Park School Starts Russia Program

Park School dean Thomas Bohn and Park Distinguished Chair in Communications Chris Harper, in co operation with New York University and Rostov State University in Russia, obtained a $244,748 grant from the U.S. Department of State's Newly Independent States College and University Partnerships Program (NISCUPP) to create a joint journalism training institute. The three-year program enables academics and journalists from both countries to establish the program and its home at the Russian-American Journalism Institute in Rostov. Five Russian fellows are in Ithaca this semester as the first part of the program. Harper and other IC faculty members will teach in Rostov over the summer; other Park faculty will participate over the next two years.

"The program will be overwhelmingly practical in its orientation," says Bohn. "In addition to taking courses in writing and reporting, the Rostov faculty will visit newsrooms in the Ithaca area and in Manhattan to get a firsthand impression of American journalism in action."

In addition to the faculty exchange, 10 graduate and undergraduate students from Ithaca College and NYU will travel to Rostov for periods of up to three months. Faculty at the three institutions, along with other participants in the Russian-American Journalism Institute, will engage in a continuous dialog, much of it through a website designed for the partnership.

Says Vitaly Vinichenko, a faculty member in Rostov State's journalism and philology department, "Our students have been required to study, among other things, the history of Russia, foreign literature, and philosophy. I feel we have to change this old model, which was developed in the Soviet period, and adopt a new one that is more practically oriented, like the one in the American schools of journalism. I hope we not only develop new courses but also find ways to disseminate what we learn in America to other schools in the North Caucasus."

The Americans will also benefit from the partnership. "This collaboration will create a community of scholars, teachers, and students that will elevate our understanding of journalism as it functions in other areas of the world," Harper says. "Faculty, staff, and students in the Park School will have an opportunity to teach and learn in an international context, and that seems crucial, especially after September 11."

NISCUPP was established by the U.S. Department of State to foster collaborations between institutions of higher learning in the United States and the 12 countries formed by the breakup of the USSR. Its grants support staff and faculty development, collaborative research, and other activities to aid the former Soviet states make the transition to democracy and market economies.