M.S. students: The Fall Curriculum Guide info is below. and we are hosting a webcast/discussion about it on Wednesday, July 2. The M.A. students have more of a set curriculum, and will be receiving their guide in a few days, with a webcast/discussion with Dean Evan Cornog set for Thursday, July 17, 1-2 p.m. Eastern Time.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: Special info about your orientation, which begins Aug. 7, is at this link.
To: All M.S. students
From: LynNell Hancock, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Interim
Re: M.S. Instructional Program
Welcome!
The faculty, administrators and staff are glad that you have chosen to study with us at Columbia Journalism School. As students, you will be joining a community of teachers and learners who are dedicated to the highest ideals and aspirations of journalism. We believe that journalism is an integral part of a free, open and well-informed society. Everything we offer academically helps to promote that goal.
We have prepared some information to help you make appropriate academic decisions in the year to come.
It describes the instructional program for the Fall Semester for full-time M.S. candidates [LINK]
], and will help answer questions you might have
about the school [LINK].
This is an exciting moment in journalism, when technology is rapidly enhancing and altering the ways in which we tell the world’s stories. You will become familiar with the language and discipline of the changing modes of communication during the course of your time with us. At the same time, you will be reminded in every course that first-rate journalism education is far more than a mastery of skills. It’s all about learning context, analysis and habits of mind.
In mid-August, I will be returning to the faculty and you will have a chance to meet my successor as Dean of Academic Affairs, Bill Grueskin. He joins us from the Wall Street Journal, where he was one of the top editors and helped run the print and online newsrooms. Professor Grueskin will help lead the way in
bridging traditional journalism with the future of the industry.
Meanwhile, take special note of the impending deadlines (our favorite word) for balloting for Fall courses. And sample as many books as you can over the summer from the suggested reading list [LINK].
We are going to be doing more webcasts in the weeks ahead. Coming soon: Sheila Coronel, who heads our investigative journalism program; Betsy West, who teaches in the broadcast program; Joe Cutbirth, who teaches reporting and writing (and is a PhD candidate himself); Larry Fried, dean of technology and his tech team; LynNell Hancock, who teaches education reporting (and is finishing up her term as interim academic dean); and Bill Grueskin, our new academic dean.
Meanwhile, our next session is later today: MEET THE J-SCHOOL: Judith Matloff, adjunct professor, author and war correspondent. Her new book, “Home Girl: Building a Dream House on a Lawless Block,” is about her setting up a new life in Harlem.
TODAY, Monday, June 23, 3-4 p.m. NY time
See local time in your city here: http://snurl.com/2nese
You can send your questions in advance: dos[at]jrn.columbia.edu (subject=webcast) and you can also ask questions via the live chatroom there (another chance to meet some of your new classmates, too).
Judith Matloff has been teaching reporting and writing; covering conflicts and other courses at the J-School for several years. Her latest book: “Home Girl: Building a Dream House on a Lawless Block.” She worked as a staff foreign correspondent for 20 years, specializing in areas of turmoil. She covered a total 62 countries, heading the Africa and Moscow bureaus of The Christian Science Monitor. Previously, Matloff spent a decade at Reuters in various positions in Europe and Africa. She has reported on major world matters including apartheid’s demise, genocide, EU expansion and OPEC.
These are also available as downloadable MP3 files for your personal
collection. If you want to subscribe to these as podcasts on iTunes,
go to “Advanced” within iTunes, then select “Subscribe to podcast” and
type in http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism/feed and hit OK.
Degrees are awarded in October, February and May. Every candidate, regardless of graduation date, is invited to participate in the May Commencement ceremony.
In order to be considered for a degree or certificate, you must file an application with the Journalism School.
IMPORTANT: This form CANNOT be submitted electronically. Please type in the required information, print, sign and bring it to the box outside of Dean Huff’s office [207C] marked “Diploma Applications.”
Alternately, you can mail it to:
Dean Huff
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
2950 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
Application Deadlines
Graduating in - Apply by
October - August 1
February - November 1
May - December 1
Please Note The Following:
When a deadline for application falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.
Doctoral students must deposit their dissertation at least a week before the conferral date in order to graduate.
In the fall of 1961, a young man named Bruce Porter came to the Columbia Journalism School as a student. On June 5, 2008, we gathered to say goodbye at his retirement party. In the 47 years in between, he became a successful journalist, author and professor, never wandering too far from the school or NYC before coming here to teach full-time again a dozen years ago.
Here are videos of his remarks at the end of “The Porter Party” which was a combination toast and roast:
Earlier the same day, we hosted a webcast with Prof. Porter, where he talked about his work, his book “Blow” and teaching at the J-school. Incoming student Joel Stonington helped conduct the interview. Listen to the webcast here.
Part-Time May 2008 Orientation
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
8:30 am:
Pick up name tags and Orientation Folders: Lobby
Coffee and pastries: World Room
9:00 am - Welcome: World Room
Prof. Laura Muha, Director of the Part-Time Program
Leon Braswell, Director of Admissions & Financial Aid
Melanie Huff, Assistant Dean of Students
Ernest Sotomayor, Assistant Dean of Career Services
10:00 am: Break
10:15 am: Computer Activation
Cabral 501A Lab
Whitehouse 601A Lab
Reisig 607C Lab
11:00 am: World Room
Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs
Student Panel led by David Ressel, J’07 “Succeeding as a Part-Time Student”
A group of part-time students discuss life at the J-school
12:00 pm: Box lunch, World Room
12:30 - 1:30pm:
Pick up your Columbia University ID
Financial Aid: 202 Kent Hall
2:00 pm-4:00 pm: First session with Professors
Beth Whitehouse, Room 607A
Roberta Reisig, Room 602
Maria Elena Cabral, Room 501A
4-5:30 pm: Talk by Brian McDonald followed by a Reception: Student Center
hosted by the Dean of Student Affairs
Brian McDonald alumni of the PT program and author of four books in 10 years, will discuss his new book, “Last Call at Elaine’s: A Journey From One Side Of The Bar To The Other” and what he learned at Columbia Journalism School.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Beth Whitehouse - 10:30 am – 1:30pm: Walking Tour
In front of the Starbucks on Allen & Delancey St. (80 Delancey St.)
