In the 1960s, students walking past the brownstone on Broad Street that was then home to the journalism department often saw the headlines of the day posted in a plate glass window. On the day of President Kennedy s assassination in 1963, people crowded around the window as headlines from the Associated Press ticker reported the grim news out of Dallas.

Fifty-one years later, the School of Media and Communication will provide the latest news with the Oct. 17 installation of a news ticker on the 13th Street side of Annenberg Hall.

Sponsored by KYW Newsradio, the news ticker is 40 feet long and 2 feet tall. Dean David Boardman said it gives Annenberg Hall a signature look.

The exterior of the building is rather generic otherwise, but this will make it clear that news and public-affairs communication are at the heart of what we do, Boardman said. The ticker will also help our students and the campus at large stay on top of what s happening in the Philadelphia region, the nation and the world.

In addition to up-to-the-minute news events, the ticker will feature important announcements from SMC and Temple.

According to Assistant Dean Donald Heller, the installation of the ticker is part of a larger project to enhance the aesthetics of Annenberg Hall in the coming year. New furniture, new hallway ceilings, expanded office space to accommodate for a growth in the faculty and staff and a new outdoor seating area in the rear of the building are also planned. Additionally, offices will be reorganized, with hallways and signage color-coded for each academic department to help students and visitors navigate the building.

- Logan Beck