Fall 2012 - Honors J2 Course Packet by Holly Johnson

J2 H O N O R S

CMN 231 - Journalism 2 Prof. Holly-Katharine Johnson Office: LA 131 - Phone: 732-666-4274 Mercer County Community College

Fall 2012

Mon. (SC 211) 12-1:15pm Wed. (ES 131) 12-1:15pm

Website: www.honorsJ2.com Website: www.mcccvoice.org

newsworthy

There are 9 basic elements of newsworthiness. Every article should contain at least 4 of these elements. Using more is better. Getting enough elements in often means finding an angle that focuses the story properly.

Tabel of Contetnts Nine categories of Newsworthiness page 2 Syllabus for Fall 2012 pages 4-7 Assignments Calendars & Points Breakdown page 8-9 NJ College Newsroom Retreat Info pages 10-11 Five article types overview page 12 What kind of article is this? Activity page 13 Assignment sheets Hard news page 14 Features page 15 Reviews page 16 Sports page 17 Opinions page 18 Insta-Article Scavenger Hunt Activity page 19 Article structures page 20 Inverted pyramid page 21 Ice cream cone page 22 Martini glass page 23 Sample articles page 24 Hard news pages 25-38 Features pages 39-46 Reviews pages 47-52 Sports pages 53-59 Opinions pages 60-66 Investigative/Long Form Journalism pages 67-99 Problematic articles pages 101-119 Good article topics scavenger hunt activity pages 120-121 Attribution basics pages 122-123 Diagnosing and fixing basic writing problems pages 124-125 What and editor does with a final draft pages 126-127 You be the editor activity page 128 Spotting basic writing problems page 129 Using the five senses page 130 Showing vs. telling page 131 Journalism laws to know and love pages 132-133 Practising with JLaw pages 134-135 AP Style Cheat Sheet pages 137-142 Journo Vocab pages 143-145 Contact info at MCCC pages 146-147 Fact checking worksheets (to tear out) pages 148-151 Course evaluation form pages 152-153 Handling Criticism page 154 Peer review worksheet (REUSE throughout!) page 155 Student survey (to tear out) page 156

The materials contained in this study packet are intended for student use only. Any reproduction requires permission of the author. ÂŠ Prof. Holly K. Johnson 2012

CMN 231- Honors Journalism 2 - Course Syllabus - Fall 2012 Instructor: Prof. Holly Johnson (Prof. J) Class: M/W 12:00-1:15am (Monday = SC 211, Wednesday = ES 131) Email: johnsonh@mccc.edu Website: www.keepithaka.com The Course Welcome to Honors CMN 231 – Journalism 2. The purpose of the class is to broaden students’ understanding of the rapidly-expanding field of new media, to improve students’ long-form and multi-media reporting skills, and to hone students’ ability to write effectively under pressure. Supplies The two textbooks used in this class are The Student Newspaper Survival Guide (2nd ed.) by Rachel Kanigel and The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook (6th or 7th ed.)by Tim Harrower; both can be purchased online or in the school bookstore. Students will also need a collegiate dictionary, a folder for papers, a notebook, a stapler, and a pack of pens. AP style guides are available in the VOICE newsroom. Student Requirements Students must complete 4 article assignments including giving and receiving peer review, editing based on critiques and finally designing their work for both print and online consumption Students must conduct interviews and obtain documents, synthesize the information gathered and present their work in different journalistic styles Students must participate in retreats Students must use social media each week Students must write two timed, in-class essays Students must attend class and participate in all class activities including distribution of the college newspaper which will showcase their strongest work Grades:

Your grade for the course is determined based on the following criteria: 4 articles (review process = 30%, online and print layout = 30%, article craft = 40%) = 60% Class participation = 10% 2 Essays = 8% Retreat participation = 12% Social media = 10% Extra credit = ?% In order to enroll in this class students must have permission from the instructor. Class participation: Journalism requires students to work together and also to step outside their comfort zones to interact with people outside of class. Active engagement is a required course component. Articles: Students will write a minimum of 4 articles during the course of the semester. One article must be collaborative. One article must require the student to use open public records laws to obtain information for reporting. One must be long-form. In addition to writing multiple drafts of articles, students must be prepared to have their final drafts edited and they must design print and web layouts for each article. The design and layout of each article will constitute 30% of the article grade. Adding new-media features to online presentation and info-graphics to print presentation will result in higher design grades. Note: There are assignment descriptions and samples of all types of articles are presented in this packet.

Retreats There are two retreats, one held Friday Aug. 24 from 9-5 and one held Sept. 21-22 (The NJ College Newroom Retreat). Participation in the pre-class retreat gives students a chance to connect with one another, to prepare for the semester, and to go over course basics. The September retreat is a two-day new media event. Journalism and new media students from across NJ will be attending. VOICE and J2 students will help organize the event, participate in it and serve as ambassadors to the visiting students. More information about the NJ College Newsroom Retreat can be found on pages 8-9 of this packet.

CHICAGO: During the first 7 weeks of the semester, the instructor and the photography adviser will carefully observe each student’s progress and will select 6-8 of the strongest students from J2 (and The VOICE) to attend the fall College Media Association (CMA) conference in Chicago from Oct. 31-Nov. 4 with airfare, hotel stay and conference registration fee paid for by the college (. Students who are invited will be those who:

demonstrate the most consistent improvement in their work show the most leadership skill and potential exhibit the most ambition and determination devise the most innovative and newsworthy topics create the strongest work

Social Media A key course component (worth 10% of the final grade) is the use of social media (Facebook and Twitter) to promote student work, provoke critical thinking about topics in the news (national, local and hyper-local) and foster critical thinking amongst readers while promoting The College VOICE brand. Every student will post to each platform at least once per week using a specific hash tag. Peer and Instructor Review: All students must participate in ongoing review of rough drafts on the Google Drive platform (you will learn how to use this at the beginning of the semester). Students who do not participate effectively in the review process will have their final article grade reduced by 30%. Participation means posting a viable draft on time, taking comments from peers and the instructor, giving comments, and editing work based on the feedback received. The goal is not only to improve the peers’ work, but also to hone each student’s writing skills as they learn to look for and offer feedback on the key elements of journalistic writing. The professor reviews rough drafts after peer reviewers have done so. All drafts must be posted to Google Drive and shared with all classmates and instructors before class time on the due date. A draft that is posted on the due date, but is late, will receive a 5% grade reduction. Publication in the School Newspaper: All articles written by students in CMN 231 are expected to be published in Mercer’s student newspaper, The College VOICE (www. mcccvoice.org). The editor-in-chief and managing editor, in consultation with the newspaper advisers, may, however, choose not to run any article that is incomplete, libelous, not newsworthy or under reported. This does not exempt J2 students from completing page layouts. Editorial Review Process: Students must be aware that their final drafts will be edited for content, clarity, conciseness, form, and style by the editorial board of the College VOICE. Many times these edits are small and the article that appears in the VOICE is nearly identical to the original submitted work. In some cases, however, the changes are substantial. When editors change more than 25% of the original material, byline credit is given to both the student reporter and the editor. Essays: Students write two short (2-3 page) essays in-class, to demonstrate their ability to synthesize ideas and write clear, concise prose under time pressure. Papers will be written on October 17 and December 12. They will not receive peer review. Topics are posted online at honorsj2.com.

Syllabus Cont.

Extra Credit: Any work that a student does beyond the basic requirements presented in this syllabus is eligible for extra credit, but students must ask to receive the credit. It will not be applied automatically. Examples of this work include uploading back issues of The VOICE to the online site, securing advertising from local vendors, writing extra articles etc. Attending the Chicago College Media Association (CMA) conference in early November constitutes a significant extra credit assignment. Missing and Late Work: Learning about journalism means learning about deadlines. On rough draft days students must bring three copies of their rough draft (one for the instructor and two for their peer partners). A missing rough draft reduces the final article grade by 30%. On final draft days the final draft must be submitted electronically BEFORE class time AND must be submitted in hard copy form in class itself. Any work that arrives after class time will be marked down by 5% on the due day and 50% for each day following. All work must be submitted in order to pass the class. If you cannot avoid being absent on a peer review day, you must find two classmates who are willing to peer review hard copies of your work for you before the final draft deadline and you must review their work as well. Make connections with classmates early in the semester so that you can plan ahead in case of any foreseeable absences. Attendance & Lateness: Attendance in this class is defined as: being present at the start of class, having your texts and notebook with you, having all assignments due with you, being fully prepared to discuss the readings, listening attentively to the instructor and taking substantive notes. Simply being present in the classroom does NOT constitute attendance. Moreover, students found text messaging in class will be marked absent. Students can be absent three times for any reason and do not need to explain their reasons to the instructor. Any student who is absent four times, no matter what the reason, will be automatically withdrawn from the course. Chronic lateness will lower the student’s final grade. If you come to class late, please get seated quietly; do not disrupt a class in progress. Cell Phones: Cell phones are a necessary tool in journalism and new media. All J2 students will need to have a phone that has text messaging enabled. A trac phone is acceptable but smart phones are preferable. If you have a financial or other constraint that prevents you from keeping a phone, .please let the instructor know immediately so she can work with you to find a solution. Students should be prepared to contact their instructor and editors frequently during the semester, especially as deadlines approach. Keep your phone charged and check your messages! Program the instructor’s number (Holly: 732-666-4274) and the number of the EIC and as many classmates as possible into your phone at the beginning of the semester. Phones may be used during class but should be kept on vibrate and not used for gaming or Internet surfing. If you use your phone for activities unrelated to class while in class, you will be marked absent. Special Accommodations: Any student needing special accommodation because of learning differences or being differently abled should contact the instructor during the first week of class. She will be happy to ensure that you receive the assistance you need to participate in the class effectively. Students should see Arlene Stinson in the Learning Center so they can provide their instructors with an accommodations letter Academic Integrity – Honesty In Your Work: Cheating in any form is simply not tolerated. Familiarize yourself with the school’s academic integrity policy, at this link. We will cover proper Associated Press style citation procedure, but it is each student’s responsibility to abide by the rules described in the policy, in this and every course he or she takes in college. Failure to do so will result in disciplinary action and failure on the assignment and/or the course itself. Ethics in Journalism – BEYOND basic integrity: In addition to the college’s academic integrity policy, students in this class are also bound by the code of journalistic ethics of The College VOICE newspaper. This is the link to the policy manual http://www.keepithaka.com/the-college-voice/policy_manual-html/. In particular students must fact check all submissions, not report on topics in which they have a personal interest (i.e. conflict of interest), and not accept any freebies or benefits from those they are covering.

Syllabus Cont.

Email: Students may email the professor with questions but should seek answers on the class website www.honorsj2.com first. In all emails, identify yourself and use proper English, good grammar, and respectful language if you expect your instructor to reply. All article drafts must be submitted via Google Drive. Respect: Politeness and self-respect are expected in the classroom. No matter what one’s skill level in the subject matter, every student can and will maintain a fundamental level of human decency. Students who are disrespectful will be asked to leave class and marked absent. On-going behavior issues may lead to the student being withdrawn from the course. Student Learning Goals: By the end of the semester the student will be able to: • Write well under pressure • Gather information independently and organize it effectively • Use desktop publishing equipment and software to write and design coherent new media articles • Interview subjects effectively and check facts to ensure accuracy • Describe and analyze ethical issues in news writing • Understand the basics of PhotoShop, InDesign, Wordpress and iMovie • Write newsworthy, engaging and well-crafted articles including ones that require long form investigative tools • Be able to apply the basic principles of editing for content, clarity, length, tone and maintenance of fair and balanced position to create articles that are well organized and unbiased

Honors Journalism 2 - CMN 231 - Assignments Fall 2012

September

By the end of week 2 be sure to have read: Designer’s Handbook:Preface, Chap. 1 (up to pg. 35) , 2 + 3 Survival Guide: Chs. 1, 4 + 5 and pgs. 28 and 118 Always take thorough, legible notes that you can study from later.

By the end of week 4 be sure to have read: Designer’s Handbook: Ch. 4-6 Survival Guide: Chs. 10 + 12

Also, always read the chapters focussed on the type of article you are currently writing (sports, lifestyle [features], Arts & Entertainment [reviews], newswriting [hard news]).

OCTOber

By the end of week 6 be sure to have read: Designer’s Handbook: Ch. 7 Survival Guide: Chs. 13 + 14

NOVember

By the end of week 9 be sure to have read: Survival Guide: Ch. 9

DECember

By the end of week 12 be sure to have read: Survival Guide: Chs. 18 + 19

r Winte

Brea

Assignment dates and point break down

Assignment % values

You are invited to a:

NJ College

Newsroom Retreat

Sept. 21-22, 2012

at Mercer County Community College

The Project The staff of The College VOICE, the award-winning student newspaper of Mercer County Community College, invites any student who works for a college news media outlet in New Jersey to participate in an training retreat on Sept. 21 and 22 (9-5:30pm) at Mercer County Community College. The goal of this retreat and training is to harness the power of student journalists from different newsrooms, bringing together their skills and perspectives to produce new media projects that are useful, accurate and engaging. After a day of training sessions and planning, reporting teams will go out into the community to interview experts and stake-holders, record video, take photographs, investigate and report, returning to our state of the art Mac lab to construct a complete multi-media package. At the end of the day, each team will present their work for critique. After the retreat, each participating school will post one of the projects on their media web site with a brief explanation of the collaboration and links directing readers to the other sites. The goal is to promote readership and viewer engagement while driving site traffic from one news source to another.

Join us to learn and collaborate. Questions? Contact Prof. Holly Johnson at johnsonh@mccc.edu or 732-666-4274

Schedule Day 1 Training Sessions 9-10: Connecting Across Newsrooms

10:11: Finding Features that Matter 11-12: Assembling Multi-Media Packages

Planning

1-4: Project Planning with Teams 4-5:30: Presentation of Project Plans

Day 2 Reporting 9-3:30 Teams Report & Create Features Presentations 4-5:30: Project Presentations Post Retreat Connecting Projects

After participating, teams will put one of the projects on their newspaper web site, adding links and promos to drive traffic to the other projects on the web sites of the participating college papers.

2012 - NJ College

Newsroom Retreat

Additional Information Registration Fees There is no registration fee to participate. Advisers are welcome to join and help throughout the event. Meals Lunch will be provided on Friday, Sept. 21. Students must purchase or bring food for all other meals. Lodging For students traveling from a significant distance, lodging is available at many area hotels at reasonable rates. If your group cannot afford this option, please contact the coordinator who will work with you to find a suitable alternative. Location Morning training and lunch on Friday, Sept. 21 will be held in the MCCC Student Center Room SC 211 located at 1200 Edinburg Rd., East Windsor, NJ. All other activities will be held in the ES Building Macintosh Labs, Rooms 131 and 133. After Hours The retreat will start promptly at 9am and continue until 5:30pm on both days. Any participants staying in the area are welcome to go out with VOICE staffers in the evening for dinner or other entertainment. Supplies & Equipment Two state of the art Macintosh computer labs will be used to create the multi-media projects using the Adobe Creative Suite and Premier Pro (or iMovie, as preferred). There are a limited number of cameras (with video capability) and digital audio recorders. We encourage participants to bring their own, clearly labeled, newsroom equipment if they are able to do so.

Registration Form Name of College: __________________________ Name of Publication: ________________________ Number of People in Delegation: ______________ Will Your Adviser(s) Attend?

Advisersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; names: ___________________________ _________________________________________ Contact for you Delegation: __________________ 1. Name of Participant: ______________________ Email: ___________________________________ Current Position at Publication: ________________ 2. Name of Participant: ______________________ Email: ___________________________________ Current Position at Publication: ________________ 3. Name of Participant: ______________________ Email: ___________________________________ Current Position at Publication: ________________ 4. Name of Participant: ______________________ Email: ___________________________________ Current Position at Publication: ________________ 5. Name of Participant: ______________________ Email: ___________________________________ Current Position at Publication: ________________ 6. Name of Participant: ______________________ Email: ___________________________________ Current Position at Publication: ________________ Submit form via email attachment to: johnsonh@mccc.edu or mail to: MCCC - c/o Prof. Holly Johnson 1200 Old Trenton Rd. West Windsor, NJ 08550

Press Credentials Participants are asked to bring a photo ID and all press pass or newsroom issued press credentials. Questions? Contact Prof. Holly Johnson at johnsonh@mccc.edu or 732-666-4274

5 Basic Types of Journalistic Articles

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. Johnson

What kind of article is this? Directions: Read the headlines below. Determine what kind of article is being described. Write your response beside each description. 1.

Fire damages chemistry lab

Local soup kitchens see steady increase in number of children going hungry

Kelsey Theatre performance of Alice in Wonderland better for kids than adults

Security guard runs over student with golf cart

Mercer should invest in better safety equipment for science labs

Marco Petty, 17 year old baseball star, is also head of Mercer’s LGBTF club

Fitness center receives gift of 12 new nautilus machines from wealthy alumn.

Fitness center use has increased steadily over last five years.

Student finds diamond ring in cafeteria tras hcan.

10.

Student hits professor who tried to confiscate her cell phone during class.

11.

Men’s basketball beats Lackawanna 23-6.

12.

Mercer’s cafeteria should stay open later to accommodate night students.

13.

Recent study shows one in four college women have had an STD this year.

14.

Westminster Choir College production of Les Miserables is outstanding.

15.

Softball team has only three returning players, starts season with new pitcher

16.

Bathroom graffiti all over campus includes racist and anti-semitic speech.

17.

Mercer’s President, Patricia Donohue, suffers broken arm in car accident

18.

Mercer student, David Hogue, gets acceptance to Harvard

19.

Princeton’s new restaurant, House of Egypt, serves excellent Arab cuisine

20.

Mercer needs to increase tuition and use the funds to build better facilities

21.

New Spanish professor quits after finding voodoo doll tied to office door

22.

A new solar energy technology program is set to begin starting next fall

23.

Women’s hoops defeated by lower ranked Salem

24.