Roberta Reisig & Maria Elana Cabral - 8:15am - 5:30pm:
Meet 116th & Amsterdam
All Day Bus Trip to Brooklyn, Red Hook, Gowanus & more
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - First Class
Roberta Reisig: 7 pm - 10 pm - 601C
Maria Elana Cabral: 7 pm - 9 pm - 607A
Saturday, May 31, 2008 - First ClassBeth Whitehouse: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm - 302 Hamilton
**Our building is closed that day for electrical repairs, so Beth’s class will be held in
302 Hamilton (parallel to our building, on the other side of campus)**
TO: Graduating Journalism Students
FROM: Dennis F. Giza, Deputy Publisher
RE: Free One-year Subscription to CJR
DATE: May 13, 2008
Throughout the past year, you have received copies of CJR in your student mailbox. I hope you found each issue interesting, informative and useful.
On behalf of the entire staff of CJR, I would like to offer you a FREE one-year subscription to our magazine.
To accept, please e-mail me your address (referring to this offer) to dfg2 [at] columbia.edu. I recommend, based on past experience, you provide us a temporary or interim address rather than wait until your plans for the coming year are finalized. If, in the next year, you experience problems with your subscription, or change your address, please call 1-888-425-7782 or log on to our site at www.cjr.org and click on “Subscriptions” in the right-hand column.
The one-year subscription will begin with the July/August ’08 issue and end with the May/June ’09. If you take advantage of this offer later than May (and miss some issues) your subscription will still expire with the May/June ’09 issue. Around January next year you will receive a letter saying your subscription is about to expire and asking that you become a paid subscriber; we hope that you opt to do so.
Not our graduation, but Prof. Sig Gissler recommends this short AP story about Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCollough’s commencement address at Boston College:
“Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation.”He said he’s particularly troubled by the “relentless, wearisome use of words” such as like, awesome and actually.”
Photo on right: Wednesday, May 21, 12:10 pm - J-schoolers at the main university ceremony, complete with Reuters-branded beach ball. PHOTO: Craig Hettich. See a year’s worth of Student Affairs photos.
The following awards were presented on May 20 and the winners were acknowledged again at the main graduation ceremony on May 21. Here’s an explanation of how the awards are selected.
PULITZER TRAVELING FELLOWSHIPS & EIBEL AWARD for the top six students in the Class of 2008 (another slideshow below):
PULITZER FELLOWSHIP WINNERS:
Eliza Browning - class valedictorian
Lam Thuy Vo
Robert Jacob Corey-Boulet
Ailsa Wei-tan Chang
Molly Anne Birnbaum
David Marcus Eibel Memorial Scholarship: Srividya Rao
The M.A. Program Prize:
Arthur Harris Award for Best M.A. Thesis: Dorian Sanae Merina
runner-up: Don James Duncan
runner-up: Jacques Solomon Menasche
Award & Winner(s):
Baker Award for Bronx Beat: Katherine Santiago & Stephen Beardsley
Baker Award for CNS: Srividya Rao
Baker Award for Magazine Workshops: Alexa Taylor Schirtzinger
Balakian Award for writing about literature: Adam Weinstein
Blood Award for reporting: Carolina Joan Astigarraga
Brown Award for history of journalism: Rachel Clare Rosenthal
runner-up: Robert Jacob Corey-Boulet
runner-up: Daniel Luzer
Criticism Prize: Ronni J. Reich
Documentary Workshop Award: Aleksandra Halina Michalska
Editing Award: Thomas Arthur McCarthy
Greer Award for financial writing: Richard John McRoskey
Hechinger Education Journalism Award : Elizabeth Cristina Berry
Hechinger Education Journalism: Sarah N. Lynch
Horgan Science 1st prize: Daye Kim
Horgan Science 2st prize: Euna Lhee
Horgan Science 3rd prize: Erin M. Carlyle
Horgan Science 3rd prize: Olga Marie Pierce
Joan Konner Award for Best Broadcast Student: Megan Courtney Chuchmach
Louis Winnick Prize for RWI Writing: Anup Kaphle & Sarah Lynch
Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing: Garin K. Hovannisian
Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing: Jennifer Miller
Mencher Award for superior reporting: Stokely Baksh & Renee Feltz
Lars Erik Nelson Award for national affairs: Ailsa Chang
Lars Erik Nelson Award for national affairs: Eliza Cooke Browning
New Media Workshop Award: Lisa M. Biagiotti
New Media Workshop Award: Anup Kaphle
Nightly News Workshop Award: Eliza Cooke Browning & Megan Chuchmach
Radio Workshop Award: Margaret Julia Messick & Ailsa Chang
Robert Harron Award (”nice guy/nice gal” prize): Alexander James Sundby
Sackett Award for Law Class: Adam Edmund Hirsch
Sander Award for social justice reporting: Alexandra Louise Haugen Horowitz
Taylor Award for best international student: Anup Kaphle
TV Magazine Workshop Award: Sharona Sarah Coutts
Weschler for international reporting: Nadja Drost
Weschler for local reporting: Casey O’Connor Lyons
Weschler for national reporting: Renee Kathrine Feltz & Stokely Baksh NOTE: Part-time students Sumi Aggarwal and Margaret Ballantyne, who are graduating this year, won awards last year.
The winners of the two awards presented by the students:
SPJ Teacher of the Year: Bruce Porter
SPJ Student of the Year: Lam Thuy Vo
List of Students Graduating with Honors
Margaret “Coco” Ballantyne
Elizabeth Berry
Molly Birnbaum
Eliza Browning
Erin Carlyle
Ailsa Chang
Megan Chuchmach
Robert Corey-Boulet
Sharona Coutts
Lawrence Delevingne
Michael Gadd
Garin Hovannisian
Jessica Leber
Thomas McCarthy
Margaret Messick
Jennifer Miller
Neilesh Munshi
Alexis Nunes
Nicholas Phillips
Benjamin Protess
Srividya Rao
Linzi Sheldon
Gregory Simmons
Susan Sipprelle
Lam Vo
More photos of our top six students. PHOTOS: Rebecca Castillo
TRANSCRIPT Commencement 2008
Remarks by Dean Nicholas Lemann
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
There are two things everybody knows about what they teach in journalism school. One is the five W’s—who, what, where, when, why—that every story must address, and the other is that if a dog bites a man, that’s not news, but if a man bites a dog, that is news. What we teach at Columbia Journalism School sometimes gets a little more complicated than that, but, nonetheless, the old bromides have a certain timeless appeal.
