Jennifer Hammat, assistant vice president for student affairs, will serve as interim Texas Student Media director in place of Kathy Lawrence, who announced her retirement on Thursday.
Hammat was named interim at Friday’s TSM board meeting. Under her current position, Hammat serves as the liaison between TSM and the office of student affairs. She worked with Lawrence on a regular basis.
Hammat said she had a year and half of student journalism experience to fall back on, but the position will be a learning process for her.
“I’m not going to have all the answers,” Hammat said. “I have a very elevated perspective of the workings of TSM, and I need to get lower and understand what [TSM] does on a daily basis.”
Lawrence was responsible for representing TSM to the Board of Regents and making sure resources were available to all TSM entities.
Wanda Cash, TSM Executive Committee chairwoman and UT journalism professor, said a permanent replacement for Lawrence probably will not be named until February at the earliest. The recruiting process has not started.
“We want to be thoughtful and deliberate in the process,” Cash said. “Kathy was here for 15 years, and many things have changed in those years. The job description is going to be somewhat different from the one that she operated under.”
Cash said that although the TSM managers might be alarmed at the abrupt absence of a director, everything will proceed as usual.
“I want to reiterate, stay calm, stay calm, stay calm,” Cash said.
Lawrence’s retirement comes at a time when TSM is in the process of moving from a temporary location in Walter Webb Hall into the renovated William Randolph Hearst Building, TSM is also in the process of looking for a new part-time advisor for The Daily Texan.
Hammat said she will probably not consider applying for the permanent replacement position.
“I’m certain we will have plenty of qualified people apply for the job,” Hammat said. “I’ve already been contacted by about half a dozen people asking about the director position. I’m happy with the job I have right now.”
Cactus Yearbook Editor Brennan Lawler said the yearbook in particular will be affected by the loss of Lawrence because she served as an unofficial staff advisor.
“We’ve worked without an advisor before,” Lawler said. “We’ll miss Kathy because she was such a strong advocate for yearbooks, but we’ll manage.”
Interim Texas Student Media director appointed
Published: Friday, September 25, 2009
Updated: Friday, September 25, 2009
1 comments
everything is ok
STAY CALM!!! STAY CALM!!! STAY CALM!!!!!!!!!!