New local punk band, Metal Teeth, rocks Metal Night at Champs in Trenton

25.

Don’t use the advisors in the Student Center unless you want a f**ked up schedule!

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. Johnson

HARD NEWS ARTICLE ASSIGNMENT HARD NEWS Before you begin, read Chapter 5 in The Student Newspaper Survival Guide (2nd Edition). Next select an appropriate hard news topic. You must find a timely topic that will be relevant to your readers now but probably won’t be in a few weeks or months. Use your on-campus resources to find a suitable story. Consider starting your search with a call to the Student Government Office or the office of Public Relations or by chatting with a division dean. Look at bulletin boards and explore the Mercer website for more ideas about things that are happening NOW. NOTES: NEWSWORTHINESS: All articles must contain at least 4 of the 9 elements of newsworthiness (timeliness, proximity, usefulness, drama, conflict, human interest, prominence, impact, novelty). DRAFT LENGTHS: Rough drafts must be at least 500 words. Final drafts must be between 800 and 850 words. A final draft that is not full length will not receive a passing grade. STRUCTURE: Review the inverted pyramid for organizing presented on Page 17 of this packet and follow it as you write your drafts. REMAINING UNBIASED: Your coverage must be factually accurate and also be unbiased. INTERVIEWING: At the beginning of each interview give your name, and explain that you are a student reporter from The College VOICE. ATTRIBUTION: • Always take time to write down your interview subject’s FULL name and title correctly before you begin your questions. • If a person will not give you their full name, don’t bother interviewing them just find someone who will. • When you interview students, get their full names, what year they are at the school and what they are majoring in. • When interviewing locals who are not students, get their full name and the town or township where they reside. • When attributing facts, be sure to say exactly where they came from (author or organization and name of document). Use unbiased, scholarly sources. GET CONTACT INFO: At the end of every interview, either read back your quotes and facts to be sure they are accurate or let the person know you’ll be in contact to check facts and quotes. Be sure to get their contact information!

MY TOPIC IDEAS: (write your ideas below)

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. Johnson

FEATURES ARTICLE ASSIGNMENT FEATURES Before you begin, read Chapter 6 in The Student Newspaper Survival Guide (2nd Edition). Next select an appropriate features topic. Finally, write an article on a topic of on-going interest to your readers that emphasizes human interest. Your article must begin with an anecdote of one to three paragraphs that tells the story of an actual individual who reflects the topic that will be discussed in the remainder of the article. NOTES: NEWSWORTHINESS: All articles must contain at least 4 of the 9 elements of newsworthiness (timeliness, proximity, usefulness, drama, conflict, human interest, prominence, impact, novelty). DRAFT LENGTHS: Rough drafts must be at least 500 words. Final drafts must be between 800 and 850 words. A final draft that is not full length will not receive a passing grade. STRUCTURE: Review the ice cream cone structure on page Page 18 of this packet and follow it as you write your drafts. REMAINING UNBIASED: Your coverage must be factually accurate and also be unbiased. INTERVIEWING: At the beginning of each interview give your name, and explain that you are a student reporter from The College VOICE. ATTRIBUTION: • Always take time to write down your interview subject’s FULL name and title correctly before you begin your questions. • If a person will not give you their full name, don’t bother interviewing them just find someone who will. • When you interview students, get their full names, what year they are at the school and what they are majoring in. • When interviewing locals who are not students, get their full name and the town or township where they reside. • When attributing facts, be sure to say exactly where they came from (author or organization and name of document). Use unbiased, scholarly sources. GET CONTACT INFO: At the end of every interview, either read back your quotes and facts to be sure they are accurate or let the person know you’ll be in contact to check facts and quotes. Be sure to get their contact information!

MY TOPIC IDEAS: (write your ideas below)

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. Johnson

REVIEWS ARTICLE ASSIGNMENT REVIEWS Before you begin, read Chapter 8 in The Student Newspaper Survival Guide (2nd Edition). Next select an appropriate reviews topic. Finally, write a review of a local arts or theater performance (Kelsey, McCarter, etc.), a local restaurant, a local band performance, dance or music event. You may NOT review a movie, CD or book. You may not review a pizza place or chain restaurant. Focus on LOCAL events and connections. It should be clear from the first paragraph whether you are giving a positive or negative review. The review should include a brief summary of the event and provide background information and context. The review must include quotes that provide additional information. NOTES: NEWSWORTHINESS: All articles must contain at least 4 of the 9 elements of newsworthiness (timeliness, proximity, usefulness, drama, conflict, human interest, prominence, impact, novelty). DRAFT LENGTHS: Rough drafts must be at least 500 words. Final drafts must be between 800 and 850 words. A final draft that is not full length will not receive a passing grade. REMINDER: Reviews can use a soft or hard news lead but they must include:

Your clearly stated opinion at the beginning followed by A description/summary of the event, place or art work you are reviewing then giving Quotes from creators, participants, producers and observers in addition to your own observations Note the strengths and weaknesses, but reiterate your position

REMAINING UNBIASED: Your coverage must be factually accurate and also be unbiased.

INTERVIEWING: At the beginning of each interview give your name, and explain that you are a student reporter from The College VOICE. ATTRIBUTION: • Always take time to write down your interview subject’s FULL name and title correctly before you begin your questions. • If a person will not give you their full name, don’t bother interviewing them just find someone who will. • When you interview students, get their full names, what year they are at the school and what they are majoring in. • When interviewing locals who are not students, get their full name and the town or township where they reside. • When attributing facts, be sure to say exactly where they came from (author or organization and name of document). Use unbiased, scholarly sources. GET CONTACT INFO: At the end of every interview, either read back your quotes and facts to be sure they are accurate or let the person know you’ll be in contact to check facts and quotes. Be sure to get their contact information!

MY TOPIC IDEAS: (write your ideas below)

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. Johnson

SPORTS ARTICLE ASSIGNMENT SPORTS Before you begin, read Chapter 7 in The Student Newspaper Survival Guide (2nd Edition). Next select an appropriate sports topic. Finally, write a sports feature, a sports hard news/game story or a player profile for a current MCCC sport or a local sport (local sports stories may NOT include high school sports). Contact relevant coaches or program directors and try to attend practices in addition to any game if that applies. Bring a camera with you and get photos of games or of the player you are profiling. Interview the players as well as the coaches. NOTES: NEWSWORTHINESS: All articles must contain at least 4 of the 9 elements of newsworthiness (timeliness, proximity, usefulness, drama, conflict, human interest, prominence, impact, novelty). SPORTS REPORTING TIP: When reporting on sports, stick to information that can be verified by someone else, for example if they viewed video footage of the game. Here’s what you CAN’T say: The game was entertaining. (Your opinion) The team was fatigued. (Your opinion) The coach was frustrated with the players. (Your opinion) The Essex team tried more dirty tricks than the Vikings. (Your opinion) The play escalated because of #39’s shot on goal. (Your opinion) Here’s what you CAN say: Number of strikes on goal is verifiable. It was cold out, verifiable. The referee came out of the goal and began to argue with the ref is verifiable. Ball changed sides numerous times in the second half is verifiable. Six yellow cards were given for rough play is verifiable. Player #29 gave the ref the finger is verifiable. The coach put in #31 in the second half is verifiable. You can’t speculate on other people’s feelings or motivation. These things aren’t verifiable. BUT many of the things I’ve listed above can be said in ways that ARE verifiable. So, for example, you can’t say the coach was frustrated, but you can say that the coach repeatedly tossed up his hands and raised his voice to issue warnings to player #20. You can’t say the team was fatigued, but you can say in the second half of the game the coach made more substitutions than in the first half and the players appeared to run more slowly to get to the ball. You can’t say the game was entertaining, but you can describe the entertaining moments by describing the goals and the ball handling and behavior of the players. You can’t say that Essex tried more dirty tricks than the Vikings, but you can say they got more yellow cards for rough play.

REMAINING UNBIASED: Your coverage must be factually accurate and also be unbiased. INTERVIEWING: At the beginning of each interview give your name, and explain that you are a student reporter from The College VOICE. Get contact info and fact check your quote. ATTRIBUTION: Follow the attribution procedures listed on all your assignment sheets and on page 44 of this packet.

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. Johnson

OPINION ARTICLE ASSIGNMENT OPINION Before you begin, read Chapter 9 in The Student Newspaper Survival Guide (2nd Edition). Next select an appropriate opinion topic. Finally, write an article in which you give a strong opinion on a controversial topic that will be of interest to your Mercer readership. In your article include facts, research and quotes to support your position. Address potential counter-arguments. IMPORTANT REMINDERS ABOUT OPINIONS:

You must state your opinion clearly at the beginning Your opinion must be about some issue of controversy Your body paragraphs must support the opinion you began with using FACTUAL EVIDENCE and DATA You should explain why counter-arguments are wrong The support you use should not come from moral or religious doctrine or ideas

NEWSWORTHINESS: All articles must contain at least 4 of the 9 elements of newsworthiness (timeliness, proximity, usefulness, drama, conflict, human interest, prominence, impact, novelty). DRAFT LENGTHS: Rough drafts must be at least 500 words. Final drafts must be between 800 and 850 words. A final draft that is not full length will not receive a passing grade. INTERVIEWING: At the beginning of each interview give your name, and explain that you are a student reporter from The College VOICE. ATTRIBUTION: • Always take time to write down your interview subject’s FULL name and title correctly before you begin your questions. • If a person will not give you their full name, don’t bother interviewing them just find someone who will. • When you interview students, get their full names, what year they are at the school and what they are majoring in. • When interviewing locals who are not students, get their full name and the town or township where they reside. • When attributing facts, be sure to say exactly where they came from (author or organization and name of document). Use unbiased, scholarly sources. GET CONTACT INFO: At the end of every interview, either read back your quotes and facts to be sure they are accurate or let the person know you’ll be in contact to check facts and quotes. Be sure to get their contact information!

MY TOPIC IDEAS: (write your ideas below)

CMN - 231 - Journalism2 Prof. Johnson

Insta-Article Scavenger Hunt Team Members: ____________________________________________________________________________ Directions: With your team, your job is to find as many of the items listed below as possible and bring them back by 11:30am. Be sure to get ALL the information you would need to use these elements in an actual article. First team back with complete answers and all the items wins. Bonus points for creativity. Points reduced for lameness. Photos of flyers are preferable. Find:

Your instamatic Review (15pts) 1. 2. 3.

Photos of two flyers for two upcoming arts and entertainment events on campus Two quotes from two different students about whether or not they would go to that event if they had the time free A good quote from a faculty member about whether or not they would go to the event if they had the time free

Your instamatic Sports article (15pts) 4. 5.

A flyer from the PE building that has something to do with physical fitness A good quote from a student, faculty member or staffer about the quality of Mercerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s physical fitness center

Your instamatic Hard News article (15pts) 6. 7. 8.

A flyer about a policy that affects students A good quote from a faculty member about their view of how the policy mentioned in one of your flyers affects them A good quote from a student about their view of how the policy mentioned in one of your flyers affects them

Your instamatic Feature article (15pts) 9. 10. 11.

A flyer for a club or organization that is active on campus A good quote from a student about whether or not they would participate in this club and what they think the club does A quote from a faculty member, administrator or staffer about this club and its value on campus

Notes:

All quotes have to be attributed properly (get the name of the person, spelled correctly, their year and major or their title if they are administrators or faculty) Extra points will be given for creativity. You should photograph flyers. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t rip them off the walls. You must be back in the classroom by 11:30am. Lateness = point deduction. Even though you are in a hurry, you must be polite and always introduce yourself as a member of the press when you ask someone if you can interview them. Faculty members are professors (either adjunct or full-time) who teach classes. Staffers are the assistants and other support personnel in the offices. Administrators are deans, the vice president and president.

Story Structure Writing articles is as much about telling a good story as it is about getting the facts right. You must do both. Good stories include:

• • • • •

a beginning, middle and end some sort of conflict or action information about interesting people doing interesting things heroes, villains, mentors and other archetypal figures rich descriptions and sensory details

Because journalistic writing is done on tight deadlines and must be concise, following basic structure formulas can aid in creating a publishable piece more quickly.

Organization and Structure of Journalistic Articles

HARD NEWS INVERTED PYRAMID The most common article structure Hard News Lead Answers Who, What, When, Where, Why and How questions in one graph. The elements must be arranged in optimal order and fewer than 60 words. Supporting Details for the Lead This is info needed to make the lead make sense. 1-2 graphs. Cosmic Quotes A series of paragraphs that include quotes from all stake holders and present the various positions about the story. Background/Reaction One or more paragraphs providing other information, quotes or story telling that helps explain the topic thoroughly. Details + Conclusion Other relevant details and a conclusion (often ends with a kicker quote).

BASIC FEATURE STRUCTURE- THE ICE CREAM CONE

Features or soft or anecdotal Lead 3-5 paragraphs that tell a story about a single person or a group of people, explaining some interesting tale from their life the will be relevant to the rest of the article.

Nut graph

Explains the significance of the story presented by the lead, answering the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How questions in one graph. Supporting Details This is info needed to make the lead make sense. 1-2 graphs. Cosmic Quotes A series of paragraphs that include quotes from all stake holders and present the various positions about the story. Background/Reaction One or more paragraphs providing other information, quotes or story telling that helps explain the topic thoroughly. Details + Conclusion Other relevant details and a conclusion (often ends with a kicker quote).

THE MARTINI GLASS Structure for Crime Stories, Event Stories and Game Stories Hard News Lead Answers Who, What, When, Where, Why and How questions in one graph. The elements must be arranged in optimal order and fewer than 60 words. Supporting Details for the Lead This is info needed to make the lead make sense. 1-2 graphs.

The first thing that happened

The next thing that happened

Cosmic Quotes A series of paragraphs that include quotes from all stake holders and present the various positions about the story. Background/Reaction One or more paragraphs providing other information, quotes or story telling that helps explain the topic thoroughly. KICKER QUOTE / Conclusion

e l p

m a S 24

t r A

s e l c i

Hard News Samples

HARD NEWS SAMPLE 1

University of Alabama

UA students chosen to pose in Playboy’s Girls of the SEC edition By Stephen Walker

Each fall, as college football players in the Southeast put on their pads and walk out into the bright lights of a Saturday night football stadium, the teams of the Southeastern Conference are out to make one thing clear: the SEC is the best conference in the nation. But they aren’t the only ones out to prove that the SEC is the best. Dozens of students from the Southeast, including three from The University of Alabama, recently posed for Playboy Magazine’s Girls of the SEC edition to prove that the SEC is home to more than the best football in the nation; it is also home to some of the most beautiful college girls anywhere in the world. “The SEC is the hottest conference in America today – in more ways than one,” said the article in Playboy magazine. “Where else would Playboy’s team of photographers go to shoot our annual collegiate special? To the Southeast, where the only things more smoking than the tailgate barbeques are the coeds.” Jackie Pines, a junior majoring in international studies, was told about Playboy’s photo shoot by a coworker and decided to audition. “When I auditioned, I honestly did not expect a call back,” Pines said. “When I did get the call, I decided that if I did not take the opportunity, I would regret it for the rest of my life. The most beautiful women in the world grace the pages of Playboy, so how could I not want to be among them?” Despite having a previous interest in modeling, nothing ever became of that interest, Pines said. “I have always wanted to or had an interest in modeling, but I have never pursued it,” she said. “I do not plan to try and make a career of modeling, but if something comes about because of the exposure from Playboy, I would not turn it down.” Even though Pines admitted to being a bit apprehensive just before the Girls of the SEC edition was released, she has no regrets. “As the release date approached, I got very nervous,” she said. “Now that it is out, I am happy and have more self-confidence. I have lots of support from my friends and family.” Alex Sanders, a junior majoring in telecommunication and film at the University, found out about the Playboy auditions

Hard News Cont.

from the magazine’s Twitter feed. “My roommate followed Playboy on Twitter before I even did,” Sanders said. “After Playboy tweeted that they were coming to UA, she called me and said, ‘Oh my gosh, you’ve got to do this.’” Although Sanders has never done any kind of modeling before, she has always wanted to pose for Playboy. “I used to watch the Girls Next Door, like when it first started, and it was one of my favorite TV shows,” Sanders said. “I think I was in junior high when the show started, but I was like, ‘Oh my God, I would love to go to the Playboy Mansion, and I’d love to be in Playboy.’” Sanders considers herself lucky to have been selected to pose in a world-renowned magazine such as Playboy. “I feel like this was definitely the opportunity of a lifetime,” Sanders said. “Even if I hadn’t gotten chosen for the finals, I would still get to say that I actually auditioned for Playboy. But I actually got it.” Johnna Dominguez, a first-year graduate student majoring in anthropology, found out about the auditions from an article in The Crimson White. Since she had been a fan of Playboy for quite some time, she decided to give it a try. “I don’t purchase Playboy magazines, but I am a member of the Playboy Cyberclub,” Dominguez said. “I have always been interested in posing for them, so I was really excited to get the chance.” The reputation of Playboy, as well as that of the women who pose for Playboy, convinced Dominguez to audition. “All the girls that pose are beautiful, sexy and intelligent,” she said. “I just decided to give it a shot.” Dominguez said she would welcome any opportunity to do more modeling for Playboy in the future. “I really enjoyed modeling for Playboy,” she said. “I’ve never thought of modeling before, but now I would really love a chance to do it in the future.”

