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

Personal & Professional Style
Judith Crist

This class is a six-point seminar open to Master of Science students.

The nature and demands of this course make it necessary to limit the class size.

It is offered to students who have mastered the basic mechanics and techniques of journalistic prose and are interested in developing and refining a personal literary style within a journalistic framework, appropriate to editorials, columns and reviews.

The emphasis is on form, structure and semantics for effective and original approaches to specialized writing in areas too long cliché-ridden. There are basic assignments and free-choice exercises, with concentration on self- and intra-group criticism. Not for the faint of heart.

Prospective students must complete the application (link below).

The forms asks for one sample of your best writing and a short a statement (no more than 350 words) of your interest in the course. The deadline to apply is Monday, November 2, 5 p.m.

http://fs8.formsite.com/cjdos/PPStyle

Investigative Project (non-Stabile)
Walt Bogdanich

This six-point seminar open to Master of Science students is taught by professor Walt Bogdanich (bio - http://snurl.com/bogdanich ), Pulitzer-Prize winning assistant editor for The New York Times Investigations Desk.

The mission, methods and history of investigative reporting, as seen in part through a semester-long project examining a single subject. The goal will be to break news exploring the underside of an overarching state or municipal issue and to expose in engaging detail “the effort required,” as Lincoln Steffens put it, “to make the world go wrong.” The class will include a mix of investigative lecturers–from reporters to law enforcement agents to private investigators–as well as government officials and other experts on the project theme.

The subjects of investigative stories will also discuss how reporters are handled at the receiving end. The purpose of the class will be to acquire investigative skills by using them in a team approach designed to have an impact on one of the city’s great, under-explored, issues.

To apply for admission to this class, please complete the application available at http://fs8.formsite.com/cjdos/investigative/

Deadline to apply is Friday, November 6, 5 p.m.

M.S. MASTER’S PROJECTS: Small grants for reporting expenses

The Dean’s Office is pleased to offer a limited number of small grants for M.S. Master’s Projects. * Please note that M.A. students have received a separate memo about funding for theses.

These grants of up to $200 per project (individually for print, print/broadcast hybird or radio projects; in teams for digital media and documentary) are for a limited number of projects.

Grants are made for verifiable reporting expenses such as research trips in the Tri-state area, and, an occasional trip to, say, Washington, D.C.(remember, your primary reportage is supposed to be near the NYC area). Grants are not to be used for money to go home during Winter Break. These are not cash advances, but reimbursements for money spent with approval from the Dean’s Office and grants coordinator, Evelyn Corchado.

Students will be required to submit receipts for their expenses. Reimbursements will be made via student financial accounts.

If an approved grantee ends up not using as much was originally approved, he/she will be reimbursed for actual expenditures and the remaining money will go back in the pool.

Here is the timeline for the process:

• October 21: M.S. Master’s Project grants application opens
• December 14: M.S. Master’s Project grants application closes
• January 18: Students are notified via e-mail if they were approved
• January 18: Approved students may begin submitting their receipts via the
  online link
• May 3: Last day to submit receipts for reimbursement

PLEASE NOTE: Right now are unable to consider any projects other than those due in Spring 2010 semester (we will open up the process again for summer and fall projects).

http://fs8.formsite.com/cjdos/2010MPFund/

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:

Dear Students:

A reminder about the Fall Academic Schedule.

Please be sure to check your schedules at least once a day on SSOL [ https://ssol.columbia.edu/ ] for a couple of weeks - days, rooms, times, sections, etc., may have changed. This is true even if you did not submit an Add/Drop request form.

If you are having difficulty figuring out the start date for your classes based on the way the information displays in SSOL, please refer to http://web.jrn.columbia.edu/students/Fall09.htm It includes exact start dates for all fall courses except for FT RWI, the Master’s Project, and the Master’s Thesis.

Also, please remember that there are no excused absences from skills class. You must attend all five sessions to pass these classes. If you are ill and cannot attend a session, we will work with you to get you moved to another skills class.

Questions to dos@jrn.columbia.edu

MH

Dear full-time M.S. students:

Please fill in this form so that you can network with fellow students who are covering the same beat.

If you have already finalized your beat, please fill in right away. We will circulate this list on Monday, Aug. 31. We will do a second, updated edition in early September.

<a href="http://www.formsite.com/columbiaspj/rw12009/index.html">Click here to complete: RWI Beats 2009</a>

WHAT PEOPLE FILLED IN: See the results.

Questions to Dean Sree.

TO: M.S. Students completing the Master’s Project this Summer
FROM: Bill Grueskin, Dean of Academic Affairs
RE: Instructions on Submitting Your M.S. Master’s Projects, September 2009

The deadline for submitting your finished Master’s Project is Friday, September 4, at 10 a.m.

All projects must be submitted to Claudia Castillo, who will be stationed in the Stabile Student Center that morning.

Instructions specific to new media and radio are listed below.

Please submit one hard copy in a 9 ½ by 11-inch envelope. This copy will be given to the library. Label the envelope with your name, your class year, the title of your project and the name of your Master’s Project adviser.

You will be required to sign your name on the Master’s Project submission log when you turn in your final project. Only those students who received a formal extension from your faculty adviser and the Dean of Students Office have permission to miss this deadline.

Please e-mail one final copy of your project to your adviser. Ask your adviser if he or she also wants a hard copy.

This final version of your project will be available in the Columbia Library, so it must conform to the following requirements:

1. Formatting

• Margins and Numbers: The print version, or a verbatim broadcast script, must be double-spaced on one side of white paper, leaving a 1½- inch margin on the left-hand side and a 1-inch margin on all other sides. Pages must be numbered. No binding, or staples, please.
• Title Page: Include a separate title page with the following information: Your name, class year,
  the title of your project, the name of your master’s adviser, and, at the bottom of the
  page, add:
  Copyright
  (Name of Student)
  (Year)

2. Source List
Submit a complete source list for your project at the end of your project. If you are not certain about the best way to cite a source, consult with your adviser. Be aware that source lists and your entire project, including the “P.S.” portion, will be available for reading and copying by all Journalism School library visitors. If you have confidentiality concerns with sources (i.e. names, phone numbers, personal addresses, etc.), you are responsible for removing the source list from the copy submitted to the DOS office for the library.

3. Post Script
At the end of your project, you must include a first-person narrative describing how you discovered, researched and reported your story. This will help future students see what goes into the making of a successful master’s project. This “P.S.” should be included with all copies of your project after the source list, and should run no longer than 1,000 words. Remember that this post script will be available along with your project in the library.

Students submitting a Radio Project should include:

• One copy of your script for DOS, email a second to the adviser, plus a hard copy to the adviser if he/she requests it. Include a Post Script and Source List as described above.
• For Radio, one copy of your project on audio CD for DOS, and a second for your adviser. In addition, provide your adviser a copy of the .wav file (i.e. the final mix “bounce,” on a data CD).

Label all your CDs, tapes and accompanying materials with complete project information (author(s), title, adviser). Indicate whether CDs are data or audio.

Students submitting a New Media project should include:

• A printed cover page with your names, topic and URL, and a copyright statement. One hard copy to DOS, another emailed to your adviser.
• A printed source list and P.S. as described above. In most cases, your “about us” should suffice. Bring one copy to DOS; send a second by email to your adviser.
• All the content and source code must be uploaded to the Columbia server. If you are using software such as Wordpress, you need to have it hosted by Columbia. Also, your videos and other multimedia need to be on the Columbia servers, even if you are already hosting your content on external servers sucks as YouTube, blip.tv, etc.

The library cannot store computer disks, and does not have the facilities for viewing their contents. A hyperlink will be made from the Master’s Project Index web page to the project itself.

You will be expected to submit the materials above AND upload your final websites to the servers by 10 a.m. on Friday, September 7.

4. Your Copy
Keep a copy of your project for yourself. Neither the Journalism School nor the Journalism Library is able to provide on-demand copies of your work.

Congratulations!

Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:26:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Sree Sreenivasan
To: j-school students
Subject: MEMO: Notes from orientation

Dear M.S. full-time students:

It was great to see meet many of you during today’s activities and I look forward to getting to know all of you in the weeks and months ahead.

Some quick notes and reminders: (more…)

From Dean Huff, Asst. Dean of Students

The Add/Drop period for M.S. students begins August 24 at 7 a.m.

During this period, students may request a change of classes.

Please note that this is only a REQUEST and we cannot guarantee your request will be accommodated.

On each Add/Drop request form you may request to add one class AND drop one class.

It is possible to simply fill out the “Add” or “Drop” portion if you are a PT student not looking to switch, but merely to add or drop a class.

The Add/Drop request form will be available as of 7 a.m. on Monday, August 24. Additional information on the Add/Drop request process is listed below. Please read it carefully before submitting a request form.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT ADD/DROP REQUESTS:

The Add/Drop period Monday, August 24, at 7 a.m. to Friday, September 18, at 7 a.m.

Add/Drop forms are processed on a first come, first served basis.

If your form is submitted correctly you will receive a request confirmation e-mail within 24 hours. Please remember to include the @columbia.edu after your UNI.

You will NOT receive an e-mail from our office saying that your request was granted or not granted.

To learn if your request was granted, you must keep checking your class schedule on the web using STUDENT SERVICES ONLINE. All requests remain on file during the add/drop period.

You do not need to submit multiple forms for the same Add/Drop request. If I am able to grant requests I do it as soon as possible but sometimes it takes days for a space to open in a class. Sometimes the space never opens up. In most cases, if you want to add a class I have to wait to see whether someone else wants to drop it.

Please remember that you are submitting an Add/Drop REQUEST.

There is no guarantee that I will be able to approve your request. Until you see a change reflected on your class schedule on STUDENT SERVICES ONLINE, your request has not been approved.

I will NOT drop you from a required course unless I can get you into the course you have requested. If you have more than one preference, you may for a given course, in the notes section of the Add/Drop form, indicate so. Simply complete the add portion of the form with your first preference and in the notes section give me the same info about your second, third, etc., choices. You must include the call and course numbers if you indicate other preferences in the notes section.

Also, please be certain that you are not requesting a class that conflicts with any of your other classes. Such requests will be ignored.

