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In just a few short weeks, the Grand View community will say goodbye to one of its own. Dayne Logan, a Professor of Practice of Communication, will be leaving GV after nearly seven years to become the Communications Manager for Prairie Ridge Church, located in Ankeny. 

It was a long,t winding road that brought Logan to GV seven years ago. After graduating from Kansas State University with a degree in Print Journalism, the Kansas City native took a job as a reporter for the Leavenworth Times. His first job out of college lasted six months before he moved on to Anthem Publishing, a magazine publisher. It was at Anthem where Logan discovered his passion for editing. 

After a couple of years at Anthem, Logan decided to go to graduate school at the University of Missouri to refine his editing skills. After obtaining a master’s degree in Magazine Editing and News Media, Logan stayed on for the summer after graduation to be an advisor for the University of Missouri student magazine, Vox. It was his time at Vox that would eventually be a major influence on his approach to reshaping the GV communications department and the GV student magazine, Viewfinder. 

Logan then took his first teaching position at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. There he spent two years teaching journalism and advising the student newspaper, called The Beacon. At that point, Logan and his wife decided they wanted to live closer to home, and he started looking for a position closer to Kansas City. It was then that he came across a job posting for a teaching position here at GV. He applied, and after a successful interview, he was brought in to modernize the communication department. 

Logan had quite the task on his hands when he came to GV. Not only were long-time GV communication professors Steve Winzenburg and Becky McDonnell heading toward retirement, but the world surrounding media and media consumption was evolving into something unrecognizable. 

He set out to accomplish two challenging goals with the GV communication department. The first was to restructure the previous three types of communication majors into one new, streamlined program that would be more flexible and customizable to match whatever the world of media production may evolve into in the future. 

Logan explained that with the constantly changing world of media, it has become more important to teach students to 

be effective storytellers, rather than teaching them the scope of one communications discipline. The thought process behind this is that if a student can become an effective storyteller, that will translate across all platforms and delivery systems.

The second goal was to transform the student newspaper, then published weekly, into a student magazine that would be published in three issues per semester. The old student newspaper, the Grand Views, also had no online presence. So, it became imperative for Logan to begin establishing an online footprint to engage the GV community with several different types of media, instead of just print journalism. 

Todd Bailey, a member of the GV marketing department who works closely with Logan and students, has watched Logan’s transformation of the Communication program firsthand. 

“The industry that this department trains students to serve, has changed quite a bit during the last 10 years,” Bailey said. “Dayne has done a lot of hard work helping this department evolve and change so it’s better suited for students entering the job market for what the industry looks like now.” 

“He’s a really thoughtful person,” Bailey said. “He thinks through a lot of these issues. He likes to make sure the decisions he’s making are the right ones, and one of the things I have always appreciated about Dayne is that he was always interested in making what was the best decisions for both the department and the students. So I always appreciated how he was able to balance that.” 

Bailey described how these different disciplines were in their own silo, and that at the time it made sense because of the way the industry worked. Each student trained in newspaper, radio or TV specifically. Bailey, like Logan, has recognized that those lines are all blurred now and a good communicator is someone who can communicate across multiple platforms in different ways.

“Dayne understood that pretty well and worked hard to set students up the right way,” Bailey said. 

Bailey also lamented on what he would miss about Logan on a personal level. 

“He was just a really easy fun guy to work with,” Bailey said. “So, when I first heard he was leaving, I was honestly disappointed because I liked being able to count on him. Also, it’s a huge loss for Grand View because he is just a really good 

person who sincerely cared about the work that he did here and sincerely cared about the students and their success. I am excited for him because it’s a really good opportunity, but I really hope he gets back into teaching.”

Logan’s departure will be felt amongst the students as well. Brynn Martin, a soon-to-be GV graduate, worked closely with Logan during her time as the Viewfinder magazine editor-in-chief. 

“Dayne is actually the one who convinced me to go to Grand View,” Martin said. “I was really drawn to the way he presented Grand View and he seemed really passionate about teaching and the things he was doing with the department. I don’t know what the communications department is going to do without him.”

Martin elaborated on how influential Logan has been to her development as a GV student. She said that Logan was always encouraging to her and pushed to take on challenging assignments and leadership positions because it was what was best for her. 

“I’m really thankful for him and everything he meant to my life,” Martin said. “It’s been really cool to grow with him and work through the struggles of it all.” 

Like Bailey, Martin was happy for her former mentor, saying that Logan has been invested in the growth of others for so long, that she is excited to finally see how he personally grows in his new role. 

The feeling of appreciation amongst the staff and students is mutual for Logan. Coincidentally, there has been a lot of turnover with the staff since Logan came to GV. The one constant has been Bailey. Logan said Bailey has intentionally been stationed in the communication department to make himself available to students and faculty and to help them out with projects. 

“As a friend I really appreciate him, but his willingness to give his time and energy to the students has been a boom to the department,” Logan said. 

Logan also discussed how one of his biggest regrets is that he won’t get to work with fellow Communication professor KC McGinnis longer. Logan said he feels bad that he hired McGinnis, trained him for year, and now he’s leaving. However, part of the reason he feels comfortable with leaving GV is the presence of McGinnis. 

“I think KC’s got it,” Logan said. “He cares, and he gets the vision of the department, and he’s a really hard worker. So I feel a lot better leaving the keys of the department in his hands as opposed to somebody else’s.” 

Logan, like many in the teaching profession, has a soft spot for his students. His office is partly decorated with items given to him by students over the years. But what is most meaningful to him is that there are many former students that still keep in contact and have let him know that his approach to teaching has directly led to their success and led them to a path of fulfillment. 

“I’m really going to miss that,” Logan said. “Most jobs you don’t really get to see the fruits of your labor, but in teaching you do. I’m going to miss having that when I leave. I truly hope this isn’t goodbye to Grand View, my hope is that I will still be able to stay connected in some capacity and stay plugged-in in some respect.” 

As for some departing words of goodbye to the GV community, Logan had a very succinct farewell. 

“Ankeny isn’t Anchorage,” he said. “ Let’s keep in touch.”