James Babanikos to Retire at the End of Spring 2025 Semester
James Babanikos, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Media Production, Management, and Technology (MPMT) professor and former associate dean for undergraduate affairs, will retire in April 2025 after a 35-year tenure at the College.
Babanikos has taught thousands of students in numerous courses including Writing and Advanced Writing for Electronic Media, Advanced Production Workshop – Directing Drama, Video Production, Special Topics in Mass Communications – Fundraising Communication Fundamentals and Ethics/Problems in Mass Communication. He also supervised at least ten independent studies a year in scriptwriting and media production.
He stepped down as associate dean for Undergraduate Affairs in December 2024, a position he has held since 2019. In that role, he was instrumental in helping navigate the shift to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, including overseeing academic advisers as they migrated to working from home. He also assisted with the digitization of many student forms so they could be electronically signed.
Other accomplishments include:
- Revamping the assessment of the learning outcomes process, including “senior learning assessment” and “capstone projects evaluated by industry professionals.”
- Reducing the number of credit hours for all majors from 124 to 120 hours, saving the students time and money.
- Reworking the outside concentration requirements so that transfer students can graduate on time and students have a chance to explore more areas of interest.
- Changing the High and Highest Honors criteria to be strictly GPA-based (3. 70 for High Honors and 3.85 for Highest Honors) so that students who must work while going to school are not at a disadvantage.
- Changing the Dean’s List criteria from 3.5 to 3.75 to make it more challenging and prestigious.
- Helping advance the process of changing the name of the Telecommunication Department to MPMT.
As chair of the UFCJC Curriculum and Teaching Committee, he helped usher in a host of program and curriculum changes including two new tracks in Public Relations (PR); new minors in PR and in MPMT; certificates in Political Communication, Creative Advertising and Spanish Language News; and many new courses in all four departments.
His UFCJC awards include Teacher of the Year honors in 1996-1997 and 2000-2001, a Service, Teaching and Research (STAR) Award in 2004-2005, and Faculty Advisor/Mentor of the Year in 2015-2016. He also received the prestigious UF Research Foundation Professorship from 2001-2003.
Babanikos has worked as a writer/director in video and film since 1984 and joined UFCJC faculty in 1993. While at UFCJC, he served as a producer, director, writer and editor for more than 20 award-winning dramatic films and documentaries.
After retirement, he plans to spend four months of the year in Greece and finish several feature-length screenplays.
Category: College News
Tagged: James Babanikos MPMT
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