YOU CAN LISTEN TO ALL OUR PREVIOUS WEBCASTS AND SEE ALL OUR RESOURCES AND FAQS FOR NEW STUDENTS at http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2008/04/18/prepping/

[Please read the guide carefully. It’s also available off the “Current Students” page of the website.]

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: Special info about your orientation, which begins Aug. 7, is at this link.

To: All M.S. students
From: LynNell Hancock, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Interim
Re: M.S. Instructional Program

Welcome!

The faculty, administrators and staff are glad that you have chosen to study with us at Columbia Journalism School. As students, you will be joining a community of teachers and learners who are dedicated to the highest ideals and aspirations of journalism. We believe that journalism is an integral part of a free, open and well-informed society. Everything we offer academically helps to promote that goal.

We have prepared some information to help you make appropriate academic decisions in the year to come.

It describes the instructional program for the Fall Semester for full-time M.S. candidates [LINK]
], and will help answer questions you might have
about the school [LINK].

This is an exciting moment in journalism, when technology is rapidly enhancing and altering the ways in which we tell the world’s stories. You will become familiar with the language and discipline of the changing modes of communication during the course of your time with us. At the same time, you will be reminded in every course that first-rate journalism education is far more than a mastery of skills. It’s all about learning context, analysis and habits of mind.

In mid-August, I will be returning to the faculty and you will have a chance to meet my successor as Dean of Academic Affairs, Bill Grueskin. He joins us from the Wall Street Journal, where he was one of the top editors and helped run the print and online newsrooms. Professor Grueskin will help lead the way in
bridging traditional journalism with the future of the industry.

Meanwhile, take special note of the impending deadlines (our favorite word) for balloting for Fall courses. And sample as many books as you can over the summer from the suggested reading list [LINK].

See you in August.

LynNell Hancock

Dear Students:

We are going to be doing more webcasts in the weeks ahead. Coming soon: Sheila Coronel, who heads our investigative journalism program; Betsy West, who teaches in the broadcast program; Joe Cutbirth, who teaches reporting and writing (and is a PhD candidate himself); Larry Fried, dean of technology and his tech team; LynNell Hancock, who teaches education reporting (and is finishing up her term as interim academic dean); and Bill Grueskin, our new academic dean.

Meanwhile, our next session is later today:
MEET THE J-SCHOOL: Judith Matloff, adjunct professor, author and war correspondent. Her new book, “Home Girl: Building a Dream House on a Lawless Block,” is about her setting up a new life in Harlem.

TODAY, Monday, June 23, 3-4 p.m. NY time
See local time in your city here: http://snurl.com/2nese

Listen live at the link below (or by dialing a NYC number, 646-915-9583) or listen to a recording later: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2008/06/23/MEET-THE-FACULTY-Judith-Matloff

You can send your questions in advance: dos[at]jrn.columbia.edu (subject=webcast) and you can also ask questions via the live chatroom there (another chance to meet some of your new classmates, too).

Judith Matloff has been teaching reporting and writing; covering conflicts and other courses at the J-School for several years. Her latest book: “Home Girl: Building a Dream House on a Lawless Block.” She worked as a staff foreign correspondent for 20 years, specializing in areas of turmoil. She covered a total 62 countries, heading the Africa and Moscow bureaus of The Christian Science Monitor. Previously, Matloff spent a decade at Reuters in various positions in Europe and Africa. She has reported on major world matters including apartheid’s demise, genocide, EU expansion and OPEC.

YOU CAN LISTEN TO ALL OUR PREVIOUS WEBCASTS AND SEE ALL OUR RESOURCES AND FAQS FOR NEW STUDENTS at http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2008/04/18/prepping/

You can also access all the recordings of all our webcasts at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism

These are also available as downloadable MP3 files for your personal
collection. If you want to subscribe to these as podcasts on iTunes,
go to “Advanced” within iTunes, then select “Subscribe to podcast” and
type in http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism/feed and hit OK.

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:

Here are videos of his remarks at the end of “The Porter Party” which was a combination toast and roast:

Earlier the same day, we hosted a webcast with Prof. Porter, where he talked about his work, his book “Blow” and teaching at the J-school. Incoming student Joel Stonington helped conduct the interview. Listen to the webcast here.

8:30 am:

• Pick up name tags and Orientation Folders: Lobby
• Coffee and pastries: World Room

9:00 am - Welcome: World Room

• Prof. Laura Muha, Director of the Part-Time Program
• Leon Braswell, Director of Admissions & Financial Aid
• Melanie Huff, Assistant Dean of Students
• Ernest Sotomayor, Assistant Dean of Career Services

10:00 am: Break

10:15 am: Computer Activation

• Cabral 501A Lab
• Whitehouse 601A Lab
• Reisig 607C Lab

11:00 am: World Room

• Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs
• Student Panel led by David Ressel, J’07 “Succeeding as a Part-Time Student”
  A group of part-time students discuss life at the J-school

12:00 pm: Box lunch, World Room

12:30 - 1:30pm:

• Pick up your Columbia University ID
• Financial Aid: 202 Kent Hall

2:00 pm-4:00 pm: First session with Professors

• Beth Whitehouse, Room 607A
• Roberta Reisig, Room 602
• Maria Elena Cabral, Room 501A

4-5:30 pm: Talk by Brian McDonald followed by a Reception: Student Center
hosted by the Dean of Student Affairs

Brian McDonald alumni of the PT program and author of four books in 10 years, will discuss his new book, “Last Call at Elaine’s: A Journey From One Side Of The Bar To The Other” and what he learned at Columbia Journalism School.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Beth Whitehouse - 10:30 am – 1:30pm: Walking Tour
In front of the Starbucks on Allen & Delancey St. (80 Delancey St.)

Roberta Reisig & Maria Elana Cabral - 8:15am - 5:30pm:
Meet 116th & Amsterdam
All Day Bus Trip to Brooklyn, Red Hook, Gowanus & more

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - First Class
Roberta Reisig: 7 pm - 10 pm - 601C
Maria Elana Cabral: 7 pm - 9 pm - 607A

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - First ClassBeth Whitehouse: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm - 302 Hamilton

**Our building is closed that day for electrical repairs, so Beth’s class will be held in

302 Hamilton (parallel to our building, on the other side of campus)**

RE: Free One-year Subscription to CJR

DATE: May 13, 2008

Throughout the past year, you have received copies of CJR in your student mailbox. I hope you found each issue interesting, informative and useful.

On behalf of the entire staff of CJR, I would like to offer you a FREE one-year subscription to our magazine.

To accept, please e-mail me your address (referring to this offer) to dfg2 [at] columbia.edu. I recommend, based on past experience, you provide us a temporary or interim address rather than wait until your plans for the coming year are finalized. If, in the next year, you experience problems with your subscription, or change your address, please call 1-888-425-7782 or log on to our site at www.cjr.org and click on “Subscriptions” in the right-hand column.

The one-year subscription will begin with the July/August ’08 issue and end with the May/June ’09. If you take advantage of this offer later than May (and miss some issues) your subscription will still expire with the May/June ’09 issue. Around January next year you will receive a letter saying your subscription is about to expire and asking that you become a paid subscriber; we hope that you opt to do so.

Congratulations and good luck.

