Shipley

Shipley just gets away from it all

By Terri Siebert
Alumni News Staff

   Interest and support converged this fall for Linda Shipley, making it possible for the college’s associate dean to spend the semester on a faculty development leave.

  Shipley applied for the leave so she could do research in mass communications. Helping to support her work is an endowed professorship from the Kearns family, an honor bestowed on Shipley last summer.

  This semester away from campus has given Shipley time to update her reading lists for both the advertising media strategy and research methods classes she usually teaches.

  “Dean Norton has made it a priority to allow one faculty member each semester to take a faculty development leave,” she said. “The university encourages faculty to take such leaves in order to revitalize their teaching approaches and develop their scholarly activities.”

  An advertising major at UNL, Shipley graduated in 1967 and went on to earn a master’s in journalism at the University of Missouri. She worked in marketing for ITT Aetna before enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a Ph.D.

  She returned to the University of Missouri to teach in 1974. She also worked as a consultant for the Missouri State Bar Association, giving workshops to help improve lawyer-client relationships.

  After 10 years in Missouri, Shipley was ready for a change. She accepted a job as associate professor at the UNL journalism college and returned to Lincoln. She was named chairwoman of the advertising department in 1987 and became associate dean of the college in 1991.

  “I’m glad to be back in Nebraska,” Shipley said. “Things have changed in Lincoln and the state, but the values are still the same.”

  Nancy Mitchell, assistant professor of advertising at the college, has known Shipley since 1987.

 “The most remarkable thing about Linda is she has a commitment to keeping the standards of our college high,” Mitchell said. “She has the best big- picture view of what other colleges are doing because of her connections to leaders in advertising education.”

  Mitchell also said Shipley’s research added to the national stature of the college.

  Shipley’s research is related to computer technology and interactive media. One paper examines UNL faculty attitudes toward the new technology and assesses their levels of innovation.

  Another addresses advertisers’ need to be aware of their customers’ level of computer proficiency.

  A third paper urges teachers to be aware of the same levels of proficiency among their students.

  Shipley’s final research project deals with people’s definitions of local news and finds that what people consider “local” is determined more by their interests than their geographic proximity to news.

  Shipley’s research this semester has been supported by the Kearns endowment. The award of the Kearns Professorship could not have come at a better time, Shipley said. The interest from the endowment provides a salary supplement and also helps pay for her research, she said.

  Shipley’s husband, Mike, also holds a master’s degree in journalism. The couple has two children and one grandchild.

  Shipley will return to the journalism college in January.