Looking back at the first journalism degree

On his first day as a student at Ryerson’s School of Journalism, John Rowsome sat in a lecture hall with 300 other students as the faculty introduced themselves and their programs. Then, Ted Schrader, the first chairman of Journalism, took to the podium to deliver some cold truth.

“He looked at us, and he said: ‘Your minds are empty. You don’t know anything about journalism. But all of you think you do,’” Rowsome remembered. “He said, ‘We’ll be lucky, out of a class of 300, if 20 of you graduate.’ And three years later, 22 of us graduated.”

This spring, Rowsome donated his degree as a historical document to Ryerson’s Archives & Special Collections—dedicating the donation to Ted Schrader. In 1973, he earned the school’s first applied arts journalism degree. When asked why the first cohort was so small, Rowsome attributed it to the rigor of the program. “I thought then as I do now that Ryerson provides a very unique blend of practical and theoretical education. The programs at Ryerson are tough, they’re demanding, and to this day I’m told they still require students to strive for something in whatever field they’re entering.”

In addition to his schoolwork, Rowsome was a member of the Board of Governors, working with administration to lobby the government to confer degree-granting status to what was then Ryerson Polytechnic. During school hours, he was a writer, reporter, and op-ed editor at the Ryersonian, and in his extracurricular hours, a columnist with the Eyeopener.

“You had to lay out the paper, gather your own stories that had to be vetted… it was a running operation,” he remembered. “There we were spending 15 or 20 hours a week in academic programs, and on top of those 20 hours, we had 30 more for our photo labs, our layout labs, and putting out the paper four days a week. It was pretty grueling, and some people got so good at it they left before they got their diploma to work in journalism!”

To this day, he feels kinship with his fellow Ryerson journalism grads. “As soon as you found out they’re a Ryerson grad, you’d have a smile, and when you told them too, there’s a smile. ‘Yeah, I did it.’”

Rowsome’s years at Ryerson led him to a long and multifaceted career, including 10 years at Sun Media, 10 years heading a trade association, positions in offices of premiers, diplomats, and attorney generals. “For everything that happened in my career, it was absolutely the foundation,” said Rowsome. “But it’s only the second most important thing Ryerson provided to me in my life.

“Number one is: I met this wonderful lady from Ottawa who was in nursing at Ryerson. I met her, and she kinda turned me on my head, and I asked her to marry. And for some god-unknown reason, she said yes. Her name is Mary Ann (née Prebey), we have two kids, and we’re still married and very fond of Ryerson, and that was 45 years ago.”