The graduation-speech version of the dog bites man story is telling students who are about to receive degrees that they represent the future. In deference to journalistic standards, I shouldn’t do it here. But I can’t help myself.
This is my fifth Commencement as dean. In that short time, the mood of our profession has changed profoundly. There are a number of reasons why, but the main one is the manifold effects of the Internet. The Internet has a nearly miraculous power to put the ability to publish, and to receive, journalism into the hands of untold millions of people all over the world. For more sophisticated practitioners like many of the people in this auditorium, it gives journalists a greater variety of means of conveying information than we have ever had before. But at the same time, the Internet has clearly eroded the economic basis of at least the corner of journalism into which this school has traditionally sent the plurality of its graduates, the American big-city daily newspaper.
When Columbia Journalism School opened in 1912, most American cities had several daily papers—certainly New York did—and there was no radio or television journalism. Through the twentieth century the newspapers died one by one, casualties of competition or suburbanization or the arrival of new-media competition, but the net result in most cities was a small number of papers that looked quite secure.
The big American newspaper of the late twentieth century was, it seems now, an odd institution, a kind of museum of all the historical phases of journalism, from partisanship (on the editorial page) to pure entertainment (in the comics and horoscopes) to serious political reporting. It was the most efficient way for people to get a big packet of information in one place. Even today’s graduates will remember the days when, if you wanted to find out who had won a ball game, or when a movie was playing, or by how much someone had won an election, you naturally picked up the newspaper. And, in the realm of business, if you were an auto dealer or a department store owner, or an individual engaged in small-scale commerce, the newspaper was the best means of getting people to buy what you were selling. Remember? And, because of the immense plant, equipment, paper, printing, and delivery costs that publishing a newspaper entailed, people who were already in the business were well protected from new competition.
Well, none of that is true any more. Most of the individual aspects of a traditional newspaper are available on the Internet, for free. Newspapers are still producing great quantities of original information, thanks to the hard work of people like you, but they no longer have local quasi-monopolies as sources of information. Their audiences are now primarily on the Internet—that wasn’t the case just a few years ago. And, even more recently, on the Web the lines between the various originating media have started seriously blurring. On the front pages of newspaper Web sites, you’re starting to find what we would recently have taught as television stories—video and audio presentations a few minutes long. Television sites publish what we teach as newspaper stories—stories made up only of printed words, without images. Magazine sites publish animated cartoons. And so on. The tectonic plates underlying our profession—those traditional categorical divisions by type of news, by news medium, by geography—are palpably, and rapidly, rearranging themselves.
Today, more of you have definite plans that entail paid employment in journalism than had such plans when I first stood at this podium five years ago. How can that be? Much of the credit is due to the great work our Career Services office does, but it’s also that employers want you because you’re energetic, because you have skills that people already in newsrooms don’t have, and perhaps also because you aren’t so wedded to doing things the way they’ve always been done in journalism.
You soon-to-be graduates are a diverse lot. You come from all over the world, work in every news medium, and cover the whole range of complicated subjects–but every one of you is a reporter: You know how to gather information, primarily through in-person interviewing, and to present it accurately, fairly, and engagingly. I would urge you, however, not to take it for granted that the best way to present information is an 800-word, all-text, pyramid-style news story—a method of presentation that grew up in the nineteenth century and dominated our profession for most of the twentieth, but may not in the twenty-first. And, as you’re well advised to be creative about how to present each individual story, the news organizations you work for are going to have to be similarly creative about figuring out, in the aggregate, what package of material they are presenting. It is going to have to be something unobtainable elsewhere—a rich mix of information about a community or a subject that the news organization’s Web site puts together more powerfully and efficiently than anybody else. It is not going to look just like the package of material that populates a newspaper now.
Inventing this is your task. You can’t avoid it—the old way doesn’t work any more—but it’s a far more creative, challenging assignment than what was handed to my generation when we went to journalism. Our job was to improve on the old model. Your job is to create a new model. You shouldn’t be daunted by this: newspapers in particular, and news in general, have been changing in non-incremental ways for three centuries. Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World (the profits from which endowed this school) had almost nothing in common except that they were printed on cheap paper and distributed in cities, and neither had much in common with a big-city newspaper today. On your watch, newspapers will be primarily digital, but the primary task for you is not to switch delivery media, it’s to invent a new social compact with a community around the gathering and presentation of information.
I suppose that qualifies as a man bites dog story—but it’s still contained within a dog bites man story, which is that you are leaders who hold the future of journalism in your hands. Sorry, it’s unavoidable. Have fun with it.
- - -
And here are the remarks Dean Lemann made when he introduced the Journalism students at the main university commencement in front of all the other schools, recipients of honorary degrees, etc - the tradition is to have some fun with this introduction (over the top is the norm from the various deans):
Mr. President, surely you must wish sometimes that everybody believed in free speech as completely as you do.
Well, sir, there is an easy way to achieve that happy state of affairs: Just make sure that the entire public discourse is based on the rock-solid reporting produced by the magnificently well-trained, hard-working, brilliant company of women and men I have the honor to present to you today.
Candidates of the Faculty of Journalism.
They are global. They are Webby. They are intellectually confident. Most, or possibly all, of the world’s problems would disappear overnight if only people would give full attention to their hard-earned facts and well-reasoned interpretations.
And they have completed the nearly insuperable requirements for the degrees of Master of Science, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy.