Read (and listen to) transcript of the Henry J. Pringle Lecture by Dan Balz, chief political correspondent of The Washington Post. Read transcript of graduation address by Terry Gross of NPR’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” winner of the Columbia Journalism Awards, the school’s highest honor. Scroll down to read Dean Lemann’s remarks. Scroll down to read remarks by class president Yian Huang. Watch the year-end video starring several graduating students: “If I were giving the graduation speech…”: Facebook version | YouTube version. Read Dean Huff’s Year-end Manual (info about use of the building, Columbia e-mail, computers, alumni services, etc). Download photos of J-School class of 2008 · Class photo · Class photo waving · Commencement with ripped newspaper in the air Not our graduation, but Prof. Sig Gissler recommends this short AP story about Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCollough’s commencement address at Boston College: “Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation.”He said he’s particularly troubled by the “relentless, wearisome use of words” such as like, awesome and actually.” Photo on right: Wednesday, May 21, 12:10 pm - J-schoolers at the main university ceremony, complete with Reuters-branded beach ball. PHOTO: Craig Hettich. See a year’s worth of Student Affairs photos.

PULITZER TRAVELING FELLOWSHIPS & EIBEL AWARD for the top six students in the Class of 2008 (another slideshow below):

PULITZER FELLOWSHIP WINNERS:
Eliza Browning - class valedictorian
Lam Thuy Vo
Robert Jacob Corey-Boulet
Ailsa Wei-tan Chang
Molly Anne Birnbaum

David Marcus Eibel Memorial Scholarship: Srividya Rao

The M.A. Program Prize:
Arthur Harris Award for Best M.A. Thesis: Dorian Sanae Merina
runner-up: Don James Duncan
runner-up: Jacques Solomon Menasche

Award & Winner(s):
Baker Award for Bronx Beat: Katherine Santiago & Stephen Beardsley
Baker Award for CNS: Srividya Rao
Baker Award for Magazine Workshops: Alexa Taylor Schirtzinger
Balakian Award for writing about literature: Adam Weinstein
Blood Award for reporting: Carolina Joan Astigarraga
Brown Award for history of journalism: Rachel Clare Rosenthal
runner-up: Robert Jacob Corey-Boulet
runner-up: Daniel Luzer
Criticism Prize: Ronni J. Reich
Documentary Workshop Award: Aleksandra Halina Michalska
Editing Award: Thomas Arthur McCarthy
Greer Award for financial writing: Richard John McRoskey
Hechinger Education Journalism Award : Elizabeth Cristina Berry
Hechinger Education Journalism: Sarah N. Lynch
Horgan Science 1st prize: Daye Kim
Horgan Science 2st prize: Euna Lhee
Horgan Science 3rd prize: Erin M. Carlyle
Horgan Science 3rd prize: Olga Marie Pierce
Joan Konner Award for Best Broadcast Student: Megan Courtney Chuchmach
Louis Winnick Prize for RWI Writing: Anup Kaphle & Sarah Lynch
Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing: Garin K. Hovannisian
Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing: Jennifer Miller
Mencher Award for superior reporting: Stokely Baksh & Renee Feltz
Lars Erik Nelson Award for national affairs: Ailsa Chang
Lars Erik Nelson Award for national affairs: Eliza Cooke Browning
New Media Workshop Award: Lisa M. Biagiotti
New Media Workshop Award: Anup Kaphle
Nightly News Workshop Award: Eliza Cooke Browning & Megan Chuchmach
Radio Workshop Award: Margaret Julia Messick & Ailsa Chang
Robert Harron Award (”nice guy/nice gal” prize): Alexander James Sundby
Sackett Award for Law Class: Adam Edmund Hirsch
Sander Award for social justice reporting: Alexandra Louise Haugen Horowitz
Taylor Award for best international student: Anup Kaphle
TV Magazine Workshop Award: Sharona Sarah Coutts
Weschler for international reporting: Nadja Drost
Weschler for local reporting: Casey O’Connor Lyons
Weschler for national reporting: Renee Kathrine Feltz & Stokely Baksh
NOTE: Part-time students Sumi Aggarwal and Margaret Ballantyne, who are graduating this year, won awards last year.
The winners of the two awards presented by the students:
SPJ Teacher of the Year: Bruce Porter
SPJ Student of the Year: Lam Thuy Vo

List of Students Graduating with Honors
Margaret “Coco” Ballantyne
Elizabeth Berry
Molly Birnbaum
Eliza Browning
Erin Carlyle
Ailsa Chang
Megan Chuchmach
Robert Corey-Boulet
Sharona Coutts
Lawrence Delevingne
Michael Gadd
Garin Hovannisian
Jessica Leber
Thomas McCarthy
Margaret Messick
Jennifer Miller
Neilesh Munshi
Alexis Nunes
Nicholas Phillips
Benjamin Protess
Srividya Rao
Linzi Sheldon
Gregory Simmons
Susan Sipprelle
Lam Vo

More photos of our top six students. PHOTOS: Rebecca Castillo

See 2007 Graduation Awards.

o o o o o

TRANSCRIPT
Commencement 2008
Remarks by Dean Nicholas Lemann
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism

There are two things everybody knows about what they teach in journalism school. One is the five W’s—who, what, where, when, why—that every story must address, and the other is that if a dog bites a man, that’s not news, but if a man bites a dog, that is news. What we teach at Columbia Journalism School sometimes gets a little more complicated than that, but, nonetheless, the old bromides have a certain timeless appeal.

The graduation-speech version of the dog bites man story is telling students who are about to receive degrees that they represent the future. In deference to journalistic standards, I shouldn’t do it here. But I can’t help myself.

This is my fifth Commencement as dean. In that short time, the mood of our profession has changed profoundly. There are a number of reasons why, but the main one is the manifold effects of the Internet. The Internet has a nearly miraculous power to put the ability to publish, and to receive, journalism into the hands of untold millions of people all over the world. For more sophisticated practitioners like many of the people in this auditorium, it gives journalists a greater variety of means of conveying information than we have ever had before. But at the same time, the Internet has clearly eroded the economic basis of at least the corner of journalism into which this school has traditionally sent the plurality of its graduates, the American big-city daily newspaper.

When Columbia Journalism School opened in 1912, most American cities had several daily papers—certainly New York did—and there was no radio or television journalism. Through the twentieth century the newspapers died one by one, casualties of competition or suburbanization or the arrival of new-media competition, but the net result in most cities was a small number of papers that looked quite secure.

The big American newspaper of the late twentieth century was, it seems now, an odd institution, a kind of museum of all the historical phases of journalism, from partisanship (on the editorial page) to pure entertainment (in the comics and horoscopes) to serious political reporting. It was the most efficient way for people to get a big packet of information in one place. Even today’s graduates will remember the days when, if you wanted to find out who had won a ball game, or when a movie was playing, or by how much someone had won an election, you naturally picked up the newspaper. And, in the realm of business, if you were an auto dealer or a department store owner, or an individual engaged in small-scale commerce, the newspaper was the best means of getting people to buy what you were selling. Remember? And, because of the immense plant, equipment, paper, printing, and delivery costs that publishing a newspaper entailed, people who were already in the business were well protected from new competition.

Well, none of that is true any more. Most of the individual aspects of a traditional newspaper are available on the Internet, for free. Newspapers are still producing great quantities of original information, thanks to the hard work of people like you, but they no longer have local quasi-monopolies as sources of information. Their audiences are now primarily on the Internet—that wasn’t the case just a few years ago. And, even more recently, on the Web the lines between the various originating media have started seriously blurring. On the front pages of newspaper Web sites, you’re starting to find what we would recently have taught as television stories—video and audio presentations a few minutes long. Television sites publish what we teach as newspaper stories—stories made up only of printed words, without images. Magazine sites publish animated cartoons. And so on. The tectonic plates underlying our profession—those traditional categorical divisions by type of news, by news medium, by geography—are palpably, and rapidly, rearranging themselves.

