Dialog, UA Faculty and Staff News

Ayers Family Foundation to Support Community Journalism at UA
Million Dollar Band Honored for Excellence

Ayers Family Foundation to Support Community Journalism at UA

H. Brandt Ayers speaks at UA's winter commencement ceremony. (Photo courtesy of The Anniston Star)

H. Brandt Ayers, chairman and publisher of The Anniston Star, has announced an innovative plan to preserve the independence of the newspaper and to advance the art of community journalism. Ayers and his wife, Josephine E. Ayers, are establishing a foundation that will eventually hold all of the stock of Consolidated Publishing Co., the parent corporation of The Star and its four sister publications.

The foundation will support the Ayers Institute, which will join with The University of Alabama to offer an honors master's program in community journalism in Anniston. The Ayers' initiative counters a long-running trend in the newspaper industry worldwide. In the United States today, the ownership of only 10 companies accounts for 51 percent of the nation's newspaper circulation.

Ayers made the announcement in The Star on Dec. 15 and also referred to it in his address as speaker at UA's winter commencement ceremony on Dec. 16 (see article in Dec. 9 issue of Dialog.)

In preserving the newspaper as a community institution, owned and published locally, the plan will ensure that the newspaper will not become what Ayers calls an "undistinguished link in a long corporate chain." Instead, it will continue to serve its community and at the same time provide a laboratory for the education and training of journalists, offering the only master's degree in community journalism in the United States.

UA's journalism department will have access to the staff and new $16 million facilities of The Star as a "teaching newspaper." Both students and faculty will be in residence at the Anniston campus.

Dr. Culpepper Clark, dean of the UA College of Communication and Information Sciences, said, "The Ayers' decision to forego millions in a cash sale of the newspaper properties places at the disposal of the University community and the people of the Anniston area incalculable benefits to be realized for generations to come."

Details of curriculum and administration of the Anniston campus will be developed under a planning grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It is anticipated that the first master's candidates, recruited from the "best and the brightest nationwide," will enter the program in fall 2004.

Calling the Anniston campus analogous to a "teaching hospital," Dr. Ed Mullins, chair of the journalism department, said the plan "will allow UA faculty, with the help of the Star staff, to teach journalism skills, media leadership and management, the press and democratic ideals, and other subjects at an advanced level in a state-of-the-art facility.

"There is great need for young men and women who can produce, and courageously lead others in quality news, information and advertising enterprises and who are also sensitive to the special needs and traditions of local communities," Mullins said. "We believe a cooperative degree program with The Anniston Star will address these needs in ways that will enrich local communities and American democracy."

Million Dollar Band Honored for Excellence

UA's Million Dollar Band, one of the nation's most recognizable university symbols, will receive the prestigious Sudler Trophy, the highest honor a college marching band can receive. The trophy will be presented to the university during a 2003 football game.

"I think this is a wonderful award for everyone who's been associated with the program throughout its history," said Ken Ozzello, director of the Million Dollar Band.

According to the Band's Web site (www.music.ua.edu/mdb/), the Sudler Trophy is given by the Sousa Foundation to recognize "collegiate marching bands of particular excellence that have made outstanding contributions to the American way of life."

University marching band directors nominate bands for the Sudler Trophy. UA was announced as this year's winner on Dec. 20, 2002, at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. The award has been given annually since 1982. Past winners include Louisiana State University, Florida A&M University and the University of Georgia.

Videotapes of the band's performances, as well as a history of the Million Dollar Band, were sent to the judges. "The purpose is to recognize a program for its excellence over its entire history," Ozello said.

UA has had a marching band since 1913, and began with just 14 members. According to UA legend, the band got its famous moniker in 1922 from W.C. "Champ" Pickens, an Alabama alumnus and football manager. Pickens supposedly dubbed the band the "Million Dollar Band" after a highly successful fundraiser to raise money for a trip to a game against Georgia Tech.

The Million Dollar Band today is comprised of more than 300 students, and Sports Illustrated has named it one of the top three college bands in the nation.