I humbly beg you, sir, to grant them this degree along with the rights and privileges thereto attached.
o o o o o
TRANSCRIPT
Remarks by Yian Huang, J2008 Class President
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Dean Lemann, distinguished faculty, treasured guests, … and FELLOW GRADUATES OF THE CLASS OF 2008.
Graduates … Graduates … What an exciting world we are being launched into! There are so many great subjects for us to cover: Painful ones, joyful ones. There are disasters, human stories, war, peace and … perhaps even a scandal or two waiting to be discovered.
We are now a part of the best profession in the world—the one that gives us an excuse to ask people to let us into their lives and their homes; to tell us their intimate stories. And if we ask with “Joyful Entitlement,” as Professor Gissler taught us, people say yes.
We are the next generation of leaders of journalists. Right now, we look at journalists who inspire us, and we think we are merely students, or interns. But you know what, they all look at us, and they expect us to lead.
We have been so honored to have spent the last year at Columbia—the best journalism school in the world. We have reported on the diversity of New York City, a place that many say is the center of the universe.
Ok, that’s the fun bit. Now we’re going to discuss the serious part, which is about WORKING TOGETHER.
Our profession gives us a real opportunity—and thus an obligation—to change the world, by deciding what’s news, as Herbert Gans wrote.
So what do we want to change? What are our big dreams? What if we were the heads of the NY Times or CNN, or what if we had a couple of Pulitzers under our belt? What would we use our voice to say then? Look around this room. Look at the person in the seat next to you, the one in front of you blocking your view. In 20, 30 years, we as a class, we’ll have those things. What then? And then the obvious question is, why wait till then? Use our voices now. Yes, we might have to cover community board meetings starting out, but never lose sight of why we got into this in the first place.
For me, as a conflict photographer I’ve found that documenting—and almost glorifying—violence with my photos might not lead to peace, as I wish it might. News is not just about the conventional “If it bleeds, it leads.” We should strive to uncover the greater complexity of the stories we cover and challenge the established view.
So here’s the “nut” of this speech: To accomplish anything great, we need to harvest the power of the group. As individuals, we can only do so much.
So, stick together. Being unstoppable in the face of the adversities we are certain to face is so much easier with the help of our friends. We are our own best resources:
— We have:… the largest ever PhD graduating class of 6 students, who are our resources in macro trends in media.
— We have Knight Bagehot fellows who have enriched our conversations with their experience, and showed us that learning never stops.
— We have M.A. students who have given up established careers to study with us and cover Arts, Business, Politics.
— And we have the diverse and international M.S. class, who are already trailblazing new ways of telling stories.
Find a collaborator from this group. We can’t do everything ourselves. It’s more effective to work together than be the jack-of-all-trades one-man/woman-mobile-journalist/video/photographer/blogger that the industry seems to want.
Look at how the class came together when Ahmadinejad spoke on this stage last September. We got 30 reporters together to create a blog. We had print pieces, we had video, we had audio slideshows. We killed this story. And we got 165,000 visits in 48 hours.
Look at what we’ve survived together this year: the freezing basement and the horrible experience of the toilets there. We survived not having coffee for an unconscionable amount of time. And don’t get us started on the mythical Argentinean glass that’s being flown in from Paris by way of China. Last I heard, the cafe will be ready in Aug. but that’s what they told us last spring too.
PARENTS IN THE AUDIENCE, so sorry to tell you, that while it is true that this has been a tough year for us, WE ARE NOT DETERRED from this profession. Not in the slightest.
As president of the class, I have the privilege of speaking on behalf of all the students. Dean Lemann, a heartfelt Thank You to you, your faculty and staff, for all your time and teachings that you have imparted to us so very generously. May we be as generous to those coming after us.
Ms. Gross, thank you for coming. It’s a wonderful privilege for us. Since 1973, All You Did Was Ask Questions, if I may paraphrase the title of your book. We would like to ask: If you had only one person left to interview and only one question, who would it be and what would you ask?
A special shout out to adviser Rebecca Castillo and the SPJ Board, the tireless students who labored on behalf of all of us to make it a great experience for one and all. Please stand up and be recognized. Thank you.
Last, and certainly not least, we should all acknowledge our parents. I’m going to ask everyone to stand up, turn around, and show them our appreciation.
When you leave today, find something nice to say to your own parents;
(for me): Dad, for pushing me to do my best always;
and Mum, for teaching me the true meaning of love;
I am only here today because of both of you, so thank you.
sree-NA-th sree-knee-VAH-sun was reading the article below and wanted to
remind all graduating students that he needs help with their names. he’s
walking around with a list of pronunciations, and would like you to say your
name for him at least once between now and wednesday. please catch him in
the hallway or stop by his office. meanwhile, he’s glad he’s not at
macalaster college.
Associated Press
May 8, 2008
Commencement readers cram to prep for tongue-twister names
By JUSTIN POPE
AP Education Writer
PHOTO: Jayne Niemi, second from right, registrar at Macalaster College in
St. Paul, Minn., talks with students, from left, Baitnairamdal Otgonshar,
from Mongolia, Nokuthula Sikhethiwe Kitikiti, from Zimbabwe, and Udochukwu
Chinyere Obodo, from Nigeria, at the campus, Tuesday, May 6, 2008. Niemi is
responsible for pronouncing 450 names correctly at commencement ceremonies
on May 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Janet Hostetter)
A week from Saturday, 453 new graduates will cross the commencement stage on
the lawn of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Among them: Nokuthula
Sikhethiwe Kitikiti, Udochukwu Chinyere Obodo, and Baitnairamdal Otgonshar.
Niemi’s job is to read out the graduates’ names without mangling them.
“People invest a lot of time and money and commitment to be here at
Macalester and get this education, and they get one day of celebration in
the end,” says Niemi, a college registrar who will spend several days
studying pronunciation cards submitted by students. “Their families are here
from all over the world. I don’t want to embarrass them or the college.”
Niemi is part of a cadre of deans, professors and even outsourced
professional public speakers that is gearing up to perform one of academia’s
quirkier, and tougher, jobs _ getting every name right, so nobody leaves
campus feeling angry or ungenerous toward his or her alma mater.