HARD NEWS SAMPLE 2 U. Board of Governors approves tuition increase amidst student protest Jovelle Tamayo / Editor-in-chief | Posted: Thursday, July 19, 2012 3:33 pm The University Board of Governors approved a 2.5 percent increase in tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students, as part of the 2012-2013 fiscal year budget, at its meeting on July 18 at Winants Hall on the Old Queens campus. Overall, the cost of attendance for the average in-state undergraduate living on campus will increase by 2.2 percent, with the cost of room and board rising by 1.9 percent. For a typical University student, the increases translate to a cost of about $13,073 for tuition and mandatory fees — about $318 more than last year, according to a report by the board’s finance committee. Out-of-state undergraduates can expect their tuition and fees to increase by 4 percent. BOG chairman Ralph Izzo urged that the raises are lower than those of other state schools. The decision marks the second year in a row that University tuition and fees are increasing below the rate of inflation, Izzo said. “But we also recognize, as a committee and as a board, that Rutgers has a responsibility to offer not just access but excellence,” said Daniel Schulman, chairman of the board’s finance committee. “… The demand for education is strong — not just because of the price we offer but because of the quality of the programs we have.” About $20 million in cuts to operating expenses are necessary to keep the cost of tuition affordable for students, Schulman said. More than 50 students arrived an hour prior to the BOG’s open session to protest the rumored cost increases and demand a tuition freeze. Several students shared their personal experiences through a megaphone and in between speakers, the group chanted “Keep Rutgers Public.” Some students continued the outdoor protest through the meeting, while other chose to sit in on the open session. Seven students, including John Connelly, president of the Rutgers University Student Assembly, had the opportunity to address the board prior to their vote. “There are a trillion dollars of student debt in this country that hang over my head and the head of every other student in the country,” Connelly said to the BOG. “Right now, this board has the opportunity to make a firm policy decision to help

Hard News Cont.

alleviate that crisis.” But the BOG swiftly approved on the budget proposed by the Committee on Finance and Facilities, undeterred by several emotional accounts by students already struggling with tuition costs. One of these students included University senior Kaitlin D’Agostino, who pleaded the board for a tuition freeze. She claimed that this past year, she barely had enough money for food and was almost forced to choose between school and survival. D’Agostino tearfully told the board that because of her situation, she may not be able to afford another semester at the University if tuition increased any more. After the board’s vote, students left the meeting in disappointment and joined the protestors outside while D’Agostino sobbed in her seat. But state aid will remain at about $262.76 million for 2012-2013, said Nancy Winterbauer, the vice president for University budgeting. The board also allocated an additional $2.4 million in this year’s budget bringing the total for student financial aid to $27.5 million, she said. “It’s a serious problem,” Winterbauer said of student debt. “But universities on their own can’t solve the student debt problem. Rutgers can’t remain a public institution with very low tuition and not have state support and still provide quality programs that students want.” Sixty-one percent of University undergraduates were offered need-based financial aid last academic year through grants or subsidized loans, Winterbauer said. Because of state support, the cost of attending Rutgers remains significantly less than its private competitors, Schulman said. “Most students here are feeling somewhat mixed,” said Connelly, a School of Arts and Sciences senior. “We know things could be worse but we also know things could definitely be better.” Despite the outcome of the BOG meeting, Connelly said he was impressed with the students, who turned out despite the 100 degree weather and looming thunderstorm. “I’ve never seen this many faces at a Board of Governors meeting that were under 50 years old,” Connelly said. “I feel like this is the first drop before a coming storm. It really is life or death for some of us.” The raise of 2.5 percent is the lowest proposed tuition and fees increase in a decade, but it is not the lowest approved increase. Though the board’s finance committee originally proposed a 3 percent raise in tuition and fees for the 2011-2012 fiscal year budget, the board instead approved an increase of 1.8 percent. Under the 2010-2011 fiscal year budget, tuition and fees for in-state students increased by 4 percent and for out-of-state students, 6 percent. At the July 18 meeting, the board also approved an operating budget of $2.207 billion for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

HARD NEWS SAMPLE 3

Judge sentences Ravi to 30 days in jail By Amy Rowe / News Editor | Posted: Monday, May 21, 2012 1:28 pm Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in county jail, closing one of the most publicized cases to reach the Middlesex County Courthouse in recent years. Ravi, the 20-year-old former University student found guilty on charges of bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and tampering with evidence in March, must also complete 300 hours of community service and pay $10,000 in fines to the state over his three-year probationary period, Judge Glenn Berman said. The sentence was surprising to some at the courthouse, who thought a lengthier sentence for the second-degree crimes, which carry up to 10 years in prison, would be imposed on the defendant. “The state submits that incarceration of this defendant is the proper, appropriate punishment and sentence,” said Julia McClure, the prosecuting attorney, before Berman announced the sentence. “Justice can only be realized by respecting and enforcing the law and punishing this defendant.” Ravi spied on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, during an engaged sexual encounter with another man, M.B., via webcam in their Davidson Hall C residence in September 2010. Tyler Clementi committed suicide in the days following Ravi’s second spying attempt, but Ravi is not charged in conjunction with his death. Although the second-degree bias intimidation charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, Berman opted for a lesser sentence for Ravi that also includes a mandatory counseling program on cyberbullying and alternative lifestyles. M.B.’s lawyer Richard Pompelio read his client’s victim impact report during the proceedings, in which M.B. said he thought Ravi should be punished and acknowledge that what he did was wrong, but should not be deported to India, where the defendant was born. Berman said he would not recommend deportation when signing his judgment. Before Berman told Ravi his sentence, he heard from Ravi’s mother, who said her son has not left the house much over the last 20 months. “He literally eats one meal a day to suppress his hunger. He has lost more than 25 pounds going through this ordeal. … Dharun’s only comfort is his younger brother and our dog, Lance,” Sabitha Ravi said. “Dharun’s dreams are shattered, and he has been living in hell for the past 20 months.” While traditionally the defense provides its statement first, Dharun Ravi’s attorney Steven Altman asked the judge if the prosecution could provide victim impact statements first, and with McClure’s consent, Berman approved his inquiry. The Clementi family spoke on behalf of Tyler Clementi in court, maintaining that what Dharun Ravi did was reprehensible

Hard News Cont.

and criminal. “Mr. Ravi did these criminal acts … because [he thought] my son was different from him, below him, and he was gay,” said Joseph Clementi, Tyler’s father. “He did it without a thought or consideration of how it could affect Tyler.” In all of their speeches, the Clementis mentioned the defendant never apologized for his actions. “I watched as Dharun slept through court as though it were something not worth staying awake for,” said Tyler’s older brother, James Clementi. “Dharun has never shown any remorse. My family has never heard an apology or acknowledgment of any wrongdoing.” At the beginning of the day’s proceedings, the defense asked for a new trial, but Berman denied its request. The judge also announced that the former University student Molly Wei, who was involved in the spying, would have a shortened pre-trial intervention program. Wei, who watched Tyler Clementi and M.B. from her room in Davidson C with Dharun Ravi, testified against the defendant as part of entering PTI. She had already completed 250 of the mandatory 300 community service hours before appearing in court two months ago, Berman said. In reasoning his sentence, Berman said Dharun Ravi did not contemplate harming Tyler Clementi before spying on him. “I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi, but I do believe he acted with colossal insensitivity,” Berman said. He granted Dharun Ravi a stay of 10 days, after which he must report to the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center on May 31 at 9 a.m. to serve his sentence.

HARD NEWS SAMPLE 4

Mother’s Grief to Play Central Role in Upcoming SAE Lawsuit BY JEFF STEIN

Upon hearing the news of her son’s death, Marie Lourdes Andre went into such a state of “hysteria and shock” that she was immediately hospitalized, forced to lay down and given sedatives, her friends testified in court papers filed earlier this month. Andre’s ordeal was just beginning. Despite her condition, she was immediately called upon to drive five hours to upstate New York to identify the body of her son, George Desdunes ’13, who died after a fraternity hazing ritual on Feb. 25, 2011. The nightmare continued through the weeks ahead. Magalie Louis, a friend of Andre’s, moved in with Andre to help her in the few days leading up to Desdunes’ funeral. Louis ended up staying another six months, fearful of “what might happen to [Andre] if she were left alone.” Though three former pledges of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity were acquitted of criminal charges in June, a separate, civil lawsuit is just beginning. Seeking at least $25 million in damages, Andre is suing the national SAE fraternity and at least 15 former brothers of the Cornell chapter. What may make Andre successful where the Tompkins County District Attorney previously failed is the overpowering, crushing pain of a mother who has lost her son — an emotional context largely absent from the criminal trial of the SAE pledges. Andre alleges in her lawsuit that Desdunes’ death was the “direct and proximate result of the defendants’ negligence.” Desdunes was left unattended on a fraternity couch after a mock kidnapping in which he was blindfolded, bound with zip ties and forced to consume vodka and pixie stix, according to court documents. He was found unresponsive on the couch that morning and subsequently died at Cayuga Medical Center. But the attorneys of the SAE pledges, who were found not guilty of first-degree hazing and first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child, have argued that Desdunes was complicit in the binge drinking that preceded his death. They noted that Desdunes was known as a heavy drinker and that he had been seen drinking the night of his death, prior to the hazing ritual. According to them, the ruling of Judge Judith Rossiter J.D. ’86 put to rest the claim that the pledges were responsible for Desdunes’ death. “The court determined, without reservation or equivocation, that these young men are innocent. They did not haze George Desdunes or cause his death,” Ray Schlather J.D. ’76, the attorney for defendant Max Haskin ’14, told The Sun in June. Still, the upcoming trial is likely to be different on several fronts. For one, the defendants are accused of negligence resulting in death — not hazing, as they were in the criminal trial. The burden of proof has also changed. Whereas the district attorney had to prove the defendants’ guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the plaintiff in the civil suit will only have to show that the pledges were negligent based on a “preponderance of the evidence,” according to William Friedlander, Andre’s lawyer. Then there are the stories of Andre and her friends, though whether they will ever be heard in a court of law remains to be seen.

Hard News Cont.

Over the last few months, lawyers have sparred over where the trial will be held. SAE has requested that the case be moved to Ithaca, but Andre’s lawyers say this would prevent witnesses from providing crucial insight into the emotional toll of Desdunes’ death. One such witness is Louis, the woman who stayed with Andre for six months and is herself a mother of three. Louis met Andre 22 years ago, when Desdunes was a baby. George Desdunes’ father, Bernard Desdunes, had just died of lung cancer. “I saw George grow up from a toddler to a wonderful young man. I witnessed his relationship with his mother, and their mutual reliance and dependence on each other,” Louis says in her affidavit. “She remains devastated by George’s death.” Another potential witness who says she could not testify in Ithaca is Christine Hooker, who called EMS for Andre when they learned of Desdunes’ death. Hooker, like other witnesses, says it would be an undue burden for her to travel to Ithaca to testify. “I have observed the effects George’s death has had on [Andre’s] ability to continue working. She often needs days off because she is still suffering,” Hooker states in her affidavit. The defense, meanwhile, holds that witnesses like Louis and Hooker are “completely irrelevant … to either liability or damage issues.” They note that a janitor who saw Desdunes’ body that February morning would not be able to make the trip to New York City if the case were moved there, and say his testimony is more central to the case than that of Andre’s supporters. The fight over the trial’s location may be particularly important because this case, unlike the last, will be decided by a jury. The criminal trial was decided by a single judge, who may have been less prone to be swayed by more emotional appeals. Following that ruling, one defendant appeared to declare victory. “#WEWON,” Ben Mann ’14 posted on Twitter a few hours after the pledges were acquitted. But Friendlander said he remains confident Andre will win the civil trial — and that it will be clear, after months of public controversy and seemingly endless legal wrangling, who is responsible for Marie Lourdes Andre’s grief. “It’s uncontroverted that [the pledges] did things that led to Desdunes’ unfortunate death,” Friedlander said. “This is hopefully going to send a message to the fraternity and the members of the fraternity system that this conduct is unacceptable. You can’t act like this. You have to be held accountable.”

HARD NEWS SAMPLE 5

Company plans put Brew Fest on hiatus Lucy Walker — Staff Writer Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 This upcoming fall could be a disappointing one for some of Ithaca’s beer lovers. Ithaca Brew Fest, one of Ithaca’s main tourist attractions at the end of the summer, will not be held this year. The festival, which usually occurs during Labor Day weekend in September, will take a year off because of the restructuring of one of its chief organizers, Ithaca Beer Company. The festival has been canceled so Ithaca Beer can focus on the construction of its new brewery, according to a press release posted on Brew Fest’s website last month. Allison Graffin, Ithaca Beer’s marketing director, said the company — which opened the doors of its current brewery in 1998 — needs to concentrate all of its resources on its newest project. “We are getting ready to build this brand new brewery near our current location,” she said, “It’s basically all hands on deck to get the brewery going, so we’re focusing all our efforts.” Ithaca Beer’s prize-winning beer and other products are distributed as far south as Ohio, and the new plant, which will be built on purchased land near the current property, will allow the company to produce its product in much greater quantities. Graffin said they do not have a definite date for completion yet because the construction process is still in its planning stage. Brew Fest has been held annually on Labor Day Weekend at Stewart Park since it was created in September 2007. Previous sponsors of the event have included Wegmans Grocery Store, Cayuga Radio Group and WVBR 93.5 FM. In the past, Ithaca Beer has donated some of the proceeds to the New York State Brewers Association and renovation efforts for the boat house and Stewart Park’s grounds. Last year’s festival drew a large crowd to Stewart Park, where more than 45 brewers sold more than 100 craft beers, including local and gluten-free varieties. Graffin said craft beer fans with ages ranging from 21 to 60 came from all around the Northeastern region last year. “We got about 3,000 people from all over New York and basically all the Northeastern states,” she said. “But it’s still mostly people from the Ithaca area, Syracuse, out to Rochester and Buffalo.” For Ithaca College students over 21, the cancellation has been met with much disappointment. Senior Morgan Goldstein turned 21 years old last April and was unable to attend last year’s event. This would have been her first festival experience. “I have never been to Brew Fest, but I’ve been to Apple Fest and Chili Fest,” she said. “I think those are really important events in Ithaca. They bring the whole community together as well as people from outside. From what I’ve seen and

Hard News Cont.

heard, I think those are really positive events. Brew Fest is along the same lines as those.” Goldstein also said the city should anticipate a decrease in tourist numbers this summer because the event often draws many people from out of the area. “I think it’s unfortunate that it was canceled because it’s such a good communal event and such a good tourism event, especially because Ithaca needs tourism,” she said. Senior Sarah Bratt said she was upset when she heard of the event’s cancellation because she was looking forward to attending her first Brew Fest with friends. “I would have gone, and I would have brought a lot of friends to come with me,” she said. “That’s commerce — people drinking and buying beer.” Bratt, a fan of Ithaca’s microbrewery scene, said the company’s decision to scrap the event seems counterproductive because she believes the festival would have been a great opportunity for Ithaca Beer to promote its new brewery. She said the cancellation is also depriving the area — and Bratt herself — of enjoying quality beer. “If you give beer: happiness,” she said. “If you take away beer: anger.” At this point, Graffin said, the company is unsure of the festival’s future. “We don’t have an answer for that yet,” she said. “I don’t want to say anything conclusive, but since we’re just trying to get through opening the new brewery and that’s so time-consuming and exhausting that we’re just saying, we haven’t even looked that far ahead.” However, Graffin said people should not take this year’s cancellation as the official end of Brew Fest. “We’re going to revisit it,” she said. “It’s not an answer yes or no at this point.”

HARD NEWS SAMPLE 6

Prof. Jamal Eric Watson the hardest working professor at Mercer? Written by: Noelle Gilman and Laura Pollack

Prof. Jamal Eric Watson, who teaches full-time in Mercer’s English Department, was also an instructor at five other colleges on campuses located as far as 80 miles apart, in the fall 2011 semester. In all, his course load totaled 17 classes, the equivalent of simultaneously teaching full-time at three different colleges. Watson’s schedule is extraordinary for several reasons. First, a typical teaching load for full-time community college faculty is five classes per semester. Mercer’s full-time faculty members are also required to attend mandatory committee and departmental meetings on the first Tuesday of every month, and hold five office hours per week. It is not uncommon for faculty members to supplement their pay by teaching more classes at Mercer. However, the school’s current contract limits how much overload faculty may teach, in most cases no more than one or two extra classes per semester. Some faculty members elect to teach additional classes elsewhere, because the per credit pay rate at neighboring colleges is generally higher than at Mercer. When asked how many hours per week a professor puts in outside of the classroom in preparation for each class, Mercer English Prof. Laura Knight, who is a former supervisor of adjunct instructors, said, “Between three to five hours per class.” That Watson was teaching 17 classes in total (two of them online) is perhaps less remarkable than the fact that several of his teaching obligations occurred simultaneously. For example, on Fridays Watson had to be at Rider University for morning classes from 9:10-10:10 and 11:30-12:30 while he was also signed up to teach three classes 70 miles away in Wilmington, Delaware from 10-10:50, 11:00-11:50 and 12:00-12:50. (The accuracy of all course time listings mentioned in this article has been double checked using online course databases, and interviews with deans, department chairs and registrars). Fall 2011 was not the first time that Watson took on potentially conflicting teaching obligations. The VOICE first reported, in an April 5 online article, that Watson had held a full-time tenure-track position at Lincoln University in Philadelphia from 2007-2010, years he was also full-time at Mercer. Mercer was first alerted to Watson’s schedule conflicts by an email from a the University of Delaware sent to English Department chair at Mercer, Prof. Sharmila Sen. She received an email from the Assistant Chair of the English Department at the University of Delaware on January 8, 2012, indicating that Watson, who was teaching in a part-time position at UDel, was teaching classes in Delaware whose schedule time overlapped with classes he was teaching at Mercer. Sen says she immediately forwarded the email on to the Dean of Liberal Arts at Mercer, Robin Schore, and that Schore then forwarded it to Watson who denied the allegations. Sen said she believed Schore had forwarded the allegations to his superiors as well. When asked what he did after receiving the forwarded email, Shore said, “I went to my supervisor and informed him.” Schore “respectfully declined” to comment on what his supervisor then did with the information. Senior Reporter Kellie Rendina contacted Watson for comment and later sent questions via email at his request; however, he had not responded by the VOICE’s online press deadline three days later. Nevertheless, it does not appear that taking on so much additional work necessarily indicates that Watson broke the law. Hoping to understand the financial and legal issues, The VOICE sought help from a local professor who holds a Ph.D. and is also a CPA, who has asked that his name not be used lest his comments result in unintended interpretations. He said, “With regard to this employee working two full-time jobs on top of other part-time employment, this is completely

Hard News Cont.

legal unless the employee is violating some contractual agreement with one of the employers. Since our colleges simply require us to disclose outside employment without placing any restrictions on such, this employee is completely within his rights. Drawing multiple 401K matching contributions from the state [of New Jersey] along with any other benefits that accrue to wages is also legal. In fact, there are many public employees that hold multiple full-time jobs in New Jersey.” In reference to New Jersey’s state ethics standards, Mercer’s policy #380 (last revised in 2006), the “Code of Ethics for Officers and Employees,” point #1 of the Ethics section reads: “No officer or employee shall have any interest, financial or otherwise, direct or indirect, or engage in any business or transaction or professional activity, which is in conflict with the proper discharge of his/her duties to the College.” Mercer’s policy #940 (last revised in 2005) entitled “Outside Employment” provides clarification. It reads, in part, “Outside employment shall not constitute a conflict of interest, occur at a time when the employee is expected to perform his or her assigned duties and/or diminish the employee’s efficiency in performing her or her primary work obligation at the college.”

