Starting this fall, University of North Texas students pursuing undergraduate and graduate journalism or communications degrees will be under one roof: the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board formally approved creating the Mayborn School earlier this month upon the university's board of regents' recommendation.

Frank W. Mayborn owned the Temple Daily Telegram, Killeen Daily Herald and KCEN-TV, Temple's NBC affiliate, until his death in 1987. Publisher Sue Mayborn, his widow, now owns all three media outlets. The university will conduct a national search for the dean of the school, which is to open Sept. 1. It will house undergraduate degree programs offered through UNT's journalism department since 1945 and graduate degree programs offered through the Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism since 1999.

Although many newspapers have cut reporting and editing jobs during the recession, the need remains for well-trained journalists who deliver compelling and accurate stories, said Mitch Land, interim chairman of the journalism department and director of the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism.

"We are a school of function, not form, and the function of journalism eternally stays the same," he said, adding that UNT stays relevant by training students how to use other media channels such as Twitter, social marketing venues, podcasts and the Web. UNT's journalism program has been nationally accredited since 1969 by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.