Many of you have heard by now that I've been elected by my fellow Journalism and Mass Communication faculty to serve a three-year term as the 11th Director of our School, starting next semester (Fall 2009). Today I've had the pleasure of meeting with some of our Board of Visitors -- who are both alumni of the School and accomplished professionals in the changing mass communication industry -- to discuss the future of education for "mediated communication" here at UW-Madison. There were plenty of ideas flying around the lunch table for ways to preserve the core principles of "truth telling and community building" upon which journalism is built, as well as the lessons of "ethical and effective persuasion" at the core of strategic communication practices, no matter what comes next in cyberspace after blogs, wikis, Google, Second Life, and (today's big topic) Twitter. I look forward to the challenge of being Director of such a vibrant School in such uncertain but energizing times, and I invite everyone I met today to keep in touch as we plan how to best build upon our current and historic strengths in teaching, research and service, both for our particular majors (and future alumni) and for the larger student population as a whole. You can email me at gdowney@wisc.edu. Cheers!