Prof. Eileen McNamara (AMST), a Pulitzer-Prize winning newspaper columnist and a part-time journalism professor here, has taken a buyout at the Boston Globe and will become a full-time professor at Brandeis next semester. The Globe bought out the contracts of McNamara and 23 other reporters in order to cut costs and avoid future layoffs, the newspaper reported Thursday. The Globe's financial worries come amid a difficult financial period for newsrooms across the country.

McNamara, who has taught journalism part-time as an adjunct professor since for the better part of a decade said she has considered taking up teaching full-time in the past, but Brandeis' salary and benefits pushed her to take the job.

"The stars aligned," she said.

McNamara will join the Brandeis faculty as a Professor of Praxis-a position designed for professors with professional experience who are no longer fully involved in their disciplines, journalism program chair Prof. Maura Farrelly (AMST), who also serves as the Justice's ombudsman, wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper. McNamara's new position will provide full pay and health benefits previously unavailable to her as an adjunct.

Still, McNamara said she doesn't plan on quitting her professional career as a journalist.

"I can't imagine giving up writing," she said. "You haven't seen the last of me in print."

University President Jehuda Reinharz quickly approved funding for McNamara's new post after Farrelly proposed the idea to Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe in March, said Farrelly, who is also the Justice's ombudsman.

"I think it's a sign of how much respect [Reinharz] has for Eileen's work and the contributions she has made-and will make-to the Brandeis community," Farrelly said.

McNamara will teach new courses that have been added to the journalism program, including a basic reporting course called "The Contemporary World in Print" and a business reporting class next spring, Farrelly said. The new courses are part of a revamped curriculum for the journalism minor that goes into effect next year. Students will choose between two practical writing courses and two culture or history-based courses. Eventually, McNamara will teach an editorial writing course, Farrelly said.

Her "Ethics in Journalism" course is currently a requirement for minors.

"The kids are really smart and engaged [here], and you don't always find that combination," McNamara said of Brandeis.