VIEWS OF STUDENTS AND FACULTY MEMBERS

A former student of Prof. Watson’s English 102 class, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “Prof. Watson often canceled class, and on one occasion did not even inform us that he was not coming.” This past December, Watson was voted by Mercer’s board of trustees to receive tenure; in August, it will be activated. In regards to this milestone, Watson said in a recent interview with the Trenton Times, “I was appointed to Mercer County Community College as a faculty member and I have been reappointed six times and granted tenure, and I expect that I will continue in my tenure position for many years to come.” However, several of Watson’s students seemed to be under a different impression. They believed that the college administration had asked Watson to resign, due in part to Watson’s participation in a Trayvon Martin rally held on Mercer’s quad on March 29, 2012. According to Stephen Middleton, a student in Watson’s Sociology 209 class, on April 4, Watson told his class the college was forcing him to resign, in part because of his involvement in the Trayvon Martin rally. In a phone interview conducted the next day, when asked if he had said this to his students, Watson told VOICE Senior Reporter Kenneth Napier, “I don’t know what you are referring to.” Meanwhile, Middleton and classmate, Jason Rogerson, a second-year Hotel and Restaurant major, gathered signatures for petitions which were later presented to Mercer President, Dr. Patricia Donohue. During her April 5 VOICE interview, she acknowledged having received the petition as well as Middleton’s request for college administrators to keep Watson at the school. Administrators later acknowledged that an investigation of Watson is under way; however, Donohue told the VOICE that it began “in the middle of March” and “the college did not ask [Watson] to resign.” In recent weeks VOICE staffers uncovered criminal charges against Watson, including a guilty plea to a felony. It is not clear whether that background was fully disclosed or known to Mercer when Watson applied for employment, nor whether that background is part of the current investigation. Casey DeBlasio, spokeswoman for the Mercer County prosecutor’s office, confirmed that both the West Windsor police department and the college have been in touch with their office. “They have provided us with information which we are reviewing,” she said.

STUDENT PERSPECTIVES

“[Watson] threw us under the bus,” said Middleton during a follow-up interview with The VOICE on April 12. Middleton says he grew up in difficult circumstances. His parents were at one time both addicted to drugs and as a result, he spent time in foster care. He eventually became involved with gangs, after which he served four years in a penitentiary for a felony. “[Mercer] is the last institution who would take me for who I am despite…what I’ve faced,” he said.

Hard News Cont.

Hoping to move forward from his past, Middleton has sought for role models and confidants on Mercer’s campus. “There are very little black role models, growing up…watching TV, you don’t see a lot of your own type of people…and when your father is not there, and your mother is strung out on drugs…who do you turn to? So for many years in my life, because I didn’t have that stability, that instruction, I always turned to the best qualified black male I could find,” he said. Middleton cited Prof. Watson, along with Mercer Prof. Alvyn Haywood, as being such individuals. “Me and Prof. Watson engaged in [personal] conversations [about my past], which is why this incident is also more hurtful.” Rogerson shares a similar opinion. During a follow-up interview on Monday, April 16, he said, “I mean… I went through some bad things and Prof.Watson would help me with them… I guess I’m just disappointed.” Despite the recent allegations against Watson, there are still many students who speak highly of Watson and his teaching style. Second-year education major, Irvel Jean, who once attended Watson’s African-American History class, said, “He was really laid back, like… he got his work done and like he was serious when he had to be, but at other times he would make us laugh before class….I feel like he puts in the extra effort.” In an article from the Trenton Times on April 6th, Watson said of his own teaching performance, “the college obviously thought that my contributions to the institution were enough that they offered me tenure.”

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

Recent articles in The VOICE as well as the Trentonian and Trenton Times have examined everything from the fact that Watson presented himself as having a Ph.D. when he had not yet completed that degree, to the fact that Watson had plead guilty to a felony and had had two restraining orders, including one at Northeastern University. With regard to these revelations and Watson’s continued presence on campus, Mercer President Dr. Patricia Donohue told The VOICE on April 12, “The severity and currency drives the speed of our actions. This is America, so we are all entitled to due process. He has been given an opportunity to speak to the charges.” Watson later spoke to the allegations, specifically those concerning his credentials, as documented by the Trenton Times article “MCCC professor faces inquiry.” In response to questions raised, Watson said, “My transcripts are all filed in a human resources department…So if it’s on the human resources website, obviously they’ve accepted them.” Dean of Liberal Arts Robin Schore made a similar comment when asked at what point a person earns their Ph.D. He said, “a person can say he has completed a Ph.D. when it is officially documented on his transcript.” Jose Fernandez, Executive Director for Compliance and Human Resources, said he could not comment on Watson’s transcripts because the college is “bound by confidentiality.” According to Prof. Knight, “At a department meeting it was announced that Eric had completed his Ph.D…[it was] not this year [2012], and I was on sabbatical all last year, so it must have been before then.” However, as reported in the VOICE’s April 5 article, John Bracey, Watson’s thesis advisor at UMass Amherst, told the VOICE that Watson has not completed his Ph.D., but is scheduled to in May of this year. In fact, the UMass Amherst website lists Watson as a current graduate student. The VOICE also spoke to Richard Prince of the Maynard Institute, an organization that promotes diversity in the media, on Friday, April 13. Prince wrote an article on Watson’s current situation that appeared online Friday, April 20. He has been following Watson’s story since writing the article “Ex-Editor pleads guilty to larceny,” published December 18, 2006. In order to complete that article, Prince exchanged several emails with Watson. When asked what effect individuals such as Prof. Watson have on the field of journalism and education, Prince said, “I just think his case points out the need to be vigilant on who is training our students.” Note: As of Monday, April 23, Prof. Watson is still teaching as usual at Mercer. Additional reporting contributed by: Kellie Rendina, Matthew Arnold and Ken Napier

Features Samples

FEATURES SAMPLE 1

Survival Training for When a Pilot’s World Turns Upside Down By C. J. CHIVERS NAVAL AIR STATION WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. — The pilot sat strapped to a chair, held in place as if he were in the backseat of a helicopter. Beside him, on a mock wall, was a window. The window was closed. The pilot wore opaque goggles. He could not see the window or anything else. The chair was attached to a rotating stand in the chest-deep water of a swimming pool. A petty officer spun a large wheel, flipping the chair backward with a gentle whoosh. The pilot was now underwater, upside down. Another exercise in the test had begun. The pilot — feet near the surface, head near the bottom, sightless — was to disconnect himself from the buckled straps, wiggle free, open the window and pull himself through and out, a series of movements intended to simulate what he might need to do in an aircraft that had struck the sea at night. Every four years, the Navy requires its pilots and those who fly with them to renew their skills in escaping from downed aircraft or surviving an ejection and parachute descent into water. The refresher class, depending on where each student is based, is held in one of several schools like this one, the Aviation Survival Training Center on this Navy base in coastal Washington State. In the peculiar way that demanding and slightly frightening training is often viewed by those who undergo it, the course is simultaneously appreciated and loathed. The pilot who was flipped upside down on this day, Lt. Cmdr. Kelsey N. Martin, struggled briefly with the buckle that held the straps across his torso. He soon broke free and swam through the window without the assistance of the rescue swimmer watching alongside. Later, he offered the common sentiment. “I was not looking forward to this,” he said, before adding: “This training is actually very valuable. I say that because I know four guys who have ejected over water, and all of them lived.” The test with the chair that flips upside down — known as the Modular Shallow Water Egress Trainer — was one exercise of several. Lieutenant Commander Martin and his classmates also had to pass a swim test wearing boots, flight suit and helmet; demonstrate that they could inflate a life preserver with a breathing tube while treading water; and complete several situational exercises, including escaping from a parachute harness that, via an electric pulley, dragged each man backward through the water as he tried to undo the harness’s buckles. This drill was meant to replicate the experience of being pulled across the ocean surface by a parachute driven by high winds, which could drown a pilot who had survived an otherwise successful ditching.

Features Cont.

The final exercise, the so-called dunker, involved being seated wearing opaque goggles in a simulated helicopter as it was dropped into 12 feet of water and rotated upside down. Several pilots and crew members would have to escape at once, while safety divers watched, ready to rescue anyone who became stuck. That exercise, like the overturned chair, taught crew members to choose an exit and then rely on “reference points” to get there — firm handholds inside the aircraft with which to pull themselves, handhold by handhold, toward an opening. The course, which lasts two days, seeks to drill reactions into aircrews for surviving the most likely dangers they might face. (Lieutenant Commander Martin is an E/A-18G pilot. Though jet pilots do not fly helicopters, they sometimes are carried as passengers within them and are required to complete the helicopter training, too. Two journalists from The New York Times were also required to complete a recent course before receiving permission to fly inside carrier-based F/A-18s for coverage of the Afghan war.) Cmdr. Richard V. Folga, the school’s director, said the reasoning behind the training is locked in aviation math. Every year, no matter how much attention aviation squadrons pay to maintenance and safety, naval aircraft experience catastrophic failures. Pilots and aircrews end up in the sea. The Navy sometimes loses as many as 8 to 10 jet aircraft a year, he said. And so, after a day in a classroom receiving instruction and doing practice drills, the crews head to the pool for a long session in the water, in case one day the math catches up to them. Commander Folga said he knows some officers attend with dread. “If I could guarantee that you would never need this training, I would say, ‘O.K., sit in the back and use your iPhone and do whatever you want to do while the rest of us work,’ ” he said. “But these exercises are all based on real incidents, and sometimes on recurrent real incidents.” He added: “No one plans for this kind of mishap. People don’t go to work one day expecting that they will have to eject. But it happens. And when it happens, they have to be ready.” That statement aligned with the experience of Lt. Jonathan D. Farley, an F/A-18 pilot who volunteered in late 2007 to serve as a downed pilot for a rescue-training exercise on the West Coast. Lieutenant Farley was picked up from the ground by an MH-60 helicopter crew. As the helicopter returned to an aircraft carrier with him in a back seat, the exercise turned real. “I wasn’t paying attention,” he said. “I was along for the ride.” Then he saw multiple warning lights flash at once in the cockpit’s instrument panel. A crewman near him pointed toward the water and then assumed a brace position. The helicopter was going down. Without time to prepare, Lieutenant Farley was trapped in a sequence straight from the dunk-tank course. The pilot up front managed to maintain enough control over the crippled helicopter to put it onto the surface softly. But it immediately flipped over. Cold water rushed in and closed around the passengers and crew. They were sinking, upside down, just as Lieutenant Commander Martin did at his recent course. Lieutenant Farley followed the only instructions he knew. “I did exactly what the training had taught me,” he said. “I grabbed a reference point, drew my breath right before the water went over my head and unbuckled.” As he slipped free from his seat, he could see nothing. He pulled himself toward where he thought he might escape, but lost his way. He does not remember finding the exit, but he must have. Just before his lungs gave out he was on the surface, the last man out. Everyone survived: two pilots up front, three crew members and the two passengers. A second helicopter had been flying with the MH-60. Its crew plucked the survivors from the sea. Lieutenant Farley, who said he is not a strong swimmer, spoke of the survival course in the same tone as many of those who know they will have to attend the class again. “I hate it with a passion,” he said. “But if you are in a bad situation and have trained for it, then you revert to your training and what you know. It is why I am alive.”

FEATURES SAMPLE 2

University of Alabama

UA junior experiences two tornadoes in 10 months By Katherine Owen on June 13, 2012 1:57 AM CST

When the tornadoes of April 27 ripped through Tuscaloosa, Hannah Fowler, a freshman at the time, couldn’t have imagined she would experience the same nightmare just under a year later in her own hometown of Harrisburg, Ill. Fowler, now a junior majoring in marketing and communication studies, is from the southern Illinois town of Harrisburg that was ravaged by an EF4 tornado on Feb. 29 of this year. When asked about the experience of having both her college town and hometown destroyed by tornadoes, Fowler explained that both were overwhelming, but having your hometown destroyed is particularly heartbreaking. “When a tornado hits your hometown, it touches a more sensitive spot in your heart,” Fowler said. “It’s very unsettling and makes you defensive for your town.” The Harrisburg tornado hit in the middle of the night while many were sleeping. Fowler said she was in Tuscaloosa at the time and woke up to two picture messages of their house sent from from her father. “I felt helpless because I couldn’t leave school because my workload at the time was huge,” she said. “I had to rely on Facebook and national broadcasts for updates.” Fowler said it is upsetting to leave the destruction in Tuscaloosa and go home to more in Harrisburg. Fowler’s family was fortunate in that their home was not destroyed, though many of their neighbors’ houses were. “I ran around my neighborhood for 18 years, playing games with all the kids. Even though my house wasn’t destroyed, some of my neighbors’ houses are gone,” Fowler said. “I consider those houses my homes.” Fowler said Harrisburg is a developing town and has fewer resources for its recovery efforts than Tuscaloosa. “Tuscaloosa is a bigger town with more outreach. While there was a lot more destruction in the Tuscaloosa tornado, Tuscaloosa has the resources to get back on its feet. Harrisburg will, but it will take a lot of time, care and attention,” she said. Fowler said she has seen the spirit and community that was seen on campus and in Tuscaloosa after the April 27 tornado in her own community. “After the tornado hit my neighborhood, my dad stepped outside and turned around to a neighbor with his gloves on ready to help,” Fowler said. “It’s very heartwarming.” After going through these two experiences in a year, Fowler said the way she sees natural disasters has been changed. “I never used to pay attention to weather alerts,” Fowler said. “Now, I take them a lot more seriously. Every house needs to have a plan if a natural disaster occurs.” Not only does Fowler view natural disasters differently, her perspective on the two different communities has changed. “I was never very grateful for my town. It is extremely small, with 9,000 people. I saw it as a place with zero opportunity. Now, I look at my town through a different lens,” Fowler said. “Our town is blessed with many resources that it provides to the southern Illinois region. I am blessed to be able to come home to a peaceful place with all of my high school friends and family, with a national forest in our backyard.” Most importantly, Fowler said she has learned to cherish community. “I have learned that you only get one hometown and one community that has loved you since you were born, so cherish the place and the people in it.”

FEATURES SAMPLE 3 Spirit of the rave: Students keep raves alive with underground shows Allie Healy - Assistant Accent Editor

Leading the way down uneven stairs, junior Sallie Robinson carries a stack of folded red and white sheets to the spacious, empty basement. Exposed pipes hang from the low ceiling, where off-white paint is chipped and exposing worn cement. To Robinson, it is the perfect blank canvas on which to create a rave. She drops the pile of fabric and stretches out her arms to outline where she wants the thick, red panels to hang. She turns to her friend, sophomore Leo Oliva, for advice. “Would it look strange if I hung a shorter gold one here?” she says. Oliva examines the layout of the sheets that Robinson temporarily arranged as he juggles two black lights under his arm. “Honestly, I would just go all red,” he says as he places a light behind liquor bottles filled with fluorescent fluid. For now, the basement is just another poorly lit space. But later, it will transform into an illuminated raver’s fantasy — Robinson’s vision. Robinson, Oliva and a few other friends gathered last Friday to set up for their final rave show of the season, featuring sophomore performer Tom Burchill. Senior Sara Gardner also helped with the setup, which was the final step in their long planning process. “We took the whole day to get everything really figured out,” she said. “We were planning this for weeks in advance.” Once darkness has fallen, the ceiling of the room has been draped with black-lit crocheted blankets. Fluorescent art pieces hang on the wall against the staircase. Following the sound of the heart-pounding bass, bright lights are cast on the performers behind reflector cones. Behind the “do-not-cross” line, the three performers create a carnival-like spectacle for their hyped audience of more than 50 people. Robinson dances with a hula hoop on a small platform wearing skin-tight lamé shorts and painted turquoise swirls around her eyes. She sticks out her tongue and smiles while the crowd shouts her name. A projector illuminates the wall to Robinson’s right, highlighting the drum set that Burchill sporadically plays. Behind Burchill’s DJ booth, Oliva stands arched in front of his aisle with a single cigarette tucked behind his ear. Letting the music inspire his painting, Oliva furiously brushes his stretched canvas. Toward the front of the crowd, Gardner happily bounces around in the audience, her messy blonde bun bobbing with every move. She pushes through the crowd and points to Burchill, his face glowing blue from the laptop. “This is one of their best shows yet,” she says after cheering for Robinson. “It’s amazing what they can do just feeling the music.” As the music fades out, Robinson steps down from the platform, one fur-covered foot at a time. A raver at heart, Robinson was introduced to the scene while growing up in Baltimore, Md. Just before she left for college, Robinson noticed that raving exploded in popularity, especially among the college-aged demographic. “I watched the scene go from all the underground ravers who would be at these warehouse shows,” she said. “It pro-

Hard News Cont.

gressed from this underground culture to something that was just like, ‘Oh this is what we are going to do Friday night.’” Though she had to leave her beloved city behind for college, Robinson was surprised to find a small rave scene in Ithaca. Because there weren’t any underground warehouse parties, Robinson and her friends would go see artists like the highenergy electronic group Big Gigantic when they came to Castaways. For Robinson, raving is more than just the music. She said there is a “quintessential motto of raving” known as PLUR — peace, love, unity and respect. Because the raving community is very accepting, she said, particular dress is not a concern. “You go to a club and there is a sort of uniform, like a short-ass dress and f—ing huge heels,” Robinson said. “But when you go to a rave you can wear like a mask, a bikini and furry legs. That’s normal.” Raving is a national obsession and one that has gone mainstream, Robinson said. Large-scale parties like DayGlo, a rave-like event that boasts to be “the world’s largest paint party,” are often frowned upon by the raving community. While these events feature the same electronic music, they have the completely wrong vibe, she said. “It kind of like takes the idea of raving and makes it incredibly mainstream by packaging it as DayGlo where you go to get f—ed up and f—ed, pretty much,” she said. Robinson said she steers clear from the event all together. “It has a such a stigma attached to the name in the raver culture,” she said. “It’s just not something we go to.” Like Robinson, sophomore Kanoa Ishihara got into the rave scene in his hometown of Honolulu. At a young age, Ishihara listened to plenty of electronic music, but didn’t attend a rave until a friend suggested going to a local show. Then, it was love at first rave. Ishihara said he began going to raves every weekend at the same venue, and he knew at least half the people there. After a while, he said he developed two personas around Honolulu. “There is everyone who knows me as Kanoa, the awkward student,” he said “And Bear, the crazy raver.” Ishihara watched the raving culture transform once he moved from Honolulu, where the first large-scale music celebration, The Love Festival, was created. “Before there was a culture, and now it is so mainstream it has spread to the point where everyone knows about it,” Ishihara said. “You don’t need to know the culture of it to know what is going on and understand it.” Though the raving scene has significantly changed for Ishihara, his passion for raving has yet to die out. This summer he will travel across the country to attend music festivals like Summer Camp, Electric Daisy Carnival, Electric Forest, Camp Bisco and Electric Zoo. While Ishihara is “an ocean and a continent” away from home, he said he can’t help but look forward to traveling around Central New York with his friends and his signature light gloves in search of a rave. “I freeze my ass off here, but there is something about this place,” he said. “There are a lot of folks that are always down for an adventure.”

