Professor Extraordinaire

Dean Smith uses 20 years of journalism experience to inspire students.

By Sydney Cheuvront, Staff Writer

Credit: Sydney Cheuvront
Dean Smith teaches his students the ins and outs of communication using his own experiences.
A professor walks into a School
of Communication classroom at
High Point University at 10:40 a.m.
and greets his students. He passes
around a dish of candy and begins
his lesson, molding students to
become professionals in their line
of work.
Aided by two decades of experience in journalism, Dean Smith
is able to give real-world advice
to his students as well as stress the
practicality of the communication
business. Smith teaches a wide
array of courses but mainly in
structs what he considers to be the

most important class any student

can take, Communications Law
and Ethics.
It is the responsibility of communications majors to bring all of
those values and our Constitutional
culture to the future, Smith said
in an interview Wednesday, and
spread it throughout their careers,.
Surprisingly, Smiths career
track started with a degree in music
from UNC School of the Arts.
My father was a jazz drummer,
and we grew up in very musical
household, Smith said. I was a
very talented musician when I was

young, so that seemed like a goo

thing to do because I didnt have a
clear idea of other careers.
After realizing that he was not
going to be able to support himself
performing music, Smith turned
to journalism and got a job at the
Winston-Salem Journal in 1986.
He wrote mostly about music,
but he also got the opportunity to
report for a month at the American
Dance Festival at Duke University.
That is where discovered that
he wanted to transfer to The Charlotte Observer, the biggest paper in
North Carolina.

I remember thinking to myself,

Im going to move to the Charlotte
Observer.
And in 1990, he did.
Smith worked in many areas of
the Charlotte Observer and then
decided that he wanted to be a
foreign correspondent in Europe.
He researched and found a program called Journalistes en Europe, which takes 25 journalists to
France to work for about a year.
It was a program that was
sponsored by the big journalism
school, the Columbia Journalism
School of France basically, and so
I applied and I got turned down,
Smith said.
But Smith didnt give up, a value he tries to instill in his students.
He knew he wanted to be a part of
this program and applied the next
year.
He was accepted.
After spending almost a year
in Paris writing for the bilingual
political magazine Europ, Smith
wanted to pursue a masters degree
FUN FACTS
Smith was born in Kansas
at the exact time a tornado
touched down.
Smith studied French for four
years in high school and four
years in high school.
He lived in Paris for a year and
worked for a biligual magazine,
Smith wrote stories out of
England, Ireland, Germany and
Turkey.
He has hiked to the top of
Mount Vesuvias.
Smith once had a studio grand
piano in his kitchen. He still
occasionally plays Bach and
Chopin.

in law and knew Yale was the only

school for him. He applied, got
accepted and earned a full ride.
I learned as much as I could,
Smith said. I didnt know it at the
time it was just the luck of intuition I put together a program in
terms of classes that I chose that
perfectly positioned me to teach
Media Law and First Amendment
history in a school of communication.
After graduating, Smith knew
he had to do more than write at The
Charlotte Observer and freelance
for The New York Times. His days
were numbered.
It would have been a complete
waste of all those wonderful opportunities if I had continued doing
what I was doing, Smith said.
So he chose to pursue his Ph.D.
at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill over a job at The
New York Times. Smith spent six
years getting his degree and teaching Media Law at UNC.
By the time I had left, I had
taught more than 600 students,
Smith said.
When it came time for Smith to
leave UNC, he began to look for
other universities in North Carolina. He discovered High Point
University and knew it was the
place for him.
The problem was, there wasnt
a job at the university, Smith said.
But he was not discouraged and
did what he always did when a new
opportunity arose:Sometimes in
life, it really is true, all you have to
do is ask.
Smith called the Dean of the
School of Communications at High
Point University, Wilfred Tremblay,
out of the blue and sent him a
cover letter, curriculum vitae,
an academic article, and two of
his New York Times articles. Two

days later,
Tremblay
asked if he
could come to
his office.
We talked
for 45 minutes, Smith
said, and he
hired me with
a handshake. Smith
Today,
Smith teaches classes ranging
from a First Year Seminar to News
Writing and, of course, Communications Law and Ethics.
I have taught nearly 450 students in my time here, Smith said
in an email Tuesday.
One student who has particularly been inspired by Smith is senior
Mayessa Mitchell. Mitchell, a
journalism major, has taken Feature
Writing with Smith and is currently
in Communication Law and Ethics
with him.
He has inspired me to become
a better journalist mostly by his
encouragement, Mitchell said in
an email Monday. There have
certainly been times when I felt I
was not a good journalist, but Dr.
Smith reminded me that I was and
suggested ways that I could get
even better.
From her two classes with
Smith, Mitchell has obtained an
immense amount of knowledge.
I have definitely gained a lot
from the classes I have taken with
him, Mitchell said. I think I will
gain the most from Communications Law. It is important to understand the story of your field of
study and Dr. Smith makes learning
about our First Amendment rights
easier as a direct result of his passion for the subject.
While Smith plans to keep inspiring students at High Point Univ-


Smith loves teaching his students how the journalism workforce runs.
versity, he has one piece of advice
for all aspiring journalists and
communication majors: Be realistic, but never give up.
This advice has carried Smith
through his varied career and can
help students who are graduating
college and entering the communication workforce.
Smith shows his students his
students his love of communication
ACCOLADES
Smith won the
Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award in 2012. This award,
given by Association for Education in Mass Communication
and Journalis, recognizes the
best Ph.D dissertation in the field
of mass communication. It is a
highly esteemed award.

every day and encourages them to

persevere in whatever field they
choose.
You dont know where it will
lead, as my career shows, Smith
said.
Smith also does not stop. Currently, he is researching First
Amen-dment disputes caused by
K-12 public school students who
choose to wear Confederate flag
T-shirts to school.
Its a very narrow and specific
topic, Smith said, but its one
that never seems to cease being a
problem.
The legacy Smith leaves with his
students can most be seen in his
favorite class to teach,
Communications Law and Ethics.
You will understand why it is
such a special torch that you are
taking up and carrying away from

Credit: Sydney Cheuvront

from this school, Smith said.

And you will carry for the rest of
your life.
For more on Smiths legal
research, visit Amazon.com and
search for A Theory of Shield
Laws.

Be
realistic, but
never give up.
~ Dean Smith