Robertsons Pledge $1.2 Million to Modern Media Program

                    Multimedia Center for Library, Endowed
Professorship Planned



Timothy B. Robertson, president and chief executive officer of
International Family Entertainment of Virginia
Beach, and his wife, Lisa Nelson Robertson, have pledged $1.2 million
to the University of Virginia to build a
modern media studies program.

The gift includes $500,000 to endow a new senior faculty position, the
Timothy B. and Lisa Nelson Robertson
Professorship in Modern Media Studies. The Robertson Professor will
design new courses for the
interdisciplinary undergraduate program and will advise the University
Library on media collection development.

The remaining $700,000 will be used to establish the Timothy B. and
Lisa Nelson Robertson Media Center, a
state-of-the-art multimedia facility to be located on the third floor
of the University's Clemons Library. The gift
will provide funds for renovating, equipping and furnishing the
center, which will house electronic work
stations, an archive of audio and video materials, and advanced
editing systems for students to use in creating
multimedia projects in any discipline.

"This gift allows us to create the undergraduate library of the
future," said University Librarian Karin Wittenborg.
"The Robertson Media Center will be a place where students can create
multimedia presentations using original or
existing video and the most up-to-date computer technology."

A 1977 graduate of the University's College of Arts & Sciences,
Robertson has been president and CEO of
International Family Entertainment since its inception in 1989. Today
its global operations include The Family
Channel cable network; MTM Entertainment, the television production
company founded by Mary Tyler Moore
and Grant Tinker; Fit TV, a 24-hour network devoted to health and
fitness; The Ice Capades; and a partnership in
United Family Communications, which telecasts The Family Channel and
Casa Club to Latin America.

"By creating the Robertson Professorship and the Robertson Media
Center, Tim Robertson builds the
University's capacity to develop a modern media studies program that
is second to none," said University
President John T. Casteen III. "His gift ensures the University's
ability to attract media scholars of the first order
and to secure equipment that is central to the work of students and
faculty in this field."

The field of modern media studies encompasses communication over the
World Wide Web and new emerging
technologies, in addition to print and broadcast journalism,
television entertainment, film, and photography.

Not a traditional journalism program, the University's curriculum in
this area focuses on the analysis of media
techniques and organizations, the craft of various media and the
impact of media on society. Faculty in
departments such as English, history, sociology, drama and foreign
languages are actively engaged in scholarly
studies of modern media.

"The need to study this field is expanding as the television, film,
print and related media industries grow and
exercise increasing influence on American culture," said Raymond J.
Nelson, dean of the College and Graduate
School of Arts & Sciences.

Endowing a professorship in modern media studies, he said, will
provide an anchor for the entire program.

For more information, call Carol Wood, U.Va. News Services, at (804)
924-6189 or Sheri Winston, Television
News Services, at (804) 924-7550.