Today, more of you have definite plans that entail paid employment in journalism than had such plans when I first stood at this podium five years ago. How can that be? Much of the credit is due to the great work our Career Services office does, but it’s also that employers want you because you’re energetic, because you have skills that people already in newsrooms don’t have, and perhaps also because you aren’t so wedded to doing things the way they’ve always been done in journalism.

You soon-to-be graduates are a diverse lot. You come from all over the world, work in every news medium, and cover the whole range of complicated subjects–but every one of you is a reporter: You know how to gather information, primarily through in-person interviewing, and to present it accurately, fairly, and engagingly. I would urge you, however, not to take it for granted that the best way to present information is an 800-word, all-text, pyramid-style news story—a method of presentation that grew up in the nineteenth century and dominated our profession for most of the twentieth, but may not in the twenty-first. And, as you’re well advised to be creative about how to present each individual story, the news organizations you work for are going to have to be similarly creative about figuring out, in the aggregate, what package of material they are presenting. It is going to have to be something unobtainable elsewhere—a rich mix of information about a community or a subject that the news organization’s Web site puts together more powerfully and efficiently than anybody else. It is not going to look just like the package of material that populates a newspaper now.

Inventing this is your task. You can’t avoid it—the old way doesn’t work any more—but it’s a far more creative, challenging assignment than what was handed to my generation when we went to journalism. Our job was to improve on the old model. Your job is to create a new model. You shouldn’t be daunted by this: newspapers in particular, and news in general, have been changing in non-incremental ways for three centuries. Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World (the profits from which endowed this school) had almost nothing in common except that they were printed on cheap paper and distributed in cities, and neither had much in common with a big-city newspaper today. On your watch, newspapers will be primarily digital, but the primary task for you is not to switch delivery media, it’s to invent a new social compact with a community around the gathering and presentation of information.

I suppose that qualifies as a man bites dog story—but it’s still contained within a dog bites man story, which is that you are leaders who hold the future of journalism in your hands. Sorry, it’s unavoidable. Have fun with it.

- - -

And here are the remarks Dean Lemann made when he introduced the Journalism students at the main university commencement in front of all the other schools, recipients of honorary degrees, etc - the tradition is to have some fun with this introduction (over the top is the norm from the various deans):

Mr. President, surely you must wish sometimes that everybody believed in free speech as completely as you do.

Well, sir, there is an easy way to achieve that happy state of affairs: Just make sure that the entire public discourse is based on the rock-solid reporting produced by the magnificently well-trained, hard-working, brilliant company of women and men I have the honor to present to you today.

Candidates of the Faculty of Journalism.

They are global. They are Webby. They are intellectually confident. Most, or possibly all, of the world’s problems would disappear overnight if only people would give full attention to their hard-earned facts and well-reasoned interpretations.

And they have completed the nearly insuperable requirements for the degrees of Master of Science, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy.

I humbly beg you, sir, to grant them this degree along with the rights and privileges thereto attached.

o o o o o

TRANSCRIPT
Remarks by Yian Huang, J2008 Class President
Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Dean Lemann, distinguished faculty, treasured guests, … and FELLOW GRADUATES OF THE CLASS OF 2008.

Graduates … Graduates … What an exciting world we are being launched into! There are so many great subjects for us to cover: Painful ones, joyful ones. There are disasters, human stories, war, peace and … perhaps even a scandal or two waiting to be discovered.

We are now a part of the best profession in the world—the one that gives us an excuse to ask people to let us into their lives and their homes; to tell us their intimate stories. And if we ask with “Joyful Entitlement,” as Professor Gissler taught us, people say yes.

We are the next generation of leaders of journalists. Right now, we look at journalists who inspire us, and we think we are merely students, or interns. But you know what, they all look at us, and they expect us to lead.

We have been so honored to have spent the last year at Columbia—the best journalism school in the world. We have reported on the diversity of New York City, a place that many say is the center of the universe.

Ok, that’s the fun bit. Now we’re going to discuss the serious part, which is about WORKING TOGETHER.

Our profession gives us a real opportunity—and thus an obligation—to change the world, by deciding what’s news, as Herbert Gans wrote.

So what do we want to change? What are our big dreams? What if we were the heads of the NY Times or CNN, or what if we had a couple of Pulitzers under our belt? What would we use our voice to say then? Look around this room. Look at the person in the seat next to you, the one in front of you blocking your view. In 20, 30 years, we as a class, we’ll have those things. What then? And then the obvious question is, why wait till then? Use our voices now. Yes, we might have to cover community board meetings starting out, but never lose sight of why we got into this in the first place.

For me, as a conflict photographer I’ve found that documenting—and almost glorifying—violence with my photos might not lead to peace, as I wish it might. News is not just about the conventional “If it bleeds, it leads.” We should strive to uncover the greater complexity of the stories we cover and challenge the established view.

So here’s the “nut” of this speech: To accomplish anything great, we need to harvest the power of the group. As individuals, we can only do so much.

So, stick together. Being unstoppable in the face of the adversities we are certain to face is so much easier with the help of our friends. We are our own best resources:
— We have:… the largest ever PhD graduating class of 6 students, who are our resources in macro trends in media.
— We have Knight Bagehot fellows who have enriched our conversations with their experience, and showed us that learning never stops.
— We have M.A. students who have given up established careers to study with us and cover Arts, Business, Politics.
— And we have the diverse and international M.S. class, who are already trailblazing new ways of telling stories.

Find a collaborator from this group. We can’t do everything ourselves. It’s more effective to work together than be the jack-of-all-trades one-man/woman-mobile-journalist/video/photographer/blogger that the industry seems to want.

Look at how the class came together when Ahmadinejad spoke on this stage last September. We got 30 reporters together to create a blog. We had print pieces, we had video, we had audio slideshows. We killed this story. And we got 165,000 visits in 48 hours.

Look at what we’ve survived together this year: the freezing basement and the horrible experience of the toilets there. We survived not having coffee for an unconscionable amount of time. And don’t get us started on the mythical Argentinean glass that’s being flown in from Paris by way of China. Last I heard, the cafe will be ready in Aug. but that’s what they told us last spring too.

PARENTS IN THE AUDIENCE, so sorry to tell you, that while it is true that this has been a tough year for us, WE ARE NOT DETERRED from this profession. Not in the slightest.

As president of the class, I have the privilege of speaking on behalf of all the students. Dean Lemann, a heartfelt Thank You to you, your faculty and staff, for all your time and teachings that you have imparted to us so very generously. May we be as generous to those coming after us.

Ms. Gross, thank you for coming. It’s a wonderful privilege for us. Since 1973, All You Did Was Ask Questions, if I may paraphrase the title of your book. We would like to ask: If you had only one person left to interview and only one question, who would it be and what would you ask?

A special shout out to adviser Rebecca Castillo and the SPJ Board, the tireless students who labored on behalf of all of us to make it a great experience for one and all. Please stand up and be recognized. Thank you.

Last, and certainly not least, we should all acknowledge our parents. I’m going to ask everyone to stand up, turn around, and show them our appreciation.
When you leave today, find something nice to say to your own parents;
(for me): Dad, for pushing me to do my best always;
and Mum, for teaching me the true meaning of love;
I am only here today because of both of you, so thank you.