And finally, remember that if you are requesting to add a course, you are also probably planning to drop a course. DON’T forget to request to drop the course and please do it on the same form you use to request a class.

The only way I will be able to approve most requests is by knowing which courses will be dropped by students.

SAMPLE FORM BELOW (information is fictional)

Program/Contact Information (information below is fictional)

Your Name: SUSIE J-SCHOOLER

PID: C000213126

E-mail: sjs2009@columbia.edu

Phone: 917-123-4560

Program: FT Master of Science

Concentration: Newspaper (M.S. students only)

Stabile: No

Please enter the details of the course you would like to ADD: (information for completing this section is at the Directory of Classes - see instructions at the top of the add/drop form)
Class Number: J6000; Section Number: 20; Call Number: 81350
Title: Covering Fish

Please enter the details of the course you would like to DROP: (information for completing this section is at the Directory of Classes - see instructions at the top of the add/drop form)
Class Number: J6000; Section Number: 16; Call Number: 72241
Title: Reporting on Snails

ADD/DROP FORM - http://fs8.formsite.com/cjdos/AddDrop

SUGGESTED READING LIST for M.S. STUDENTS

To help you to develop an understanding of New York City and its issues, past and present, the faculty recommends the following books and Web sites. The list is long, (although by no means exhaustive) and we don’t expect you to read every title on it. However, we do ask that you familiarize yourself with “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of master planner Robert Moses.

In addition, we suggest that you select an anthology or two, a couple of the classics (fiction and/or nonfiction), and several titles in subject areas that interest you journalistically. If you’re an aspiring education writer, for instance, you might want to read the books listed under “Education.”

Lastly, you should get into the habit of reading at least a couple of New York newspapers every day – if you live outside the metropolitan area, you can read them online – and also checking the Web sites of some of the local broadcast stations. This will not only acquaint you with the city that will serve as your laboratory during the time that you’re here, but also with the journalism that is going on here – and the media outlets to which you may wish to eventually pitch your stories.

Recommended reading:

Robert Caro: “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York” (New York: Knopf, 1974)

Classic non-fiction books about New York:

• EB White: “Here is New York” (Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1949)
• Meyer Berger: “The Eight Million: Journal of a New York Correspondent” (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1942)
• A.J. Liebling: “Back Where I Came From” (North Point Press, 1990)
• Willie Morris: “New York Days” (Little, Brown, 1993)

Classic novels about New York:

F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The Great Gatsby” (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925)
• Betty Smith: “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (Harper & Row, 1943)
• Tom Wolfe: “The Bonfire of the Vanities” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1988)
• Pete Hamill: “Snow in August” (Little Brown, 1997)
• Bel Kaufman: “Up the Down Staircase” (Prentice-Hall, 1964)

Anthologies:

• Dan Barry: “City Lights: Stories About New York” (St. Martin’s Press, 2007)
• David Remnick (ed): “Wonderful Town: New York Stories from the New Yorker” (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
• Phillip Lopate: “Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan” (Anchor, 2004)
• Connie Rosenblum (ed.): “New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times” (NYU Press, 2005)
• Pete Hamill: Piecework: “Writings on Men & Women, Fools and Heroes, Lost Cities, Vanished Calamities and How the Weather Was” (Little, Brown, 1996)

9/11:

Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn: “102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers” (Times Books, 2005)
• David Halberstam: “Firehouse” (Hyperion, 2002)
• Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins: “Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11” (HarperCollins, 2006)
• Tram Nguyen: “We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant Communities after 9/11” (Beacon Press, 2005)

Criminal Justice:

• Greg Donaldson: “The Ville” (Ticknor & Fields, 1993)
• Brian MacDonald: “My Father’s Gun: One Family, Three Badges, One Hundred Years in the NYPD” (Plume, 2000)

Education:

• Samuel G. Freedman: “Small Victories: The Real World of a Teacher, Her Students and Their High School” (HarperTrade, 1991)
• Alec Klein: “A Class Apart: Prodigies, Pressure, and Passion Inside One of America’s Best High Schools” (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
• Diane Ravitch: “The Great School Wars of New York City 1805-1973” (Basic Books, 1974)

Immigration:

• Joseph Berger: “The World in a City: Traveling the Globe Through the Neighborhoods of the New New York” (Ballantine Books, 2007)
• Tram Nguyen: “We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant Communities after 9/11” (Beacon Press, 2005)

Media:

• Kate Darnton, Kayce Freed Jennings and Lynn Sherr (eds.):”Peter Jennings: A Reporter’s Life” (PublicAffairs, 2007)
• Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones: “The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times” (Little, Brown, 1999)
• Gay Talese: “The Kingdom and the Power: Behind the Scenes at The New York Times: The Institution That Influences the World” (Cleveland: World Publishing, 1969)

Life in New York:

• LynNell Hancock: “Hands To Work: The Stories of Three Families Racing the Welfare Clock” (William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2002)
• Adrian Nicole LeBlanc: “Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx” (Scribner, 2003)
• Jim Dwyer: “Subway Lives: 24 Hours in the Life of the New York Subway” (Crown, 1991)

Politics and Business:

• Jack Newfield and Wayne Barrett: “City for Sale” (Harper & Row, 1988)
• Jim Sleeper: “The Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York” (W.W. Norton, 1990)
• James B. Stewart: ”Den of Thieves” (Simon & Schuster, 1992)

Race/Ethnicity:

• Alex Haley: “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” (Mass Market/Paperback, Reissue 1989)
• Jervis Anderson: “This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait 1900-1950” (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1991)
• Diane Ravitch: “The Great School Wars of New York City 1805-1973” (Basic Books, 1974)
• Samuel G. Freedman: “Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church”
• Jim Sleeper: “The Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York” (W.W. Norton, 1990)
Arlene Arlene Morgan, Alice Pifer, Keith Woods: “The Authentic Voice” (Columbia University Press, 2006)

Religion:

• Lis Harris: “Holy Days: The World of the Hasidic Family” (Summit Books, 1985)
• Samuel G. Freedman: “Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church” (HarperCollins, 1994)

Sports:

• Michael Shapiro: “The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers and Their Final Pennant Race Together” (Doubleday, 2003)
• Jimmy Breslin: “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? The Improbable Saga of the New York Mets’ First Year” (Viking, 1963)

Technology & Media:

• Henry Jenkins: “Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide” (NYU, 2008)
• Clay Shirky: “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations” (Penguin Press, 2008)
• Andrew Lih: “The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopedia” (Hyperion, 2009)

City sites:

• www.nyc.gov
• http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd
• http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp
• http://www.brooklyn-usa.org
• http://www.queensbp.org
• http://www.statenislandusa.com
• http://www.mbpo.org
• http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov

Online & Print Media:

• http://nytimes.com
• www.nydailynews.com
• http://www.nypost.com
• http://www.newsday.com
• http://www.silive.com
• www.villagevoice.com
• http://www.nysun.com
• http://www.amny.com
• www.nypress.com
• http://ny.metro.us
• http://www.observer.com
• www.brooklyneagle.com
• www.queenschronicle.com
• http://www.queenstribune.com
• http://www.nypress.com
• www.bronxbeat.org
• http://gothamist.com
• http://gothamgazette.com
• http://www.citylimits.org
• http://nymag.com
• www.cjr.org

Broadcast media:

• http://www.ny1.com
• http://wcbstv.com
• http://www.wnbc.com
• http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/index
• http://www.news12.com
• http://www.wnyc.org
• http://www.wcbs880.com/

FOR FULL-TIME & PART-TIME M.S. STUDENTS.

Fall Term Courses

REPORTING & WRITING (RWI) 6 points
Note: we will assign you to a RWI section and instructors

This is the core course in reporting and writing on which much student work is built. Using metropolitan New York as a laboratory, students cover a variety of news events and issues. Street reporting is supplemented by regular deadline writing exercises under the supervision of the Faculty and by assignments designed to familiarize students with material they will encounter in professional work. Classes will have or share Web sites where student work will be published for the communities they cover.

RWI seeks to blend instruction in the craft and the substance of journalism so students will graduate knowing how to write in an accurate, clear and complete fashion, meet a deadline, gather and verify material, and understand several subject areas that are essential to reporting. They also will learn and use several digital-media techniques and gain experience in incorporating those skills in the reporting and publishing process.

Street Reporting: Instructors will generally give students at least one reporting assignment each week. Some assignments may be stories to be reported and written that day; others may require deeper coverage for an entire day, to be handed in the following day. Later in the term, instructors may ask students to execute longer pieces requiring reporting and writing spanning two or three weeks.

Deadline Writing: Students spend several hours writing in class under deadline conditions, with on-the-spot supervision. Sometimes, students are given material in class from which to write their stories, while other days they must develop their own sources.

Accuracy is essential. Errors in punctuation, spelling and grammar may be grounds for failing a paper. Students will be expected to redo assignments that don’t meet their instructors’ standards.

REPORTING & WRITING FOR BROADCASTING (RWI) 8 credits
Several sections of RWI will be tailored for broadcast students and taught jointly by print and broadcast professors. The course will cover the same print reporting techniques as other sections, plus reporting for radio and television. Because the Jumbo RWI is an eight-credit course, broadcast students DO NOT take an RWII elective.

ESSENTIALS OF JOURNALISM
This program includes four required courses, each half a semester long. Full-time M.S. students will take two the first half and two the second half, in varying order. All courses will be taught in morning and afternoon sessions on Fridays.

Law of Journalism, 1 point
Instructors: Freeman, Karle, Zucker
This course provides students with a practical understanding of legal issues that most affect journalists today. Students will get a basic understanding of the First Amendment, and will move from there to learning about privacy, defamation, libel, fair use of content and copywright, agreements with sources and rules governing liability for journalists whose sources commit crimes or torts. Many of these issues will be addressed within the changing contexts brought on by the Internet.

Business of Journalism, 1 point
Instructors: Grueskin, Klein
This course will give students a basic understanding of the business of gathering and publishing news. Students will learn about the models that have supported print and broadcast outlets, as well as the concentration of media and regulation by government bodies. We will look at the disruption in those models caused by the Web and other factors. Students will learn about new news organizations and business models for stand-alone journalists. At the end, they will be challenged to think, in small groups, about business models for the future.

