Syracuse University students and interested observers on Monday gathered on a blocked-off Waverly Avenue outside the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications for the dedication ceremony for the Studio and Innovation Center inside the renovated Newhouse 2. (Eric Reinhardt/BJNN)
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University (SU) on Monday dedicated its Studio and Innovation Center.
The new facility, which is part of an $18 million renovation of Newhouse 2, features the Dick Clark Studios and the Alan Gerry Center for Media Innovation.
The event also launched the beginning of celebrations acknowledging the Newhouse School’s 50th anniversary.
Oprah Winfrey, who hosted her own talk show from 1986 to 2011 and now operates her own television network, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), accepted an invitation to help the school dedicate its new facility.
“Now what matters … that you have received this extraordinary gift is that you match the gift with your excellence. Energy for energy, excellence to excellence. Let the new generation of innovation come forth,” said Winfrey, just before the official ribbon cutting.
Prior to her brief comments during the dedication ceremony, Winfrey earlier attended and spoke during a dedication program in the Goldstein Auditorium in the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center.
Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud and Lorraine Branham, dean of the Newhouse School, also spoke at the same event.
The Newhouse Studio and Innovation Center will provide the school with a “cutting edge” media facility that gives students the “best possible” preparation for careers in the communications industry, according to an online news release at the Newhouse School website.
The Dick Clark Studios are named in honor of the entertainer, TV and radio personality, and 1951 SU alumnus Dick Clark. The studios are described as a “high-tech entertainment-production environment rivaling many Hollywood studios,” the school said.
The Alan Gerry Center for Media Innovation is named for Alan Gerry, the founder of Cablevision Industries. The Newhouse School describes the center as the “creative hub where Newhouse expertise in content development and production will meet the latest media technology and programming trends.”
It also includes a digital-news center, a newsroom dedicated primarily to news, talk, and magazine-style production with multimedia capabilities and a file-based, digital-media environment, the school said.
Prior to the outdoor dedication ceremony, SU hosted a symposium on “The Future of Digital Media” in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium of Newhouse 3, SU said. The event explored how data, branding, and experience are reshaping storytelling in the digital age.
The panelists included Mitch Gelman, vice president of product at Gannett Digital; Kristina Hahn, head of consumer packaged goods at Mountainview, Calif.–based Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and a 1998 SU graduate; and Larry Hryb, director of Xbox programming at Redmond, Wash.–based Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MFST) and a 1989 SU graduate, according to the school.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
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