University of North Texas 
75 Years of Journalism at UNT
The Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas is turning 75. Throughout the 2020-21 academic year, we'll be holding a variety of events and doing outreach programs to connect with you - our valued alumni, supporters, working journalists and communicators, academic colleagues - and others.
We want you to be a part of the celebration.
More important, we want to enlist your help and support to make this festive 75-year event a tremendous success for the many students we nurture and cherish. Our 1,000+ Mayborn students benefit from our greater Mayborn community - in fields like print/digital journalism, broadcasting, advertising, photojournalism and public relations.
We're building this momentous event around four key pillars:
- Honor the Past
- Celebrate the Future
- Educate the Future, and
- Fund the Future
You'll be receiving lots of communications from us throughout the year, but here are a few of the key milestones we want you to be aware of now.
We'll be hosting a series of mentor events, designed to connect you with our students in ways that can help them in their careers.
We'll be sharing our stories - all of us, you included - in a series of "Letters to Frank and Sue" that will help us all to commemorate our treasured memories of the Mayborn School. We want to hear your stories.
We'll be celebrating with our wider Mayborn community - our 40,000 UNT colleagues and students, the citizens of Denton and the Metroplex, current and prospective students and, equally important, the thousands of Mayborn alumni who are at the forefront of the communications and storytelling world around the globe.
But this isn't about us. It's about you. We want to hear from you and learn about you. We want to engage with you and hear your stories about how the Mayborn School has impacted your life.
Please take a moment to visit our "Tell us your story" page and let us learn more about you.
Also, take a quick glance through the four pillars outlined on this website to see how you can help us celebrate this milestone in our treasured history.
Honor the Past
In 1945, C.E. "Pop" Shuford established the first formal journalism program at what is now the University of North Texas.
Fresh from service in WWII, he recognized the need for highly trained journalists, storytellers and strategic communicators - and we've been delivering on that vision ever since.
Today, Shuford's vision is the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism, the first named and endowed school at the University of North Texas. With many thousands of graduates spread over all possible forms of journalism and communications - in addition to countless other fields - we've established ourselves among the top tier of academic journalism programs in the United States.
We're proud of our legacy. And we hope you're proud to be a part of it, too.
Our Story Starts Here
1909
North Texas joined the Inter-Collegiate State Press Association for a brief time.
1916
The first issue of Campus Chat was published Oct. 25.
1925
The college Print Shop opened under the direction of L.R. Woodson. The Campus Chat was printed on campus from 1926 on. As early as 1925, professional newsmen were brought in on occasion to teach a journalism course.
1937
C.E. Shuford joined the North Texas State University staff as an instructor in English and journalism and was co-sponsor of the student newspaper. The journalism curriculum expanded from two to eight courses over the next five years with Shuford serving as the sole instructor during that time period.
1945
While called to military service from 1942-1945, C.E. Shuford had continued to work and make plans with the school. Upon his return, Shuford was named director of the newly created Department of Journalism. An undergraduate major in journalism was started that fall, with the program housed in the Manual Arts Building.
1955
The Department of Journalism attained membership in the Southwestern Journalism Congress. The department had an enrollment of 214 students and was graduating from 15 to 20 students each year.
1970
The Department of Journalism earns accreditation; the master's program is the only nationally accredited professional journalism program in a four-state region. The Campus Chat is renamed the North Texas Daily.
1973
The advertising program begins with one class of 56 students in the spring. C.E. Shuford retires a year later and receives the university's highest award, the President's Award as well as being honored with the rank of professor emeritus.
1999
The UNT graduate program in journalism was named the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism after a donation of $2 million from the Mayborn Foundation.
2003
The idea for an annual nonfiction literary conference was born at a luncheon meeting with Dr. Mitch Land and George Getschow, principal lecturer and writer-in-residence. Preparations began, with the conference taking on national importance.
2009
The Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism became a standalone school and is the only school at UNT named after a person.
2016
The Mayborn celebrates "A Century of Excellence: The Pulitzer Prizes and Journalism's Impact at UNT."
2020
UNT's Mayborn School of Journalism celebrates 75 years of educating journalists and strategic communicators. Our more than 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students specialize in print/digital journalism, broadcast journalism, photojournalism, advertising, public relations and graduate-level concentrations like digital communication analytics.
Celebrate the Future
As excited as we are to be celebrating our 75th anniversary - our diamond jubilee - we're just as eager to anchor the forefront of the world of academic journalism for the next 75 years and beyond.
That means we'll continue to educate thousands of the brightest and sharpest minds in the field over the coming decades, and support all of that with academic research into subjects and events that concern and engage us all.
Our present faculty brings hundreds of years of real-world experience to classrooms every day. And we're broadening and expanding our capabilities every year, with up-to-the-minute attention to emerging new fields like digital communication analytics and other areas to support the journalists of the future.
Be a part of the magic of the Mayborn School moving forward.
We'd like to learn more about you, "then and now."
At the Mayborn School of Journalism, we like to say “Your Story Starts Here.” For many of you, your story began at the Mayborn, and carried forth to a broad and wonderful world of journalism, storytelling and strategic communications.
We want to get re-acquainted with you, to get to know you, to help celebrate your connection to the Mayborn and to share your story with the many thousands of other Mayborn alumni and others who may have stories similar to yours.
Please take a few moments to share some information with us.
Educate the Future
As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. We do our part at the Mayborn School - with a talented pool of full-time faculty, working-professional adjuncts and a devoted support staff.
But as a part of the broader Mayborn Family, you're welcomed to play an important, too.
One of our major initiatives is to connect our students in meaningful, beneficial relationships with a network of mentors who can help coach them, guide them, provide pivotal insights and shepherd them on their roads to success after they leave our hallowed hallways.
Also, now, as an institution serving many first-generation college students and now, officially, an Hispanic Serving Institution (UNT received this distinction in Spring 2020), many of our students can benefit from your financial support and inspired leadership.
If you've ever been inspired to give back or support an institution that brings together everything else to create a new world of powerful storytellers, this is your opportunity.
Do what you can. Give how you can. Be a part of the future with us.
Fund the Future
The Mayborn School is turning 75. And what better way to commemorate this important event in our history that by raising $75,000 in scholarship funds to help our students. Additional scholarship funding allows them to focus solely on learning - understanding the journalism of our times and finding ways to tell the stories of tomorrow.
We're asking you to give. We're asking you to do what you can - if you believe in the important mission of the Mayborn School - to help us ensure the success of our students as they learn the intricacies of storytelling.
Specifically, we're looking to fund three key priorities moving forward. You can specify how you'd like your contribution to be spent:
- Current Students - we want to make sure the current financial needs of our students are met, especially during these difficult times.
- Recruitment - we want to strengthen our outreach to potential Mayborn students, particularly first-generation college enrollees.
- Research - UNT is a Tier 1 Research Institution and the Mayborn School wants to advance our efforts to explore, understand and navigate the challenges facing our profession. This gives our graduates a decided advantage in the marketplace.
From print/digital and broadcast journalism, to photojournalism, to advertising and public relations, we're teaching our amazing students to use the power of journalism and the written word to tell stories that matter.