Carleton Journalism @ 75

Carleton's journalism program is turning 75

The oldest, largest and best-known journalism school in the country was founded in October 1945 in the wake of the Second World War. The first class was held on Oct. 9, 1945 in a rented space in downtown Ottawa. At any other time, we would have been organizing a major event to mark the program’s 75^th birthday. But these are not normal times as we now grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The journalism program’s 75^th anniversary committee decided to shift gears from our original plans for a birthday party and reunion this fall. Instead, we held a soft launch via Instagram on Friday, Oct. 9, to kick off a year of events and initiatives marking the 75^th anniversary of the program, culminating with what we hope will be a major, in-person event in October of 2021, when we will be able to mark the 75^th anniversary of the first graduations from Carleton’s fledgling journalism school.

Our History

The first journalism class 75 years ago was presided over by a man named Henry Marshall Tory, the founder and first president of Carleton itself and the driving force behind the establishment of its journalism school.

There were only five students in that first class – three women from western Canada and two men fresh out of the army after the Second World War. One of those students, Jim Coulter, kept a journal about his experience, providing us with some details about how those first classes unfolded.

On that day 75 years ago, Dr. Tory introduced two instructors — one veteran journalist from the Ottawa Citizen, one from its rival newspaper, the Ottawa Journal. Those three young women in the class had already earned their Bachelor of Arts degrees elsewhere in Canada, and would need just one year of intensive reporting instruction at Carleton to earn their Bachelor of Journalism degrees — the first ever awarded in Canada.

The first several classes were held at the old Masonic Hall on Metcalfe Street, a building that no longer exists. But after just a few weeks, the class had moved to the Sunday School rooms of Knox Presbyterian Church at the corner of Elgin and Lisgar in downtown Ottawa. Indeed, the Coulter journal vividly describes that first class held here in the church basement:

“Dr. Tory was on the job early arranging the chairs and tables and generally floating around in the manner of a concerned hen with unruly chickens…”

Those first classes were not only the beginning of a flagship program for Carleton University, but also the birth of an important training ground for top journalists and other accomplished graduates who were destined to shape Canada’s future — primarily through their work in the newsrooms of the nation, but also in a wide range of fields beyond journalism: politics, law, education, the arts and social justice to name only a few.

Journalism at 75

This 75^th anniversary finds us at an important crossroads. The media industry that was already in crisis is now grappling with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year has brought another kind of reckoning as well, as we finally, finally begin to take steps to confront the systemic racism in Canada’s journalism industry and in the journalism program here at Carleton.

So, while we are celebrating and recognizing our 75 years, we are also looking to the future. We hope you will join us.

75th Anniversary News & Events