Prijatel Named Director of Drake J-School

By: E&P Staff Drake University's School of Journalism and Mass Communication has named Patricia Prijatel director and associate dean. She currently is an E.T. Meredith Distinguished Professor of Magazine Journalism at the University.

As associate dean, Prijatel will be responsible for faculty and curriculum development and the school's budget.

"In her 21 years at Drake, Professor Prijatel has made the magazine sequence 'arguably the best in the country,' in the words of our national accreditors," said Charles C. Edwards Jr., dean of Drake's School of Journalism, in a statement. "She has brought extensive resources to the school of journalism, not least of which is development of the Meredith Center for Magazine Studies."

David Wright, associate professor of electronic journalism, will continue as assistant dean with responsibilities for student records, affairs and working with new, prospective, and transfer students.

The re-organization comes on the heels of the accrediting council's concerns that the faculty should be much more involved in operations.