Ethics of Journalism, 1 point
Instructors: Klatell, Solomon
In this course, students will deal with ethical issues that often arise in the practice of journalism. Those include verification of information, the relationship between your personal morality and journalistic decisions, issues brought up by competition and the ubiquity of news, and the impact the Internet has on forcing decisions within narrow time frames. The class will rely heavily on case studies developed at the Journalism School.

History of Journalism, 1 point
Instructors: Lemann, Schudson, Tucher
How has the role of the journalist changed over the decades? This course will look at the influence of partisanship, technological change and varying definitions of objectivity to examine how journalism has been changed. It will include examination of several key fators, including important court cases, major news events and significant changes in technology, including radio, television and online.

Part-time M.S. students may either take Journalism Essentials on Friday mornings with the full-time students or they may opt to take Critical Issues for two points and Journalism, the Law & Society for two points in the evenings (This fall’s schedule for them is in the section for PT students only at the bottom). Beginning next fall (2010), Journalism Essentials will also be offered in the evenings.

MASTER’S PROJECT
3 points in Fall; 3 points in Spring (6 points for PT students over the summer)

In its scope and duration, the Master’s Project is a student’s most sustained effort. In terms of relative importance, credits and priority, however, it should be kept in perspective with the rest of the curriculum. The Project is not a thesis in the traditional academic sense, but rather an in-depth exploration of a topic as a journalist would pursue it.

Master’s Projects may be executed in print, digital media or broadcast (radio or television) forms. Students work on radio and print projects individually, and students doing video or digital-media projects work with one or two partners. Video documentary projects require an extra semester (see below).

An assigned adviser offers advice in selecting a topic, fixing its focus and working through an approach, conducting the research and doing the reporting, then organizing, writing, rewriting (and re-recording, where appropriate) the various versions.

For those students undertaking the project this academic year (All FT and some PT students), we would like to know from you which type of project they would like to undertake – including the general topic, if you know that now. Students should indicate their preferences, even if they are tentative, on the Fall ballot, since we will attempt to match advisers with students according to their preferences, as much as possible.

Students will begin meeting with their adviser in September, and regularly thereafter, depending on whatever arrangments students and advisers choose.

* Please note that part-time students opting to do their Master’s Project over during the academic year (fall/spring), must be available on Friday afternoons for group meetings.

Master’s Project Requirements
Every student carrying out a project must meet the minimum requirements of 1) a proposal; 2) an early outline; and 3) three drafts or edits. Some variations are permitted at the discretion of advisers. The broadcast (see below) and digital-media faculty have slightly different requirements.

Students must meet with their advisers early during the Fall to develop a topic. That topic must be fixed by Nov. 6. Serious work on the project will proceed during the Fall as well as over the holiday break. A “billboard” or brief description, preliminary outline and list of likely sources must be submitted to advisers Dec. 1. The results of your initial reporting and interviews are due by Dec. 15; your adviser will specify what he/she requires. The first draft is due on Jan. 19, 2009. The second draft is due Feb. 22. The third-and final-draft will be turned in at the end of the Spring break, March 22.

You should stay in close and frequent contact with your adviser, who will explain the school’s expectations and requirements for completion of the project.

Choosing a Topic
Students should consider a topic that is significant, interesting, and feasible and will sustain their interest over months of research. You should choose a topic you find fascinating and complex. You don’t have to already be an expert on the subject; indeed, a good reporter becomes an expert.

For both logistical and educational reasons, the topic must focus on the New York area — that is, the student must collect most of the necessary information, and interview characters in person, in the New York area. You may need to do phone or email interviews, and collect information online, but that should be a lesser part of your overall reporting effort. Projects that need reporting in a foreign country will not be approved. Projects needing substantial reporting outside of the New York region also are discouraged.

Print projects should run between 5,000 and 8,000 words; in rare cases, they may go longer if the material requires it and if the adviser so recommends. With approval of advisers, they can also include online elements, such as slide shows or audio elements. Projects executed in broadcast or digital media vary according to the complexity of the material involved.

If you have a particular area of interest for your project, please indicate that on the ballot due July 13. We will try to match your interest to an appropriate advisor, but can’t guarantee individual choices. And if you don’t have a topic in mind yet, that’s fine. You’ll get plenty of advice when you arrive on how to narrow down your interests.

Required Third Semester for Video Master’s Project
Students who opt to complete a video project must stay for an additional semester — either the summer or fall of 2010 — to complete their work. The faculty believes that high-quality, 30-minute video documentaries need more time than our standard program permits. The proposal and acceptance process for television master’s projects will take place in the Fall semester. If you have any interest in pursuing this, please indicate so on your ballot; you will be able to change your mind later. Approximate extra tuition cost will be $9,000 for the third semester. Scholarship aid is available to help defray that cost if needed.

Master’s Project Reference List
These are highly recommended as examples of the kind of journalism to which the Master’s Project aspires:

• Helen Benedict: Portraits in Print (Columbia University Press, 1991)
• Joan Didion: Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Washington Square Press, 1991) and The White Album (Simon & Schuster, 1979)
• Oriana Fallaci: Interview with History (Houghton Mifflin, 1977)
• Frances Fitzgerald: Cities on a Hill (Simon & Schuster, 1986)
• Samuel Freedman: Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church (HarperCollins, 1994)
• Pete Hamill: Piecework (Little Brown, 1996)
• LynNell Hancock: Hands to Work: The Stories of Three Families Racing the Welfare Clock (William Morrow, 2002)
• Randolph T. Holhut: The George Seldes Reader (Barricade Books, 1994)
• J. Anthony Lukas: Common Ground (Knopf, 1985)
• William Lutz: The New Doublespeak (Harper Collins, 1996)
• John McPhee: The John McPhee Reader (Vintage, 1976, originally published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• Jessica Mitford: Poison Penmanship (Knopf, 1979)
• Sylvia Nasar: A Beautiful Mind (Touchstone, 2001)
• Bruce Porter: Blow (St. Martin’s Press, 1994)
• Michael Shapiro: Solomon’s Sword: Two Families and the Children the State Took Away (Westview Press, 2002)
• In-depth broadcasts such as Frontline, 60 Minutes, All Things Considered, Nightline, and various radio and television documentaries

SPECIALIZED REPORTING/WRITING ELECTIVES (RWII)

3 points
As the title indicates, these 10-week courses focus on specific news beats, such as international reporting or business reporting, or on specific writing techniques, such as feature or profile writing. Faculty assign an average of three writing assignments, along with regular reading assignments, though that varies depending on the class and the instructor. All electives begin in October and include a weekly 2-3 hour class meeting on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or on Saturdays. (Schedules are adjusted for Thanksgiving week.) No classes for full-time students are offered Thursday evenings, because students are invited to attend the School’s all-class lectures and panel discussions. Part-time students are also invited to participate in those sessions.

Specialization is continued and expanded in the spring term in the Advanced Reporting/Writing Seminars. Thus, in the spring students can ballot for a second specialty or ballot to enlarge on one taken in the first term.

Print students will take one of the classes below; digital media students will automatically be registered for a section of Digital Media Newsroom (description below).

The Art of the Profile – John Bennet
Business and Financial Journalism (I) – Mike Miller
Business and Financial Journalism (II) – Tom Herman
Covering National Politics – Thomas Edsall
Covering New York Politics – Wayne Barrett
Cultural Affairs Reporting and Writing – Charles Taylor
Environmental Reporting – Marguerite Holloway
Feature Writing (I) – Karen Stabiner
Feature Writing (II) – Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

Foreign Reporting Off the Beaten Path – Howard French
International Reporting – Tom Kent
News Editing – Robin Reisig
Opinion Writing – Seth Lipsky and Gail Collins
Personal and Professional Style – Judith Crist
Social Impact of Mass Media – Andie Tucher
Writing With Style – Kevin Coyne

RWII: Course descriptions

The Art of the Profile
Instructor: John Bennet,
Mon., 6 to 9 p.m.
This elective offers an in-depth chance to read, study and write profiles. The reading list includes John McPhee, Jane Kramer, Calvin Trillin, Gay Talese, Susan Orlean, Joan Didion and others. Students will write two short profiles and one long one. Your work will be critiqued in class and edited in detail.

Business and Financial Reporting (I)
Instructor: Mike Miller
Tues., 6:30 to 9 p.m.

Business and Financial Reporting (II)
Instructor: Tom Herman
Tues., 6:30-9 p.m.

This course is an introduction to the basic concepts and tools of business reporting, designed for students interested in the field as well as those planning to specialize in other areas. The dynamics of business are at the heart of most journalistic subjects–from politics to culture to sports to foreign affairs–so learning how to make sense of business news and bring it to life are invaluable skills for all journalists. We will study these subjects both through readings, by following and discussing news stories throughout the semester, and by analyzing classic business articles. Our discussion will focus on the different lenses through which business stories can be viewed: people, places, processes (eg how to create a new fast-food product made from Fritos),and numbers (how do they get manipulated, when is it illegal, how does the public find out). Several short features will be assigned, as well as in-class writing exercises. We will cover effective methods for conceiving and pitching stories, identifying and interviewing sources, story structure, and writing. Several class sessions will feature guest speakers from major business and general-interest publications. (A version of this course will likely be repeated in the Spring.)

Covering National Politics
Instructor: Thomas Edsall
Weds., 6-9 p.m.
This course will focus on politics and policy-making in the 2009 session of Congress, looking at political activity through the lens of resource competition at a time of scarcity. The course will examine in detail the partisan forces at work in the drafting, committee work, and ultimate outcome of major pieces of legislation, including the Obama administration’s financial reform agenda and health care reform. Students will write about the progress of legislation, explore interest-group rivalry, and the reasons for the success or failure of legislative initiatives. The course will make use of lobbying and campaign finance reports; will track the activities of trade associations and other stakeholders; observe the actions of members of Congress, constituents, organized pressure groups, the media, and the executive branch.