FEATURES SAMPLE 4

Many college students struggle with depression By: Trish Vogel

In high school Kate Dooney was an honors student, a cheerleader and a passionate photographer. Then she went to William Patterson University and found herself in over her head. Dooney, who was studying early childhood education, began to lose herself a couple months after beginning college. She was no longer in honor level classes, and no longer a cheerleader. She did not have time to practice her photography. Desperate to prove herself Dooney stuck it out, but things quickly began to spiral out of control. She says, “Every day something else was due. I constantly felt a pressure and anxiety that I wouldn’t get done what I had to, and eventually it caught up.” Dooney began handing in assignments late, then eventually not at all. Instead of going to classes she stayed in her dorm room. She told The VOICE, “It’s hard to get back on track once you’re behind, and I didn’t have to energy to try.” Without even realizing it, she says, she began to slip into a depression. She began to fail out of classes because of her absences. “That’s when the thought settled in that I’d have to tell my parents that I failed out of college that they paid for, my first semester,” Dooney said. Although she is doing well at Monmouth County Community College now, at the time Dooney was so overwhelmed by the fact that she had failed out of school and would have to tell her parents, that she says she thought that killing herself was the only way out. “It seems crazy now, but at the time I couldn’t believe what had happened, and anything seemed better than telling my parents.” Gayla Martindale writes on the blog StateUniversity.com that suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students. Martindale cites a number of alarming statistics. She writes that nearly 1,100 suicides will occur on college campuses this year and many more students may think about suicide or make a suicide plan. The blog also notes that in the past 50 years the suicide rate for those age 15-24 increased by over 200 percent, and about 12 people aged 1524 will commit suicide today. According to the article “College and Teen Suicide Statistics” by Jackie Burrell, of About.com an ACHA study in 2002 said that 1 in 12 college students has actually made a suicide plan at some point and 1.5 out of every 100 have actually attempted it. According to Alex Johnson of msnbc.com, problems with school or academics are one of the top reasons that college students to commit suicide. Some of the other reasons included relief from emotional or physical pain, problems with relationships and untreated depression. According to Johnson’s article “Half of College Students Consider Suicide,” a study extrapolated that at an average college with 18,000 undergraduate students, 1,080 of them would seriously contemplate taking their lives in any year…they also found that half of students who had had suicidal thoughts never sought counseling or treatment. Martha Gunning, Counselor of Student Development Services at Mercer, says there are a few reasons why she thinks students don’t reach out for help. “One, students are not aware of their resources at school. Two, many students believe there is a negative stigma that is attached to seeking help. And three, students don’t acknowledge their problem,” said Gunning. Despite all those who many not reach out for help Gunning also said “the number of students who are seeking help has increased significantly and the problems [they describe] have become more severe over the years.” As has been covered in previous VOICE articles, Mercer does not have a health center. A search for health services on the Mercer home page offers a link to information about blood banks and bedbugs. The college had a psychologist, Dr. Valerie Brooks-Klein, but she left on April 12, and it is not clear when she might be replaced.

Features may include profiles of interesting people. Most of the information and quotes in a profile must come from the people who know the individual being profiled rather than that person him or herself.

FEATURES SAMPLE 5

Reviews Samples

REVIEWS SAMPLE 1

Wilco: Chicago band rocks Spokane Christina Villagomez, Staff Writer

A hundred ghosts waited for something to happen. They didn’t wait long; the lights dimmed and the soothing murmur of the crowd below the stage began to rise into a crashing crescendo of cheers. The ghosts, which in the previously well-lit auditorium had appeared to just be artfully arranged rows of white knotted fabric hanging above and behind the stage, suddenly burst into brilliant life as they danced in the shadows of the psychedelic kaleidoscope of colors projected onto them in lieu of a screen. Standing behind the crowd one could see the rainbow spectacle happening on stage reflected dozens of times like a backward mirror in a surrealist painting, as fans snap pictures with their camera phones. “I can’t be so far away from my wasteland/ I’ll never know when I might ambulance/ Or hoist the horns with my own hands/ Almost… almost…/” crooned singer Jeff Tweedy to the hypnotized audience that swayed and bobbed in place like waves lapping at his feet. This was Wilco’s grand return to Spokane on February 6. It’s a long way from where the Chicago-native band began 15 years ago. Wilco has its roots in the acclaimed alternative country outfit Uncle Tupelo. After Tupelo’s lead singer left the band because of creative differences, co-singer Jeff Tweedy stepped forward to take the reins, and along with his band-mates Tupelo was resurrected as Wilco. Wilco has come to distinguish itself from its predecessor with a line-up that has changed radically over the years, and a sound that would evolve just as much, beginning with the critically lauded fourth album “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” “Foxtrot” would help Wilco rise from the genre of critically acclaimed bands with small fan bases to a more mainstream market, with the album landing number 13 on the Billboard Top 200. However, commercial success would not hamper the band’s creativity over the years, leading some to dub it “the American Radiohead.” Following “Foxtrot,” Wilco’s various releases would change in directions, ranging from sunny melodic folk to spacier experimental albums. “The Whole Love,” Wilco’s latest effort seems to marry these different elements. Wilco chose the INB Performing Arts Center both of the times it visited Spokane, a choice that would allow it to use the stage in a theatrical manner a smaller space might not have allowed. Each song in the 25-song concert had it’s own special light show and projection combination, ranging from the acidsunshine yellow and indigo accented rendition of Wilco’s “I Might,” to the drama of the of the gritty, splattered red and gray finale, “Shot In the Arm.”

Reviews Cont.

Surprises colored the show, with giant humming birds projected at close range adding an eerie, yet romantic feeling, and something as simple as strobe lights turning drummer Glenn Kotche into a larger than life shadow, looming over the audience. At certain points the hanging white set pieces would cease to be ghosts as they flashed bright with the light bulbs hidden inside, and revealed themselves as a heavenly host of angels during the peak of a few songs, as rapt audience members sang along softly as a gentle choir. While the band barely acknowledged its audience during the first half of its set, too engrossed in playing as if expelling some frantic energy, Tweedy would later pause between songs to address his fans, almost shy in attempts to amuse and appease. Although he would joke that he had to play songs off of albums nobody likes because Wilco gives equal opportunity to all its material, he introduced “Jesus, Etc” as the song that was most requested by Spokane fans, although he alluded few had made requests at all. “Thirteen or fourteen of you are about to get excited!” Tweedy said. Despite this disclaimer, cheers erupted all over the auditorium, and it was perhaps this kind of enthusiasm that prompted Wilco to play a whooping six song encore. Looking around at the sea of faces, it became easy to see why Wilco is sometimes jokingly referred to as “Dad Rock.” Despite the healthy number of college and high school aged faces dotting the crowd, the majority appeared to be groups of thirty –something men, occasionally accompanied by bemused wives or girlfriends. While the whole crowd cheered, these men were the ones who screamed, while the audience sang along, these were the men that knew every treasured word by heart. Seeing their devotion, it’s no wonder in recent interviews Tweedy has said he now embraces the label. As the set began to draw to a close, Tweedy finally began to reflect on the band’s absence from the city since their 2008 tour. “What has it been, two years? Three years? Four years?” he asked. “Too long ago!” shouted back a man’s voice from the midst of the crowd. Here’s hoping Wilco doesn’t make them wait long again.

REVIEWS SAMPLE 2

Argh! Supporting cast is true treasure in ‘Pirates’ By Shaun Fitzpatrick

Insert necessary pirate pun here: Avast me hearties, yo ho ho, etc., etc. While they might be a little bit behind on the pirates craze, TCNJ Lyric Theatre’s production of “The Pirates of Penzance” was a delight for seasoned rum-slingers and landlubbers alike. The show ran from Thursday, Nov. 10 until Sunday, Nov. 13 on the Kendall Hall main stage. Audiences were assured from the beginning that it was going to be a high-sailing good time; even the orchestra had donned pirate hats for the occasion. The show tells the story of Frederic (junior vocal performance major Sergio Hernandez), a young man about to leave his apprenticeship with the Pirate King (2011 alumnus Raymond McCue) and his merry band of scoundrels. Frederic finds the girl of his dreams in Mabel (played by sophomore Samantha Swartz on the night of this review, Nov. 10), but a technicality over his service obligations to the pirate crew threatens to tear the young lovers apart. Music, hilarity and swashbuckling ensue. As Frederic, Hernandez lacked the charm so crucial for a male lead. This isn’t to say that he isn’t talented; he, along with the rest of the cast, showed off voices that have obviously been highly trained. Still, there was a spark missing somewhere, and it was hard to relate to Mabel as she swooned over her somewhat bland love. This may not be entirely Hernandez’s fault: He could have had the voice of Jesus and the sex appeal of George Clooney and still gotten lost amidst the antics of an absolutely superb supporting cast. McCue was a scream as the swaggering Pirate King, channeling just enough Johnny Depp to give himself a saunter without coming across as a carbon copy. Whether he was plotting against Frederic or dueling with the conductor, he drew laughs from the crowd at every turn. Senior music performance major Ian Highcock, sporting convincing muttonchops, was no less hilarious as the fast-talking Major General. The Pirate King (McCue, right) threatens Major General (Highcock, left) at swordpoint. (Ashley Long / Staff Photographer) The real comedic tour-de-force, however, came from senior physics major Nick Vitovitch in his small but impossible-toupstage role as the Sergeant of Police. Bringing to mind the French guards of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” Vitovitch hammed his way through the show, combining physical slapstick humor with exaggerated facial expressions so that he became almost a living, breathing cartoon character. Of course, it’s to be expected (or at least one would hope) that the larger roles would be able to hold their own in the spotlight. What was perhaps most impressive about “Pirates,” however, was the strength of its ensemble. The pirates, policemen and daughters, whether or not they had a named role, threw themselves into the production with so much energy and enthusiasm that they deserved just as much credit for the show as the leads did. It’s rare to see that sort of across-theboard (or across-the-plank) talent in a student production, and, more than anything, “Pirates” deserved a standing ovation for that reason.

REVIEWS SAMPLE 3

A Shantytown’s Worth of Seafood Shacks By LIGAYA MISHAN

A SEAFOOD shack should be a little tumbledown, possibly decrepit, with insufficient parking and oil-stained cartons of fried mollusks dispensed brusquely through a window. You should eat at a picnic table, salt wind whipping your hair into your mouth, or take your haul down a poison-ivy-laced path to the beach, fending off stalker gulls. There should be a sunset that lasts half the night, and nowhere else you need to be. Instead, here you are in New York City, on a harassed stretch of Hell’s Kitchen, sidewalks pocked with ancient gum. At this unpromising address, Claw, a lobsterroll specialist, opened in May. (Its original location, in Chelsea, opened in January and has since closed for renovations.) The interior is cream and queasy coral pink, the ghost of bridesmaid dresses past. But the lobster is vivid, shipped live from Maine and steamed on site. Served warm, on a brimming-over toasted Martin’s potato roll, the meat — a mix of tail, knuckle and claw — is practically naked, with the faintest gloss of drawn butter and a coat of mayo so light it is practically invisible to the eye ($17). For this you can almost forgive the arid crab beignets ($8). But not the cruelty of immuring lobster in a limp quesadilla ($12) or consigning it to a soggy grave of mac and cheese ($12). Show some respect. The mood is more blithe at Grey Lady, which opened in May on the Lower East Side. Loiterers at the long marble-topped bar have the air of preppy surfers who will be fox-hunting come fall. The restaurant’s name salutes befogged Nantucket, where the owners summered when young. This is the seafood shack by way of Ralph Lauren: grainy sunlight through floor-to-ceiling windows, pale beach-glass bottles, matrices of mismatched mirrors and black-and-white photographs, burlap pillows askew on a dusty blue leather couch. It harks back to the kind of New England seaside resort that has no locks on the doors and little recreation beyond adultery and highballs. With this atmosphere, the food does not have to be good, but it is. Bluefish is smoked and whipped into a fluffy pâté ($10), its oiliness discreetly airbrushed out. Enormous chunks of lobster, fresh from Maine, swell out of a fried split-top roll stained gold and exuding butter ($25). (Note that the same roll, minus a little meat and the beautiful crowd, is available for only $18 next door at the restaurant’s recently added takeout counter, Downeast Clam Shack.) But you want quirky. So off to Brooklyn. A block from the Red Hook waterfront stands Brooklyn Crab, a shanty writ large, three stories high and already looking faintly dilapidated, although it was built this past year. (The restaurant runs a free shuttle from the nearest subway stop during peak hours.) The décor, if such a word applies, involves giant gaping fiberglass fish, lobster traps and twinkle lights. Out back are rustic bean-bag-toss stations and a bare-bones miniature golf course in a sea of gray and red gravel.

Reviews Cont.

The bottom level is essentially a holding pen where people wait, sometimes for hours, for a proper meal on one of the upper levels. (Drinks and limited food are available, perhaps to prevent an uprising.) When your name is finally called, you mount the stairs with such hope. The details are right: wooden booths and picnic tables, tin buckets stuffed with paper plates, rolls of paper towels, salt and pepper in recycled Coronita bottles. In the distance, past the Fairway parking lot, you see gray water. The fried clams are fluffy, with briny bellies ($15); the lobster simply, beautifully charred ($29). But it is too late. You did not wait this long for a mushy crab cake ($14) and a steam pot with tough shrimp ($40). Think what you could have done with those lost hours: hit Interstate 95, lighted out for the Vineyard. Or just popped down the street to the Red Hook Lobster Pound, bought a perfect Connecticut-style, butter-only lobster roll ($16), and eaten it slowly off the hood of your car, watching the sky set itself on fire.

Claw 744 Ninth Avenue (50th Street), (212) 581-8400, clawnewyork.com RECOMMENDED Lobster roll, surf and turf roll. PRICES $3 to $18. HOURS Daily, 11 a.m. to midnight. RESERVATIONS Accepted. WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Dining room is level with sidewalk. Restroom has a handrail.

Grey Lady 77 Delancey Street (Allen Street), (646) 580-5239, greyladynyc.com RECOMMENDED Fried whole belly Ipswich clams; grilled lobster. PRICES $6 to $25. HOURS Monday, 6 p.m. to midnight; Tuesday to Thursday, noon to midnight; Friday and Saturday, noon to 2 a.m.; Sunday, noon to midnight. RESERVATIONS Accepted for parties of 6 or more. WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Dining room is level with sidewalk. Restroom has a handrail.

Brooklyn Crab 24 Reed Street (Conover Street), Red Hook, Brooklyn, (718) 643-2722, brooklyncrab.com RECOMMENDED Fried whole belly Ipswich clams; grilled lobster. PRICES $5 to $48, no American Express. HOURS Monday to Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Friday, 4 to 11 p.m.; Saturday, 2 to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 2 to 10 p.m. RESERVATIONS Accepted starting Oct. 15. WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Handicapped elevator is available. Restroom has a handrail.