-30-

Associated Press
May 8, 2008

Commencement readers cram to prep for tongue-twister names
By JUSTIN POPE
AP Education Writer

PHOTO: Jayne Niemi, second from right, registrar at Macalaster College in
St. Paul, Minn., talks with students, from left, Baitnairamdal Otgonshar,
from Mongolia, Nokuthula Sikhethiwe Kitikiti, from Zimbabwe, and Udochukwu
Chinyere Obodo, from Nigeria, at the campus, Tuesday, May 6, 2008. Niemi is
responsible for pronouncing 450 names correctly at commencement ceremonies
on May 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Janet Hostetter)

A week from Saturday, 453 new graduates will cross the commencement stage on
the lawn of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Among them: Nokuthula
Sikhethiwe Kitikiti, Udochukwu Chinyere Obodo, and Baitnairamdal Otgonshar.

Jayne Niemi will be ready.

No-oo-TOOL-a SEE-kay-tee-way Ki-tee-ki-tee. Oo-DO-chu-koo CHIN-yea-ray
Oh-boe-doe. Bat-NAI-ram-dal OT-gone-shar.

Niemi’s job is to read out the graduates’ names without mangling them.

“People invest a lot of time and money and commitment to be here at
Macalester and get this education, and they get one day of celebration in
the end,” says Niemi, a college registrar who will spend several days
studying pronunciation cards submitted by students. “Their families are here
from all over the world. I don’t want to embarrass them or the college.”

Niemi is part of a cadre of deans, professors and even outsourced
professional public speakers that is gearing up to perform one of academia’s
quirkier, and tougher, jobs _ getting every name right, so nobody leaves
campus feeling angry or ungenerous toward his or her alma mater.

Read the rest of the piece.

Friday, May 9, 3-4 p.m. NY time
10 p.m. Baghdad time
See local time in your city here: http://snurl.com/28191

Listen live at the link below (or by dialing 646-915-9583) or listen to a recording: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2008/05/09/MEET-AN-ALUM-Sudarsan-Raghavan

Columbia Journalism School invites you to meet an award-winning foreign correspondent. He has reported from more than 50 countries and nine war zones in Africa (where he was Knight-Ridder bureau chief), the Middle East, Asia, the former Soviet Union and Central America. Raghavan, who has won several major prizes, including the Polk Award, started his career in 1992 freelancing from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He will discuss the situation in Iraq, his career and what he learned at Columbia. He’ll be calling in from his Baghdad home. You can ask questions via the live chatroom or the listener line, or send them in advance via e-mail to dos[at]jrn.columbia.edu

Read some of his latest stories: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/sudarsan+raghavan/

On April 12, 2007, a couple of weeks after he spoke at Columbia during a brief vacation, he nearly became a victim of one of the countless Iraq bombs we hear about. Here’s how his front-page, first-person story, “In an Instant, a Junkyard of Humanity,” began:

The bomber blew himself up no more than a few yards away. First, a brilliant flash of orange light like a starburst, then a giant popping sound. A gust of debris, flesh and blood threw me from my chair as if I were made of cardboard.
I was lying on a bed of shattered glass on the floor of the cafeteria in the Iraqi parliament building, covered with ashes and dust. Small pieces of flesh clung to my bluejeans. Blood, someone else’s, speckled the left lens of my silver-rimmed glasses. Blood, mine, oozed from my left hand, punctured by a tiny shard of glass.
“Are you okay? Are you okay?” asked Saad al-Izzi, one of The Post’s Iraqi correspondents, standing over me, his face framed by an eerie yellowish glow, his voice distant. I did not reply.
I had always thought about this moment. In Iraq, every journalist does. But I did not expect a bomber to take lives inside the Green Zone, the nerve center of the Iraqi government and its backer, the United States.

Read the whole piece - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041202455.html - and listen to a six-minute audio story by him - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/04/12/VI2007041201194.html

Huffington Post’s Eat the Press called the piece “a must-read”: “The pure narrative movement of the piece, full of sudden temporal jumps and shifts in voice, only serves to underscore the nervy panic of the moment and its aftermath as Raghavan struggles to render the disjointed scene into something whole.”

See the transcript of a WashingtonPost.com chat with him the next day:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/04/12/DI2007041201708.html

- - -

TODAY’S WEBCAST: Listen live at the link below (or by dialing 646-915-9583) or listen to a recording: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2008/05/09/MEET-AN-ALUM-Sudarsan-Raghavan

Friday, May 9, 3-4 p.m. NY time
See local time in your city here: http://snurl.com/28191 You can ask Raghavan questions via the live chatroom, or send them in advance via e-mail to ss221@columbia.edu

- - - -

YOU CAN LISTEN TO ALL OUR PREVIOUS WEBCASTS AND SEE ALL OUR RESOURCES AND FAQS FOR NEW STUDENTS at http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2008/04/18/prepping/

Send your comments to dh2145[at]columbia.edu

Dear Students and Colleagues:

I am pleased to announce three major additions to our new media
efforts at the Journalism School.

The first is the appointment of one our most popular adjuncts, Duy
Linh Tu, to the full-time faculty. Duy (pronounced “Do” - see bio
below) joins us as new media coordinator and an assistant professor of
professional practice. As you know, he has been teaching here for
several years in the new media classrooms. He will intensify his
efforts to “webbify” our fall classes, and to integrate new and
compelling ideas in multimedia storytelling throughout the curriculum
in the years to come. Duy will continue to work with Dean Sree
Sreenivasan, who, as you know, has increased administrative
responsibilities at the school.

In addition, we have created two new post-graduate New Media
Fellowships starting this year. These July-June fellowships will
employ two students who will work closely with the technology staff to
help students and professors alike navigate the world of new media
journalism.

Our inaugural fellows are Kenan Davis and Dave Mayers (see bios
below). Part-teaching assistants, part-technologists, this year’s
fellows are both smart journalists with terrific reporting, writing,
editing and production skills. They will report to Duy.

Please join me in congratulating them. Kenan and Dave officially begin
their duties on July 1, but I am sure you will have other
opportunities to greet them before then.

Their bios are below.

ABOUT DUY LINH TU

Duy Linh Tu is a co-founder and the Creative Director of Resolution
Seven, a commercial, documentary and DVD production studio. He is a
writer, videographer, photographer, and multimedia consultant. Prior
to forming Resolution Seven, Duy founded and was the Chief Operations
Officer of Missing Pixel, an award-winning interactive production
company. Duy has worked at ABC News in London, and has shot for other
major networks such as MTV, CBS News Productions, and the Food
Network, as well as for independent filmmakers. Duy is currently in
production on two documentaries and travels to newsrooms nationally
and internationally to provide consulting and training to multimedia
journalists. He received his M.S. degree in journalism from Columbia
University, where he received a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship as one
of the top five graduates of the Class of 1999.
E-mail: duy[at]duylinhtu.com

ABOUT KENAN DAVIS

Kenan Davis is a multimedia journalist whose work has appeared in The
Valdosta Daily Times, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Village Voice, The
Queens Tribune and on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio. He also taught
English in Seoul, South Korea. He received a B.A. in sociology from
the University of Georgia and is about to receive an M.S. from The
Journalism School. During his fellowship year, Kenan Davis is looking
forward to working with faculty and students to create richer stories
through new media training.
E-mail: kenandavis[at]gmail.com

ABOUT DAVE MAYERS

Dave Mayers is a new media journalist with a background in
photojournalism and creative writing. He has worked for CNBC and the
WPN photo agency. He wants to use multimedia to shed light on
underreported countries in the developing world. Dave is about to
receive his J.S. from Columbia Journalism School. During his
fellowship year, Dave is looking forward to helping faculty and
incoming students master telling stories interactively.
E-mail: dave.mayers[at]gmail.com

And off we go!