Covering New York Politics
Instructor: Wayne Barrett
Tuesday 7 - 9 p.m.
Covering New York Politics prepares students to report and write news and feature stories about legislative, congressional and municipal offices, using New York’s 2008 and 2009 elections as a laboratory. The November election gives Democrats the greatest opportunity since 1966 to regain control of the New York State Senate, and students will cover hotly contested senate races in the city and suburbs. In addition, some of the candidates vying to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2009 will visit the class and become the subjects of class coverage. Races for other city posts—from comptroller to council—will also be examined. Every student will become an expert on one race or candidate, probing donors, vendors, bundlers, associated lobbyists as well as major issues such as campaign tactics and funding of neighborhood support groups. Class guests will include reporters who cover campaigns as well as those who oversee lobbyist and campaign finance systems. Students will be encouraged to post copy on two city newspaper Web sites. In addition to blogs and short news pieces, every student will produce a feature-length story on the race or candidate they select for individual focus and will share their findings with the class.

Cultural Affairs Reporting and Writing
Instructor: Charles Taylor
Mon. 7 to 8 p.m.
This course will help aspiring journalists understand the elements that make up successful, authoritative cultural reporting. Working from a definition of culture that encompasses the arts, politics, and the zeitgeist in general, we will, among other areas, study personality profiles, arts criticism, and the kind of longform literary political criticism that has become orphaned in the era of the sound byte and 24-news cycle. We will focus on developing fresh resonant ideas free of the hype and barely disguised publicity that has come to define too much arts and entertainment — and, sadly, political — coverage in the age of celebrity. There will be three writing assignments: One news-oriented feature, one profile, and one work of criticism. In addition, students will write proposals for all story ideas and present oral pitches for them in class. Rewrites are expected. We will have several guest speakers, including performing artists, writers and editors.

Digital Media Newsroom (I) – Russell Chun & Tom Edsall: Tuesday, 6-9 p.m.
Digital Media Newsroom (II) – Helen Benedict & Duy Linh Tu: Tuesday, 4:30-7:30 p.m.
Digital Media Newsroom (III) – Kenan Davis & Sig Gissler: Wednesday, 6-9 p.m.
Digital Media Newsroom (IV) – Arlene Morgan & Duy Linh Tu: Monday, 6-9 p.m.
Digital Media Newsroom (V) – John Smock & Derrick Henry: Saturday, time TBA
Please note this elective runs 15 weeks rather than 10.
This course will introduce students to multimedia storytelling and newsroom work flow. Using a combination of original reporting as well as building on stories already done for RW1, students will work with several digital-media tools, including web page production; photography and image editing; audio and video editing; blogging; data analysis, etc. This course is an excellent opportunity for students to learn how newsrooms are evolving - combining the best of traditional reporting and editing with the latest new media storytelling techniques. Students will learn to efficiently and effectively apply the technical skills learned in the August training sessions to traditional reporting and writing.
NOTE: This course is mandatory for, and restricted to, digital media majors;

Environmental Reporting
Instructor: Marguerite Holloway
Wed. 6 to 8:30 p.m.
Covering the environment is an increasingly complex and important beat. Through extensive readings, visits with working journalists and scientists, and their own reporting and writing assignments, students taking this class will become familiar with some of the major environmental stories of the day. These will range from the specific concerns of individual communities about clean air and water to national issues—how to balance economic development with the preservation of species and ecosystems, how to wrestle with energy policy, environmental racism and more—to international conflicts over climate change, access to water resources, exploitation of the oceans and many other examples.
Students will also become knowledgeable about the legislation that governs this beat, the complexities of risk assessment and the key challenge of striking a responsible balance by finding sources other than those on the fringe, which can muddy the issues badly.

Feature Writing (I)Instructor: Karen Stabiner
Wed., 6-9 p.m.
Feature writing is a balancing act between assignment and intuition, information and narrative, reporting and the writer’s voice. The category includes everything from a 500-word on-line post to a 5,000-word multi-part series; what matters is that it’s compelling, rich in detail, and definitive. We’ll read good – and not-so-good – examples, analyze the difference, identify potential pitfalls, and hear from writers who excel at the form. You’ll be both writing and reading each other’s work along the way: Exercise counts, in writing as in less sedentary activities.

Feature Writing (II)
Instructor: Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
Mon., 7-9 p.m.
We will devote the semester to reading, discussing, writing, editing and rewriting the kinds of lively, instructive feature stories that appear in the better newspapers, magazines and online publications. The reading and discussion will focus on understanding how exemplary published stories “work”; the writing will comprise original essays in various forms inspired by the readings and discussions; and the editing and rewriting will aim toward achieving professional standards.

Destination Out: Foreign Reporting Off the Beaten Path
Instructor: Howard French
Mon., 6-8 p.m.
Foreign correspondents enjoy an image as the most seasoned and trusted of reporters. This class will take a close look at what happens when reporters are thrust, most often by crisis or emergency, into coverage of places that receive at best only episodic attention from the world’s media, focusing on examples drawn from Africa, Asia and Latin America. It will examine some of the pitfalls working in places that tend to be unfamiliar to reporters and their editors. The aim of the course is nothing short of building the better reporter: people who can ramp up quickly, for sure, but also people who take seriously the need to study history, appreciate the nuances of culture and keep up their guard against cliché and conventional wisdom. Students will be expected to participate in in-depth discussions of weekly readings on individual countries or crises aimed at raising their cultural awareness and appreciation for the use and misuse of history in journalism. Working foreign correspondents will be guests on occasion in the seminar. During the course of the semester, students will be required to write three papers, including two criticisms of current foreign newspaper or magazine coverage and a longer, heavily reported essay on a foreign topic of the student’s choice. For this project, students will be expected to interview.

International Reporting
Instructor: Tom Kent
Mon., 6 to 8 p.m.
This course is an introduction to the techniques and challenges of international reporting for online, print and broadcast media. Main themes include ethics, writing, reporting from dangerous areas, covering the military, career opportunities in the international reporting and ways to engage readers and viewers who may have a slim interest in international affairs. Students will be assigned readings, write three stories of varying length and critique media coverage of current international issues

News Editing
Instructor: Robin Reisig
Tues., 6 to 8:30 p.m.
This course will explain how editors ensure accuracy, fairness, clarity, precision and completeness while keeping an eye on tone and structure. Will also examine the detail work — spelling, punctuation, grammar, style — with an emphasis on how problems in those areas affect meaning and damage credibility. Portions of the course will deal with deciding what is news, and with aspects of presentation (headline writing, photo use), along with an understanding of how the exigencies of the online world affect how stories and posts are edited. Participants will edit stories with an emphasis on reading critically, raising good questions and dealing with reporters in ways that should elicit positive changes in copy.

Opinion Writing
Instructor: Seth Lipsky and Gail Collins
Mon., 6 to 8 p.m.
How to form an opinion — and express it. Taught by Gail Collins and Seth Lipsky, this course will deal with the theory and practice of opinion journalism and will focus on the relationship between good reporting and strong opinion. Students will work on editorials, op-ed columns, and blog posts. The course will explore how to shape an opinion on subjects as diverse as politics, foreign policy, the economy and culture. It will require significant amounts of reading from the giants, such as W.E.B. Du Bois and H.L. Mencken and Mary McGrory, as well as contemporary writers, such as Ross Douthat, Maureen Dowd and Hendrik Hertzberg. The second hour of each class will be an editorial meeting, during which issues will be discussed and assignments will be made for the week. Each student will be expected to produce one opinion piece a week.

Personal and Professional Style Instructor: Judith Crist
Tues., 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.
The nature and demands of this course make it necessary to limit the class size. It is offered to students who have mastered the basic mechanics and techniques of journalistic prose and are interested in developing and refining a personal literary style within a journalistic framework, appropriate to editorials, columns and reviews. The emphasis is on form, structure and semantics for effective and original approaches to specialized writing in areas too long cliché-ridden. There are basic assignments and free-choice exercises, with concentration on self- and intra-group criticism. Prospective students must submit one sample of their best writing and, in no more than 350 words, a statement of their interest in the course. These are to be delivered directly to Assistant Dean Huff, who must receive them by 10 a.m., Monday, July 13.

Social Impact of Mass Media
Instructor: Andie Tucher
Tues. 6 to 8 p.m.
In this course we explore the social consequences of what journalists do and the complex relationships between the press and the public. Through readings, class discussions, and close observations of media past and present, we locate the work of journalism in its social, historical, and theoretical context, focusing on such topics as the media’s obligation to society; relationships between the press and the theory and practice of democracy; the media and storytelling; social ramifications of new technologies and new economic structures; and how the media are implicated in our perceptions of time, space, memory, and identity.

Writing With Style
Instructor: Kevin Coyne
Wed., 7 to 9 p.m.
All prose, good and bad, has a fingerprint. You can usually tell within just a few lines who wrote it, and whether it’s worth reading. So where does a writer’s style come from, and how can you sharpen your own? By taking apart the work of other writers both fiction and nonfiction you will analyze the elements of a prose style in this class, and then apply these lessons to your own work. The idea here is not to learn how to mimic the voices of other writers, but how to develop your own. Among the writers we will be reading are George Orwell, Alice Munro, John McPhee, Tracy Kidder, James Joyce, Jane Kramer, Joan Didion and John Cheever. There will be three writing assignments of medium length: the first an account of a place or an event; the second a portrait of a person; the third an attempt to combine the two into a narrative.

SKILLS OF THE JOURNALIST

1 point per class (These are 5-week mini-courses.)
Please see the Fall 2009 Skills Schedule for class time and dates

Audio Storytelling
This course is open to all full-time students and those part-time students who began the program Summer ‘09, except those in the broadcast concentration. It builds on what you have learned with more advanced training in interviewing, writing, and producing audio reports for radio and other media platforms. Students will work in the digital audio laboratory. Each student will select one assignment done for this class to post as a podcast on the Web.

Flash
Students learn the basics of producing multimedia and interactive projects with Flash, the industry standard authoring tool. Students learn how to translate their story ideas into integrated packages of text, photos, audio, video, and interactivity. We’ll discuss how and when to use Flash, its pros and cons, and how it fits in with other online technologies. Students should be proficient on the Mac operating system and be familiar with Photoshop. Digital Media students may not take this class as Flash is covered in Digital Media Newsroom this fall.

