Jon Easter has a good blog post on Ernie Pyle. The impetus for the post is that IU is apparently contemplating a reorganization involving the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism wherein Ernie Pyle’s legacy will not be featured prominently.
Growing up, I’m not sure I ever heard much about Pyle. For me, World War II journalism pretty much began and ended with William Shirer. My first exposure to Pyle was walking by the Journalism school at IU en route to the law school. Seems like he’s the kind of guy that Indiana ought to feature as prominently as we can. Small town kid made good; hard working, compassionate, grounded, perceptive, successful in his field.
Easter observes that, even if the School of Journalism is reorganized to reflect changes in the media environment; there is still room to recognize Pyle.
I enjoy Jon’s blog, and I’m agnostic on the consolidation of the J-school into the College of Arts & Sciences. But I believe he is mistaken that the j-school was ever known officially as the “Ernie Pyle School of Journalism,” although it is of course housed in Ernie Pyle Hall. The current website identifies it as the School of Journalism, and a Google search for Ernie Pyle School of Journalism reveals no official IU source that has ever referred to the school as such.
In addition, the opinion piece that claims that IU is considering renaming Ernie Pyle Hall seems a bit thinly sourced. The Indy Star opinion column by Jim Stinson says:
It may come as a surprise to Hoosiers that Indiana University trustees and administrators are considering emptying and renaming Ernie Pyle Hall on the Bloomington campus as they merge the IU School of Journalism into a larger college. This change would diminish the journalism program and leave the World War II journalist from Dana, Ind., without major memorial or tribute on the IUB campus. It’s almost unfathomable, but it’s about to happen, and the kickoff may be on Oct. 17 and 18 at the IU trustees’ meeting.
According to whom? The minutes of prior trustee meetings? The agenda for future meetings? A source inside IU’s administration, either named or unnamed? I’m not saying it isn’t true, but the memorandum of understanding that details the proposed integration says nothing of the sort. A Google news search reveals nothing of the sort, and I can’t find anything on the IDS website that says so, either. A quick search of Trustee meeting minutes shows nothing, either. The contention by Stinson seems to have gone viral, but I’ve seen no link or citation to a document or a source with knowledge.
Thanks for the clarification.