The College of Journalism and Communications is building a multimillion dollar media center to help students embrace the media's digital revolution.
The Center for Media Innovation and Research, announced by UF President Bernie Machen and Dean John Wright on Wednesday, will be a 1,200-square-foot state-of-the-art newsroom and laboratory located on the ground floor of Weimer Hall.
Scheduled to open in January, the center will specialize in local and international news reporting, Wright said. An additional laboratory will open later in the year.
David Carlson, the center's executive director and a journalism professor, said the college is raising money for the construction.
He said he hopes to build an expansion to Weimer Hall to house the entire center, which he hopes could be operational in three years.
The cost of the expansion will exceed $1 million to cover the construction and remodeling costs.
"To sustain this, it will be multiple millions of dollars," Carlson said. "The fundraising for this will never end because this will never stop evolving, and I don't want it to end. I'd love to land a large gift for the college."
With recent budget cuts forcing the college to end funding for its Documentary Institute, the center may appear to be a lavish expense, but Wright disagreed.
"There's a difference between recurring money and one-time money, and the Documentary Institute had recurring state dollars," he said.
Wright said that even though budget cuts have "devastated" the college, he's still excited about this new project.
"With the digital revolution, we're going through the greatest transformation since the printing press," he said.
