The school opened on September 14, 1908. Its founding was urged by
Joseph Pulitzer, following lobbying by Walter Williams, the editor of the Columbia (Missouri) Herald and a university curator. Williams became the official founder. This came 13 years after the defeat in the Missouri State Senate of a bill to establish a chair of journalism at the University of Missouri. Previously newspapers usually required
apprenticeships. The
Missouri Press Association began supporting the proposal in 1896. The first day's class published the first issue of the
University Missourian, which was to become the
Columbia Missourian. Williams was the first dean. Among the original faculty members was
Charles Griffith Ross, who would become
press secretary for President
Harry S. Truman. It was initially based in
Switzler Hall. In 1910, the school began its Journalism Week celebration. On March 10,
Kappa Tau Alpha was founded. In 1919,
Jay Holcomb Neff Hall, the first building formally assigned to the school, was built by a donation from Andrew Neff, a 1913 journalism graduate, in honor of his dead father, a former
Kansas City, Missouri mayor and publisher. At the time, it was the largest donation in the university history. In 1921, the school offered the world's first master's degree in journalism. In 1930, it created the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism. In 1934, it offered the world's first
Doctor of Philosophy degree in journalism. In 1936, the school began offering broadcast courses in conjunction with
KFRU, the radio station owned by the
St. Louis Star-Times. In 1944, Professor
Clifton C. Edom and his wife Vi, in association with the school, developed the "News Pictures of Year Competition and Exhibition," now "Pictures of the Year International". A year later, they started the "College Photograph of the Year" program. In 1953, the university launched
KOMU-TV, the only university-owned full-power commercial television station in the US, used as a training lab for students who provide its news programming. In 1958, the school opened the Freedom of Information Center, the world's first academic center dedicated to the topic. In 1971, the school switched its radio news programming to
KBIA, a National Public Radio station. In 1957,
George McElroy, a pioneering black journalist from Texas, became the first African American to receive a master's degree in journalism from the university. ==Professional organizations==