onstruction began in May on the $30 million John S. and James L. Knight Hall—the future home of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. The new facility, named for the brothers who founded Knight Newspapers and later the Miami-based Knight Foundation, is scheduled to be completed in late 2009. Ralph Crosby ’56 and his wife Carlotta have contributed the largest alumni pledge, $150,000, toward the $14 million in private money needed.
“Giving back to something that gave to you has almost become a cliché,” says Crosby, chairman and owner of Crosby Marketing Communications in Annapolis. “But that’s the way I feel about the college. It helped lay the foundation for my long careers in journalism and the marketing business. I’m proud to do my part.”
The gift will help unite all of the college’s programs and centers under one roof. Third-floor professional training centers will be hubs for media study. Other building features will include a two-story great hall, a multimedia “news bubble” laboratory, the Richard Eaton Broadcast Theater, the Edith Kinney Gaylord Journalism Resource Center, seminar rooms, classrooms and several spaces for formal and informal gatherings.
