OSU prepared to transfer Kiplinger to OU

Ohio State University indicated on Friday that it’s prepared to lose a wellknown journalism fellowship the school has hosted since 1972, though the foundation that supports it hasn’t yet finalized a move.

The Kiplinger Foundation says no decision has been made about moving its Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism from OSU to Ohio University. However, OSU said it’s willing to transfer program funds “as requested by the Kiplinger Foundation” to its new home. That could mean the program’s endowment, along with an additional $1 million or more that Ohio State was supposed to spend on the program in recent years but didn’t.

Officials at Ohio State and Ohio University, along with Knight Kiplinger, chairman and editor-in-chief of the Kiplinger publishing organization and a trustee of the Kiplinger Foundation, said in early April that they were discussing the possibility of the program moving to OU’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in Athens.

The most-recent agreement between Ohio State and the foundation, signed in 2011, says that in addition to yearly earnings from the endowment and additional cash grants from the foundation, the program is supposed to benefit each year from “no less than an equal amount of resources from OSU.”

But Ohio State hasn’t contributed anything to the Kiplinger program beyond in-kind contributions, such as office space, since at least 2011. Endowment earnings from the 2011-12 fiscal year to 2015-16 were $1.04 million, or about $209,000 per year.

Ohio State has been talking to the foundation “for more than a year about how to achieve the original intent of the agreement, and we support Mr. Kiplinger’s decision to move the program to an institution that he believes is a better fit for his future plans,” the statement said. “Ohio State will transfer funds as requested by the Kiplinger Foundation when they finalize the new home for the program, and we will work to assist this transition.”

The exact amount required to make good on what Ohio State should have spent hasn’t been determined.

Kiplinger said Friday that he’s still negotiating details with Ohio State and Ohio University. “I’ve been very encouraged by my conversations with the folks at Scripps,” he said. Kiplinger will meet with officials at both universities next week, when this year’s Kiplinger fellows come to Ohio State for a week of intensive training in digital and socialmedia reporting tools.

Originally a year-long fellowship that led to a master’s degree in journalism, the Kiplinger program evolved over the years. Since 2011, it has had two main elements: Along with the annual week at Ohio State, the program provides shorter seminars around the country, reaching hundreds of journalists each year.

But Ohio State eliminated its School of Journalism 20 years ago and the journalism major was merged into the School of Communication. “Sometimes institutions change, and their emphasis changes,” Kiplinger said. “I think we all know that journalism education is not as robust at Ohio State today as it was in decades past. It still has journalism teachers and courses and a very fine student newspaper, which I read quite regularly. But it is not the serious journalism school it once was.”

Kiplinger said he knows Ohio University’s journalism school “primarily by its excellent reputation” and that its director, Robert Stewart, “is a prominent person in our field.”

Stewart said Friday he’s “keeping (his) fingers crossed” that the Kiplinger program will move to Athens.