As you know, we have been doing a series of webcasts to introduce the school to incoming students. Our latest was with Sudarsan Raghavan, Baghdad bureau chief, The Washington Post . The originial announcement is below, but you can listen to the recording here.
AUDIO WEBCAST: Sudarsan Raghavan, Baghdad bureau chief, The Washington Post (bio below)
Friday, May 9, 3-4 p.m. NY time
10 p.m. Baghdad time
See local time in your city here: http://snurl.com/28191
Listen live at the link below (or by dialing 646-915-9583) or listen to a recording: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2008/05/09/MEET-AN-ALUM-Sudarsan-Raghavan
Columbia Journalism School invites you to meet an award-winning foreign correspondent. He has reported from more than 50 countries and nine war zones in Africa (where he was Knight-Ridder bureau chief), the Middle East, Asia, the former Soviet Union and Central America. Raghavan, who has won several major prizes, including the Polk Award, started his career in 1992 freelancing from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He will discuss the situation in Iraq, his career and what he learned at Columbia. He’ll be calling in from his Baghdad home. You can ask questions via the live chatroom or the listener line, or send them in advance via e-mail to dos[at]jrn.columbia.edu
On April 12, 2007, a couple of weeks after he spoke at Columbia during a brief vacation, he nearly became a victim of one of the countless Iraq bombs we hear about. Here’s how his front-page, first-person story, “In an Instant, a Junkyard of Humanity,” began:
The bomber blew himself up no more than a few yards away. First, a brilliant flash of orange light like a starburst, then a giant popping sound. A gust of debris, flesh and blood threw me from my chair as if I were made of cardboard.
I was lying on a bed of shattered glass on the floor of the cafeteria in the Iraqi parliament building, covered with ashes and dust. Small pieces of flesh clung to my bluejeans. Blood, someone else’s, speckled the left lens of my silver-rimmed glasses. Blood, mine, oozed from my left hand, punctured by a tiny shard of glass.
“Are you okay? Are you okay?” asked Saad al-Izzi, one of The Post’s Iraqi correspondents, standing over me, his face framed by an eerie yellowish glow, his voice distant. I did not reply.
I had always thought about this moment. In Iraq, every journalist does. But I did not expect a bomber to take lives inside the Green Zone, the nerve center of the Iraqi government and its backer, the United States.
Huffington Post’s Eat the Press called the piece “a must-read”: “The pure narrative movement of the piece, full of sudden temporal jumps and shifts in voice, only serves to underscore the nervy panic of the moment and its aftermath as Raghavan struggles to render the disjointed scene into something whole.”
TODAY’S WEBCAST: Listen live at the link below (or by dialing 646-915-9583) or listen to a recording: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2008/05/09/MEET-AN-ALUM-Sudarsan-Raghavan
Friday, May 9, 3-4 p.m. NY time
See local time in your city here: http://snurl.com/28191 You can ask Raghavan questions via the live chatroom, or send them in advance via e-mail to ss221@columbia.edu
- - - -
YOU CAN LISTEN TO ALL OUR PREVIOUS WEBCASTS AND SEE ALL OUR RESOURCES AND FAQS FOR NEW STUDENTS at http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2008/04/18/prepping/
Prof. David Hajdu [DavidHajdu.com], who teaches arts journalism at the school and is a prolific author, was a guest at Google HQ, for one of their Google Talks events. You can watch the 48-minute video below or at this link.
You can also listen to a web radio interview we did with Prof. Hajdu on April 23, 2008 below or at this link.
Message from LynNell Hancock, Interim Dean of Academic Affairs
Dear Students and Colleagues:
I am pleased to announce three major additions to our new media
efforts at the Journalism School.
The first is the appointment of one our most popular adjuncts, Duy
Linh Tu, to the full-time faculty. Duy (pronounced “Do” - see bio
below) joins us as new media coordinator and an assistant professor of
professional practice. As you know, he has been teaching here for
several years in the new media classrooms. He will intensify his
efforts to “webbify” our fall classes, and to integrate new and
compelling ideas in multimedia storytelling throughout the curriculum
in the years to come. Duy will continue to work with Dean Sree
Sreenivasan, who, as you know, has increased administrative
responsibilities at the school.
In addition, we have created two new post-graduate New Media
Fellowships starting this year. These July-June fellowships will
employ two students who will work closely with the technology staff to
help students and professors alike navigate the world of new media
journalism.
Our inaugural fellows are Kenan Davis and Dave Mayers (see bios
below). Part-teaching assistants, part-technologists, this year’s
fellows are both smart journalists with terrific reporting, writing,
editing and production skills. They will report to Duy.
Please join me in congratulating them. Kenan and Dave officially begin
their duties on July 1, but I am sure you will have other
opportunities to greet them before then.
Please make note of the following technology items as we approach the end of the academic year:
Equipment and Fines:
All checked out equipment should be returned no later than May 15th.
Equipment fines must by paid by May 16th or you may have a hold placed
on your diploma. If you wish to dispute a fine, please email Craig at
ch2314[at]columbia.edu. (more…)
The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences has just announced the Webby award winners for this year.
The 2008 Webby Award for the best student site was awarded to Defining Middle Ground: The Next Generation of Muslim New Yorkers - http://definingmiddleground.com/
It is the 2007 Master’s Project site of Tara Kyle, Bilal Qureshi and Ahmed Shihab-Eldin.
May 2008
TO: All Students
FROM: Melanie Huff, Assistant Dean of Students
In order to help you plan for Graduation and beyond, we have prepared some documents for you - please make sure you read both carefully.
Journalism Day, the Journalism School graduation ceremony and the University graduation are covered in detail on the graduation page.
Post-graduation use of the building/equipment and alumni benefits/services are covered here.
Please keep in mind that this summer extensive construction work is taking place along with work to repair and prepare the building and equipment for the next academic year. Therefore, it is necessary to establish dates after which graduating students will no longer be able to access and use the facilities. Outlined below is the schedule for the coming summer.
