I walk through the College Avenue campus most days. It is not completely deserted and silent, as it was last spring during the lockdown. However, very few students and staff are out and about, showing we are very far away from normal times. When working from the almost empty SC&I building on Huntington, or from my home office, it is easy to think that the university has somehow frozen with nothing happening. In fact, the opposite is true. A huge amount of outstanding research is being done. Some of it is COVID-related and some of it isn’t. The various staff groups are working at full capacity managing finance, advising students, sharing important news, marketing our programs, helping faculty with teaching materials, keeping IT going, supporting research, and more. Often, they are working at extra capacity to deal with the mountain of additional responsibilities that have come with Rutgers’ pandemic response. And the extra work has been combined with furloughs, so people are doing more for less, and in many cases, they are also balancing child-care, or other caring roles, and far from optimal office arrangements.
At the center of this is teaching. I was gratified by how well our teaching operation worked last semester. I wasn’t surprised, though. We are a great teaching school with a strong track record in delivering online instruction. This semester, the quiet on the physical campus belies the intensity of the effort behind the huge, distributed network of online SC&I teaching that is happening across New Jersey and further abroad. Invisibility does not mean a lack of intensity. In the midst of this, Mary Chayko’s promotion to Distinguished Teaching Professor is emblematic of the quality to which we aspire. And it reminds us that as a land-grant institution, the delivery of top-quality teaching is at the center of our mission. The fees paid by students and their parents provide the largest part of Rutgers’ income, outweighing state appropriation and other sources. I believe that we reward our students’ commitment and trust with a truly excellent learning experience that sets them up to attain high-level career success.
Finally, we look forward to another successful Rutgers Giving Day on March 24, 2021. This is an opportunity for all of us to support our students during these uncertain times. In advance, I thank you for remembering our school.
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If ever there was a time when the importance of reliable, accessible, and valuable communication, information, and media has come into focus, it has been during our turbulent present. We are all living amidst a raging pandemic, when complex questions need to be addressed, such as: How can health campaigns succeed in persuading doubters to wear masks, observe social distancing, and receive vaccinations? How can underserved communities overcome living in information deserts? How can local journalism serve communities during crises, amidst the popularity of social media? How can private health information be stored and retrieved safely, protecting individuals from misuse? These are just a few of the challenges addressed via our Master of Health Communication and Information (MHCI) degree, launched in January 2021. Drawing upon school-wide expertise in health communication, information, and media, this degree is timely and urgently needed.
In launching this degree, we see more than an opportunity: We seek to fulfill a responsibility to our communities to harness and share knowledge from years of comprehensive study and research at SC&I for the betterment of society and to bridge scholarship with the needs of individuals, organizations, and society as a whole. To realize our potential, we designed a master's degree that offers a unique multi-disciplinary perspective on how communication and information can affect outcomes of illness and well-being; offers strategies that support wellness in interpersonal, community, organizational, and public settings; and cultivates employable skills for a wide range of professions and organizations from medical institutions to community centers, from federal institutions to municipalities, from big health and pharmaceutical corporations to small businesses. Overall, we understand that healthcare and wellness are growing and dynamic fields in which communication, information, and media play major roles.
Our new MHCI degree is also unique because it ties directly to SC&I’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility. Located in the heart of New Jersey, our curriculum seeks to engage real-life challenges of health disparities and unequal access to information by providing real-life paths for social change. Students will engage in collaborative capstone projects that benefit communities around us while learning from them about their strengths, uniqueness, and challenges. Despite the difficulties imposed on us by COVID-19, our first cohort of students have embarked on this unique path for professional advancement, and we are eager to see many more who follow in their footsteps!
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New Certificate Offering: Professional Health Communication
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Alumna Nicole Cooke Named Recipient of 2021 Social Justice Award
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How Did I Get An Internship This Far? Podcast with Steve Miller
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Let's MINGLE! 212 Participants Gather Virtually to Gain Practical Career Advice
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Marc Aronson published a new book, "1789: A Pivotal Year of Conflict and Innovation Still Resonating in 2021."
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Jack Bratich published a new paper, "Uncoding Secrets: The Importance of Identifying and Managing Hidden Information."
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Mary Chayko and Ph.D. student Veronica Armour co-developed and, on Jan. 9, led the Living Donor and Social Media Design Lab for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, in collaboration with Robert Wood Johnson transplant surgeon Dr. Advaith Bongu and Rutgers' Associate Vice President for Research and Experiential Education Dr. Sunita Kramer.
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Richard Dool and the students in one of his MCM classes published a new book, “Leaderocity™: Leading at the Speed of Now," by Business Expert Press.
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Kathryn Greene’s research, “The Role of Engagement in Effective, Digital Prevention Interventions: the Function of Engagement in the REAL Media Substance Use Prevention Curriculum,” was published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence and Prevention Science.
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Ralph Gigliotti Ph.D. '17 and Christine Goldthwaite MCIS ’10, Ph.D. ’17 wrote the book, “Leadership in Academic Health Centers: Core Concepts and Critical Cases.”
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Dafna Lemish published a blog, "Stereotypes today are much more complex."