See you all at graduation,
LynNell Hancock
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Interim
Lh50@columbia.edu

Dear Students,

Please make note of the following technology items as we approach the end of the academic year:

Equipment and Fines:

All checked out equipment should be returned no later than May 15th.

Equipment fines must by paid by May 16th or you may have a hold placed
on your diploma. If you wish to dispute a fine, please email Craig at
ch2314[at]columbia.edu.

Equipment Room Hours of Operation:

Please note the changes in the Equipment Room schedule over the next few
weeks as we transition to summer hours.

Note: Saturday, May 10th is the last Saturday the Equipment room will be
open this school year.

May 12-16: 8AM-8PM

Saturday May 17: Closed

May 19- 23: 9AM-7PM M-F (Closed on Sat, Sun & Mon - Memorial Day)

Regular Summer hours begin May 27th: 10:30AM-6:30PM M-F (Closed Sat and Sun)

Graduated Students Checkout Policy

There will be no Equipment Checkouts during the week of May 19-23rd as we conduct inventory.

Graduated students will have limited access to equipment from May 27-June 25.

Journalism Account Access

Journalism computer access will end for graduated students on Monday, June 30th.
All student shares of graduated students will also be removed and inaccessible as of this date.

It is imperative that you back up all of your data on your U drive (My Documents) prior to this date
if you wish to keep a copy. You should also make backups of any worked stored locally on Journalism
computers and on class network servers (network servers include all broadcast shares and workspaces…including Avid Unity).

For guidance on how to back up your data and file management please see this link.

For questions regrading equipment, please email Craig at ch2314[at]columbia.edu.

For IT related questions, please email Jeffrey at js3139[at]columbia.edu.

Thanks.
Larry

The 2008 Webby Award for the best student site was awarded to Defining Middle Ground: The Next Generation of Muslim New Yorkers - http://definingmiddleground.com/

It is the 2007 Master’s Project site of Tara Kyle, Bilal Qureshi and Ahmed Shihab-Eldin.

Webby Award Winner Announcement

May 2008
TO: All Students
FROM: Melanie Huff, Assistant Dean of Students

In order to help you plan for Graduation and beyond, we have prepared some documents for you - please make sure you read both carefully.

Journalism Day, the Journalism School graduation ceremony and the University graduation are covered in detail on the graduation page.

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

Please keep in mind that this summer extensive construction work is taking place along with work to repair and prepare the building and equipment for the next academic year. Therefore, it is necessary to establish dates after which graduating students will no longer be able to access and use the facilities. Outlined below is the schedule for the coming summer.

Part of the reason for the tight deadlines is that the two new summer Part-time RWI classes begin on Friday, May 23.

Use of Journalism Building Facilities After May 21
Use of Building:
Members of the Class of 2008 will have access to the building and its facilities through June 30, 2008.

Exceptions include: any area under construction, and any classrooms and computer rooms being used for summer classes or special programs. If you are in one of these rooms when a class is scheduled to begin, please leave immediately. Refusal to cooperate may result in the termination of your access to the building.

Broadcast students may use the broadcast equipment, as available, until June 30. Please remember that scheduled summer school classes and members of the part-time class working on their master’s projects, as well as necessary equipment maintenance upgrades, have priority for equipment and editing rooms.

Please be aware that individual computer rooms will be closed at different times for maintenance and upgrading. Though it is likely, it is not guaranteed that there will always be a computer room or terminal available. Due to maintenance schedules, summer class schedules and the part-time students’ master’s projects, it is possible that you will be unable to use a computer at a specific time.

Student Lockers:
In order to get ready for the construction and the incoming part-time students, all May graduates must empty their lockers by noon, Friday, 23.

Continuing part-time students and News 21 fellows may keep their lockers. Graduates who will be working on a demo tape or other approved projects during the month of June may also keep their lockers. To request such a locker extension, please send e-mail to cc2964@columbia.edu with your name and the reason for your request.

Graduates’ lockers that have not been vacated by noon on Friday, May 23, will be have their locks removed and contents moved to a storage bin and eventually discarded. All locker questions should be directed to Melanie Huff.

Student Mailboxes:
The mailboxes of graduating students may be used until noon, Friday, May 23 as well. All items remaining in boxes after that date will be discarded. Continuing students (& News 21) will be able to access their mailboxes on the first floor hallway over the summer.

Computers:
Graduating students will retain access to computer resources through June 30, 2008. Afterwards you will be unable to use the computer labs, print, or access your network storage. Please be sure to backup all of your files to external media (CDs, DVDs, flash media, iPods, etc.) before your account is deactivated.

E-mail:
Please see the alumni services/benefits section below for full details.

University Services After May 21

Health Services
Access to Health Services at the University expires on August 31 for all graduating students. For those with major medical health insurance through Columbia (Chickering), coverage ends on July 31 for M.S. students. Coverage for all other students ends on August 31. You do have the option of purchasing an extention on this policy. Please see http://www.health.columbia.edu/index.html for details.

University Libraries
Recent alumni will retain full library privileges, including borrowing privileges and access to licensed electronic databases, for a period of three months beyond the degree conferral date. Access information can be found at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/services/lio/access/. Library Services for alumni can be found at http://www.alumni.libraries.columbia.edu/

Dodge Physical Fitness Center (aka the Gym)
You may use the gym over the summer with your current CUID. However, you will have to pay the $91 gym use fee. Beginning in September, you will be eligible for alumni gym use. Please see http://alumni.columbia.edu/visit/s5_1.html

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://snipurl.com/cugsj_alumni

Please note that you will automatically be subscribed to your class list serve using the real world e-mail address supplied in your graduation survey (more details en route from Career Services). Your Columbia e-mail will remain an actual e-mail account through the summer, but then you will have to convert it to an alias to which your e-mail is sent and then forwarded to your real world account. Instructions are available at http://alumni.columbia.edu/access/s2_2.html.

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/gradsurvey2008/

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.

What: “Baghdad High” Screening with Directors Ivan O’Mahoney and Laura Winter
When: Thursday, May 1
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Where: Stabile Student Center, Columbia Journalism School, 2950 Broadway (at 116th Broadway), New York City

“Baghdad High,” directed by Ivan O’Mahoney ‘00 and Laura Winter ‘96, is up for the Tribeca Film Festival’s Best World Documentary Feature this year. Four classmates (Kurd, Christian, Shiite, and Sunni/Shiite) in Baghdad were given cameras to document their last year in high school, resulting in a rare firsthand view of what it’s like growing up where
sectarian violence rages right outside the classroom window. Variety wrote that “the small, quotidian realities of living in a foreign-occupied, divided city are brought coolly but poignantly to life” in the film. It will screen April 29-May 3 at the Tribeca Film Festival.

For more information: http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/tff

The evaluation system (https://courseworks.columbia.edu/) for students to provide feedback about their classes will be live for the Spring 2008 semester on Thursday, May 1, 2008. PT January RWI, MA Seminar in Discipline, and MS Workshop and Seminar professors will be scheduling lab time for you to complete these. If you are not enrolled in any of these courses, please complete all your evaluations on your own. The deadline for completion is Tuesday, May 27 , 2008, at 9 p.m.

Your role in providing feedback via course evaluations is of vital importance to the Journalism School. The information is used by faculty to evaluate their syllabi and to refine their practices and by the administration to make curriculum decisions and assess professor performance.

Course evaluations are one element in tenure, promotion and contract decisions; they can affect professors’ careers at Columbia.

Future students also use the information to make informed balloting choices.

