The Daily Plan-it / Dean of Students Blog, Columbia J-school

FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION SCHOLARSHIP FUND
333 East 46th Street, Suite 1K
New York, NY 10017
(212) 370-1054
ATTENTION: FOREIGN GRADUATE STUDENTS OF JOURNALISM

The Foreign Press Association is offering a minimum of three scholarships to foreign graduate students of journalism in the United States, one for $10,000.00, one for $7,500.00 and the other for $5,000.00. The awards are meant to encourage the pursuit of a career in journalism focusing on international affairs.

Applicants must:
Submit a one page statement of purpose about why they feel they deserve a scholarship. Indicate if financial aid is needed. List all scholarships and fellowships you have received towards your studies in the United States.

2) Submit an OP-ED article (maximum 750 words)
In Chris Anderson’s new book,”Free: The Future of a Radical Price” he states that newspapers need to accept that content is never going to be worth what they want it to be worth and they will need to reinvent their business. “Out of the bloodbath will come a new role for professional journalists,” he predicts. “There will be more of them, not fewer, as the ability to participate in journalism extends beyond the credentialed halls of traditional media. But they may be paid far less, and for many it won’t be a full time job at all. Journalism as a profession will share the stage with journalism as an avocation.”
As a student of journalism, how do you relate to this hypothesis?

3) Present proof of enrollment in a Graduate program of Journalism.
4) Submit two letters of reference:
a) from a current professor (DEAN SREE’S NOTE: if you can’t get a reference in time, include a Fall class evaluation)
b) from an editor you have worked for.
5) Submit only two samples of published or broadcast work. If work is in a foreign language, please send it with an English translation.
6) Submit a curriculum vitae. Outline your previous experience in journalism and academic background.

Five separate copies (collated) of all submissions must be sent.

The awards will be presented at the Annual Awards Reception in May 2010.

Submissions must be received no later than December 30, 2009.
EXTENDED DEADLINE: Monday, Jan. 11, 2009 (you have to till the end of the day to get it downtown; but if you bring your package by noon to Dean Sree’s office, we’ll send them all together by messenger).

Send to:
Suzanne Adams
FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION SCHOLARSHIP FUND
333 East 46th Street, Suite 1K
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212) 370-1054

The Foreign Press Association, founded in 1918, is the oldest foreign press organization in the United States. We have a current membership of over 500 representing print, broadcast and photographic media from 55 countries.

Dear M.S. students,

We are nearly done assigning students to classes and wanted to give you an update on where things stand:

We hope to have your spring class lineup available in SSOL (https://ssol.columbia.edu/ ) by Saturday, December 19. We have made every effort to accommodate as many students as possible in courses, but as happens every year, everyone doesn’t get every first choice. Some classes had 35 or more first-choice ballots.

Add/Drop will begin at 7 a.m. (EST) on January 8 - http://fs8.formsite.com/cjdos/AddDrop/index.html . Add/Drop is processed on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you would like to try to get into a class for which you’re not enrolled, you’ll want to make your decisions by the first week of January. That said, a number of spaces become available in certain classes after the semester begins on Jan. 21.

We will be offering an additional section of the Feature Writing elective, which will be taught by Prof. Christopher Scanlan. (This is in addition to Feature sections taught by Profs. Span and Lehmann-Haupt.) Those interested should submit an Add/Drop form for the course.

We have made some adjustments in the City Newsroom workshop so students will work on two sites rather than three. That means one site will focus on Brooklyn another on the Bronx; we won’t do Queens. The Brooklyn site will be overseen by Profs. Michael Shapiro and Michael Hoyt. The Bronx site will be overseen by Connie Rosenblum, former editor of the New York Times’ City section, and Prof. Elena Cabral. Each site will have approximately 15 students in the Monday/Tuesday section and 15 in the Thursday/Friday section. We will email a questionnaire sometime in early January to gauge enrolled students’ interest in which borough they want to cover, which media they are most experienced in, etc.

We now have a few additional spaces open in Prof. Crist’s Personal & Professional Style. If you would like to switch to this seminar, please fill out the application at http://fs8.formsite.com/cjdos/PPStyle by January 8.

To accommodate demand, we are planning to offer an additional section of Flash skills. It will be populated with students who requested Flash via the ballot.

At this point, we do not expect to offer the Wednesday Business and Economics Reporting elective. Most of those students are being accommodated in one of the Business seminars taught by Profs. Herman and Mitchell-Ford.
Best regards,

Deans Huff, Grueskin, Muha and Sreenivasan

Dear Students:

I suspect some of you, like me, have been caught off guard by the cold and find yourself in sudden need of warm accessories.

Here are some stores close to campus recommended by staff & faculty:

Sree Sreenivasan:
The only store I know close to the campus is Paul’s Shoe Repair (don’t ask!), on Broadway between 112th St & 111th St. It’s a tiny store that sells hats, gloves, scarves, etc. I just returned from a quick trip there with a woolish hat ($5) and gloves ($8)
Hours: 8:30 am-6 pm, I believe. Phone: 212-865-3508

Sue Radmer:
-Liberty House, a women’s clothing store, for more stylish &
colorful accessories.
-A sidewalk vendor outside Liberty (though I’m a traitor to both
Liberty and Paul’s for mentioning this).
PS — the repair guy at Paul’s is a wizard.

Ruth Padawer:
You might also recommend Housing Works, a non-profit nice-quality used-clothing store
on Columbus Ave between 74th and 75th (and in dozens of other
locations around the city) that uses its proceeds to fight AIDS and
homelessness. You can get great, cheap stuff there, and help others while doing so.