Part of the reason for the tight deadlines is that the two new summer Part-time RWI classes begin on Friday, May 23.
Use of Journalism Building Facilities After May 21
Use of Building:
Members of the Class of 2008 will have access to the building and its facilities through June 30, 2008.
Exceptions include: any area under construction, and any classrooms and computer rooms being used for summer classes or special programs. If you are in one of these rooms when a class is scheduled to begin, please leave immediately. Refusal to cooperate may result in the termination of your access to the building.
Broadcast students may use the broadcast equipment, as available, until June 30. Please remember that scheduled summer school classes and members of the part-time class working on their master’s projects, as well as necessary equipment maintenance upgrades, have priority for equipment and editing rooms.
Please be aware that individual computer rooms will be closed at different times for maintenance and upgrading. Though it is likely, it is not guaranteed that there will always be a computer room or terminal available. Due to maintenance schedules, summer class schedules and the part-time students’ master’s projects, it is possible that you will be unable to use a computer at a specific time.
Student Lockers:
In order to get ready for the construction and the incoming part-time students, all May graduates must empty their lockers by noon, Friday, 23.
Continuing part-time students and News 21 fellows may keep their lockers. Graduates who will be working on a demo tape or other approved projects during the month of June may also keep their lockers. To request such a locker extension, please send e-mail to cc2964@columbia.edu with your name and the reason for your request.
Graduates’ lockers that have not been vacated by noon on Friday, May 23, will be have their locks removed and contents moved to a storage bin and eventually discarded. All locker questions should be directed to Melanie Huff.
Student Mailboxes:
The mailboxes of graduating students may be used until noon, Friday, May 23 as well. All items remaining in boxes after that date will be discarded. Continuing students (& News 21) will be able to access their mailboxes on the first floor hallway over the summer.
Computers:
Graduating students will retain access to computer resources through June 30, 2008. Afterwards you will be unable to use the computer labs, print, or access your network storage. Please be sure to backup all of your files to external media (CDs, DVDs, flash media, iPods, etc.) before your account is deactivated.
E-mail:
Please see the alumni services/benefits section below for full details.
University Services After May 21
Health Services
Access to Health Services at the University expires on August 31 for all graduating students. For those with major medical health insurance through Columbia (Chickering), coverage ends on July 31 for M.S. students. Coverage for all other students ends on August 31. You do have the option of purchasing an extention on this policy. Please see http://www.health.columbia.edu/index.html for details.
University Libraries
Recent alumni will retain full library privileges, including borrowing privileges and access to licensed electronic databases, for a period of three months beyond the degree conferral date. Access information can be found at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/services/lio/access/. Library Services for alumni can be found at http://www.alumni.libraries.columbia.edu/
Dodge Physical Fitness Center (aka the Gym)
You may use the gym over the summer with your current CUID. However, you will have to pay the $91 gym use fee. Beginning in September, you will be eligible for alumni gym use. Please see http://alumni.columbia.edu/visit/s5_1.html
A variety of benefits and services are available to Journalism School graduates. This page answers most of your most questions and concerns, from auditing a class at Columbia to updating your address information, from obtaining a transcript of your time here to using Columbia’s recreational facilities - http://snipurl.com/cugsj_alumni
Please note that you will automatically be subscribed to your class list serve using the real world e-mail address supplied in your graduation survey (more details en route from Career Services). Your Columbia e-mail will remain an actual e-mail account through the summer, but then you will have to convert it to an alias to which your e-mail is sent and then forwarded to your real world account. Instructions are available at http://alumni.columbia.edu/access/s2_2.html.
Each graduate receives four tickets for the Journalism School Graduation Ceremony & four for the University Commencement. If you need more tickets, please arrange to trade with other students. Graduates don’t have to use a ticket for themselves.
The survey is used to create a class directory (both your class list serve and the alumni database), employment statistics and a database of employment information indicating the types of position openings in which you are interested. This is very important in determining how we can better help graduates find the best jobs as quickly as possible, and how the school can help make that happen by also collecting feedback on career services.
You willingness to allow career services to circulate your resume is also indicated on the survey.
2. Submit a NEW copy of your resume electronically with the survey. The resume should indicate that you have graduated and include up-to-date contact information. It will be used by the Career Services Office to assist you in your employment search.
You may pick up your tickets from Claudia Castillo in room 2M07A (mezzanine) once you have completed your online graduation survey AND submitted your updated resume. Ms. Castillo will verify receipt of the survey and have you sign for your ticket envelope containing both sets of tickets.
The survey can done 24/7, but Ms. Castillo is available for ticket pick-up/resume submission from 9 am-5 pm only. If you are a part-time student and it is impossible for you to come in, you may contact her (cc2964 or 212-851-0246) about having tickets mailed. Survey receipt verification is still required.
It’s an alumni documentary up for the Tribeca Film Festival’s “Best World Documentary Feature” award.
What: “Baghdad High” Screening with Directors Ivan O’Mahoney and Laura Winter When: Thursday, May 1 Time: 4:00 p.m. Where: Stabile Student Center, Columbia Journalism School, 2950 Broadway (at 116th Broadway), New York City
“Baghdad High,” directed by Ivan O’Mahoney ‘00 and Laura Winter ‘96, is up for the Tribeca Film Festival’s Best World Documentary Feature this year. Four classmates (Kurd, Christian, Shiite, and Sunni/Shiite) in Baghdad were given cameras to document their last year in high school, resulting in a rare firsthand view of what it’s like growing up where
sectarian violence rages right outside the classroom window. Variety wrote that “the small, quotidian realities of living in a foreign-occupied, divided city are brought coolly but poignantly to life” in the film. It will screen April 29-May 3 at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The evaluation system (https://courseworks.columbia.edu/) for students to provide feedback about their classes will be live for the Spring 2008 semester on Thursday, May 1, 2008. PT January RWI, MA Seminar in Discipline, and MS Workshop and Seminar professors will be scheduling lab time for you to complete these. If you are not enrolled in any of these courses, please complete all your evaluations on your own. The deadline for completion is Tuesday, May 27 , 2008, at 9 p.m.