We ask that you take your time and seriously reflect on your learning experience as you provide an honest answer to each question. You do not have to complete all the forms in one sitting. However, once you begin working on the form for a given class you must complete and submit it before exiting the system. Partially completed forms are not stored.

Please be aware that professors won’t have access to your evaluations of them until after they have submitted their evaluations of your performance.

Please note, we have no control over the system once the deadline has passed. Every semester students contact us after the deadline asking to fill in the form or to make edits to their evaluations, and there is nothing we can about those situations. Please be certain to complete all evaluations by the, Tuesday, May 27, 9 p.m. deadline.

Between Thursday, May 1 and Tuesday, May 27, you will receive reminders every two days for each evaluation that you have yet to complete. These automatic reminders are generated by the CourseWorks system.

Thank you for your assistance.

Questions to dos@jrn.columbia.edu

It turns out that three former students — all at the NY Times – won top awards at the OPC dinner Thursday night: Andrea Elliott, J’99 (best magazine reporting), Lydia Polgreen, J2000 (best reporting on the human condition) and Damien Cave, J’98 and his wife, Diana Oliva, not a former student (best Web site coverage of international affairs).  Another grad, Jose de Cordoba, of Wall Street Journal, won a citation (honorable mention); think he graduated in the late 1970s. Not sure about anyone else.
[Update from Irena Choi Stern, director of alumni relations - another winner: Bob Drogin J’76 (best nonfiction book on international affairs for “Curveball:  Spies, Lies and the Con Man Who Caused a War”).]

It was, quietly, a great night for the j-school (and for an old RW1 prof).

Here’s how it begins:

The New York Times
April 27, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor

The Fear Behind the Badge
By KYLE K. MURPHY

THE first time I almost shot someone, I wasn’t that scared.

It was 1986, and my partner and I had responded to a report of a man waving a knife inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal. When we arrived, I saw the knife in the man’s outstretched arm. I drew my weapon, and I yelled at him to drop the knife. My partner began inching his way toward the man, pleading with him to put the knife down. I made up my mind that I was going to shoot if the man lunged toward us. My partner got close enough to swing his nightstick down on the man’s arm. The knife fell to the ground and we quickly handcuffed him.

Why wasn’t I scared? Because I could see the threat clearly; I knew what I was facing. There were plenty of other times during my 20-year police career, however, when I was afraid. Usually it was when I couldn’t clearly see a potential suspect and didn’t know if he had a weapon. For a police officer, if a suspect is ignoring your commands and you can’t see his hands, you will feel that your life is in danger.

Read the rest of the piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/opinion/27murphy.html

Your completed Master’s Thesis is due in the Dean of Students office by 10 a.m. on Monday, April 28. You will be required to sign your name in the thesis submission log.

Your submitted thesis must conform to the following requirements, so follow these instructions carefully:

• 1. Print your manuscript, or broadcast (verbatim) script, double-spaced on one side of white paper, leaving an inch-and-a-half margin on the left-hand side and at least an inch on the other three margins. Photographic paper does not meet preservation guidelines for library materials, and theses on photo paper will be returned to the author in exchange for a plain-paper copy.
• 2. You should be aware that source lists (and your entire thesis, including the P.S. portion, described below in point number 6) will be available for all library users. If there are confidentiality issues with sources (i.e. phone numbers, personal addresses, etc.), students are responsible for removing the source list BEFORE submitting the library copy. If you are not certain about the best way to cite a source, consult with your advisor.
• 3. Do not put any sort of binding on the thesis, and do not staple the pages. The pages must be numbered.
• 4. Include a separate title page with the following information: Your name, class year, the title of your thesis, the name of the faculty member(s) who supervised it and, at the bottom of the page, add:
  Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Arts in Journalism
  Copyright
  (Name of Student)
  (Year)
• 5. Hand in five copies–the original and three copies. One copy will be returned to you with your instructor’s reactions; another copy will be reserved for the library, the third and fourth will be kept by your inside and outside advisors, and the fifth copy will be used in judging the M.A. thesis prize. (Please put the outside adviser’s mailing address on the envelope you use to submit that copy.) Students submitting a broadcast thesis should hand in two copies of the script and two copies of the thesis on DVD for the library, plus videotape copies if your advisors request one. The school can assist you in making the DVDs from the final, edited tape. (See #9 for special broadcast thesis instructions.)
• 6. You will need to submit a short, first-person account of how you discovered, researched and reported your story. This “P.S.” should run no longer than 1,000 words. The narrative will help students in the future see what goes into the making of a successful Master’s Thesis. (Include a copy of the narrative with all copies.)
• 7. Put each copy in a new 9 x 12 envelope. Label the front of each envelope with your name, your class year, the title of your thesis and the name(s) of your advisor(s) for the Master’s Thesis. Please be certain to clearly label the library copy.
• 8. New media theses: the library cannot store computer disks, and does not have the facilities for viewing their contents. The paper copy of the thesis should include a printout of the media presentation (and any source code, if applicable) and also the way to access it (thesis URL). A hyperlink will be made from the Master’s Thesis Index web page to the thesis itself.
• 9. Theses on audio tape, CD or DVD: please make two copies, label the tapes, the covers and the cover spines with complete thesis information (author(s), title, advisor).
• 10. If you are submitting your Master’s Thesis earlier than the deadline, you still have to submit the copies to the Dean’s Office. You must also inform your advisor and the office of the Dean of Students of the date you submitted the thesis.
• 11. Keep a copy of your thesis for yourself. Neither the Journalism School nor the Journalism Library is able to provide on-demand copies of your work. You are expected to keep usable copies of your Master’s Thesis for future reference. For print theses and transcripts, a hard copy is the best option.

These awards are open to any M.S. students graduating in this cycle (May 2008, Feb. 2008 and Oct. 2007). M.A. students are eligible for a separate category, for outstanding thesis, and will receive information from Dean Cornog.

There are two broad categories of awards: those for which students can submit entries that are judged by faculty juries; and those decided by the professors teaching the course for which they are awarded - no submissions are accepted for these.

Please note: There are two awards run and judged by alumni - the Sander and Blood awards, which have already accepted submissions.

Another prize, the Harron Award, is decided by a faculty committee from nominations provided by the J-school community - see separate announcement). All M.S., M.A., Knight Bagehot, and Ph.D. students are eligible.

For juried awards, you may submit applications for no more than two categories (the Blood, Hechinger and Sander awards are not part of the limit), and each application can contain only one story, or segment of a Master’s Project no longer than 3,500 words (or 10-12 minutes of video or audio; for new media projects, submit specific URLs in addition to an overall URL, and printouts of the relevant pages).

The decisions of the faculty judges are final, and their deliberations are confidential.

If you are submitting an application for one of the juried awards, you must submit clean, hard copy (or broadcast materials, if applicable, WITH SCRIPTS, or for new media projects, submit specific URLs in addition to an overall URL, and printouts of the relevant pages) to the boxes in 2M07A (in the Career Services area)between Thursday, April 24, at 10 a.m. and Monday, May 5 at 10 a.m. If you are coming after business hours, please drop off the entries through the slot of the gray box outside of the DOS offices(Huff/Sreenivasan) PLEASE SUBMIT THREE COPIES OF EACH ITEM.

Make sure everything is clearly labeled with your name, the class and professor for whom you did the story and the exact award category you are entering.

If you are entering more than one category, you must have a separate, labeled envelope for each entry (note: no more than two categories per student, not including Blood, Hechinger, Sander). We will not be returning entries.

FAQs about all this at the end of this post.

If you have any questions, please address them to dos@jrn.columbia.edu.

