Contact: Terry San Filippo
College of Liberal Arts
805-756-1216; tsanfili@calpoly.edu
Seasoned Journalist and Media Law Scholar To Lead Cal Poly Journalism Department
SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Bill Loving, a seasoned journalist with a strong professional background and lengthy publication record, has been selected chair of Cal Poly’s Journalism Department after a year-long, nationwide recruitment.
Loving will begin his duties July 1. He succeeds George Ramos, who led the department for five years and will return to teach in the fall.
“We are delighted Bill has accepted the department chair position,” said Linda Halisky, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “He is known as an optimistic, knowledgeable professional who interacts favorably with students and staff members alike. I am sure he will serve the Journalism Department well.”
Loving’s academic specialties include media law, First Amendment law, and media writing and reporting. His academic career began in the 1980s as a teaching assistant at University of Texas El Paso and Texas Christian University. In 1991 he joined the University of Oklahoma faculty, where he stayed for 11 years before joining the Department of Mass Communication at Idaho State University as professor and chair.
In the spring of 2005 and 2006, he served as a visiting professor at Tianjin Foreign Studies University in the People’s Republic of China.
"Journalism is a key part of the proper functioning of a democracy,” said Loving. “We prepare young people for careers in journalism and public relations so that they can keep the flow of information going to the people so the people can make informed choices.”
Loving worked on four daily newspapers in Texas, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and worked as a reporter, copy editor and wire editor. A newsroom coach in Oklahoma, he was the writing and editing coach as well as Sunday editor for the Riverside Press-Enterprise in Southern California during his sabbatical year in 2000.
Loving earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso in 1979 and a law degree from Southern Methodist University in 1991. He is co-author of The Law of Mass Communications published by Foundation Press, which comes out in its 12th edition this summer (2008).
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