Your role in providing feedback via course evaluations is of vital importance to the Journalism School. The information is used by faculty to evaluate their syllabi and to refine their practices and by the administration to make curriculum decisions and assess professor performance.
Course evaluations are one element in tenure, promotion and contract decisions; they can affect professors’ careers at Columbia.
Future students also use the information to make informed balloting choices.
We ask that you take your time and seriously reflect on your learning experience as you provide an honest answer to each question. You do not have to complete all the forms in one sitting. However, once you begin working on the form for a given class you must complete and submit it before exiting the system. Partially completed forms are not stored.
Please be aware that professors won’t have access to your evaluations of them until after they have submitted their evaluations of your performance.
Please note, we have no control over the system once the deadline has passed. Every semester students contact us after the deadline asking to fill in the form or to make edits to their evaluations, and there is nothing we can about those situations. Please be certain to complete all evaluations by the, Tuesday, May 27, 9 p.m. deadline.
Between Thursday, May 1 and Tuesday, May 27, you will receive reminders every two days for each evaluation that you have yet to complete. These automatic reminders are generated by the CourseWorks system.
Prof. Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, reports that our alumni winning at a different prize ceremony last week.
It turns out that three former students — all at the NY Times – won top awards at the OPC dinner Thursday night: Andrea Elliott, J’99 (best magazine reporting), Lydia Polgreen, J2000 (best reporting on the human condition) and Damien Cave, J’98 and his wife, Diana Oliva, not a former student (best Web site coverage of international affairs). Another grad, Jose de Cordoba, of Wall Street Journal, won a citation (honorable mention); think he graduated in the late 1970s. Not sure about anyone else.
[Update from Irena Choi Stern, director of alumni relations - another winner: Bob Drogin J’76 (best nonfiction book on international affairs for “Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Con Man Who Caused a War”).]
It was, quietly, a great night for the j-school (and for an old RW1 prof).
The New York Times
April 27, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
The Fear Behind the Badge
By KYLE K. MURPHY
THE first time I almost shot someone, I wasn’t that scared.
It was 1986, and my partner and I had responded to a report of a man waving a knife inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal. When we arrived, I saw the knife in the man’s outstretched arm. I drew my weapon, and I yelled at him to drop the knife. My partner began inching his way toward the man, pleading with him to put the knife down. I made up my mind that I was going to shoot if the man lunged toward us. My partner got close enough to swing his nightstick down on the man’s arm. The knife fell to the ground and we quickly handcuffed him.
Why wasn’t I scared? Because I could see the threat clearly; I knew what I was facing. There were plenty of other times during my 20-year police career, however, when I was afraid. Usually it was when I couldn’t clearly see a potential suspect and didn’t know if he had a weapon. For a police officer, if a suspect is ignoring your commands and you can’t see his hands, you will feel that your life is in danger.
Your completed Master’s Thesis is due in the Dean of Students office by 10 a.m. on Monday, April 28. You will be required to sign your name in the thesis submission log.
Your submitted thesis must conform to the following requirements, so follow these instructions carefully:
1. Print your manuscript, or broadcast (verbatim) script, double-spaced on one side of white paper, leaving an inch-and-a-half margin on the left-hand side and at least an inch on the other three margins. Photographic paper does not meet preservation guidelines for library materials, and theses on photo paper will be returned to the author in exchange for a plain-paper copy.
2. You should be aware that source lists (and your entire thesis, including the P.S. portion, described below in point number 6) will be available for all library users. If there are confidentiality issues with sources (i.e. phone numbers, personal addresses, etc.), students are responsible for removing the source list BEFORE submitting the library copy. If you are not certain about the best way to cite a source, consult with your advisor.
3. Do not put any sort of binding on the thesis, and do not staple the pages. The pages must be numbered.
4. Include a separate title page with the following information: Your name, class year, the title of your thesis, the name of the faculty member(s) who supervised it and, at the bottom of the page, add:
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Arts in Journalism
Copyright
(Name of Student)
(Year)
5. Hand in five copies–the original and three copies. One copy will be returned to you with your instructor’s reactions; another copy will be reserved for the library, the third and fourth will be kept by your inside and outside advisors, and the fifth copy will be used in judging the M.A. thesis prize. (Please put the outside adviser’s mailing address on the envelope you use to submit that copy.) Students submitting a broadcast thesis should hand in two copies of the script and two copies of the thesis on DVD for the library, plus videotape copies if your advisors request one. The school can assist you in making the DVDs from the final, edited tape. (See #9 for special broadcast thesis instructions.)
6. You will need to submit a short, first-person account of how you discovered, researched and reported your story. This “P.S.” should run no longer than 1,000 words. The narrative will help students in the future see what goes into the making of a successful Master’s Thesis. (Include a copy of the narrative with all copies.)
7. Put each copy in a new 9 x 12 envelope. Label the front of each envelope with your name, your class year, the title of your thesis and the name(s) of your advisor(s) for the Master’s Thesis. Please be certain to clearly label the library copy.
8. New media theses: the library cannot store computer disks, and does not have the facilities for viewing their contents. The paper copy of the thesis should include a printout of the media presentation (and any source code, if applicable) and also the way to access it (thesis URL). A hyperlink will be made from the Master’s Thesis Index web page to the thesis itself.
9. Theses on audio tape, CD or DVD: please make two copies, label the tapes, the covers and the cover spines with complete thesis information (author(s), title, advisor).
10. If you are submitting your Master’s Thesis earlier than the deadline, you still have to submit the copies to the Dean’s Office. You must also inform your advisor and the office of the Dean of Students of the date you submitted the thesis.
11. Keep a copy of your thesis for yourself. Neither the Journalism School nor the Journalism Library is able to provide on-demand copies of your work. You are expected to keep usable copies of your Master’s Thesis for future reference. For print theses and transcripts, a hard copy is the best option.
Attn: M.S. Students
From: Dean Huff
Re: Year-end Awards
April 22, 2008
Each year on Journalism Day the school confers awards on several top-performing students. Each prize winner will receive a certificate and some will receive additional cash prizes (this depends on how the awards were originally set up). Below you will find the descriptions of this year’s awards.
