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

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.

(more…)

Two J-School students are eligible to serve on the Earth Institute Student Advisory Council whose role is to develop student and academic activities for the campus around the issues of earth systems science and sustainable development.

You will serve for one academic year and will receive a $500 stipend.

Members of the Council will assist in the development of events including: panels, seminars, exhibits, and media screenings. Members will help to foster relations between student groups, departments, and schools on campus. They will also advise and assist in the development of professional resources that will help students gain experience in the field.

If you are interested in joining the council, please e-mail your resume and a brief note explaining your interest in these issues to mgh2@columbia.edu.

DEADLINE: Monday, October 1, 9 a.m.

Melanie Huff
Assistant Dean of Students

As a followup to Dean Klatell’s introductory memo (below) and the Tuesday briefing for News21, here is how you can apply for the News21 project.

You will be taking two courses:
SEMINAR: Business and Economic Journalism with Prof. Rob Norton
ELECTIVE: Investigative Business Reporting with Prof. Judith Dobrzynski

You must take both to be considered for the News21 project and to be part of
the 16-student pool from which 10 fellows will be selected for the summer.

FORM: You must fill in the News21 application form at
http://www.formsite.com/columbiaspj/news21 (live now)

Deadline for this form is Wednesday, Nov. 23, 10 a.m. Selected students
will be informed by noon on Monday, Nov. 28, the same day the Spring
Ballot is due (at 7 pm). We suggest you hold off till after 12 p.m. on
Monday, Nov. 28, to fill in the Spring Ballot, so that if you don’t get
into News21, you can put a different first choice for your Seminar and
Elective.

Timeline for the project:

Nov. 22, 6:30 p.m.: News21 in overall Spring Preview
Nov. 23, 10 a.m.: Application form deadline
Nov. 28, noon: Selected students named
Nov. 28, 7 pm: Deadline for students to fill in Spring Ballots
Week of Jan. 23: Start of classes
Late March/early April: Selection of 10 Fellows
May 17: Graduation

May 22: Start of 10-week Fellowship

Mid-June: News21 weekend retreat for 44 national Fellows at Berkeley (paid
for by project)

Week of July 24: End of 10 weeks

———- Forwarded message ———-

Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 13:30:01 -0500
From: David A. Klatell
Subject: News 21 - An Exciting New Combinaion of Study and Employment

This spring, the school will offer an exciting initiative in business and
economics journalism, called News 21. Funded through grants from the Knight
Foundation and Carnegie Corporation, News 21 is part of a consortium among
this School, the schools of journalism at Berkeley, Northwestern, Southern
California and the Shorenstein Center at Harvard. Its aim is to develop
exciting curriculum initiatives while simultaneously producing first-rate
journalism through the combined efforts of students and faculty at these
schools.

The overall theme of the News 21 project this year is “Liberty and
Security”; each of the participating universities have chosen a different
sub-set of that overall story and a different media format. Columbia has
decided to investigate what has changed since 9/11 in the government’s
access to private or corporate financial information, under the rubric of
the fight against terrorism. We want to know what, exactly, has the
government been doing, what has it learned, what has it done with that
information, and to hat extent has it challenged important concepts of
privacy and liberty. We have selected on-line journalism as our preferred
publication format.

There are three important components to this project: a required spring
6-credit Seminar (Business and Economic Journalism - emphasizing the News 21
subject matter, with Professor Norton), a required 3-credit Elective
(Investigative Business Reporting with Judith Dobrzynski), and a 10-week paid
internship ($7,500 per student) reporting and writing stories under the
guidance of the faculty, including Ms Dobrzynski, Louise Story, Dorian Benkoil
and others. There is money available for travel - reporting trips and to meet
with colleagues from the collaborating schools, as well as funds for some
investigative expenses (document searches, court or FOI filings, etc.).

Students interested in participating in the summer reporting project must
(with the exception of night-Bagehot Fellows) enroll in both the Seminar and
Elective noted above. The 10 best-performing students from those classes
will be offered the opportunity to continue working through the summer and,
of course, get paid. Students who take the courses but are not selected may
nevertheless have the opportunity to have their best work published. It is
possible to enroll in these courses (up to the limit of 16 in each) without
becoming a candidate for the summer job.

In the coming days I will provide more information, and we will flesh out
the course descriptions in the Spring Letter, but I wanted to get this
message to you in advance of any course decisions you may be making about
the spring term.

SO HERE’S THE DEAL, PLEASE DON’T ATTEMPT TO NEGOTIATE A DIFFERENT ONE: WE HAVE COMMITED TO THE FUNDATIONS AND THE OTHER UNIVERSITIES THAT THESE COURSES WILL BE REQUIRED OF ALL PARTICIPANTS; THE FACULTY WILL HAVE FINAL SAY OVER THE SELECTION AND ASSIGNMENT OF THE SUMMER JOBS; ANY STUDENT SELECTED MUST MAKE A BINDING COMMITMENT TO REMAIN WORKING ON THE NEWS 21 REPORTING PROJECT FOR AT LEAST THE 10-WEEK PERIOD OF SUMMER REPORTING.

This is a great opportunity for those interested in following the money
trail all the way from individual accounts (ex: “Islamic charities” that
were initially targeted by Homeland Security) to the government agencies
mining, analyzing and acting upon the data. If this is not what you want to
do, please don’t let the appeal of a well-paid internship at the School sway
your judgment; this is serious business and we want only those who will make
and keep the commitments required of participants.

Regards,
DK