Shortly after he arrived at AU in 2001, School of Communication Dean Larry Kirkman began reaching out to alumni to involve them with the school and each other. He organized an advisory council comprised of 29 alumni with the aim of tapping into the council's experience and expertise to shape the future of the school.

"The people on the council are trying to build active partnerships between the school and the companies we represent, the Post, DreamWorks, and the like," says Patrick Butler, vice president of the Washington Post Company and chair of the SOC Advisory Council. "We want to bring our expertise to the school and bring the students to our companies through internships, making this a holistic experience."

Butler and other Dean's Advisory Council members, including Ketchum chair emeritus David Drobis '65, CBS News' 48 Hours Investigates executive producer Susan Zirinsky '74, and two-time Academy Award winner Russell Williams '74, are preparing a statement to guide the new SOC building's prospective architects along with faculty and staff. The result promises to mix the technology and practices of today's media with the flexibility to adjust to tomorrow's challenges.

"What we want to do is to provide as close to a real world experience as we can for all of the disciplines that are represented at this school," says Butler, who received his MA from SOC in 1996. "I'd love to see good new studios for filmmaking and broadcast news and facilities for Internet publishing. Being able to do all these things at AU and learning how to do them untraditionally is the order of the day and the mission of this new building."

This innovative meeting ground will reside behind the familiar walls of the McKinley Building, which symbolizes AU to many students and alumni, and which SOC is planning to also symbolize SOC's leadership in the future.

"McKinley is the marquee building on campus, and I think it's fitting that it will be the home of the School of Communication," Butler says. "What we've discovered on the council is that this school has a real strength across the board that isn't replicated in many communication schools. With this strength of professors and students and programs and our outside help, with all of that working together in this building, we
have the makings of a school that can rival Columbia and Northwestern and Missouri and all the traditionally great [communication] schools around the country."

- Kenny Lucas, originally published in American magazine, Fall 2004