After a year-long search, Mark Goodman, director of the Student Press Law Center, will be first to take the position of Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism at Kent State.

This position is part of the Knight Foundation, which strives, according to its Web site, “to protect and expand press freedom and to encourage journalism excellence at home and abroad.”

Candace Bowen, director of the Center of Scholastic Journalism at Kent State, said Goodman’s position will involve promoting the value of high school journalism and First Amendment rights.

To do this, Bowen said the center has two main goals. First, she said they hope to talk with high school administrators about students’ First Amendment rights.

“Some of it is convincing administrators of the value of journalism,” she said.

Second, she said the members of the center hope to speak with commercial journalists to get the professional media on their side.

“(The Center of Scholastic Journalism) will look at First Amendment rights very broadly in order to educate the public about the rights of teens and the First Amendment, and help educate educators,” said Barb Hipsman, associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Hipsman was the chair of the search committee that brought Goodman to Kent State.

“I think he’s a perfect match,” she said.

In searching for someone to fill this position, Hipsman said the search committee was looking for a “working professional” and someone who “knew the business of news.”

Bowen said Goodman fit these requirements because of his credibility as director of the Student Press Law Center.

The Student Press Law Center, according to its Web site, is a legal assistance agency that educates high school and college students about their First Amendment rights and advocates censorship-free student media.

Goodman will begin working for the Center of Scholastic Journalism this fall, and will arrive to Kent State in January 2008.

Bowen said Goodman will eventually teach classes in journalism.

Contact general assignment reporter Christinia Stavale at [email protected].