…Did you notice that Lorraine Branham, an African-American woman, will become the new dean of the communications school at Syracuse.

Not many people of color who are deans of journalism schools. Quite a few lead journalism departments, but THe Big Job is rarely held by a minority. (Lorraine was head, her title was director, of the School of Journalism at the University of Texas-Austin, before accepting the Syracuse Post.

Before that, she held several high-level editing jobs. She was the first black editor of The Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat. That’s significant because a couple of editors before her was a gentleman named Malcolm Johnson, who ruled the paper. Under his tenure, blacks in Tallahassee refereed to The Democrat as The Dixiecrat because of Johnson’s longtime support for segregation.

Tom Kunkel, dean of the journalism school at the University of Maryland, is moving on. Some of you already know: He will soon take the reins as president of St. Norbert College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Green Bay Packers country.

Tom is a longtime friend of diversity. Specifically, he has been working with national journalism groups to promote more minorities to leadership positions in journalism education.

Good luck in your new role, Tom!

..Why so few reporters at national, regional or local news outlets are specifically assigned to the diversity beat or the race beat?

Tell me if you agree (or disagree) and why.