The sudden passing of Professor Marilyn Schultz, a prominent member in the St. Edward’s University Communications Department, has left the department with an important gap, one that will take some time to fill.

Schultz, 64, died of a brief illness Jan. 10 at St. David’s South Austin Hospital, one day before the start of the spring semester.

Fr. Lou Brusatti, dean of Humanities, said that the Communication Department is reeling from Schultz’s death.

“The Communication faculty is still in shock over Marilyn’s death, along with me,” Brusatti said. “It is my belief that the department will band together and continue to do the great work they have done in the past.”

Schultz was scheduled to teach several classes this semester. Lisa Sandberg, who holds a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University and was a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News until 2008, was brought in to teach Schultz’s Media Standard and Practices class while Schultz was ill.

Sandberg said that even if Schultz had lived, she was not surprised to be teaching the entire semester.

“I guess what was so different is that I wasn’t sure of what the reactions of the students would be,” Sandberg said. “I was beginning the class in a real cloud in the midst of a lot of sadness.”

Stephanie Martinez, associate professor of Communications, said Sandberg has been put in a tough spot.

“Lisa had to jump into a class where she thought the person would be back in few weeks and was told on her first day that Marilyn had passed away,” Martinez said. “It is a very difficult position for anyone to be in.  I give her a lot of credit.”

Martinez added that the department has really come together to take some of the course load left behind.

Communication faculty members Kim Livingston and Natacha Martin have volunteered to take Schultz’s advisees. Assistant Professor Corinne Weisgerber and Martinez have also volunteered their time to teach two sections of internship classes.

Professors taking on extra courses traditionally earn overload money for the higher course load. The department has asked that any overload money received from the internship class be donated to the Marilyn Schultz Memorial Fund, which was started on campus.

There have also been some concerns that graduating seniors may be affected by Schultz’s death due to the cancellation of Advanced Broadcast. Martinez stressed that the cancelation not hurt anyone’s plans to graduate.

“One misperception is that Advanced Broadcast was canceled because of Marilyn’s death,” she said. “It was canceled before her death due to lack of  enrollment.”

For the past year, the department has made a few decisions to fill Schultz’s position. For now, the department is bringing in Kate Weidaw-West from KXAN-TV to teach Broadcast Journalism in the fall 2010 semester.

Brusatti said the next steps in finding a long term replacement will be to develop a job description and then post the position for a nation-wide search.

Brusatti said he is concerned that it may be too late in the hiring cycle for fall 2010 to get a qualified pool of candidates and said that he will need input from other Communication professors.

“[There is] a need to consult with the Communication faculty to assess the [department’s] needs,” Brusatti said. “Marilyn developed her position into something more than she was hired for eight years ago.”

Martinez said that the long-term is up in the air.

“We have not even begun to think about replacing Marilyn in the long-term” Martinez said. “We know it is something we do need to do, but we are still in mourning in many ways.”

 

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