VCU Robertson School

VCU Robertson School

Summary

Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture, College of Humanities and Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University

Mission Statement

The Robertson School inspires and empowers students to be transformative media innovators while continuing to be a thought leader in a changing communication environment.

The School accomplishes its mission through immersive teaching, quality research and professional scholarship. The School explores and engages local and global communities in advertising, journalism, public relations and other emerging communication fields.

OnAir Post: VCU Robertson School

Information

Website: robertson.vcu.edu/   LinkedIn   YouTube  Twitter: @RobertsonSchool   Facebook  Instagram   Snapchat

Email: robertsonsmc@vcu.edu
Phone:  (804) 828-2660
Address: 901 West Main Street
Room 2216 | Box 842034
Richmond, VA 23284

Our story

Mission Statement

The Robertson School inspires and empowers students to be transformative media innovators while continuing to be a thought leader in a changing communication environment.

The School accomplishes its mission through immersive teaching, quality research and professional scholarship. The School explores and engages local and global communities in advertising, journalism, public relations and other emerging communication fields.

Core Values

The School values truth, ethics, creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, collaboration and diversity. The School practices shared governance in decision making.

Approved by the faculty of the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture, September 9, 2016. This statement applies to both our undergraduate and graduate programs.

History

Virginia Commonwealth University was created in 1968 through the merger of two existing public institutions, the Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) and the Medical College of Virginia (MCV). Read histories of RPI and MCV from VCU Libraries.

Since the early 1960s, RPI and then VCU offered journalism courses through a journalism department, with advertising courses offered by the School of Business.

VCU established the School of Mass Communications in 1978 to prepare students for successful professional careers in the mass media and in the professions of advertising, journalism and public relations.

George T. Crutchfield was the School’s first director, having previously served as chair of the journalism department since 1970. (Mr. Crutchfield retired from the School in 1999 and died in 2011.) The new school offered four sequences: news-editorial (print journalism), electronic media (broadcast journalism), advertising and public relations.

A Master of Science degree in mass communications was added to the undergraduate degree offerings in 1977; it was discontinued when discipline-specific master’s programs were created.

In 1995, an advertising track was added to the master’s degree with the creation of the Adcenter (renamed the Brandcenter a decade later).

School faculty added a scholastic journalism track to the master’s degree in 2003-2004; this was discontinued three years later because a change in Virginia teacher certification guidelines no longer favored teachers with master’s degrees.

strategic public relations master’s track was approved in 2004-2005 and admitted its first cohort in 2005-2006.

multimedia journalism master’s track was approved in 2007-2008 and admitted its first cohort in 2008-2009.

And in 2007, the school partnered with the VCU Department of English and the freestanding School of the Arts to offer an innovative interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Media, Art and Text (MATX) that admitted its first students in 2007-2008.

Undergraduate

Graduate

Engage

Discuss

OnAir membership is required. The lead Moderator for the discussions is Scott Joy. We encourage civil, honest, and safe discourse. For more information on commenting and giving feedback, see our Comment Guidelines.

Skip to toolbar