October 3, 2003

Aumente Named Program Evaluator for
State Department Journalism Project in Russia

Jerome Aumente, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, has been selected as the program evaluator for a long-term project funded by the U.S. State Department in which University of Missouri School of Journalism and its counterpart, the School of Journalism at Moscow State University, will work together to modernize curricula, pursue joint research and faculty exchanges.

Aumente, who is special counselor to the dean at the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS) at Rutgers University, and senior research fellow and founder emeritus of the Journalism Resources Institute (JRI), will conduct ongoing summative research on the Missouri-Moscow project, and summative final evaluations.

He has met with the project participants in Columbia, Missouri; with a delegation of Russian faculty in Washington, and will visit the Faculty of Journalism in the Fall of 2003 as part of his assignment, and will return to Moscow in 2004 for extended interviews and observations.

Aumente was consultant to the State Department and visited Moscow in 2002 to assess the feasibility of the new initiative. He was previously in Russia twice for the State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and its consulate in St. Petersburg to give lectures in Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad and Yekaterinburg at universities and explore mutual programs with Rutgers University.

A joint agreement between Rutgers’ School of Communication, Information and Library Studies and St. Petersburg State University School of Journalism resulted from his earlier contacts with faculty and students in St. Petersburg. Dean Gus Friedrich of SCILS and Seth Gopin, Director of the Rutgers Office of Global Programs signed the agreement with SPSU during a visit there in 2002 and are now pursuing follow up activities.

“Our continuing activity in Russia is part of a strong commitment by SCILS and its faculty to global programs in which JRI and the other units of the school have now forged similar cooperative ties with universities in Poland, Bosnia and Spain, just to cite a few examples,” Aumente said.

For further information: Contact Professor Jerome Aumente at Long Mountain,
617 Seven Oaks Drive, Bentonville, Virginia 22610. Tel: 540-635-6395 or
e-mail: aumente@scils.rutgers.edu