26 April 2019
…. Told By An Insider
The story of CRUTECH Mass Communication Department can only be told by those who know her history and tell it well with authority.
As the department's former student and 2nd to rise to the position of SUG leader in then Polycal (1993 /94), after now Dr Patrick Ene Okon (1985), I believe and rightly so, that being one of the University's most tested and trusted information Chiefs, image maker and lecturer in the department, I can tell her story very well in history. And would so do it religiously with all modesty and sense of objectivity and truth.
However note that since this story does not include the department's leadership and dates for want of time and need to deliberately keep it short, I concentrate mainly on the foundation, academic feats and /or challenges and prospects of the department.
Historically, the department was born under then Polycal School of Humanities in 1974 /75. Following the establishment of CRUTECH by an amended State Edict No 6 in September 2003, as the merger of three State institutions of higher learning (Polycal, COE Akamkpa & IBB College of Agric, Obubra), the department was renamed Mass Communication Technology and graded under the Faculty of Environmental Sciences.
Most recently, she became the very first "one department Faculty" of Communication Technology in CRUTECH while maintaining her residence at the top 2nd floor of the popular "Academic Block A" storey building, built in 1975 /76 under late Brigadier U. J. Esuene's regime as then military governor of CRS cum founding father of Polycal.
Since inception under CRUTECH, the department never produced a reader or professor until Dr Mrs Veronica Ediahime Bassey-Duke, an elected internal member of the University's Governing Council took the lead as her first female Snr lecturer, HOD, Faculty Dean and pioneer reader (associate professor) two years ago. Then came the current Dean, Dr Jacob Udayi Agba and now Dr Ndoma James Brown as her 2nd and 3rd readers (associate profs) respectively.
Above implies that the department in the next few years would parade her pioneer "indigenous professors" by hard work, scholarship commitment and promotion merits. Perhaps, another interesting thing to know about the department is its being the first to stand visibly alone and make a Faculty, where other component(s) of the Faculty exist mainly in name as GSS "service providers". Yet has three language professors (Mercy Ugot, Joy Etiowo and Eton Simon) to boast of.
Need I mention that the department with five under equipped studios of broadcast media (Radio, TV), Public Relations and Advertising (PRAD), Graphic and Visual Communication, Print /Printing Technology and Photography have several funding and academic problems that threaten quality education acquisition by students in interest areas.
Nevertheless, given the department's set standards and available teaching and non teaching work force that impact positively on the students, it is still no doubt that the department still competes favourably with her equals by churning out best and well schooled mass Communication graduates into the Nigerian labour markets.