The Society of Professional Journalists, in its mission to improve and protect journalism, is always looking to honor exceptional and extraordinary students who are pursuing a career in the profession, and the dedicated educators who teach them. We do so annually with two programs: the Mark of Excellence Awards <http://www.spj.org/a-moe.asp> and the Distinguished Teaching in Journalism Award <http://www.spj.org/a-teaching.asp>.

*Mark of Excellence Awards* <http://www.spj.org/a-moe.asp> The future of journalism is in your hands, and your collegiate pursuits are accomplishments that should be recognized. Nationally recognized, in fact.
SPJ honors great student journalism with its annual Mark of Excellence Awards <http://www.spj.org/a-moe.asp>. The awards offer categories for print, radio, television and online collegiate journalism.

*NEW THIS YEAR:* Entrants can submit work online <http://awards.spj.org/>.
The new format allows you to submit easily and efficiently.

The contest is open to anyone enrolled in a college or university in the U.S. studying for an academic degree in 2009. SPJ members may enter for $9.
The non-member fee is $18. Contest rules and categories are here<http://www.spj.org/moe-categories.asp>
.

*The deadline is Jan. 27, 2010*. Visit the SPJ Awards site for more information and to enter.
The awards are open to all student journalists, so please feel free to share this information with your friends and professors. If you have any questions, contact Awards Coordinator Lauren Rochester at (317) 927-8000 ext. 210 or awards@spj.org.

*Distinguished Teaching in Journalism Award*<http://www.spj.org/a-teaching.asp>
This award <http://www.spj.org/a-teaching.asp>, made annually, honors a journalism educator and recognizes outstanding teaching ability, contributions to journalism, journalism education and contributions toward maintaining the highest standards of the profession.

Nominations are open and encouraged from students, former students, colleagues and department heads, as well as professionals in the field.
There is no fee to nominate someone. Click here for the submission requirements <http://www.spj.org/a-teaching.asp>.

*All nominations and supporting materials must be postmarked by March 18,
2010.* The honoree will be recognized at the 2010 SPJ Convention and national Journalism Conference, Oct. 3-6 in Las Vegas.

Good luck!

Karen Grabowski

Society of Professional Journalists

Tuesday, December 08, 2009
• WNYC Radio Show
On The Media presents Bob Garfield’s Chaos Scenario

Bob Garfield
The media are collapsing. Newspapers. Magazines. TV. Radio. Everything. On the Media co-host Bob Garfield explains why it’s happening, and how the Internet might – but probably won’t – replace what is lost for audiences, advertisers, Hollywood and society.
The yin and the yang of mass media and mass marketing–so marvelously, mutually sustaining for 400 years–have decoupled. The digital universe that pried them apart is itself a marvel, shifting power from the few to the many and altering human behavior not to mention economies, on a grand scale. The question for business–as well as government, religion, science, politics, academia and every other institution hitherto operated from the top down–is what to do now.
Bob Garfield, co-host of On the Media, spent more than four years, and explored five continents, seeking answers along the way. Beginning in a Denmark cow pasture, he roamed from Estonia to Australia, Israel to England, Montenegro to Brazil, California to Conshohocken, PA., trying to locate the pathways out of chaos. Along the way, he contrived what he calls the art and science of Listenomics, a set of principles for taking advantage of the very power shifts that so threaten The Powers That Be. His terrifying and entertaining tale is meant to help you sort it all out.
Brooke Gladstone will moderate a discussion at the end of the event.

The Greene Space at WNYC
44 Charlton St. (at Varick Street)

Tickets $10 at wnyc.org/thegreenespace

Students: Here is an invitation for some of you to have a peek at the Thomson Reuters headquarters here in New York City. Details follow, including email address for registering. Note: Space will be capped, so DO NOT signup for this if you are not completely certain you will attend. If you register, get a spot and don’t show, you will be keeping someone else from attending.

On-Location: Thomson Reuters
Tuesday, December 8th
5:30 to 7:00 pm

Calling aspiring journalists! Don’t miss a rare opportunity to tour the ultra-modern Times Square headquarters of one of the world’s leading news information sources. An early pioneer in digital media, last year Reuters Group joined forces with The Thomson Corp. The result is a news and information power-house that leads the way in financial, legal, scientific, healthcare and media coverage and maintains a strong worldwide reach with offices in 93 countries.

Mike Stepanovich, managing editor
Alisa Bowen, SVP, head of consumer publishing
Keith McAllister, global editor, Online
Jim Impoco, enterprise editor

Space is limited; register early
Student On-Location

For location and to register: info@cencom.org

Dear Journalism Students,

The evaluation system (https://courseworks.columbia.edu/) for students to provide feedback about their classes will be live for the Fall 2009 semester on Monday, December 7, 2009.

RWI and MA Seminar in Discipline professors will be scheduling lab time for you to complete these. If you are not enrolled in either of these courses, please complete all your evaluations on your own. The deadline for completion is Monday, January 18, 2010.

Your role in providing feedback via course evaluations is of vital importance to the Journalism School. The information is used not only by future students to make informed balloting choices but also 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.

We ask that you take your time and seriously reflect on your learning experience as you provide an honest answer to each question.

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, Monday, January 18 deadline.

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 grades and evaluations of your performance.

Between Monday, December 7 and Monday, January 18, you will receive reminders for each evaluation that you have yet to complete. These automatic reminders are generated by the CourseWorks system.

Thank you for your assistance.

Questions to dos@jrn.columbia.edu