These awards are open to any M.S. students graduating in this cycle (May 2008, Feb. 2008 and Oct. 2007). M.A. students are eligible for a separate category, for outstanding thesis, and will receive information from Dean Cornog.
There are two broad categories of awards: those for which students can submit entries that are judged by faculty juries; and those decided by the professors teaching the course for which they are awarded - no submissions are accepted for these.
Please note: There are two awards run and judged by alumni - the Sander and Blood awards, which have already accepted submissions.
Another prize, the Harron Award, is decided by a faculty committee from nominations provided by the J-school community - see separate announcement). All M.S., M.A., Knight Bagehot, and Ph.D. students are eligible.
For juried awards, you may submit applications for no more than two categories (the Blood, Hechinger and Sander awards are not part of the limit), and each application can contain only one story, or segment of a Master’s Project no longer than 3,500 words (or 10-12 minutes of video or audio; for new media projects, submit specific URLs in addition to an overall URL, and printouts of the relevant pages).
The decisions of the faculty judges are final, and their deliberations are confidential.
If you are submitting an application for one of the juried awards, you must submit clean, hard copy (or broadcast materials, if applicable, WITH SCRIPTS, or for new media projects, submit specific URLs in addition to an overall URL, and printouts of the relevant pages) to the boxes in 2M07A (in the Career Services area)between Thursday, April 24, at 10 a.m. and Monday, May 5 at 10 a.m. If you are coming after business hours, please drop off the entries through the slot of the gray box outside of the DOS offices(Huff/Sreenivasan) PLEASE SUBMIT THREE COPIES OF EACH ITEM. (more…)
Attn: Students, Faculty and Staff
From: Harron Award Faculty jury
The Faculty is currently accepting nominations for the ROBERT HARRON AWARD.
The ROBERT HARRON AWARD is presented each year to the student (M.S. [FT or PT]; M.A.; Knight Bagehot; Ph.D.) who has demonstrated excellence in writing and reporting as well as exemplary kindness and courtesy to fellow students. It is popularly known as the “nice guy/gal” award.
The award was established in memory of Robert Harron, a former sportswriter and long-time assistant to the presidents of this university, through gifts from his many friends.
While all members of the School (faculty - full-time and adjucts, staff and students) may submit nominations, only students in the Class of 2008 (part-time and full-time, M.S., M.A., Knight Bagehot, Ph.D.) are eligible for the prize, which will be announced with other awards on Journalism Day (this is a separate prize from SPJ’s “Student of the year” and the other awards determined by the Faculty). (more…)
The Fred M. Hechinger Education Journalism Award will be given to the student who produces the most outstanding journalistic work on the subject of education.
This award was established by the Hechinger Institute on Media Education at Teachers College, in honor of the New York Times’ education editor, Fred Hechinger.
Stories are accepted in television, new media, radio and print. There is no length restriction. Judges will be looking for insight and excellence in reporting and writing. (more…)
[Most of the information below is for M.S. students only. M.A. students are eligible for a separate award, the Arthur Harris Prize for best Master’s Thesis.]
We received the following question from a student:
Today in RW1 we had a guest speaker whose bio mentioned that she received the “Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, won for graduating first in her class…”
Since we don’t receive grades, I’m wondering how this designation of “first in class” is decided.
The Journalism School has a Pass-Fail system of formal grading. It aims at encouraging students to perform as well as they can, without competing with classmates. In most courses (some electives excepted), students receive written evaluations of their work from the instructors. Copies of these evaluations are kept in the DOS Office.
In RWI, written evaluations are issued at midterm and at the end of the semester. These preliminary evaluations indicate students’ early progress and, if necessary, serve as a warning if any students are in danger of failing. Students who are not doing passing work are placed on probation. If a student’s work is passing at midterm but deteriorates after the midterm evaluation, the instructor will give written notice of possible failure and inform the faculty.
RWI is the most important fall course. The decision to pass or fail a student in that course is determined solely by the instructor(s.) No grades of incomplete are allowed in RWI. Other required courses-such as Journalism, the Law and Society-are important, too. Inattention can result in failure. Students also should note that the “Skills” mini-courses are meant to be taken very seriously. The faculty reserves the right to dismiss a student who fails the same course twice or two courses, regardless of the credit points of the courses.
Deadlines for the Master’s Project drafts are strictly enforced. The Faculty retains the right to fail or place on probation a student who fails to meet deadlines for the Master’s Project.
No student is permitted to graduate while still on probation.
At graduation, the honors list is announced, recognizing approximately 15 percent of the students for superior performance in multiple courses; the faculty determines the honors list by comparing and discussing each student’s complete record. The faculty also awards more than a dozen special prizes at graduation, including five Pulitzer Traveling Fellowships for overall performance during the academic year. These decisions are based in part on an informal system of grading, which permits each instructor to designate one or two students as having completed a course “with honors.” Students are informed of the honors designation.
That designation, in the individual classes, is “honors in class,” and you will see it - if you get it - in the written evaluations you receive. If you receive two or more “honors in class” in our six-credit courses (RW1, Master’s Project, seminar, workshop) AND one or more in three-credit elective, you are likely to “graduate with honors.”
Except for a few prizes for which students can submit stories to be judged, the rest of the prizes are decided by faculty, without input from the students.
We hold briefing sessions close to Graduation to explain the procedures.
Part-time students are eligible for the awards and are tracked during their entire academic career here (though the prizes are typically given out the year they graduate).
Please direct all questions to Deans Sreenivasan and Huff.
The Daily Plan-it asked recent alumni to share tips about preparing for the school. Responses (some of them contradicting each other, some of them repetitive) are continuing to trickle in and will be added here throughout the semester, lightly edited for clarity. You’ll find them below, with the latest ones being added to the top. You can bookmark this posting separately by clicking on http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2008/04/20/tips-in-the-months-before-school-i-wish-i-had/ and adding it to your favorites/bookmarks.
Send us your tips to ss221@columbia.edu (subject line = school tips)
