KU’s J-school dean says she isn’t sexist

Get ready, University of Kansas. We expect to see a rush of horny dudes enrolling in journalism school classes if they catch a headline today on Jim Romenesko’s blog: “Kansas University j-school enrollment is 70% female.” All right!

Even more jaw-dropping was this quote from KU journalism school dean Ann Brill.

“It’s probably a right brain/left brain thing,” Brill told the Lawrence Journal-World. “That sounds sexist, but there’s some truth to it. Another reason is probably because the salaries aren’t great. A lot of men are more concerned with making money.”

Just when we were thinking Brill had seen too much Mad Men, we noticed this comment from her on the Romenesko post:

OMG! My own mother would chastise me if she thought I said these things. I hope readers of this story and my mother know I didn’t say this stuff. When the freelancer asked me about the enrollment, this was a small part of the discussion, in which I said SOME people may say creativity has to do with right brain/left brain, but journalism engages the entire brain and while women are the majority of our enrollment, it could be more of a cyclical thing right now. Yes, salaries are low but I certainly never said men are more concerned about making money than being creative. On a more serious note, sexism has no place in journalism or journalism education. It’s discouraging to me as a journalism educator to see the impression this story might leave with any readers.

Way to dodge the deadly Lawrence Summers bullet, Professor Brill. That was close.

Photo by Earl Richardson