Cheers, for Now: The Dominic Lasorsa Excellence Fund, was established as a perpetually funded endowment within the Moody College of Communications at the University of Texas, at Austin, in the Fall of 2020, in memory of and in honor of Dominic “Nick” Lasorsa, who taught in the College for thirty years, between 1986 and 2016 and who passed in 2020.
The endowment was created to fill the void on funding for graduate research prior to the dissertation, including money for surveys, interviews, travel, etc. Prior to the initial gift, establishing the endowment, there was no steady source of funding for students to apply for and for most, resources were just not available. Students working on their dissertation were eligible for a one-time award of $1,000, but graduate students in years one, two and three were on their own when it came to funding their research.
Nick Lasorsa loved his graduate students, both as a professor and as a mentor, and taught several generations of budding journalists and scholars in his 30-year teaching career. He instilled the values of honest, inquiring research and fact finding and always adhered to the highest standards of accredited journalism.
Cheers, For Now stands as Dr. Lasorsa’s enduring legacy—a channel through which he posthumously nurtures new generations of journalists and academics who will speak truth to power and enlighten audiences in the ever-evolving landscape of 21st Century media and communications. Now, more than ever before, freedom of the press and journalistic license to tell the real story is being attacked and restrained, in unparalleled ways. This underscores the enduring imperative that independent journalism remains vital for an informed, democratic society. Cheers, For Now intends to support that imperative by assuring that graduate students in the School of Journalism and Media receive the funding necessary to conduct vital research important to their academic goals and to help them grow in their careers as journalists and scholars.
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