Investigative Skills (non-Stabile)
Students will learn advanced applications of computer-assisted reporting, and will be able to find a variety of hidden documents useful to good journalism: court records, pollution and safety studies, campaign contributions, the filings of tax-exempt organizations, child abuse and industrial safety statistics, corporate records, etc.

Advanced Photojournalism
Building on pre-RW1 training (all FT students who began in August 09 and PT students who began in summer 09 are eligible), students learn additional photography skills, using Photoshop, scanners and printers to produce short photo essays on non-fiction topics.

Social-media Skills for Journalists
This course will help journalists use social media (including such sites as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, among others) to do three things: find new story ideas, trends and sources; connect with readers and viewers; and promote their own work to new audiences. The students will learn best practices as well as what to avoid in this fast-changing world. Many journalists already use these tools, but the course will take that knowledge to new levels with practical, actionable lessons in how best to navigate social media. Using examples from news organizations big and small, as well as individuals, topics covered will include ethics; etiquette; new third-party tools; the changing journalist-source relationship and more.

Stabile Investigative Skills (Stabile Students Only)
This is a 10-week crash course on the tools that investigative journalists use for their research and reporting. The course will focus on the skills that watchdog journalists need: interviewing, document and database searching, data analysis, data visualization and computer-assisted reporting. It will also help students conceptualize investigative projects and run them through the process that journalists go through in the course of their investigations.

*Note: There are several additional skills sections for PT students listed in the PT only section below.

INTERNSHIP
0.5 credit
A student who, with the prior approval of the Assistant Dean of Students and the Office of Career Services undertakes an internship at a media organization can earn 0.5 credit if the work consists of serious journalistic enterprise. At the conclusion of the internship, the student must submit a written description of what he or she has accomplished and learned, and an official of the media company must send a separate letter corroborating that and evaluating the student’s performance. You do not request this class via the ballot. Please contact Career Services Director Ernest Sotomayor for details.

FALL TERM COURSES FOR PART-TIME M.S. STUDENTS ONLY
These courses are not open to full-time M.S. students

The Literature of Non-Fiction 6 point seminar
Instructor: Helen Benedict
Mon., 6:00-9 p.m.
This 15-week course is designed to expose students to the most influential and innovative nonfiction writers of the past and present. Starting with Samuel Pepys and W.E.B. DuBois and moving up to contemporary writers such as Susan Orlean and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, we will examine how nonfiction has evolved in its approach, subject matter, voice and style. Assignments: Two short, critical reviews of the reading matter. One long literary essay, of the type found in The New York Review of Books, that links some of the readings with original research and thought. The essay should concern a writer from the past and from the present and discuss the influences on and evolution of nonfiction. Course not open to new full-time students.

TV Reporting and Writing 3 points
Instructor: Anthony Depalma
Sat., 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This course is required of students in the part-time program who are concentrating in Broadcast journalism. This course covers the same materials that full-time students receive in their “jumbo” RWI sections, and prepares students for advanced courses in broadcast journalism. For part-time broadcast students only.

Critical Issues in Journalism 2 points
Instructors: Richard Wald
Tuesday, 7-9 p.m.
This course, required of all students, explores the social role of journalism and the journalist from legal, historical, ethical, and economic perspectives. While the course covers some of the same issues raised in Journalism, the Law and Society, they are examined more from an ethical and professional point of view. This course begins in mid-October.

Journalism, the Law & Society 2 points
Instructor: Freeman
Wednesday, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
NOTE: Class meets on the following dates: Sept 9; Sept 16; Sept 23; Oct 7; Oct 14; Oct 21; Oct 28; Nov 4; Nov 18; Dec 2
The course examines the current and historic conflicts between journalists and jurists over fundamental First Amendment issues such as libel, privacy, prior restraint against publishing the news, protection of sources, the right to gather news, and national security. Broadcast regulations, including the Fairness Doctrine and questions of equal time and access are also explored. Reading includes texts of landmark cases. Two special sessions at the end of the course concentrate on practical aspects of libel and invasion of privacy.

Basic Audio Skills 1 point
Students become familiar with radio news writing and reporting. Students write news reports using audio they gather as reporters in the field and produce them using the digital audio laboratory. Note: This class is for part-time students only, and is required for part-time broadcast students.

Photojournalism Skills
Students learn the basics of photography, using Photoshop, scanners and printers to produce short photo essays on non-fiction topics.

FOR FULL-TIME M.S. STUDENTS

A letter from Bill Grueskin, Dean of Academic Affairs

Dear Full-time Master of Science students,

Welcome to the Graduate School of Journalism! You are about to embark on one of the most challenging years of your life. In the upcoming months, you will be expected to learn and hone the reporting, writing and editing skills that form the bedrock of incisive journalism, while also developing the technological acumen you’ll need to advance our profession in a time of unparalleled change.

But before I get into the details, I want to offer you a word of congratulations. We were honored with the largest applicant pool ever last winter. You were admitted to this school after at least two, and often three or four, faculty and staff members read your essays, tests, transcript and clips. The fact that you made it here in this competitive year means that we have great confidence in your ability to succeed at Columbia and beyond.

You also have our admiration. This is a tumultuous time in journalism as the business models that have supported most news organizations are facing huge challenges. Despite that, it is clear that you share our confidence that new models will emerge, and that for those with creativity and courage, this is a time of tremendous opportunity for reporters to practice and distribute journalism in new and exciting ways.

Finally, the faculty and staff of this school believe, as we expect you do, that journalism is integral to a free, open and vital democracy. We want you to learn not just skills but values, not just techniques but the understanding of how a dynamic press fuels the transparency our society needs.

We have continued to make changes in our curriculum to reflect and anticipate changes in our industry. All students, even those in print concentrations, will get digital training. Many classes will build or share Web sites so we can better serve the communities we cover and so you will experience the excitement and the responsibility of doing journalism that is instantaneously available to readers around the corner or across the globe. We have retooled our law, ethics and history classes to provide you with the practical skills and values to report and write for smaller, more nimble organizations. And, for the first time, we are requiring each of you to take a course in the business of journalism, so you will have a better understanding of how this profession will be supported in the years to come.

The letter below will give you vital information on how the school year proceeds, what our expectations are of you, and what you can expect from us. Please read it carefully.

HOW THE SCHOOL IS ORGANIZED

Several departments at the school will affect your life here.

The Dean of Students Office will handle most of your day-to-day needs. This department, run by Prof. Sree Sreenivasan and Assistant Dean of Students Melanie Huff, includes admissions, financial aid and career services. Obviously, you’ve already run the gauntlet with the admissions department. If you have questions or concerns about your financial aid, you should contact The Office of Admission and Financial Aid in Room 203.

As the year progresses, you will hear more from Career Services, led by Ernest Sotomayor. This department is in close contact with employers and will help guide you through the process of identifying and qualifying for opportunities after you graduate.

You will be dealing quite a bit this year with Dean Huff. She oversees the balloting process for courses and also plays a vital role in helping students understand course points, navigate relationships with other schools at Columbia, and deal with school and university policies.

The Academic Affairs Office oversees the school’s curriculum, hiring of adjuncts and placement of faculty in courses. I am the academic dean, and am assisted by Prof. Laura Muha, who is assistant dean for faculty affairs. While most of the decisions for the fall curriculum have already been made, we welcome student input into the lineup for the spring.

The Technology Office, overseen by Larry Fried, handles issues associated with checkout and upkeep of our cameras, recorders and computers.

You may at some point come into contact with other assistant deans here, including Sheila Thimba, who oversees administration and budget; Elizabeth Fishman, who handles communications; Susan Shine, who oversees development; and Arlene Morgan, head of prizes and programs.

Finally, there’s Nicholas Lemann, the dean of this school. He is an accomplished journalist and author, and is also an instructor, teaching classes for M.A. and M.S. students and, like the rest of us, advising master’s projects and theses.

PLANNING YOUR SEMESTER

August

You’re going to work hard this year. You have a great deal to learn in a short period, so we want you to make the most of your time here. That’s why we’re asking you to come to campus the second week of August, and will provide you three full weeks of classroom instruction before the university’s academic year officially begins after Labor Day.

Fall Schedule:

The fall semester officially begins Sept. 8, 2009, or the day after Labor Day. But by that time, you should be quite acclimated to New York and the J-School.

You will take between 16 and 19 points during the fall semester, depending largely on which concentration – newspaper, magazine, broadcast, or digital media – you designated on your admissions application. A broad outline of the fall course requirements for each concentration is below, and descriptions of individual classes can be found here. Requests for modifications to individual schedules are processed by the Dean of Students Office during the official add/drop period, which begins at 10 a.m. on Aug. 24 and ends at 10 a.m. on Sept. 18.

This lead-up time will be jam-packed, with classes or lectures every weekday and some weeknights. You might need some of your weekend time, too, to get assignments done.

For full-time M.S. students, the academic year begins on Aug. 12, 2009. (International students begin orientation Aug. 10; they will receive a separate note about this; they will get a separate email with details.) Plan to arrive at 8 a.m. on Aug. 12 so you can get your ID cards and class schedules. We’ll also have coffee and a continental breakfast on hand. By 9 a.m., we’ll ask you to head to join us for orientation.

You must attend orientation. This is where you’ll learn everything from how to activate your computer account to how to use our electronic databases. There’s no makeup session for this.

Starting Aug. 17, you’ll begin your digital training, learning photography, audio and Final Cut Pro. You’ll also start meeting as an RW1 class, with initial forays into your beats and early drills to sharpen your writing skills.

Required classes for newspaper/magazine concentrators:

• Reporting and Writing I, or RW1: 6 points
• Journalism Essentials: 4 points
  a. Law: 1 point
  b. Ethics: 1 point
  c. History of Journalism: 1 point
  d. Business of Journalism: 1 point
• RWII elective: 3 points
• Master’s Project: 3 points
• A 5-week skills class: 1 point each (Note: Students in the Stabile Investigative program are automatically enrolled in a special 10-week investigative skills class.)

