The Office of the Secretary of Defense has approved a contract that will provide funding for 32 Syracuse University students from four branches of the military to participate in the Military Visual Journalism program at SU.

The contract, approved this week, will allow the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force to each enroll eight servicemen and servicewomen in the program for the Class of 2016, rather than eight seamen, one Marine and one airman, which is the current allotment. Nancy Austin, deputy director of military programs at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said the contract will take effect July 1.

“(The military) wants better storytellers — storytellers of the world,” Austin said. “They want storytellers to document what’s happening, and a picture’s worth a thousand words.”

The 10-month Newhouse program allows students to receive a certificate in either military photojournalism or military motion media. Austin said each branch of the military asks for portfolios from men and women who meet a multitude of requirements and then chooses who will be enrolled in the program. She added that Newhouse does not have input on who is accepted.

The current contract was signed between Newhouse and the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2010 to fund eight servicemen and servicewomen from the four branches for five years, Austin said.

The current contract, which will end with the graduation of the current class, was broken after two years by the Army, Marines and Air Force due to budget cuts, she said.

“For historical reasons (the Navy) didn’t want their sailors to go three years without training,” Austin said.

Austin said the other branches were not happy with the cuts to the program, so they are working to get it back in the budget. She added that she doubts the number of students will increase once the program is back to its full contingency of 32 people.

Navy Chief of Information Jeff Elliott said the Defense Media Activity is currently paying the same expenses for the soldier and airman who are in the program on a one-time basis as a modification to the Navy contract, but for considerably less.

Elliott said once proposals for contracts go to the open market, each contributing branch of the military asks for proposals from any organization to offer programs. The branches then take the proposals and determine which programs, and which organizations hosting the programs, will be best based on various criteria.

Elliott said the current contract is based on eight students, but not broken down per student. The average cost is $31,000 for each student, which includes tuition, books and some study materials.

The Navy was originally the only branch when the program began in 1963 until other branches joined a few years later, Austin said. She added that various branches have been in different contracts with the program over the years.

Elliott said the Navy decided to continue the contract with Newhouse since it is the oldest branch to participate in the program.

“We want to communicate to the American youth, public and our adversaries that the U.S. Navy is out there and we have a presence,” Elliott said. “The best and quickest way to communicate that is visually.”

Michael Cole, chief mass communication specialist for the Navy, is one of six current students in the program studying military photojournalism and attended the Defense Information School for photography before enrolling in the program.

Cole said especially in recent years, any serviceman or servicewoman who had a unique communications job had been placed under the title of mass communication specialist. He said their job is to tell the Navy story on the aircraft carrier.

“My goal is to take my education back to the fleet and teach junior sailors that won’t get a chance to get in the program,” Cole said. “We just celebrated 50 years. I hope we celebrate another 50 years.”

Published on May 9, 2015 at 4:01 pm

Contact Katelyn: kmfaubel@syr.edu