Regards,
Dean Huff

AWARDS TAKING SUBMISSIONS (descriptions below):
Balakian Award for writing about literature
Blood Award for reporting (closed)
Criticism Prize
Hechinger Education Journalism Award - special instructions
Horgan Prizes (3) for science writing
Mencher Award for superior reporting
Sander Award for social justice reporting (closed)
Weschler for local reporting
Weschler for national reporting
Weschler for international reporting

AWARDS NOT TAKING SUBMISSIONS:
Baker Award for Bronx Beat
Baker Award for CNS
Baker Award for Magazine Workshops
Brown Award for history of journalism
Documentary Workshop Award
Greer Award for financial writing
Light Award for editing
Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing
Nelson Award for national affairs reporting
New Media Workshop Award
Nightly News Workshop Award
Photography Award
Radio Workshop Award
Sackett Award for Law Class
Taylor Award for best international student
TV Magazine Workshop Award
Louis Winnick Prize for RWI Writing

AWARD WITH NOMINATIONS FROM J-SCHOOL COMMUNITY
Harron Award for excellence in reporting as well as exemplary kindness and
courtesy to fellow students (see separate announcement)

- - -

2008 STUDENT PRIZES IN DETAIL

AWARDS TAKING SUBMISSIONS

THE NONA BALAKIAN AWARD
The Nona Balakian Award was established in 1992 to honor the student who shows the most promise for achievement in writing about literature. Ms. Balakian, a 1943 graduate of the Journalism School, was an editor at the New York Times Book Review and had much influence on American arts and letters for more than four decades. Book reviews, profiles and articles about the literary world are acceptable.

THE RICHARD BLOOD AWARD
The Richard Blood Award is given to the student–judged by a panel of the former professor’s students–to have written the best investigative, hard-news or news feature story.

THE CRITICISM PRIZE
The Criticism Prize was established to recognize a student’s achievement in criticism.

THE FRED M. HECHINGER EDUCATION JOURNALISM AWARD (for education coverage)
This award is given to a student who produces outstanding work in education reporting. This award was established by the Hechinger Institute on Media and Education at Teachers College, in honor of New York Times education editor, Fred M. Hechinger. See separate entry information, deadline and process here:

HORGAN PRIZES
There are three Horgan awards given to the students who have written the best stories focused on science, health or the environment.

MELVIN MENCHER REPORTING AWARD
The Melvin Mencher Award was established by the students, friends and associates of Professor Melvin Mencher, the man who wrote that text book, who retired in 1990. The award recognizes a student who has
demonstrated “superior reporting” in general, or in a specific story or project during the academic year.

THE LESLIE SANDER AWARD
The award is given by the Class of 1989 in memory of a classmate, Leslie Sander, who died after a courageous bout with cancer. The winner is chosen on the basis of a story that carries on the journalism for social justice that Leslie would have done.

THE JAMES A. WECHSLER MEMORIAL AWARDS
The first James A. Wechsler Memorial Award is presented to the student who, in the judgment of the Faculty, submits the best story on a significant local issue. The awards were established by the Pisces Foundation in memory of the former editor and columnist at the New York Post. The second James A. Wechsler Memorial Award is presented to the student who submits the best story on a significant national issue. The final James A. Wechlser memorial Award is presented to the student who submits the best story on a significant international
issue.

AWARDS NOT TAKING SUBMISSIONS:

THE RICHARD T. BAKER AWARDS
The Richard T. Baker Award for outstanding performance in the Newspaper Workshop - both the Bronx Beat and the Columbia News Service - was established in honor of the late Dick Baker, a J-School graduate and long-time professor who also served as acting dean, associate dean, historian and administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. The second Richard T. Baker Award is for outstanding performance in the Magazine Workshops.

THE SEVELLON BROWN AWARD
The Sevellon Brown Award goes to a student who, in judgment of the Faculty, has demonstrated exceptional knowledge and understanding of the history of American journalism. Sevellon Brown, a former editor
of the Providence Journal & Bulletin Newspapers, was a key founder of the American Press Institute, which began in this building.

THE DOCUMENTARY AWARD
This award is for outstanding performance in Documentary Workshop.

PHILIP GREER MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND AWARD
The Philip Greer Memorial Scholarship Fund Award, presented for the first time in 1988, was established in honor of the late Mr. Greer, a financial correspondent and columnist for the New York Herald-Tribune
and The Washington Post, to recognize the outstanding student in financial writing.

THE ROBERT HARRON AWARD
The Robert Harron Award is presented to the student who has demonstrated excellence in writing and reporting as well as exemplary kindness and courtesy to fellow students. The award was established
in memory of Robert Harron, the former sportswriter and long-time assistant to the presidents of this university, through gifts from his many friends. (Call for nominations)

THE CHRISTOPHER LIGHT AWARD
The Light Award is presented to a student who shows great promise in editing. This award is made possible by a gift from Christopher U. Light of the Class of 1962.

THE LYNTON FELLOWSHIP IN BOOK WRITING
Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing is given for outstanding work in the Book Writing seminar.

THE LARS-ERIK NELSON PRIZE
The Lars-Erik Nelson Prize was established by the New York Daily News, in honor of Lars-Erik Nelson, its distinguished Washington columnist, who died in 2000. It is presented to a student for best reporting or opinion piece in one of the National Affairs Reporting seminars.

THE NEW MEDIA WORKSHOP AWARD
This award is for outstanding performance in the New Media Workshop.

THE NIGHTLY NEWS AWARD
This award is given for outstanding performance in Nightly News Workshop.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD
ThePhotography Award is given for outstanding perfomance in the photography courses.

THE RADIO WORKSHOP AWARD
This award is for outstanding performance in Nightly News Workshop.

THE HENRY SACKETT AWARD
The Sackett Award is given to an outstanding journalist who, in the judgment of the Faculty, did the best work in the course on the law of journalism. The award is part of the fund established in the will of Colonel Henry Woodward Sackett.

THE HENRY N. TAYLOR AWARD
The Henry N. Taylor Award was established in 1962 by friends of Henry Taylor, a journalist who was killed on assignment in the Congo at the age of 31. The award is given at the end of each school year to that member of the International Division who has demonstrated the qualities of a superior journalist. The award includes a grant providing for travel in the United States before returning to his or her homeland.

THE TV NEWS MAGAZINE WORKSHOP
This award is for outstanding performance in TV News Magazine Workshop.

THE LOUIS WINNICK PRIZE FOR RWI
This award in memory of Louis Winnick, is given to the best story done in RWI in the previous calendar year. The story must demonstrate outstanding reporting and writing, along with great precision and accuracy in grammar. This year’s winner has already been selected.

- - -

FAQs ABOUT AWARD SUBMISSIONS
Over the years, students have asked questions along these lines:

* Can I submit more than one entry per award?
THE ANSWER: No, you cannot. We want you to pick the best story and submit it, rather than send in more than one for any one award.

* Can I really only submit entries in two awards?
THE ANSWER: We want you to pick up to two awards and submit stories for those only. The Sander, Blood and Hechinger awards aren’t part of that quota.

* Can I submit same piece for two different awards?
THE ANSWER: Yes, you may submit the same story for two different awards.

* Can I submit a double-bylined story or a team production in broadcast or new media?
THE ANSWER: Yes, you may. Each year, multi-person entries do win awards.

* Does the limit of 3,500 words apply to ANY story or only to Master’s Projects (my story is currently around 4,600 words, so I need to know whether to cut it down in size or not.)
THE ANSWER: The reason we say only 3,500 words is to make the judging process
more streamlined. If you can trim your piece, please do. If, however, every word is uncuttable, attach a note explaining your reasons for turning it in a little longer.

