Eric W. Allen was the first Dean of the School of Journalism, and held that post from 1916 to his death in 1944: the longest tenure of any dean since then. Allen had begun his journalism career during his college years at the University of Wisconsin as the campus correspondent for the Milwaukee Sentinel.

After graduation, Allen worked at a wide variety of occupations including reporting jobs for several newspapers. While working for the Seattle Post Intelligencer, he caught the eye of University of Oregon President P.L. Campbell who drafted him in 1912 to head up the infant journalism program.

What had begun as a single course offering in journalism in 1901 had, by 1916, developed into a full-fledged program with five courses, all taught by Allen and two part-time instructors. That was the year that the Board of Regents of the University of Oregon raised the fledgling program to the status of a School of Journalism with Eric Allen as the new dean.

Known as a perfectionist, Allen expected a great deal from his students. And, they responded. For a number of years, students from the School would work for a week at a time "getting out" various Oregon Newspapers—a practice begun in 1916 when 100 students published the Eugene Guard for a week under a practicum set up by Allen. Under his guidance, the School of Journalism grew steadily in enrollment and course offerings.

Allen's strong liberal arts background (he had a degree in philosophy) led him to establish rigorous educational requirements for the growing journalism program. By the 1930s, students in journalism were required to take more than 60 percent of their coursework outside their major.

Among the changes to the curriculum established by Allen was a new graduate program, established in 1930—the first such program in journalism in the Northwest.

Dean Allen died suddenly while working in his front yard on Sunday, March 12, 1944. Sally, his wife of 37 years, had died in April, 1943. At a memorial service held in his honor, Marjorie Major Goodwin, the editor of the campus newspaper in the year Allen died, remembered him this way:

He inspired us, shook us up, quarreled with us so we would be obliged to examine our attitudes. He never let us sit in a passive vacuum without responsibility. he treated us as adult citizens with important work to do, vital problems to face, reasoned solutions to discover.

In his nearly 30 years as dean of the School of Journalism, Eric W. Allen saw the study of journalism grow from a mechanical, skills-oriented practice to a professional experience imbued with the kind of knowledge gained only through a complete education. To a very great extent, he was a leader in this growth.

Eric Allen's philosophy still guides journalism education at Oregon and his spirit is still alive within the walls of Allen hall. Built in 1954, Allen hall is a living memorial to the man who is almost single-handedly responsible for the practice of journalism in Oregon.

In 1924, only eight years after coming to Oregon to head its new journalism program, Dean Allen wrote in the Journalism Bulletin:

The actual information a man can possess at graduation is too slight a thing to count. The question is, Has he formed habits that will make of him, years later, a man of sound knowledge, a straight thinker, a representative of the best thoughts of his time, and the companion either directly or through the printed page of the soundest thinkers of his generation?