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Katherine Ognyanova and fellow researchers with The COVID States Project found that K-12 parents and students are concerned with education during the pandemic.
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Britt Paris published a paper, “Time constructs: Design ideology and a future internet,” in the journal Time & Society.
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Megan Threats was the lead author on the paper, “Deterrents and motivators of HIV testing among young Black men who have sex with men in North Carolina,” published in the journal AIDS Care.
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Yonaira Rivera co-authored the paper, “Longitudinal Risk Communication: A Research Agenda for Communicating in a Pandemic,” published in the Health Security journal.
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Charles Senteio and his co-authors, including doctoral student Kaitlin Montague and alumnus Stacy Brody MI ‘18 and Kristen Matteucci MI’18, published the paper, “Fulfilling information needs by classifying complex patron needs,” in Reference Services Review.
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Joseph Strupp published a book, “The Crookedest Street,” an account of the political and press landscape of San Francisco in the 1990s.
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Maria Venetis and her co-author published the paper, “Decision-making Criteria When Contemplating Disclosure of Transgender Identity to Medical Providers,” in the journal Health Communication.
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Itzhak Yanovitzky and doctoral student Taylor Goulbourne co-authored the article, “The Communication Infrastructure as a Social Determinant of Health: Implications for Health Policymaking and Practice,” in the Milbank Quarterly.
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Marc Aronson and his wife, Marina Budhos, were interviewed by the BBC about their book, “Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism.”
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Melissa Aronczyk authored an op-ed in The Washington Post, "Spin Doctors have Shaped the Environmentalism Debate for Decades."
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Mark Beal will speak at the SportPro OTT Summit USA 2021, March 3-4, 2021.
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Jack Bratich is quoted in the article, “How the Anti-Vaxxers Got Red-Pilled” in Rolling Stone.
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Richard Dool earned the Certified Change Management Professional designation.
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David Greenberg penned an op-ed in Politico, "What Will Trump's Presidency Mean to History."
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Juan D. González will be the keynote speaker at the New Jersey Communication Association’s 24/25th Annual Conference, hosted virtually by Rutgers University on March 20, 2021.
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Vikki Katz, Amy Jordan, and Katherine Ognyanova published an opinion piece, “Why are some college students studying in their cars? A new study explains,” in The Star-Ledger. Their new article on digital inequality, faculty communication, and undergraduate remote learning appears in the journal PLOS ONE.
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Naomi Klein wrote an op-ed in The New York Times about the power outage in Texas and why the state’s Republicans fear the Green New Deal.
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Deepa Kumar is quoted in the ABC News Radio report about the century-old movement to enact an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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Chenjerai Kumanyika was featured in the CNN Original Series “Lincoln: Divided We Stand” and its accompanying podcast.
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The Henry Stewart organization announced that a DAM conference presentation by Yonah Levenson MI ’16, Digital Asset Management (DAM) certificate program instructor, was the number-one most watched video from their 2020 collection.
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Britt Paris delivered a lecture, “Digitizing Bodies: The Politics of Evidence and Avenues for Sociotechnical Change,” at the Center on Digital Culture and Society Colloquium at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Yonaira Rivera participated in an international seminar on risk communications in the time of COVID-19, hosted by Centro de Políticas Públicas UC.
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Joyce Valenza has been appointed by American Library Association Executive Director Tracie D. Hall to the ALA Business Advisory Group.
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Matthew Weber, a communication scholar whose research examines media, organizational change, and communication dynamics, has rejoined the SC&I faculty as an associate professor of communication with tenure.
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Khadijah White and Britt Paris co-authored an op-ed in The Star-Ledger calling on New Jersey to work harder to vaccinate Black residents.
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Khadijah White appeared on the Smithsonian Channel’s “America's Hidden Stories: Southern Women, Union Spies.”
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Todd Wolfson was quoted in the Inside NJ article, "For The Many Calls on Gov. Murphy and Lawmakers to Fund the Recovery in FY 2022 Budget."
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Ph.D. Colloquia videos are posted for viewing.
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Stacy Brody MI ’18 has been named a 2021 Librarian of the Year by Library Journal for her work volunteering with the Librarian Reserve Corps, a World Health Organization/Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network partner.
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Naveen Dhaliwal JMS ’04, a reporter with Ch.7 Eyewitness News WABC-TV New York, won a NY Emmy® Award for her coverage of the July 13, 2019, Manhattan blackout.
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Souvick Ghosh, Ph.D. '20 is the runner-up for the iSchools 2021 Doctoral Dissertation Award.
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Clarissa Guzman ITI ’20, business owner, founded C Tea Shop, an online bubble tea store.
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Cindy Yulissa Rodriguez JMS ’06, a digital producer at WNET New York Public Media, has created a spiritual hiking and journaling community for women of color and launched The Reclama Journal, a quarterly digital magazine.
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Ryan Rose COM ’17 has returned to the Rutgers Men’s Golf team as the assistant coach, where he will be working alongside his former coach, Head Coach Rob Shutte.
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Julia Telonidis MLS '01 has joined the Monmouth County (NJ) Clerk’s Office as the County Archivist.
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4 Huntington Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Phone Number:
848.932.7500
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