-FM would also be established following the success of the AM radio broadcast. 1958 saw the debut of WUFT-TV, providing students with a chance to get accustomed to television writing and broadcasting. All three entities are still on the air today alongside WUFT-FM, which launched in 1981.

By the 2000s, the Department of Journalism had become more than just another school at UF, growing into the equivalent of a teaching hospital for journalism. Students could receive hands-on instruction at a variety of different UF-run newsrooms dedicated to public and commercial radio, television and sports production. In 2010, under the direction of recently hired Division of Multimedia Properties Executive Director Randy Wright, a project aimed at combining these newsrooms into a shared space commenced. This project culminated in the 2012 opening of the Innovation News Center (INC), one of the most influential and significant events in the Department of Journalism’s recent history. The INC is a monument to what the department is today: a state-of-the-art hub of news and information that fosters positive student experiences, engagement and cooperation. In 2025 alone, nearly 400 students attended classes or worked in the INC, and the center’s growth shows no sign of stopping.

In 2025, previous department chair Ted Spiker left the position to become the CJC’s Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs, leaving the role of interim chair to Senior Lecturer of Journalism Harrison Hove. Under new leadership, the Department of Journalism prepares to make the next 100 years even better, embracing new technologies and meeting new student demands. Some of Hove’s first major goals were to enhance the Sports and Media curriculum, create more immersion experiences and internships, and expand the department’s outreach initiatives to raise interests in journalism among K-12 students.

“At a time when journalism is challenged by external forces, it is important we show younger generations the value of journalism in a democracy and the wide range of possibilities in this career field,” said Hove. “This engagement grows journalists and indirectly recruits cohorts of new students that will one day roam the halls of Weimer.”