Required classes for broadcast concentrators:

• Reporting and Writing I, or RW1: 8 points
• Journalism Essentials: 4 points
  a. Law: 1 point
  b. Ethics: 1 point
  c. History of Journalism: 1 point
  d. Business of Journalism: 1 point
• Master’s Project: 3 points
• A 5-week skills class: 1 point each (Note: Students in the Stabile Investigative program are automatically enrolled in a special 10-week investigative skills class.)

Required classes for digital media concentrators:

• Reporting and Writing I, or RW1: 8 points
• Journalism Essentials: 4 points
  a. Law: 1 point
  b. Ethics: 1 point
  c. History of Journalism: 1 point
  d. Business of Journalism: 1 point
• Digital Media Newsroom
• Master’s Project: 3 points
• A 5-week skills class: 1 point each (Note: Students in the Stabile Investigative program are automatically enrolled in a special 10-week investigative skills class.)

CHANGES IN CONCENTRATION: Students occasionally ask to switch their medium of concentration. Because there are equipment and lab demands associated with each concentration – particularly broadcast and digital media – we are only rarely able to accommodate that. Any such request should go to Assistant Dean Huff. (Please note: We’ve changed the name of the New Media concentration to Digital Media.)

REGISTERING FOR CLASSES: You do not register yourself for classes; we do that for you. We do, however, ask you to let us know your preferences via an online ballot which will be available from 10 a.m. July 6 to July 13. Not every student will get every first choice, as some classes are oversubscribed. We do promise, however, that we will do our best, as long as you fill out the correct ballot for your concentration and submit it by 10 a.m. on July 13. If you fail to do so, you will be assigned to classes on a space-available basis.

Here are the steps for making your selections:

Look over the fall course offerings, available online here. You can read students’ evaluations of many of the classes and professors here. You will first need to have activated your Columbia email account.

On July 6, we will post a link to the fall ballot on the Dean of Students Blog.

Click on the ballot for your concentration, fill it out and submit it by 10 a.m. on July 13. The balloting process is not first-come, first-served; as long as you fill out the correct ballot and submit it by the deadline, you will be given equal consideration for all classes. Please note that you do not ballot for RW1, Master’s Project, law, ethics, history or business of journalism, or for any skills classes and/or electives dictated by your area of concentration. We automatically place you in those classes.

If you want to be considered for Prof. Judith Crist’s Personal and Professional Style elective, you must submit writing samples along with your ballot. These can be sent in the body of an e-mail – not as an attachment – to Assistant Dean Huff at dos@jrn.columbia.edu. The deadline is 10 a.m., July 13. Please indicate in the subject line that the clips are for Prof. Crist’s class.

ADDING OR DROPPING CLASSES: You may request to change one or more of your classes during the official add/drop period each semester. The add/drop period for Fall 2010 begins at 10 a.m. on Aug. 24 and ends at 10 a.m. on Sept. 18.

During this time, a link to the add/drop form will be available on the Dean of Students Blog. On each form, you may request to add one class and drop one class. All add-drop requests are processed on a first-come, first-served basis. We stress that they are only requests; there is no guarantee that we can accommodate them. It is particularly difficult for us to change RW1 classes or Master’s Project advisers.

We do not send e-mails approving or rejecting requests for schedule changes. You must keep checking your class schedule on the web at Student Services Online. Sometimes it takes days for a space to open in a class. Sometimes a space never opens. Until you see a change reflected on your class schedule there, your request has not been approved. All requests remain on file during the add/drop period.

OUTSIDE CLASSES: In lieu of one of your required journalism electives, you are eligible to take a 4-point language course or a 3-point elective in another division within the university. To do so, you must do the following:

• Fill out the J-School’s Fall 2009 ballot as if you were taking all of your classes within the J-School, since cross-registrations aren’t always possible.

• Identify a graduate-level class (4000+) that meshes with your proposed J-School schedule and is justifiable in light of your journalistic goals. You can look up courses here.

• After your Journalism course assignments have been posted in Student Services Online, send an e-mail to dos@jrn.columbia.edu asking to replace your elective with the outside class. You must include the class name, course number, professor, number of points, and a description of how it will help you to achieve your professional objectives. Note: The meeting time of the outside course must fit within your J-School course schedule. We can’t adjust your J-School schedule to accommodate an outside class.

• Once the Dean of Students Office has approved your request to take the outside class, you must fill out the M.S. approval form and get it approved by the outside division (dean or professor).

• Once you have done this, give the form to Assistant Dean Huff, and she will register you for the course. Please note that for Fall 2009, this must be completed between 10 a.m. Aug. 24 and ends at 10 a.m. on Sept. 18.

  INTERNSHIPS: Students sometimes ask about doing internships during their time at the J-School. While this is not forbidden, it is highly discouraged during the fall semester and cautiously encouraged in the spring, because we feel your studies come first. Our curriculum is intense and demanding, and we find that students often underestimate the amount of time that it will take to complete their coursework.

  That said, some students do juggle internships and schoolwork successfully. If you are interested in an internship, please let Career Services know early in the fall; that office can help you identify appropriate opportunities and hone your applications.

  Please note that if you wish to receive credit for an internship – and many media companies that offer internships require this – your RW1 professor must confirm to Career Services that you will be able to handle both internship and coursework. More information on internships is available via the internship link on our Career Services page.

AUDITING CLASSES: Students may audit classes in which they are not formally enrolled as long as the instructor agrees. Please keep in mind that most instructors expect student auditors to attend all classes and participate in all discussions. In addition, university regulations prohibit the instructor from editing or grading your work unless you’re formally enrolled as a student in the class. So before you approach an instructor for permission to audit, think about your workload, especially since you won’t have the benefit of formal feedback from the instructor.

GRADES: The journalism school has a pass-fail system of grading, which is designed to encourage you to do your best here without making you feel as if you’re competing with your classmates. To give you a sense of your progress, you’ll receive a written evaluation from most of your instructors at the end of each term; in RW1, you’ll also receive a written midterm evaluation.

If at any point during the semester, an instructor feels you are not doing passing work, he or she will inform the Dean of Students Office, which will issue you a letter placing you on warning or, in more serious cases, on probation. The letter also will describe what you must do in order to be removed from disciplinary status. If you have not met the conditions of the probation letter by the end of the semester, you will not be permitted to register for the following semester’s classes or to graduate.

On the other side of the curve, an instructor who judges your work to be superior can choose to pass you with “honors in class,” a designation that is taken into account when considering graduation prizes.

Copies of all evaluations, honors designations, warnings and probation letters are kept on file in the Dean of Students Office.

GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS: To graduate, you must complete all required courses, accumulate at least 33 points and pass the four “core” courses in the curriculum: RW1, the Master’s Project, along with two courses usually taken in the spring, the Reporting/Writing Seminar and the Media Workshop. A student who fails any two courses, or the same course twice, will be dismissed. In addition, the faculty reserves the right to withhold a degree from any student deemed unworthy because of poor performance or unprofessional behavior.

CAUSES FOR DISMISSAL: Faking a story, making up quotes or plagiarizing constitutes grounds for instant dismissal. Students are not allowed to use work they do in one course for another course without the written permission of instructors in both courses.

E-MAIL: When we received your enrollment fee and you were logged into the university system, you were assigned a UNI (short for “university network identifier”), which consists of your initials plus an arbitrarily assigned number.

To activate your UNI, go to http://uni.columbia.edu/

Once your UNI is active, you can log into your Columbia e-mail here. (Your e-mail address is your UNI plus “@columbia.edu”; however, when entering your UNI into the system as a login, leave off the “@columbia.edu” and enter only the letter-number combination.)

All official communications from the J-School and the university will be sent to your Columbia e-mail address; if you wish them to go to another e-mail, you can set up your Columbia account to forward your messages electronically.

TUITION: Your tuition bills are issued by and paid directly to the university, not the journalism school. The university will send you an electronic statement at the beginning of each semester; you can also access it through the Student Services Online link on the university’s website. There is no need to worry if you have not received a tuition bill yet; the university tells us they won’t go out until Aug. 10, with payment coming due on Sept. 17.. Information on payment options, plus access to your online account, can be found here.

TECHNOLOGY: You can expect to use both a digital camera and a digital audio recorder while reporting stories for class and for our main student web site, http://columbiajournalist.org. We have this equipment on hand, so it is by no means mandatory for you to purchase your own; however, many students wish to do so. If you are considering this, please take a look at our technology guide for incoming students, where you’ll find suggestions for affordable equipment that interfaces smoothly with the rest of our technology. The guide also includes information on computers and laptops, as well as vendors who give discounts to our students.

DEAN OF STUDENTS BLOG: For one-stop access to information about all aspects of student life at the J-School, check out the Daily Plan-It, a blog published by the Students Affairs Office. On the blog, you’ll find special-event announcements; links to upcoming (and archived) chats and webcasts; transcripts of talks by guest speakers; housing resources; financial-aid information; technology resources; and links to the official school calendars – to list just a small portion of the information you’ll find here. Get into the habit of checking the blog regularly; in particular, we recommend that you read the “Prepping for the J-School” section on the blog.

ACADEMIC & EVENTS CALENDAR: For quick reference, here is a link to the page through which you can access (and import) the J-School’s master calendar.

SOCIAL LIFE: The Society of Professional Journalists, our student organization, organizes a wide variety of social activities, from movie nights and Friday happy hours to the annual Halloween party and the end-of-term faculty roast. Elections for SPJ officers are held in September. The 2009-2010 SPJ adviser is Prof. Duy Linh Tu. Here is a link to the SPJ calendar.

CLASS OF ‘10 FACEBOOK PAGE: Interested in getting to know some of your classmates before you arrive on campus? Join the Class of ’10 Facebook group

SUMMER READING: New York City will serve as your journalistic laboratory for the next 10 months, and the more you know about its history and dynamics, the better prepared you will be to cover it. To that end, we recommend that you choose some additional titles and websites of your choice from this list recommended by the faculty.

MISCELLANEOUS THINGS TO DO BEFORE ARRIVING ON CAMPUS:

• Fill out the Journalism School Emergency Contact Form: http://fs8.formsite.com/cjdos/Emergency/
• Record your meningococcal meningitis vaccination decision at: https://ssol.columbia.edu/ssv/crt/menIntro.html
• Complete a measles, mumps and rubella record and submit it to Health Services: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/studentservices/newstudents/docs/MMR/index.html
• Register your mobile number to receive important communications from Columbia University in case of an emergency situation: https://ssol.columbia.edu/?tran[1]_tran_name=seni

READ CAREFULLY - Graduation Tickets

Graduation tickets are now available.

