City Officials present plan for Communications & Policy Institute at Fair Park

Fair Park will soon be home to a new Communications and Policy Institute that will be the first of its kind in the nation. The Institute and Broadcast Center have been spearheaded by the City of Dallas Public Information Office.

The former Science Place II building at Fair Park will house the Communications and Policy Institute, which will also include a Broadcast Center with three studio sets for community and educational programming, editing stations and a student lab. WRR radio is next to the future studio space.

The Institute will have a program for college students and a separate program for high school students. Students will develop original content, develop networks for future internships and jobs and gain a better understanding of the challenges cities and organizations face in communicating about social issues and public policy. Students will provide content for one of the City’s cable channels dedicated to education. They will also be able to provide content to the City’s social media channels and website.

The high school program will be piloted by Skyline and Lincoln High Schools. With the assistance of the Dallas County Community College District, high school students will receive college credit for the course. Schools participating in the college level program include the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of North Texas, UNT Dallas, Southern Methodist University, Paul Quinn College, the University of Texas at Arlington and Texas Christian University.

“Students who come to the Institute will have a unique opportunity to learn from community and city leaders, educators from across North Texas and journalists about how policy is formed and communicated to the public,” said Sana Syed, Managing Director of the Public Information Office. “Students will also be responsible for focusing on a specific social issue so that they can understand real-world opportunities and challenges in providing information to the public.”

The Dallas City Council plans to vote on the construction for the project in December 2016. Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2017, with the student wing being completed by August 2017 and the broadcast center finished by June 2018.

To learn more about the project click here.