Sports Samples

SPORTS SAMPLES 1 - [Hard News]

Medical Redshirt Rumors Surround Pannell BY LAUREN RITTER

Over the weekend, Brendan Staudt broke news on InLaxWeTrust.com that senior captain and midfielder Rob Pannell would be forgoing graduating on Sunday, May 27 and would instead apply for a medical redshirt, with hopes that he could remain with Cornell for an additional season. When contacted, Pannell declined to comment. The news came after ESPN announcer Eamon McAnaney tweeted on Saturday that he “can confirm that Rob Pannell will not graduate from Cornell and will apply for a medical redshirt to play next season for the Big Red.” Pending approval of his medical redshirt, this would be a large decision for Pannell — who was the No. 1-overall draft pick in the MLL Collegiate Draft earlier this year. Entering this past season, Pannell was considered a finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy — an honor for which senior teammate Roy Lang was nominated. In the first game of the season on February 28, Pannell exploded with 10 points (6 goals, 4 assists) against visiting Binghamton, contributing to a 17-12 victory for the Red. Based on this initial performance, the season seemed like it would be a very strong one for the midfielder. However, in the next game against Army on March 3 — despite a strong showing with 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists) — Pannell suffered an injury to his left foot before Cornell could claim the 18-7 landslide. Pannell underwent surgery to mend the broken bone; however, a six week recovery period proved wishful thinking for the Red, as the midfielder never returned to the lineup. Pannell was seen on the sidelines throughout the season, doing everything from wearing a boot to competently managing on crutches to riding a special motorized scooter. The captain transformed his position of leadership on the team from leading by example on the field to mentoring underclassmen from the sidelines. While it is still unclear whether Pannell will be cleared to return and play with the Red for an additional “super senior” season, the MLL team which drafted him, the Long Island Lizards, will maintain their rights if he is listed on their inactive roster.

SPORTS SAMPLE 2 - [Feature Story]

TCNJ Women’s Lacrosse: Welcome to the Family By Brandon Gould

Assistant head coach Gina Carey-Smith fires shots at Kelsey Zinck to warm her up before each game and she can’t help but see a little bit of herself in the goalkeeper. Zinck not only guards the net for the No. 5-ranked Lions (12-3), like Carey-Smith did back in the early 1990s, but she also came to the College from a Division I program. Carey-Smith, who transferred in from Ohio State University, has been Zinck’s mentor this season as the sophomore transitions to the College after playing last season at the University of Connecticut. “As her coach, I think that she has made a remarkable adjustment,” Carey-Smith said. “I know that playing at the (Division I) level and then coming in here and having to fight for a starting position was very difficult, but Kelsey is the type of kid who challenges herself.” Bringing in transfer students is something that head coach Sharon Pfluger has never shied away from during her 26 years as the head honcho of the Lions lacrosse program. And it’s a practice that has helped her solidify her team over the last two years as the Lions welcomed Zinck (Burke, V.A.) and junior attacker Trenna Hill (Syracuse, N.Y.) this season as well as junior attacker Alex Spark (Harvey Cedars, N.J.) and sophomore defender Claire Engelman (Colts Neck, N.J.) in 2011. Although the girls haven’t been with the program as long as some of the others, Pfluger feels that they have been able to slide right in. “The girls welcomed them with open arms like they would with anybody,” Pfluger said. “We get a lot of transfers, it’s not uncommon, and the girls like that. They like to see girls who looked us up, researched us and wanted to become part of us, a part of something special.” Carey-Smith reiterated that thought, but also admitted that Pfluger has been a major influence during that process. “(Pfluger) encourages the kids to welcome new people in, so it comes from the top,” Carey-Smith said. “Coach is very adamant of making everyone feel like a part of this, regardless if you are the superstar, you’re a transfer or you don’t play at all. Everybody has a role on the team and everyone has equal importance.” They all have different stories and backgrounds, but the College’s tradition was ultimately the decisive factor for all four of the Lions’ recent transfers. “Coach Pfluger is an amazing woman,” Zinck said. “She has the best interest of all of her players in mind and really just wants to help us achieve anything we dream of. The program has earned respect throughout decades of competing and winning, with many great players that I now get to follow in the footsteps of. I am reminded everyday of how lucky I am to be a part of the history of TCNJ lacrosse.” Hill, similar to Zinck, transferred in after playing at the Division I level at Syracuse University. It wasn’t an easy decision for the junior attacker, with two of her cousins winning National Championships for the Orangemen’s men’s lacrosse team, but one she ultimately had to make.

Sports Cont.

“It was definitely a tough decision considering it was my childhood dream to attend (Syracuse),” Hill said. “I didn’t apply to anywhere else when applying for colleges as a high school senior, but the decision just needed to be made.” “It definitely has its pros and cons coming from a (Division I) program,” Hill confessed. “I will admit I was a bit frustrated at first, but everything that I felt Syracuse was lacking I found at TCNJ.” Hill’s transfer alongside the growth of Spark, who transferred in after spending a year on the crew team at Loyola (MD) University in 2010, has certainly helped the Lions attack this season as they’ve had to replace 2011 graduate and the College’s all-time career goals leader, Ali Jaeger. Hill is third on the team with 34 goals in 13 games, while Spark leads the Lions with 55 goals scored. “Alex and Trenna have made a tremendous impact to our attack this year, which definitely helps after losing Ali,” said senior midfielder Leigh Mitchell. “They both have produced very consistently for us throughout the season and they have become very accustomed to our attack.” On the defensive end, Zinck has bought into the Lions’ philosophy and begun to become more of a leader in the net, according to Carey-Smith. In front of her, Engelman, who began her college career at Salisbury University, used her length to frustrate opposing attackers. Mitchell, who works with the offensive and defensive units, praised the manner in which all four girls have been able to integrate themselves into the program. “We are a very close team and are very welcoming to new comers and they seemed to take no time to adapt and fit right in,” Mitchell said. “They definitely have established themselves as Lions on and off the field.” The quartet of transfers will become even bigger factors once the regular season ends and although they’re just a slice of the overall pie that is the College’s lacrosse, Mitchell is eager to take the field with them come playoff time. “I think all of them will make a huge impact in postseason,” Mitchell said. “They have already been creating names for themselves throughout the season and I can’t wait to see what our team does throughout playoffs.”

SPORTS SAMPLE 3 - [Profile]

SPORTS PROFILE: Cito Santiago wrestles to win for Rider Written by: Jamie Strickland

Ramon “Cito” Santiago Jr., a twenty- year-old junior at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ, says he never thought he would become a wrestler, let alone a champion. “I thought I was going to grow up and play Major League baseball,” Cito said in a recent interview with The VOICE. “I didn’t expect for wrestling to take off at all.” According to Ramon Santiago Sr., Cito’s father, Cito was always a great athlete, every sport he tried he was good at and wrestling was no exception. As a junior at Sayreville High School, Cito placed in a state wrestling competition becoming a High School All American and defeating the second best high school wrestler in the country. “It felt great to win,” said Cito. “Having a big crowd with all eyes on me is one of my favorite things about wrestling.” Determined to help his son become the best wrestler he could be, Ramon Sr. would drive Cito fifty minutes from their house four times a week to train at Melisha Wrestling Club in Lodi, NJ. Cito continued to wrestle all through high school, winning more than 100 matches and becoming a three time district champion. Cito earned a full wrestling scholarship to Rider University which is a Division I school. According to Cito, wrestling in college is very different than in high school. The matches are longer – about eight minutes compared to seven in high school. And in college everyone on his team is a state champion, unlike in high school where people just signed up for something to do. “[Cito] is a very talented wrestler and a lot tougher since last year,” said Gary Taylor, Rider’s head wrestling coach. As a freshman wrestler at Rider University, Cito won 20 matches before officially making it on the team as a Rider Bronc. Cito has won thirty-three matches since making the team and his father was there to see them all. “Since day one I’ve never missed any of his matches,” said Ramon Sr., “I remember every name and face of everyone he ever went up against.” According to Cito, what it takes to win isn’t always fun. Along with practicing with his teammates five days a week, Cito also has to maintain his weight, which is a twenty-four hour, seven day a week job. Everything that he eats or drinks affects his weight and that could take him out of the 157 weight class. “It’s hard because I love to eat,” said Cito, “I look forward to the summer when I can eat what I want.” According to the article, “Broncs Have Spirit of St. Louis” on gobroncs.com, two Bronc wrestlers went to St. Louis this past

Sports Cont.

March to compete in the 2012 Division I Wrestling Championship. Cito was not one of them. Both Taylor and Ramon Sr. said Cito could have been more aggressive at the finals that led up to the championship. “He was too cautious,” said Ramon Sr.. According to Cito, no loss will make his wrestling career final, there will always be another match and he will be ready for next year’s championship. “He has a shot at All American next year,” said Taylor, “but he will have to work hard to get there, same with all our wrestlers.”

University of Alabama

SPORTS SAMPLE 4 - [Game Story/Hard News]

Alabama Stomps Gators in the Swamp By Tony Tsoukalas

GAINSEVILLE| What looked like a possible stumbling block in Alabama’s season turned out to be one more stepping stone for the Crimson Tide, as the Tide beat Florida 38-10 to bring its record to 5-0 (2-0). It started off rocky for the Tide when Florida quarterback John Brantley connected with receiver Andre Dubose for a 65-yard touchdown strike on the first play from scrimmage. “I think at the beginning of the game we were a little bit too hyped up,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “We made some mistakes defensively, but it really shows the resilience of our team.” In front of 90,888 fans, the second largest crowd in University of Florida history, it was quarterback AJ McCarron’s job to settle the offense and come back and respond. “I just communicated with my guys,” McCarron said. “They like for me to communicate with them. We got a bunch of older guys, and I am the youngin’. I just try to throw my little two cents in and establish myself as a leader.” Alabama would answer with a field goal on the drive, and Florida answered with a field goal of its own on the following drive. However, Trent Richardson would run in his first of two touchdowns on the day to bring the score even at 10. Richardson had another stellar day for the Tide, rushing for 181 yards on 29 carries. “He did a fantastic job,” Saban said. “I think he would be the first to tell you that they did a pretty good job of blocking for him up front. He did a good job of cutting and executing, but I think he’d be the first one to tell you the line did a good job.” With the game tied at 10, linebacker Courtney Upshaw intercepted a pass and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown. The Tide would not look back, using the momentum switch to bury the Gators for good. “It was a turning point,” Upshaw said. “It was a tie game. After that first play, and then for them driving down and kicking a field goal, we just wanted to prove to everybody that we were a good defense and just go out and make stops. After that, they didn’t really do too much.” Alabama’s defense shut down the run and held the Gators scoreless for the remainder of the game. The Florida offense, advertised as one of the nation’s best rushing attacks, only amounted to 15 rushing yards on the day. Defensive tackle Josh Chapman said that he took this game as a personal challenge to prove teams couldn’t run on the Tide. “To me it is (a personal challenge),” Chapman said. “Being a nose guard, the one thing you don’t want is teams running the ball on you. They are a good running team and we worked on stopping the run all week.” Saban said he was proud of the way his team played especially in the hostile environment, and said the win says a lot about his team. “This is about as good as it gets,” Saban said. “We were able to come on the road and get a big win in a tough place to play against a good Florida team.” Alabama’s next game is next Saturday when the Tide takes on Vanderbilt 3-1 (1-1) at 6:00 in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Opinion Samples

OPINION SAMPLE 1

Online classes are harmful to students, promote cheating and dishonesty Written by: Nicole Niemec

tudents do not benefit from online classes, in fact, such classes are harmful. With too many opportunities to cheat, a significant likelihood of falling behind and an impersonal learning experience, online classes are not good for students.

Cheating is made extremely easy with online classes. The instructor has no way of knowing who wrote the work or took the tests that are being turned in, and students are well aware. In a recent VOICE survey done on the Mercer campus, 49 out of 50 Mercer students said that they would most likely cheat in an online class. In a separate VOICE survey of only students who are taking online classes, 20 out of 20 admitted to cheating at least once during their online class. When Rocco Giovacchini, Liberal Arts freshman at Mercer, was asked his opinion on online classes, he answered, “It gives students an easy A because they can Google everything – that’s what I would do. [Online classes] may not be very effective but it’s not like students hold on to this information anyway.” Most online classes give students the flexibility to set their own schedule and move at their own pace, but if a student is taking an online class in the first place it’s most likely because they don’t have the time to attend the actual class. If they don’t have time to attend a class, how will they have time to do it at home? This causes students to fall behind and eventually end up cramming everything at the very last minute and not actually learning anything. In the VOICE survey done of on-campus Mercer students, 37 out of 50 said they struggle with time management when it comes to their school assignments. If students have trouble pacing themselves when they are taking face to face classes, how are they likely to fare in the online environment? The online class may actually cause students to give up sooner and drop out faster. First year Theater Arts major at Mercer Stephanie Ortiz states, “I think online classes are definitely easier considering you have more time to get things done.” In “Can You See Me Now?” an article by Ida B. Jones, a professor at the California State University at Fresno, originally published in the Journali of Legal Studies Education, she writes, “In courses taught wholly online, the instructor is not physically present. The lecture teaching method assumes that learning occurs best when students are physically present with other students and the instructor. It also assumes that significant learning occurs when the instructor orally instructs and guides students through the learning process.” Jones notes the fact that most students can comprehend information better when they hear it – a feature that most online classes do not provide. Online classes take away from the interactive discussion that actual classes provide. Although most professors require online discussion, it isn’t the same back-and-forth debate that so effectively takes place in a classroom environment. Students do not gain from online classes. Between the obvious shortcuts and cheating methods, most students’ lack of discipline and time management skills coupled with the impersonal learning environment is a recipe for disaster.

OPINION SAMPLE 2

Occupy Wall Street needs a hot babe By Christopher Haxel

f you’re not familiar with the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York, you should take some time to read up on the group. The movement’s mantra is, “The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.” On Sunday, about 700 protesters were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge, where they managed to shut down traffic for several hours. I don’t think the group will be successful (yet) because they sleep in tents, and it will be cold soon. Their numbers are too low, and most of them look like the typical hippie protesters who make middle-aged men scream, “Get a job!” But there’s something to these protests because, for once, many of those middle-aged men don’t have jobs themselves. There are a lot of angry people in this country. Washington is about to grapple with the federal debt, and the solution is inconsequential because more people will end up angry than satisfied, no matter the outcome. If Congress cuts Social Security and Medicare, everyone over the age of 50 will revolt. But if Congress raises taxes significantly, or cuts defense and veteran spending, or social aid, or education benefits, there will be an outcry from other groups. Washington knows old people protest at the voting booth, so expect deep cuts to programs that affect young people. But that tactic is troublesome because young people are already struggling mightily; there are so few jobs that many have sought shelter in higher education, to the point that a graduate degree is becoming the new bachelor’s degree. That student loan debt needs to be paid off eventually though, and already there are a lot of young, highly educated poor people. They’re the type who grew up mocking hippie protesters, who thought they’d go to college to get a good job, a nice car and a spouse of above-average attractiveness. But they don’t have any of that. They have a stack of bills from Sallie Mae, a room in their parents’ house and an hourly wage. They still have passion, though, the kind that gets swept up in the romance of a large political movement that demands change. Just ask the president. Except this time, it won’t be about hope. It will be about the latent anger that keeps winning Emmys for Jon Stewart over Stephen Colbert, that made “H.A.M.” a catchphrase within about 48 hours of the release of Kanye West and Jay Z’s new album, the kind that’s going to simmer through the winter election cycle because all the realistic Republican candidates are a joke. It may not happen this year, but Occupy Wall Street is laying the groundwork for a major social movement. Media coverage has been middling because no network wants to show a bunch of hippies playing drums. Maybe a hot babe will be the tipping point. Think about it: The tea party receives approximately 99 percent of its press because of Mama Grizzly. Michael Moore and Roseanne Barr aren’t doing Occupy Wall Street any favors when it comes to media coverage, so the day a beautiful, intelligent woman becomes the face of the movement is the day it becomes front-page news across the country (my vote is for Natalie Portman). It takes time for political movements to build traction. The first step in taking down the haves is admitting you’re a havenot. That’s a tough pill to swallow for many prideful Americans, but we’ve got humor to help us cope. Last fall, more than 200,000 people attended Stewart and Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, and I’m sure this winter will bring a lot of subversive humor about the presidential campaign. Give Occupy Wall Street a few months to organize, and who knows what could happen. Maybe this year is the joke. Maybe next year is when people will realize the sad truth of the joke and start getting angry.

OPINION SAMPLE 3

Don’t eat organic: it will kill you! Written by: Ken Napier

hese days, our markets are filled with items labeled as Organic or Pesticide Free, claiming benefits from their natural cultivation methods.

“I like buying organic food because…I don’t know…I don’t know why I eat organic foods. I think organic food tastes better,” said Christine Gwin, a hippy and junior at Rutgers. Muhammad Ali and Dick Winters didn’t buy organic, and I’ll bet they could kick that hippy’s ass. Actually, “Organic foods have never been shown to be healthier, more nutritious or more safe than conventional foods, despite dozens of scientific studies. There is no weight that organic is better or healthier for you.” says Alex Avery of The Hudson Institute Center for Global Food Issues in a CNN in-depth report. In fact, organic food might even be WORSE FOR YOU than normal chemically soaked fruits and veggies. Many of the modern farming methods and chemicals that organic products forgo in favor absolutely nothing were put in place for a reason. Let us not forget that pasteurized milk was introduced in the early twentieth century to prevent citizens from getting sick and occasionally dying from bacteria like tubercle bacillus, also known as Tuberculosis, which can be found in raw and untreated milk. America seems to have forgotten that, as the recent trend in raw milk and other raw dairy products like yogurt and cream has led to hospitalizations nationwide. Luckily, the sale of raw milk, and products made from it, except for raw cheese aged over 60 days, is illegal in New Jersey. Unfortunately, that may soon change if Assembly Bill 743 and its companion bill S-2702 are allowed to pass, as they both aim to allow farmers to sell and distribute raw dairy products. The biodegradable germicides organic growers campaign against were created to combat the often fatal epidemics caused by tainted fruits, such as the recent Listeria outbreak, caused by Colorado based organic farming company Jensen Farms. In September of 2011, Jensen Farms unknowingly distributed polluted cantaloupes, which have killed 13 American citizens and infected 72 more across 18 states. The most recent Listeria outbreak had a 15 percent mortality rate, which according to CDC records, is a full five percent higher than that of H1N1 Swine Flue, and could have been easily avoided had Jensen Farms used common place agricultural chemicals to treat their murderous cantaloupes during the growing season and shipping process. A report put out by the Center for Global Food Issues states that organic crops and products are also responsible for eight percent of E. Coli cases in our country, despite accounting for less than one percent of consumed foods. This is because of limitations placed on acceptable fertilizers, leading companies and co-ops to partially rely on human and animal waste to fertilize their crop. Which means your sexy organo-vegan heirloom tomato might just be teeming with angry little E. Coli germs waiting to kill you. The cultivation methods are not even environmentally friendly, despite claims by proponents of organic farming.