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.

To receive your tickets you MUST do TWO things.

1. Complete the graduation survey at http://fs7.formsite.com/cu_jschool_careers/gradsurvey2009/

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.

End-of-Year Manual

May 2009
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: http://snurl.com/journalismgraduation

Post-graduation use of the building/equipment and alumni benefits/services are covered here.

Please keep in mind that in addition to having summer classes, documentary Master’s Projects, Columbia Publishing Course and News21 in the building this summer, we will be doing extensive 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 three new summer Part-time RWI classes begin on Friday, May 22.

Use of Journalism Building Facilities After May 20

Use of Building:

Members of the Class of 2009 will have access to the building and its facilities through June 30, 2009.

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.

Equipment
All current fines must be paid by Friday, May 8th or a hold will be placed on your student account. All equipment must be returned to the Equipment Room (507) by Friday, May 15th. Action will be taken to repossess equipment from outstanding checkouts after May 15.

After graduation, students will be allowed to check out equipment, as available, until Friday, June 12th. Please remember that scheduled summer school classes and master’s project students, 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 master’s projects, it is possible that you will be unable to use a computer at a specific time.

Student Lockers:
All May graduates must empty their lockers by noon, Friday, 22.

Continuing part-time students, documentary 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 Derek Gano at dg2382@columbia.edu with your name and the reason for your request.

Graduates’ lockers that have not been vacated by noon on Friday, May 22, will be have their locks removed and contents moved to a storage bin and eventually discarded. All locker questions should be directed to Derek Gano at dg2382@columbia.edu.

Student Mailboxes:
The mailboxes of graduating students may be used until noon, Friday, May 22 as well. All items remaining in boxes after that date will be discarded.

Computers:
Graduating students will retain access to computer resources through June 30, 2009. 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 20

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 extension 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

Alumni Benefits and Services

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://snurl.com/jschoolalumni

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.

Dear Journalism Students,

The evaluation system (https://courseworks.columbia.edu/) for students to provide feedback about their classes will be live for the Spring 2009 semester on Friday, May 1, 2009. 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 Monday, May 25 , 2009, 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, Monday, May 25, 9 p.m. deadline.

Between Friday, May 1 and Monday, May 25, you will receive reminders every day 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

Attn: Graduating Students
From: Dean Huff
Re: Year-end Awards for M.S. & M.A. Students
April 22, 2009

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 2009, Feb. 2009 and Oct. 2008). Some awards are also open to M.A. students - noted in each award description.

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/Thesis 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 Monday, April 27, at 10 a.m. and Monday, May 4 at 10 a.m. IN ADDITION, please e-mail copies of your submissions to cc2964@columbia.edu. 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…)

This information is for M.S. Students primarily. Please see the awards memo for information for M.A. students.

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. In attention 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 via the written evaluation form.

That designation, in the individual classes, is “honors in class,” and you will see it - if you get it - in the written evaluation form 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.

Members of Journalism School Community:

In 2008, following inquiries from the NYC Health Commissioner and changes to New York State law, Columbia University convened a tobacco workgroup to consider changes to the University tobacco policies. The group, made up of student and staff representative from 12 different schools and departments, has investigated best practices for tobacco policy on college campuses around the country. The workgroup has forwarded a set of recommendations, including a proposal to prohibit smoking in within the gated areas considered the core of campus. As a part of this policy consideration, we are soliciting feedback from students, faculty, and staff. We invite you to visit the following website to review the proposal (including maps and proposed designated smoking areas) and provide confidential feedback: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/studentservices/docs/smoking/index.html

In addition to providing comments via this website, you may also elect to attend one of the following four open forum feedback sessions:

· Tuesday, April 21, 2009 from 12:00 – 1:00pm in Lerner 477

· Friday, April 24, 2009 from 12:00 – 1:00pm in Lerner 568

· Wednesday, April 29, 2009 from 5:00 – 6:00pm in Lerner 569

· Thursday, April 30, 2009 from 5:00 – 6:00pm in Lerner 569

Following this feedback period, the proposal and community comments will be forwarded to University administration for consideration. A decision on the proposal is expected to be made during the summer of 2009. If you have additional questions or comments, please email Michael McNeil at mm3117@columbia.edu. Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Dear M.S. Class of 2009:

The M.S. Class of 1989 is pleased to announce the Leslie Rachel Sander Social Justice Award, in memory of our classmate who died on her 22nd birthday in June 1989, after a courageous battle with cancer.

In past years prizes have gone to completed works, but for 2009, to mark our 20th reunion, we are offering a $5,000 grant to help a student complete a work in progress or a proposed project that carries on the journalism for social justice to which Leslie aspired. The winner will be chosen by some of her former classmates and announced on Journalism Day.

All M.S. students graduating in 2009 are invited to submit one grant proposal each. Group submissions also are accepted (Please have one person submit for the group; all team members will need to provide reference letters).

Choice of Subject…
…is yours. Reporting including but not limited to economics, environment, education, health care, housing, politics and transportation may be appropriate. Entries could be a hard-hitting expose or a descriptive feature. Any medium is accepted: print, broadcast, photography, new media.

Past winners have included a story about teenage female criminals falling through the cracks of a criminal justice system designed for an overwhelmingly male population (1997); our first broadcast winner, “TB: The City’s Silent Killer” (1995); and “Childhood Interrupted,” about children who come to the United States seeking asylum and end up in INS detention (2002).

We leave it to you to define social justice. To Leslie it meant a commitment “to personally make a positive difference in the world around her,” as her father wrote in her obituary. Leslie was special: caring, and compassionate, a good listener and a sharp, critical thinker. The choices she made in her short life–teaching at a multiracial school in Botswana; studying journalism—reflected her ideals.

Proposal criteria

1. A cover letter providing an explanation of your project, including why the project is important and why it is original. Other information, such as your journalism background and interest in social justice journalism, also would be helpful. Please keep the length to two pages maximum.
2. For works in progress, please submit work that has been done and any other supporting research. For a project proposal, please submit any initial research that has been conducted. For photo essays, please provide at least 10 photos.
3. A detailed budget for the project including how the money would be used and when it is needed. If this grant would not cover the full cost of the project, what other funding are you pursuing?
4. Three professional recommendations. At least one must be from a professor at the Journalism School. Please provide contact information.
5. Two examples of previous work, preferably highlighting social justice journalism. This could be work from school or a previous or current job.

The winner also will agree to keep the award committee apprised of the project’s outcome. The grant will be administered in two phases, as the work progresses.

The deadline for submissions at http://fs8.formsite.com/cjdos/Sander is 5 p.m. April 22, 2009.

Questions? Please contact Karyn Colombo at karyncolombo@yahoo.com or at (561) 659-9880.

Regards,

M.S. Class of 1989

*This award and Leslie Sander award [instructions distributed next week] are among the 30 or so M.S. graduation prizes awarded each year. Details and application instructions (for those that require submissions) will be distributed at a later date. These two, however, are judged by alumni committees so have earlier application deadlines.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Richard J. Blood Award For Excellence in Reporting

DEADLINE: Noon, Monday, March 30

Seeking an unpublished investigative, hard-news or news feature story of publishable quality.
Please, no profiles.

• Submit one article of no more than 1,500 words. Please double-space entries, and note the word count alongside the headline.
• A winning entry will overflow with voices, specifics and solid attribution. Less is more: Leave in only the details that move the story forward. Make your copy lean, your prose sing and soar.
• Particular attention will be given to rigorously reported stories that have the potential to improve social conditions – stories that alert the community to a danger, explain human behavior, entertain, inform and educate.
• You are strongly encouraged to review the article with your instructor, incorporate any reporting/editing suggestions and rewrite it before submission.

The award is $500

Please submit SIX COPIES of your article to Claudia Castillo, Student Services Coordinator, Room 2m07A, by Noon, March 30.

Please note that the competition is for unpublished work, but that articles that have run on the ColumbiaJournalist.org ARE eligible.

We will announce the winner on Journalism Day

This award is administered by the Class of 1995 Blood Award committee: Stephanie Argy, Raney Aronson, Ellen Butler Bikales, Maria Sanminiatelli and Erin Texeira

*This award and Leslie Sander award [instructions distributed next week] are among the 30 or so M.S. graduation prizes awarded each year. Details and application instructions (for those that require submissions) will be distributed at a later date. These two, however, are judged by alumni committees so have earlier application deadlines.

Dear Students,

I’ve been contacted by several professors reporting that they are getting requests from students to miss their classes in order to do reporting for the Master’s Project/Thesis or other classes.

Students are not allowed to miss classes to do reporting for other classes or their projects/theses. Please do not make these requests of your professors.

MH

Interested in pursuing a career in business and financial journalism?
Then you may want to apply to the NYFWA Scholarships for Business Journalists

The New York Financial Writers’ Association is offering $30,000 in scholarships this spring to undergraduate or graduate journalism students in the Metropolitan New York area who are seriously interested in pursuing a career in business and financial journalism.

The number of winners varies from year to year. Last year, ten scholarships were awarded of $3,000 each.

Applicants should follow these directions:

(1) Complete application providing your present address and telephone number and, if different, your permanent home address and telephone number. Applications should be available at your department or the NYFWA website: www.nyfwa.org. If you do not have access to an application, simply send a cover letter with the information.

(2) Send an essay explaining why you are pursuing a career in business and financial journalism.

(3) Include a current resume, relevant personal information, and list any other scholarships you have received.

(4) Send samples of your financial writing and clippings.

Awards will be presented at the Association’s Annual Awards Dinner before an audience of leaders from the business, financial and journalism communities.

Applications may be emailed to nyfwa@aol.com. If mailed, they must be postmarked no later than April 15, 2009. We encourage applicants to apply early as possible. Only applications sent to the PO Box will be accepted.

Send material to:

Scholarship Committee

New York Financial Writers’ Association, Inc.

