Former Dean message

Greetings from Berkeley, California.

I spent several happy years starting in the late 2010s as Founding Dean of the Jindal School of Journalism and Communication (JSJC), teaching, administering and, most of all, learning about a vibrant, dynamic part of the world that I was not familiar with.

I am now back in Berkeley, where I had spent 35 years at the Graduate School of Journalism, 10 of them as dean. I have had ample time to reflect on my sojourn at Sonipat. What a special place it is, and how lucky you are to be able to partake of the ample opportunities JGU offers. The school gives students individual attention, the type of attention that is all too rare in higher education these days. You will learn to be good readers and first-rate writers, and, importantly, in the 21st century, you will learn to “think” visually.

I last wrote a message to students in April 2022. I wrote with confidence then how we were entering one of the most dynamic times ever to study journalism. Little did I know how prescient those words were.

I wrote shortly before Artificial Intelligence burst on the scene. AI has the potential of changing how we learn and how we react to the world around us. (It also has potential downsides, which we must be careful to guard against.) It will change the way we communicate, and you are so lucky to be at a forward-looking university at the dawn of a new age of thinking and working.

I hope you make the most of your opportunities at a cutting-edge university.