The Journalism and Mass Communications wing received a new sign outside the news lab, distinguishing their hall amongst a sea of departments in the Don H. Morris building.
In October 2008, the Journalism and Mass Communications department added a fully functional student news room onto the Don Morris building, and workers removed the letters distinguishing the Roy C. and Winnie Coffee Communications Hall. After the newsroom was complete, the letters remained incognito and were not returned to their wall until fall semester 2012, keeping the wing unlabeled and indistinguishable for four years.
“It’s not any new news,” said Dr. Cheryl Bacon, head of the Journalism and Mass Communications department.
The JMC wing of the Don Morris building has always technically been the Coffee Communications Hall, but until the letters were put back on the building, it seemed most people were not aware of the wing’s official name.
The Don Morris building houses not only the Journalism and Mass Communication department, but also the Art and Design department. Within the Coffee Communication Hall are speech and hearing therapy, radio and television studios and The Optimist newsroom.
Named after alumni Roy and Winnie Coffee, the wing was added to the Don Morris building in 1978. Roy C. Coffee was a former trustee for ACU, a Senior Board of Trustees member and he and his wife were long-time benefactors and created their own scholarship fund. Throughout the years, he and his wife donated more than $1 million to ACU. He died October 19, 1978 and his wife Winnie died October 29, 2002, a mere six weeks before she would have celebrated her 100th birthday.
Roy Coffee had served as a member of the ACU Advisory Board from 1959-1978 and was the mayor of University Park for 20 years. In 1963, he became a member of the National Development Council and in 1965, a member of the Board of Trustees. He was promoted to the university’s Senior Board of Trustees in 1972.
The letters were finally returned to their proper home outside of the JMC network’s newsroom September 2012 for reasons unknown.