PO Box 338

Ridgewood NJ 07451-0338

Direct questions to:

Jane Reilly
Executive Manager
New York Financial Writers’ Association
PO Box 338
Ridgewood NJ 07451
www.nyfwa.org
201.612.0100 (voice)
201.612.9915 (fax)

Dear Continuing Students:

For those of you NOT graduating this semester, we are hosting two summer information sessions:

• Wednesday, March 4, 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Stabile Student Center
• Tuesday, March 10, 6-7 p.m. in the Stabile Student Center.

We will discuss what classes might be offered in the summer and how you can plan for your Master’s Projects (if you are thinking of doing it during the summer).

It’s early enough that we haven’t finalized everything and this gives us a chance to get a sense of what you are interested in as well.

We realize not everyone will be able to attend one of these events, so we will circulate via e-mail the information discussed in person.

We will also be conducting an online survey.

Get a taste of the Columbia J-school’s M.S. Curriculum for Spring 2009 by listening to a webcast of the “Spring Preview” session of Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008. More than 30 professors were alloted three minutes each to talk about their courses (out of more than 50 offered in the Spring). While hearing this may not give you full understanding of the courses, you will get some insight into the range and experience of the Faculty. And you’ll hear from many of America’s best-known journalists in various fields come up to the mic, one after the other… Even if you will never take a class with most of these folks, just listening to the lineup is instructive and interesting. And the fact that they all showed up on the Tuesday night of Thanksgiving is all the more impressive.

See the lineup below (there are another 20 profs were NOT in attendance).

See full M.S. curriculum: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/Spring09_curriculum

See faculty bios: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/faculty

You can listen to the embedded version here (or a faster way: download the MP3 at this link):

International Newsroom > Seminar > Ann Cooper
Producing a Magazine > Workshop > Victor Navasky
Bronx Beat > Workshop > Rimmer/Leung
New Media Workshop A > Workshop > Duy Lihn Tu
New Media Workshop B >Workshop > Chun/Glenn
Decision Making in the Newsroom Elective > Michael Shapiro
Journalism of Tomorrow > Seminar > Stephen Isaacs
Rethinking Television News >Seminar > David Klatell
Business & Economics Reporting > New Elective > Cheryl Einhorn
Issues in Modern Media > New Elective > Grueskin/Kann
Business seminar > Seminar > Tom Herman/Grueskin Speaking
Covering Education > Seminar > LynNell Hancock
Beyond Borders > Seminar > Mirta Ojito
Video Storytelling > Workshop > Betsy West
Opinion Writing > New Elective > Seth Lipsky
Writing about the Arts > Seminar > David Hajdu
Foreign Reporting > New Elective > Kati Marton
Radio Workshop Workshop > John Dinges/ANN COOPER
Graphics in the Newsroom > Elective > Hannah Fairfield-Wallander
Producing a Magazine B > Workshop > Cyndi Stivers
Reporting China > Seminar > Howard French
Journalism of Ideas > New Elective > Alissa Quart
Covering Conflict > New Elective > Judith Matloff
Reporting Advances Modern Newsroom > New Elective > Tom Torok
Magazine Writing A > Workshop > John Bennet
Columbia News Service > Workshop > David Blum
National Affairs A > Seminar > John Martin
Managing Bcast Newsrooms in Digital Age > New Elective > David McCormick
Investigative Project > Seminar > Walt Bogdanich
Covering Race/Ethnicty > Seminar > Pifer, Alice

See full M.S. curriculum: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/Spring09_curriculum

See faculty bios: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/faculty

Dear Journalism Students,

The evaluation system (https://courseworks.columbia.edu/) for students to provide feedback about their classes will be live for the Fall 2008 semester on Monday, December 1, 2008. 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 Tuesday, January 20, 2009.

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, Tuesday, January 20 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 1 and Tuesday, January 20, you will receive reminders every day 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

Ballots go live at 7 a.m on Wednesday, November 26

Welcome to the Spring Ballots for M.S., M.A. and Knight Bagehot Students

Please carefully follow the instructions below.

• First, please read the Fall Curriculum thoroughly. Some information has been added and some changed since the document became available.
• You may read students’ evaluations of many of the classes and professors at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/journalism/evaluations/. You will have to log in using your UNI and password.
• To complete the ballot you will need your Columbia e-mail address and PID (If you have lost your PID, please refer to http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2005/11/14/faq-how-do-i-find-my-pid/)
• The ballots are NOT handled on a first-come, first-served basis. As long as you make the deadline (Wednesday, Dec. 3, at 7 a.m. ) you have equal standing with all other students.
• If your ballot is received after the deadline, you will be placed in classes on a space available basis.
• If you made a mistake or changed your mind, please resubmit your ballot. Your most recently-submitted ballot as of the deadline (Wednesday, Dec. 3, at 7 a.m.) will be the one processed.
• If you experience any problems using the ballot, please send e-mail to dos@jrn.columbia.edu
• Please note we cannot promise students they will gain a seat in any specific class.

Spring 2009 Ballot

Dear Students,

I realize it may feel as though you’ve just gotten here, but some of you
have already expressed preliminary interest in our dual-degree program
with the School of Journalism at Sciences Po in Paris.

This note is to inform you that Stephanie Durand and Agnes Cheveau, who
administer that school, will be here next Tuesday, September 16 and are
prepared to meet with interested students at 4:00 in the Stabile Center.
This will be a general-information session; we do not expect you or
Sciences Po to make any commitments at this early date.

Please let me know if you plan to attend.

Regards,

DK

David A. Klatell
Chairman, International Studies
Professor of Professional Practice
Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University
New York, NY. 10027
ph: 212-854-3319
fax: 212-854-3939

Attention Students,

The Friday section of Journalism, The Law & Society has assigned seating.

Before the first class this Friday, you must visit the Stabile Student Center to sign up for your seat.

The sign-up chart is on the bulletin board to your left as you enter. The chart is in the “From the Deans” section.

The seat you choose will remain your seat throughout the semester. You will be marked absent from the class if you do not sit in the correct seat each week.

Graduate and undergraduate students, studying at American colleges and universities, who aspire to become foreign correspondents, are invited to apply for one of twelve $2,000 scholarships to be awarded by the Overseas Press Club Foundation.

Winning an OPC Foundation scholarship is more than a cash award. Winners are invited to join the Overseas Press Club family. They are encouraged to network and keep the organization informed of their career moves. From among the scholarship winners, the Foundation also selects up to six scholars and pays travel and living expenses for them to intern at foreign bureaus at such leading news organization as the Associated Press and Reuters and foreign English-language media like Cambodia Daily and the South China Morning Post. In many cases, winning a prestigious OPC Foundation award has helped launch careers.

The judges require that applicants submit a Cover Letter, Resume and Essay. The applicant’s name and school should appear at the top of each page. The Essay of approximately 500 words should concentrate on an area of the world or an international issue that is in keeping with the applicant’s interest. It can be in the form of a story, news analysis or essay. Recent winners have written on such diverse topics as playing black jack on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, political activism in Morocco, and social upheaval in China. Applicants are also encouraged to submit essays showing a strong understanding of, or interest in, global economic issues such as trade, finance, emerging markets, immigration or environmental impacts.

The Cover Letter should be autobiographical in nature addressing such questions as how the applicant developed an interest in this particular part of the world, or how he or she would use the scholarship to further journalistic ambitions. The judges respond well to applications showing strong reporting skills, color, and understanding or passion.

Winners will be contacted in December so that arrangements can be made for them to attend the Foundation Scholarship Luncheon in February 2009 in New York City at the Foundation’s expense. Recipients are expected to attend.

Applicants do not have to be US citizens.
Applications may be sent by mail, fax or email. Please choose one. Email is preferred (Word or PDF).

DEADLINE: Monday, December 1, 2008
Email: foundation[at]opcofamerica.org
Fax: 201-612-9915
Mail: William J. Holstein, President, Overseas Press Club Foundation, 40 West 45 Street, New York NY 10036
Website: www.overseaspressclubfoundation.org

For more information, contact Jane Reilly, Executive Director, at foundation[at]opcofamerica.org or call 201-493-9087.

The Benjamin Franklin House Literary Prize launches today, endowed by Benjamin Franklin House Chairman John Studzinski, leading banker and philanthropist. According to Studzinski, “Benjamin Franklin is one of history’s great figures. While he made lasting contributions in many fields, his first passion was writing. He believed in the power of the written word to inform and stimulate debate as the bedrock of a democratic society.”

Each year a question exploring Franklin’s relevance in our time will be open for interpretation in 1000-1500 words by two groups: young people and professional writers. The winner of the Young Writers Prize will receive £500 while the winner of the Professional Writers Prize will receive £1000 plus publication in a leading British newspaper. Entries for 2008 must be received before 15 October. Judges of the young people’s award will include professional writers; judges of the professional writers’ award will include young people. Winning submissions will be posted at www.BenjaminFranklinHouse.org.

For nearly sixteen years between 1757 and 1775, Franklin lived at 36 Craven Street in the heart of London, England. He is one of history’s great polymaths - a diplomat, patriot, scientist, inventor, philosopher and more. He was one of the first American journalists, writing prolifically not only on politics and foreign affairs, but on science, the arts and humanity. In 2006 his Georgian home opened to the public for the first time as a dynamic museum and educational facility. See www.BenjaminFranklinHouse.org.

2008 Theme

What is ethical journalism? Benjamin Franklin said the effects of the written word (delivered by press in his day - in ours by a variety of media) “are more extensive, more lasting.” What are journalists’ responsibilities and why?

Submissions

* Benjamin Franklin House Literary Prize - Young Writers Award: Entrants must be 25 or under.

* Benjamin Franklin House Literary Prize - Professional Writers Award: Entrants must be professional writers

Entries of 1000-1500 words must be sent by 15 October to info[at]benjaminfranklinhouse.org. Each entrant is asked to provide their name, address, and telephone number. In addition, entrants for the Young Writers Award should provide their age and place of study, if applicable, while entrants for the Professional Writers Award should provide a CV. Entries can be articles or essays published over the preceding year. For more information contact Alice Kershaw at Benjamin Franklin House, 020 7839 2006 or email info[at]BenjaminFranklinHouseorg.