Knight Foundation Awards $5.4 Million to University of Maryland

The Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced grants totaling $5.4 million to the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

In recognition of the foundation's ongoing support of the university, the planned journalism building at Merrill College will be named for John S. and James L. Knight; construction of the facility is scheduled to begin in 2008. The largest portion of the multi-part grant, $2.4 million, will be used to create the Knight Institute for the Future of Journalism, which will also be home to professional organizations, programs, and the Knight Chair in Journalism. The remaining $2 million will be added to an earlier $3 million capital campaign gift from the foundation. In addition, the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, created with a Knight Foundation grant in 1988, will receive $1 million.

"The University of Maryland has been a leader in journalism education," said Knight Foundation president Alberto Ibarguen. "With the Knight Institute for the Future of Journalism and the [new] Knight Hall, we're helping Maryland take a journalism program that has been a twentieth-century example of quality and turn it into a twenty-first-century example of innovation."

“New Journalism Building at Maryland to Be Named for Knight Brothers.” John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Press Release 9/18/06.

Primary Subject: Education
Secondary Subject(s): Higher Education, Journalism/Media
Location(s): College Park, Maryland

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