All questions to dos@jrn.columbia.edu

-30-

The Faculty is currently accepting nominations for the ROBERT HARRON AWARD.

The ROBERT HARRON AWARD is presented each year to the student (M.S. [FT or PT]; M.A.; Knight Bagehot; Ph.D.) who has demonstrated excellence in writing and reporting as well as exemplary kindness and courtesy to fellow students. It is popularly known as the “nice guy/gal” award.

The award was established in memory of Robert Harron, a former sportswriter and long-time assistant to the presidents of this university, through gifts from his many friends.

While all members of the School (faculty - full-time and adjucts, staff and students) may submit nominations, only students in the Class of 2008 (part-time and full-time, M.S., M.A., Knight Bagehot, Ph.D.) are eligible for the prize, which will be announced with other awards on Journalism Day (this is a separate prize from SPJ’s “Student of the year” and the other awards determined by the Faculty).

A committee will examine the nominations and use the input to pick the winner of the prize. Please understand that this is NOT a popularity contest, and you are not “voting.” You are providing background information on a particular student. The Faculty makes the final decision.

We are looking for concrete examples that describe, as much as possible, the spirit of the award (see first para above), with special emphasis on the exemplary kindness and courtesy to fellow students (while maintaining high
academic standards).

Please send a short memo (one or two paras), via e-mail, in the format described below.

Compose a message to “sree@sree.net” and write “Harron Nomination — student’s name” (making the right substitution, of course). Please DO NOT write to the entire faculty.

Deadline: Thursday, May 5, 2008, at 10 a.m.

Nominations that are not in the format described above will not be accepted.

ONE SUGGESTION: Since the nominees will never see your nomination officially, you might want to Cc: or Bcc: him or her. Every year, nominators write so many nice things that disappear into the ether.

See below for slightly disguised examples from previous years.

———————-

Subject: Harron Nomination–Suzy J. Schooler

Suzy Schooler deserves the Harron Award.

Throughout the year, Suzy has been both a leader and a friend to the entire class. When there is something to be done, she organizes. When she finds out that someone is sick, she asks if she can help. And when she
learns about good news she tells the class and tries to schedule a celebration.

Quite simply, Suzy is a leader. She has boundless amounts of intelligence, enthusiasm, generosity and goodness. First semester, she organized work for the homeless, needy children and a book club, among
other activities. And in “Critical Issues,” when some people were falling asleep, she never ceased to liven things up.

I have not known her for a long time, but she is a very special person and truly deserves this award.

-30-

Subject: Harron Nomination–Suzy J. Schooler

I’d like to nominate Suzy Schooler.

Suzy came to mind immediately when I heard about this award. I know Suzy from RW1 first semester and Sports Journalism class this semester, and I have found her to be one of the most hard-working and spirited students at Columbia. Her energy and love for journalism are infectious. She never complains (a rare feat for a student here) and she is always ready with a smile and a word of encouragement during the tough stretches of deadlines.

Most important, Suzy has obviously made a commendable effort to befriend as many students as she could this year. She is often introducing people with common interests and after-Columbia plans. In my case, she made sure to get me in touch with a friend of a friend who would be able to help on my job search.

-30-

To: sree@sree.net
Subject: Harron nomination–Suzy J. Schooler

I’d like to nominate Suzy Schooler.

My first experience with her was when she served as editor of the election newspaper. She really did a fabulous job of motivating and bringing together the entire staff. While under the stress of this difficult position, not once did she lose the friendly, caring manner which makes her so special. Since then, I’ve seen Suzy offer her assistance on several occasions to fellow students–helping with story ideas, cover letters or reporting problems. Beside this, she is a consumate professional, an excellent writer, an outstanding reporter. And she always has a smile and a cheerful “hello.” Suzy definitely deserves this award.

-30-

The Fred M. Hechinger Education Journalism Award will be given to the student who produces the most outstanding journalistic work on the subject of education.

This award was established by the Hechinger Institute on Media Education at Teachers College, in honor of the New York Times’ education editor, Fred Hechinger.

Stories are accepted in television, new media, radio and print. There is no length restriction. Judges will be looking for insight and excellence in reporting and writing.

PRINT SUBMISSIONS: Please submit three copies of your story to Claudia Castillo, Room 2M07A.

NEW MEDIA SUBMISSIONS: Please e-mail the URL to lh50@columbia.edu and mgh2@columbia.edu. Please include the name of the project and the names of the team members. Please put “Hechinger” in the subject line of your e-mail.

VIDEO/RADIO SUBMISSIONS: Please submit one disk to Claudia Castillo, Room 2M07A.

DEADLINE FOR ALL SUBMISSIONS: Monday, May 5, 2008, 10 a.m.

*If you are coming in after business hours, please drop of entries through the slot of the gray box outside of the DOS (Huff/Sreenivasan) offices.

Children Lost and Found: Thirty-Five Years After Wilder
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
12:30 - 1:30 (Room C03)

School of Social Work - 1255 Amsterdam Avenue
(between 121st & Morningside Drive)

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ssw/wedseries/spr08/bernstein.html

We received the following question from a student:

Today in RW1 we had a guest speaker whose bio mentioned that she received the “Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, won for graduating first in her class…”

Since we don’t receive grades, I’m wondering how this designation of “first in class” is decided.

The Journalism School has a Pass-Fail system of formal grading. It aims at encouraging students to perform as well as they can, without competing with classmates. In most courses (some electives excepted), students receive written evaluations of their work from the instructors. Copies of these evaluations are kept in the DOS Office.

In RWI, written evaluations are issued at midterm and at the end of the semester. These preliminary evaluations indicate students’ early progress and, if necessary, serve as a warning if any students are in danger of failing. Students who are not doing passing work are placed on probation. If a student’s work is passing at midterm but deteriorates after the midterm evaluation, the instructor will give written notice of possible failure and inform the faculty.

RWI is the most important fall course. The decision to pass or fail a student in that course is determined solely by the instructor(s.) No grades of incomplete are allowed in RWI. Other required courses-such as Journalism, the Law and Society-are important, too. Inattention can result in failure. Students also should note that the “Skills” mini-courses are meant to be taken very seriously. The faculty reserves the right to dismiss a student who fails the same course twice or two courses, regardless of the credit points of the courses.

Deadlines for the Master’s Project drafts are strictly enforced. The Faculty retains the right to fail or place on probation a student who fails to meet deadlines for the Master’s Project.

No student is permitted to graduate while still on probation.

At graduation, the honors list is announced, recognizing approximately 15 percent of the students for superior performance in multiple courses; the faculty determines the honors list by comparing and discussing each student’s complete record. The faculty also awards more than a dozen special prizes at graduation, including five Pulitzer Traveling Fellowships for overall performance during the academic year. These decisions are based in part on an informal system of grading, which permits each instructor to designate one or two students as having completed a course “with honors.” Students are informed of the honors designation.

That designation, in the individual classes, is “honors in class,” and you will see it - if you get it - in the written evaluations you receive. If you receive two or more “honors in class” in our six-credit courses (RW1, Master’s Project, seminar, workshop) AND one or more in three-credit elective, you are likely to “graduate with honors.”

Except for a few prizes for which students can submit stories to be judged, the rest of the prizes are decided by faculty, without input from the students.

We hold briefing sessions close to Graduation to explain the procedures.

Part-time students are eligible for the awards and are tracked during their entire academic career here (though the prizes are typically given out the year they graduate).

Please direct all questions to Deans Sreenivasan and Huff.