Opinion Cont.

CropLifeAmerica.org explains how organic growing methods typically yield 50 percent less than conventional, modern farming per acre, leading to unnecessary deforestation as organic growers are forced to clear more land to provide the same amount of product. Modern farming methods are products of scientific progress. The average farmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s per-acre-yield has seen a 200 percent increase over the last century, giving healthier goods to more people. Non-organic, industrial farming has led to a decline in the spread of infectious disease and even, according to the CDC, increased life expectancy, thereby promoting better living through science. Do not give in to the organic propaganda. Instead, remind its proponents that the extra money they spend on their technophobe food fad sponsors slash and burn deforestation and Listeria outbreaks. So arm yourself with the power of knowledge and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t eat organic, eat smart.

OPINION SAMPLE 4

7 Tips For Eco-Friendly Sex Nita Lim, Layout Editor

Going green can require many lifestyle changes, such as using public transportation, buying locally-grown produce and recycling. However, did you know that the bedroom is another place that can also take some eco-friendly changes? Here are some tips about going green in the sheets while still going hard! 1. Having sex outdoors can be great because you can enjoy your love-making back where it all started – in nature. Try finding an isolated garden or park to do the deed (Bonus: This scandalous locale hunt adds excitement – a kind of foreplay, if you will). Oh, and make sure to bring a blanket and bug spray. You will not be using any lights (or adding to your carbon footprint); rather, the moon and the stars will be your guide. Just make sure when you are done, you properly dispose of condoms or contraceptives in the nearby trash can. Nothing kills the mood like a litterbug. 2. Condoms have also gone green (no, not just the funky color). Eco-friendly condoms, more commonly known as vegan condoms, do not contain casein, (a dairy product). For true Greenies, Glyde condoms, which are 100% vegan, come in a pack of 12 and in various colors, are the way to go. 3. Shower for two. This all depends on the length of a shower and and if hot/ warm water is being used “Using the shower as foreplay is best and just get in and out, no pun intended.” says an Anonymous Professor. You probably know this already, but showering together really is more green. It is a great way for you and your partner to lather it up. So many people in the world do not have access to clean water and plumbing, so enjoy this luxury with someone. 4. Whether alone or with a partner, sex toys are fun but can be harmful to the environment. Many store-bought toys can contain chemicals such asphthalates, a chemical that softens hard plastics and give them that jelly feeling. In 2004 this substance was banned in various children’s toys. High levels of this substance has been linked with birth defects and hormonal changes. Try to use toys that recharge or even use rechargeable batteries instead of throwing out batteries. Look for glass, silicon, metal or hard plastic toys instead. EarthErotics is a great site to search for various sex toys that are all made eco-friendly from their vibrators to their phthalate-free We-Vibe Touch to their Standard Recycled Rubber Whip made from inner tubes. Babeland is currently donating 10 percent of their profits from eco-toys to Grist, an online environmental magazine. 5. Lube it up. If you are using petroleum jelly during sex, stop. Not only is it bad for you, it is hurting the environment around you and there are much better alternatives. One of the main chemicals found in petroleum jelly is cholinesterase inhibitor and it is known to pollute groundwater. Many of the same chemicals used in lube are the same chemicals found in oven cleaner antifreeze. Now there are great new lubes for you and your partner that are healthy for the environment: Yes lube is free of glycerin, silicones and petroleum. Hathor is a mother-daughter company that created a line of various botanical skincare products. 6. Remember that cute girl you have been chatting up from the Environmental Club? You went with her to clean garbage in parks, gone to recycling centers together and even started a compost in your dorm/room for her. But what would turn her on even more is you rocking C-IN2 biodegradable, bamboo sustainable and pesticide free underwear! Though she may like them so much she just might not want you to take them off. For the females, brands such as Chantelle, Green Knickers, Pact, Enamore and SheFinds all provide various forms of eco-friendly underwear. From organic Turkish cotton to hemp, bamboo, fair trade and organic cotton, and from thongs to boy shorts, these sites have a great variety of ecoalternative and cuts. 7. Candles are always romantic, but now they can also save energy by not using lights. There are also various kinds of eco-friendly candles that can be used instead of traditional kinds of wax candles. Try looking for beeswax, soy or palm oil candles to set the mood.

OPNIONS SAMPLE 5

Club sports deserve funds for basic necessities Nicole Hilton

ore than 1,115 Ithaca College students participate in 38 different club sports on campus — which translates into almost 17 percent of the student population. With that many students involved in the program, you would think the college could provide adequate funding for them to be able to properly function. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world. Economic times are hard, but the college sees it more fitting to equip classrooms on campus with flat-screen televisions. If the club ice hockey team can’t afford to practice, at least they’ll be able to watch CNN practically anywhere on campus. Why is it that year after year the club sports program struggles to receive enough funds? Going into the 2012-13 academic year, the initial budget request from club sports as a whole was nearly $17,000 more than the actual funds the college allocated to the department. These requests were for necessities such as travel costs, league fees and tournament costs. Even after cutting out “frivolous expenses,” as our superiors like to call them, such as new uniforms for the women’s club soccer team — whose members have been wearing the same jerseys for six years now — the comprehensive budget was still over by a few thousand dollars. The college is one of the top competitors in most club sports, yet one of the lowest ranking schools in terms of budgets for the department. Compared to surrounding competitors like SUNY Cortland, Cornell University and Syracuse University, Ithaca College gets a substantially smaller amount for club sport funding. Because of this, most of the spending money, even for tournament play and equipment, comes from fundraising efforts by each individual team. In the 2010-11 academic year, club sports collectively spent $250,000 — most of which came from fundraising. For some sports like rugby, ski racing or ice hockey, there is no varsity option at the college. However, athletes who compete in those sports suffer from the lack of funding just like the rest of the club teams. Especially for sports like ice hockey, in which equipment and ice time are particularly expensive, officers are concerned that the club may become an option only for students capable and willing to pay high team dues and other costs. Whether varsity or not, every athlete deserves an opportunity to play without having to break the bank. Because funding is tight for the upcoming year with no change in the foreseeable future, Megan Wagner, program coordinator for recreational sports, is implementing a point system for teams to earn money through community service and good behavior. The plan sounds good in theory, but the fact of the matter is that it still does not mean more money. It simply means that some clubs who are willing to work harder will receive more of the money allocated for club teams. If one club gets more money, another one gets less. What really needs to happen is somebody with more power needs to stand up for all athletes — varsity, junior varsity, club and intramural — and demand an adequate budget for all programs. That’s it, adequate — enough to be able to practice, play and show our competition that we are a force to be reckoned with.

INVESTIGATIVE IN-Depth Long form

REPORTING

INVESTIGATIVE SAMPLE 1

As “Megan’s Law” turns 15, are we any safer? Written by: Daniela Rocha WHAT HAPPENED TO MEGAN?

It was a warm afternoon in late July, 1994, when a seven-year-old girl named Megan Kanka was beckoned across the street by her neighbor, a 33-year-old man named Jesse Timmendequas. He asked her if she wanted to see his new puppy. Once she was inside his house, he raped her then slammed her head into a dresser, strangled her to death with a belt, then put two plastic bags over her head to prevent blood from getting on the carpet and raped her again. Finally he shoved her body into a toy box and dumped it next to a portable toilet in Mercer County Park. The murder-rape of Megan Kanka inspired local and national outrage that ultimately lead to the creation of “Megan’s Law.” The law requires that a database of registered sex offenders be maintained and that when a dangerous sex offender moves into a community, its residents be informed. In 1996, then President Bill Clinton passed a federal law that required every state to follow New Jersey’s lead. Fifteen years later, New Jersey, like many states, is out of compliance with its own law. The problems are many: maintaining the sex offender registry and notification system is expensive, trying to find locations for sex offenders to live is increasingly difficult, many psychologists who specialize in sexual behavior believe that many sexual offenders are not able to change, and the premise of the law –that informing people of danger will help them keep safe- has been criticized by legal experts and law enforcement officials alike.

HOW DOES THE LAW WORK?

“Megan’s Law” sorts sex offenders into three different tiers. After psychological evaluation, a judge assigns offenders into a tier. Tier one determines that the sex offender is at low risk to re-offend, tier two determines that they are at moderate risk to society and tier three include those individuals who are assessed as being a high risk to society. The information available on the registry website (www.state.nj.us/njsp/info/reg_sexoffend.html) includes a photo, the name of the sex offender, any aliases the offender has used, descriptions of marks such as tattoos and scars, description of the vehicle used by the offender and its license plate number, the offender’s current address and the nature of offense including victim’s age at time of offense. Maureen Kanka, Megan’s mother, in a recent interview with the VOICE stated that the picture is a great element of the registry. “Parents can sit down with their children and show them the picture of who the offender is, to better help protect their children,” Kanka says. On the New Jersey registry website, however, some are out of date by as much as two years. This can be aproblem as sex offenders can lose or gain weight, change their hair style, or otherwise modify their appearance. The registry lists offenders who have committed a sex related crime against an adult, molested a child or been found not

guilty for reason of insanity. However, the registry does not list every person who has ever committed a sexual crime, including some juvenile offenders. Once individuals are classified, the prosecutor’s office starts the notification process based on the risk assessment. In the case of moderate to high-risk offenders, the prosecutor’s office notifies the public by posting information on the state’s Internet registry. In addition, law enforcement officials go door to door and post flyers to let people know that a sex offender is moving into their area.

CAN THE LAW BE ENFORCED?

Even if Governor Christie was able to find the funds to bring New Jersey back into compliance with “Megan’s Law,” a growing body of evidence suggests it is difficult for the police to ensure total enforcement of the law. The logistical complications of enacting sex offender notification and registry laws have been highlighted in recent weeks through a series of incidents in California which operates under a variation of “Megan’s Law” known as “Jessica’s Law.” The law is named after a nine-year-old girl from Florida who was raped and then buried alive by her 47-year-old neighbor, John Couey, in 2005. According to an article by Gerry Shih in the New York Times on March 6, 2010, a California sex offender named James F. Donnelly moved into a house directly across the street from Wildwood Elementary School in Piedmont, directly violating the terms of “Jessica’s Law.” Parents complained to local law enforcement, but the Police Chief, John Hunt, was informed by the Alameda County district attorney and the California attorney general that there were no provisions in “Jessica’s Law” for removing or punishing Donnelly. Shih’s article notes that, “For Mr. Donnelly’s housing decision to be considered a violation of state law, ‘there has to be a punishment attached,’” according to Nancy O’Malley, the Alameda County district attorney. She went on to say that “Jessica’s Law never assigned a punishment.” Shih quotes Police Chief Hunt as saying: “I was amazed. You have this law that was overwhelmingly voted in and determined to be constitutional, and then you find out there’s no bite to it. It’s all bark and no bite.” In some situations, Donnelly’s actions could amount to a parole violation and land him back in jail, but as the Rutgers University 2008 study points out, “Only 32 percent of [sex] offenders were paroled whereas 68 percent maxed out, leaving the prison with no post-incarceration supervision requirements other than those imposed by Megan’s Law.” When offenders are not on parole they must register and keep their address information up to date, but in many states there is no punishment for offenders who simply move into restricted areas. “Megan’s Law” is primarily concerned with providing information, not punishment. A recent report conducted by Administrative Offices of the Court shows that as of June 2009 in the state of New Jersey, 5,102 individuals failed to register with local police. Maureen Kanka says she thinks there needs to be better education of judges and better enforcement of the law. “Too many times I hear that an offender will fail to register, and once they catch him they will slap him on the hand,” Kanka says.

IS KNOWING ENOUGH?

“The premise of passing ‘Megan’s Law’ was to bring awareness to families about potential danger living in their community,” said Megan’s mother, Maureen Kanka, in a recent interview with The College VOICE. Mrs. Kanka, still a Hamilton resident, maintains that if she had known that Timmendequas and two other convicted sex offenders were living right

across the street, she would have been able to warn her daughter and protect her from harm. But is knowing enough? In an article entitled “Would ‘Megan’s Law’ Have Saved Megan?” published in the New Jersey Law Journal on July 8, 1996, senior reporter Tim O’Brien writes that “In fact, interviews and a police report make clear that neighbors living within at least eight houses of the Cifelli house [where Timmendequas lived] were aware that [Joseph Cefelli] was a convicted sex offender. Those interviewed also all knew specifics of the charges against him.” O’Brien goes on to suggest that even the Kankas may have known about Cifelli, if not about Cefelli’s housemate, Timmendequas. O’Brien writes, “four neighbors say they believe that the Kankas –of 32 Barbara Lee Drive [in Hamilton, N.J.]– also knew that Cifelli, who lived diagonally across the street from them, was a convicted sex offender.” Obrien quotes David Rocha, who was an American Civil Liberties Union -NJ staff attorney at that time, saying that “the disclosure that neighbors had some knowledge underscores the ‘fallacy of the law, which seems to be premised on two choices, either you drive the offenders out, or you hide your children as prisoners in their own home.’” Rocha goes on to say that “In reality, after a time people will go about living their lives, and will behave or respond in a variety of ways. But laws should be structured to set a social policy or solve a societal problem. Laws can’t solve individual problems, and policies shouldn’t be based on anecdote.” Maureen Kanka insists that O’Brien got it wrong and she is certain that “Megan’s Law” has saved lives. She says, “I have received e-mails over the years from people whose children have been affiliated with sex offenders and before the legislation was passed they had no idea there was a problem with them.” Mrs. Kanka’s view that having access to information may change the way citizens behave is supported by substantial evidence. Victoria Beck, Ph.D. led a group of researchers who published a series of articles in The Journal of Psychiatry & Law that showed when a community is notified of a sexual offender’s presence in their neighborhood, their fear of victimization increases as does their likelihood of taking some self-protective measures, such as buying a dog or firearm or installing alarm system. But the same research indicates these behaviors have no impact on whether or not offenders reoffend. A research study in Washington state that examined the behavior of sexual offenders released prior to the enactment of registry and notification laws, and those released after the laws went into effect also showed no difference in recidivism rates, but did find that new offenses were detected more quickly once they had been committed. Sgt. William P. Bastedo who is currently in charge of the “Megan’s Law” unit of the West Windsor Township police, says that the law is valuable to law enforcers, because “We know who the offenders are and where they are located.” Knowing who to talk to when a child goes missing or is found dead, however, does not appear to be the original intent of “Megan’s Law” and may not be what community members expect it to offer.

WILL SEX OFFENDERS DO IT AGAIN?

The Rutgers University and New Jersey Department of Corrections study published in 2008 revealed that “Megan’s Law” did nothing to reduce rates of recidivism among sex offenders, but the report notes that “New Jersey, as a whole, has experienced a consistent downward trend of sexual offense rates.” The average sentence served by sex offenders is five years. Forty-six percent of those released are re-arrested (9 percent are re-arrested for a sex crime) and the average length of time to re-arrest is two years. Louis B. Schlesinger, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, told The College Voice in a recent phone interview that, “Treatment will not change an offender’s sexual arousal pattern,” but that it may help some offenders “gain control” over their behavior. In his 2003 book “Sexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicides” Schlesinger seeks to differentiate the various types of sexual murders, pointing out that not all murders that appear sexually motivated are and vice versa. A survey of Mercer students shows that while few are aware of “Megan’s Law,” 40 percent believe that treatment is ineffective for sexual offenders. Research suggests this may be true for sociopathic offenders and killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, but is not necessarily the case for all sexual offenders, including the 54 percent who do not re-offend as described in the Rutgers report. Of those sexual offenders who do recidivate, however, data suggests that sexual registry and notification laws may make them even more likely to seek contact with children simply as a result of being ostracized by the adult community.

According to Richard Tewskbury in his 2005 article “Collateral Consequences of Sex Offender Registration” from the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, a significant minority of registered sexual offenders, no matter what their likelihood for recidivism, suffer from social stigmatization, loss of relationships, and verbal and physical assaults. Tewskbury also found that a majority of sex offenders reported negative consequences, such as exclusion from residences, threats and harassment, emotional harm to their family members, social exclusion by neighbors, and loss of employment. “The less stable someone is, it is more likely that they will commit an offense and not qualify to come off of Megan’s list” says local public defense attorney Christopher Duffy.

WHAT ARE THE COSTS?

Beyond questions of whether “Megan’s Law” protects citizens or not, there is no doubt that it is expensive to carry out. Furthermore, the costs of compliance far outweigh the penalties for being out of compliance. According to JusticePolicy.org and a recent press release by David T. Schlendorf Law offices, “New Jersey’s first-year outlay of $14,088,206 would vastly exceed the $516,071 it stands to lose [in federal funds] if it fails to implement” current sex offender registry and notification laws.” A 2008 study conducted by Rutgers University and The New Jersey Department of Corrections, through a grant from the National Institute of Justice, found that “The cost for Megan’s Law implementation during calendar year 2006 was estimated to be $1,557,978 [per county], whereas implementation costs during calendar year 2007 totaled $3,973,932 for responding counties. This change represents a 155 percent increase in ongoing expenses from calendar year 2006 to calendar year 2007.” The report concluded that the sudden increase was likely linked to the new use of Global Positioning Satellites for the most dangerous offenders and the increased costs of surveillance. Currently New Jersey is facing an $11 billion deficit on a $33 billion budget and Governor Christie is making up the difference without increasing taxes, a position he campaigned on. The result has been a long list of budget cuts. College tuition assistance has been slashed, while prescription drug fees for seniors has been doubled. In such an economic climate, it is perhaps not surprising that the state would choose to remain out of compliance with costly sex offender laws.

CAN THEY GET OFF THE LIST?

The fact that “Megan’s Law” turns 15 this year is particularly significant because one of the provisions of the law allows offenders to petition to have their name removed after 15 years on the list. Local Public Defense Attorney Michael Buncher said in an interview with The College Voice that so far he has worked with ten registered sex offenders who have sought to have their names removed from the registry. Three of his clients have been denied, but six have been successful. One of Buncher’s cases is still pending. Only certain people qualify to have their names removed from the registry. “Convictions such as sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault and offense to more than one victim or more than one offense, automatically qualifies an offender for being on the list for a lifetime, regardless of the tier they were placed on,” says Buncher. Public defense attorney Duffy states that the group most successful in having their names removed are those who committed their offense as juveniles. Yet even for low risk offenders, he adds, “It is possible that someone on tier one may not qualify for name removal.” Human Rights Watch released a statement saying that “Megan’s Law” is too broad and that the duration of time spent on the registry is too long. They note that juveniles who are registered under “Megan’s Law” may pose little or no risk of recidivism and the scrutiny of the law may leave them less stable and less able to function within the community.

Interview with a sex offender On March 18, 2010, College Voice reporter Daniela Rocha conducted an interview with a 27 year old sex offender named Kurt Werner at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, NJ. Werner volunteered to talk to the Voice in conjunction with an article on the fifteenth anniversary of New Jersey’s landmark sex offender registry and notification law known as “Megan’s Law.” The following is a transcript with video clips of the actual interview. Please use discretion as content includes descriptions of sexual violence.

VOICE: Why did you agree to do this interview today? Werner: I felt that being that I am an inmate at a state facility, we really do not have a voice for ourselves, and I felt like this was the only way. Being that I am close to the door -I am getting out and being released- this was the only way to advocate for myself. [I want] to show that the process here does work; it works with every individual person. I think that this is my only opportunity to really show that, because there is a screening process that happens before you leave and the total outcome of that is pretty much taken by the Attorney General. She pretty much has the last say so on whether you go home or you get committed. I just feel like this is a chance for me to speak on my own behalf.

Watch the full video interview with Kurt Werner on YouTube and www.mcccvoice.org

VOICE: Have you been through that process yet? Werner: No. Not yet. That doesn’t usually happen until one to two months from the door. VOICE: You are due to be released in January? Werner: Yes. VOICE: What have you been convicted of? Werner: Sexual assault. I molested my girlfriend’s daughter. VOICE: How old was she? Werner: She was four. VOICE: Tell me about your childhood and your teenage years? Werner: I lived with my grandparents because my mother had physically and sexually abused me as a [young] child. I would see my father on the weekends and during the summer. My sister lived with my dad. My dad didn’t have the money to raise me and my sister at the same time, so they thought it would be better for me to be raised by his parents, my grandparents. From the age of eight to ten I was then molested by his wife’s son. He was two years older then me. He molested both me and my sister. Being that I was raised by my grandparents when I used to go to school I would get picked on a lot. “Where’s your mom at?” “Where’s your dad at?” Typical things that other kids will say to hurt somebody’s feelings. But it caused me to kind of push my grandparents away, even know they were there, they loved me and they cared for me. I pushed them right away because I didn’t feel comfortable where I was at, and I chose to basically live on the streets and do whatever I could to fit in with the in crowd, the crowd that I thought was the party, just so I felt accepted. Drugs, alcohol, running around late at night, that was pretty much what I did for my teenage years. Then I got locked up at the age of 16 for a previous sex offense.

VOICE: You said you were molested by your mother. How old were you? Werner: I was about the age of two. VOICE: Do you remember that at all? Werner: No. VOICE: How did you find out? Werner: I started asking questions about my mother, because I remember a specific incident when I was sitting at my grandmother’s kitchen table doing some type of kindergarten or first grade work. I don’t even remember it, but I remember a woman coming to my grandmother’s front door and taking my sister. I asked “Who was that?” and my grandmother told me it was my mother. I wanted to get up and go see her. [My grandmother] told me I couldn’t. So from that point on I just had a lot of questions but I didn’t know how to go about asking. When I turned about 14 I started asking a lot of questions. So my grandparents and my father sat me down and we talked about it and they gave me the court documents and the photos and [explained] what was actually done and what was said in court by everybody. That’s how I found out about it. VOICE: Did your mother serve time? Werner: no. VOICE: You were molested by your step-brother. How long did that last? Tell me what happened. Werner: It was about a two year period, it happened from [when I was] the age 8 to 10. Because at the age of 10 my father divorced his wife after all of this was found out. My sister told on him. I always wanted to hang out with him and his friends. One night I was watching T.V. with him and he put on an adult film, and we started watching it. I liked what I saw. It was arousing, but then he started playing with himself in front of me and eventually it led to him making me do things to him that I really didn’t feel comfortable doing. But after I had done it the first time, I was allowed to hang out with him and his friends, and I felt accepted. So at that time I didn’t know that what I was doing was wrong. So I continued to do it for about two years until my sister told on him and everything came to an end. VOICE: How did your sister find out? Werner: My sister was being molested too, by him. VOICE: Was there ever an occasion in which you and your sister were molested at the same time? Werner: No, he would molest my sister when I wasn’t there. VOICE: Did you know about it? Werner: No, I didn’t know about it until my sister told on him. I didn’t know anything about it. VOICE: When this came out, did you step up and say he is also molesting me? Werner: No, I kept it to myself because I was scared of how I was going to be perceived as either a gay or homosexual person because my family kind of raised against it. But they are accepting. They know I am a bisexual person today and it doesn’t bother them anymore. VOICE: When this was happening you say you felt like it wasn’t wrong. Do you feel like that today? Werner: Yes, I do. I am comfortable with who I am. I understand that there are attractions, but there are certain ones that are healthy and certain ones that aren’t. Like my crime was very unhealthy. I was trying to fill a void within myself that I couldn’t fulfill with anybody else. Nobody else was going to fill it but me. I was running from everyday life. I didn’t want to

deal with the pressure of bills, trying to survive, because I just wasn’t ready for it at the time. VOICE: What were you arrested for at the age of 16? Werner: For a previous sex offense. I was 16 years old and I sexually assaulted a 12 year old. I was hanging around with a bunch of my friends, smoking and drinking, and her and her friends came up to me and started talking. I asked her if she wanted to take a walk. We took a walk and we started kissing and everything was fine, but I took it to the next level and she said no and I kept going. So I did three and a half years in Jamesburg for that. VOICE: What do you mean when you say you kept going? Werner: I penetrated. I raped her. VOICE: How did you get caught then? Werner: She told right way. She had her mom call the cops. VOICE: Did you deny it? Werner: No. VOICE: You served three and a half years in Jamesburg for committing this crime at age sixteen. Did you register then as a sex offender? Werner: Yes. After I was released from Jamesburg I was on Megan’s law. VOICE: You have one count for failure to register? Werner: Yes, I was locked up for a disorderly person charge, just before this crime, just before I got locked up for this. I went to county [jail] for that. When I got out of county I was living at my dad’s house. [I went there] because I got kicked out of my apartment, because I was locked up, and I never went to the police station. A couple of days later I was arrested for this, I had only just gotten out of county. I just didn’t go to the police station. VOICE: Did you always go back to the police station? Werner: Yes, every time, every year. VOICE: How many times did you go back to the police station to register? Werner: About five years. I was home about five years. VOICE: Do you plan on registering every time once you are released? Werner: Yes, I am going to be living with my father. My family has already started going through counseling, so they can understand me and when I get out I plan on doing family counseling with them, as well as coming back here for after care and whatever else they ask me. VOICE: You are labeled by society as a sex offender. How do you feel about that? Werner: It’s conflicting because society labels you based upon your past and not what you have done to change yourself in the future. I understand how society feels. Do I agree with it? No, not all the time. Sometimes I think it’s biased. You are judging people… basically you are judging people by its cover not reading the contents. VOICE: Do you understand what a sex offender is? Werner: Yes. VOICE: How do you define sex offender? Werner: A sex offender is somebody who has certain urges, certain feelings that are going on and they don’t know to

cope with it. Their only way out is by using any types of sex means necessary. A sex offender is somebody who doesn’t know how to control themselves. This is what this place helps and teaches. Teaches you to be who you are, instead of trying to be somebody you are not. I feel like most of us in this facility are always trying to be something we weren’t. We try to live a double life style, and that is part of the reason why we do what we do. VOICE: How do you plan to handle society’s judgment once you are released? Werner: I am okay with it. I understand that society and people are going to have their opinions. I just have to prove to them that I am not who you think I am. I am not that same person anymore. I am not that person that you can’t trust. Because I see that society is… It’s a double edge sword. Society has a problem with a sex offender living door to you, but they don’t have a problem with a three-time murderer living next door to you. You know what I mean? It doesn’t make sense. They want to commit sex offenders: commit them, commit them, commit them! But yet you have guys who kill people, you have guys who are repeat drug offenders, and you are not committing them. VOICE: Do you think their fear is justified? Werner: To an extent. I think everybody has fears about anybody who commits any crime. I think that right now this is the target; this is the focus of states and government: sex offenders. They are saying we are the worst of the worst. I understand that what we do is horrible or what we have done is horrible. But you know what? Just like anything else, just like the alcoholic or the drug addict there is rehabilitation. I think that is one thing society fails to realize. I think that what would be good is that instead of spending money on doing certain things to keep sex offenders off the streets, when there are a lot of them that should go home, the state should spend money on educating society on why [sex offenders] do what we do. [They should train people] to look out for certain signs and the way people act so they can understand and be aware of their surroundings. I believe it works both ways. Because we have to constantly work on ourselves as well. VOICE: How old were you when you molested the 4-year-old [girl]? Werner: I was 23 years old. VOICE: You have been convicted twice? Werner: Yes VOICE: What [registry] tier are you in? Werner: Probably a tier two. [moderate risk to reoffend] VOICE: Were you in a tier two the first time? Werner: No, I was in a tier one. [low risk to reoffend] VOICE: Summarize what was going through your mind [from the time you were molested to the time you molested someone else]? Werner: When I was being molested it was very confusing. It felt good. I felt scared… In some ways it felt wrong and it felt right… VOICE: What felt good and right and also wrong and scary? Werner: What felt good about it was the sexual feeling. I don’t know how else to explain that… The sexual part of it is what felt good about it. What felt right about it is that I felt almost comfortable with doing it. But there was the other side that says this is wrong. What I felt wrong about it is that I was being sneaky. I was young and I wasn’t sure if this is what I should be doing. What felt scary about it was the fact that I wasn’t sure if I knew what I was doing or how to do it. Also, the fact of being scared and getting caught while doing these things.

VOICE: How did you know at that age that what you were doing was wrong? Werner: At that age I just had that feeling. I was raised by my grandparents and it was always said to me that certain things that are okay and some things that aren’t, and if anybody ever crosses your boundaries… it was kind of implanted as a child as you grow up that that is not supposed to happen. I believe that schools teach that as well. At that time they had sex-ed. I don’t know if they still do. School and my grandparents kind of implanted that into me mostly because of what happened with my mother. They were very protective of me. VOICE: [With your stepbrother], did you feel like you were being molested? You made it seem like you enjoyed it to a certain extent. Werner: I did. That was part of what was confusing too. Like I said, it felt wrong, yet it felt right because I enjoyed what I was doing. Yet I didn’t think that I should be doing it. The only reason of why I did do it was so I could hang out with him and his friends and play football and be accepted. That behavior of wanting to be accepted by anybody around me started at a very young age. It just continued as I got older, because I never knew how to just be comfortable with who I am instead of focusing on how other people view me or how other people accept me. have to accept myself first. So the age of 8-10 there was a lot of secrecy and that felt wrong, I had never kept anything from my grandparents. I kept that from them and that was painful to do. VOICE: Were you ever asked not to tell? Werner: Yeah. Not in so many words. There was more of reverse psychology. [He said] “Don’t worry I won’t tell anybody.” So that kind of told me why I shouldn’t tell either. It was very tricky, but that is how it was said to me. VOICE: Did you know the word molested meant? Did you ever use that word when you were 8? Werner: No, not at all. Those words never came into my head. Just the words this “feels good but something doesn’t feel right about it.” That is just the only thing that came into my head, technical terms I didn’t know anything about that. VOICE: Do you think that what you did to that little girl was wrong? Werner: Yes, I knew it was wrong. At the same time I was in a bad place. I was running from life, running from a relationship with her mother. I wanted to get mine. I wanted to satisfy myself, through sex, through sexual acts. VOICE: What did you do to her? Werner: I pretty much did the same thing my stepbrother did to me. I went to the bedroom. I put on an adult movie. I was home alone with her. I knew that eventually she would come into the room. So when she did I was in there playing with myself. She asked me what I was doing. I told her I was playing. I asked her if she wanted to play. I showed her how to masturbate me and…uhm…lick me, and then I would lick her and go in on her. VOICE: Did you ever think you didn’t want to do it, that you needed to stop? Werner: Afterwards, I said to myself “this can’t happen.” VOICE: Did it happen once? Werner: It happened 3 times. VOICE: Why did you not stop yourself after the first time? Werner: Honestly I had control of the situation. I was out of control in life. I felt like I didn’t have any control in the relationship. I didn’t have any say so. So I was looking for a way to feel powerful. That was my way. I was able to do what I wanted. It was almost exciting to me because it brought back a lot of questions. Maybe exciting wasn’t the word, intriguing. It brought a lot of questions about my mother. I would ask “why?” all the time. In a way I was looking for the answer through what I was doing to this four-year old, why my mother did it to me. I was looking for the answers in all the wrong ways. VOICE: Did you rape her?

Werner: No, there wasn’t any penetration vaginally, there was penetration orally, where I would have her lick me, where I would lick her. But I never actually penetrated with my penis. VOICE: Did you at any point have fantasies of having this type of sexual contact with a child. Werner: Yes, I did. VOICE: Before this happened? Werner: Yes, not that young though. I did have fantasies if I was watching T.V. or something and I saw a teenage girl or a pre-teen on T.V. I would feel aroused. Arousal is more of a mental thing then physical. I would be attracted to what I saw. I guess I always wondered what it was going to be like. VOICE: Did you think you would get caught since you said you had control over the situation? Werner: I had control not over the situation but over her. That fear was definitely there. After I got locked up for a disorderly person charge I pretty much knew it was going to happen then. Her mother had gotten locked up as well and the kids were taken away from her. So I pretty much knew that sooner or later it would have come out. VOICE: Did you know that she would tell about what happened? Werner: Yes, because she had told her mother before while we were still together, but I convinced her mother she was lying. VOICE: You sexually molested her three times? Werner: Yes, three times in a six month period. VOICE: Did she tell her mom after the first time? Werner: Yes, after the first time. I convinced her mom that she was lying due to the fact that…um… this is the key part –I always had the feeling of what it would be like, this helped me do it. It was the fact that her mom told me that when they used to live in Florida her daughter had accused somebody of touching her and nothing ever happened. That kind of gave me an alibi, so when she told her mother after the first time, I used that against her saying that “she has done this before, she is lying” to build up a defense for myself. I think that if the mother had never said that to me, now I am not placing the blame on her mother, but if that comment had never been said to me I wouldn’t have had the balls to do it. VOICE: Did you think the little girl was lying the first time about the incident in Florida? Werner: At that time I didn’t care. When I first heard that all I thought was wow, she is just like me. Next thing was: I wonder if I could get away with it. VOICE: So you thought you were just like her? Werner: Yeah, because I was young [when I was molested], she only had one parent, she said she was molested, nothing ever happened. I still feel like nothing ever happened to my mother. She didn’t do any time. She got a slap on the wrist and the kids were taken away from her, but yet she was still allowed to see my sister. I had a lot of ill feelings towards that. So I related [to my girlfriend’s daughter]. I felt for her, [because] I felt the same thing. VOICE: I am sure that you have enough time to think about it after being here for three years, now that you think about it, do you think that she was lying the first time? Werner: No, I don’t think she was lying. I think she was being honest. I have been over and over this since I have been going through therapy for this amount of time. There was so many signs of the way she would act, and things she would do that was a tell-tail of being abuse in a child. It was always there in front of my face, whether I just chose to not see it or I just was that oblivious at the time…I definitely believe that she was telling the truth. VOICE: How did you get caught? Werner: She was with her foster mother and the foster mother caught her playing with herself in the tub and she asked if

“anybody has ever touched you?” She used to call me dad, so she said “yeah my daddy did.” She showed her with a pill bottle what I would do to her. Personally after being here for a while I think that wasn’t very bright for the foster mother to have her show what I would do to her with a pill bottle. I think that was a little extreme, I think that words are enough. That aside, that is how I got caught. The prosecutor’s office came to my dad’s one morning and asked me if they could ask me some questions…At first I denied it, I tried to blame it on the guy in Florida. Then I was like screw it, and I did I just came clean. VOICE: Are you going to reoffend? Werner: That is a tough question. The reason I say it’s a tough question is because no one knows what can happen in the future. I can only be aware of my surroundings, be aware of what is going on inside of my head and inside of my heart, and let me know how I feel about certain things… I don’t want to reoffend. I don’t want to hurt anybody ever again. Because not only am I hurting this individual I offend against, I am hurting my family, their family, myself, everybody else that is connected to me. [They end up having to come] here, having to take time out to come see me, to spend money for me to talk to them on the phone, and send me money so I can order the commissary. It hurts everybody around me and I don’t want to do it anymore. I am tired of hurting people; I am tired of hurting myself. I care about them. I care about me today and within that it helps me care for other people, because when I was committing my offense I didn’t care about anything but what I wanted and what I needed. VOICE: Are you not confident that you are not going to reoffend? Werner: I am not saying that I am not confident. I am confident enough to say that it won’t happen, because I won’t let it happen. VOICE: Given the opportunity, if you happen to babysit? Werner: I would never put myself in a position that I am going to have to babysit. Let me put it this way: I have a seven year old daughter. I am sure that her mom would not have a problem letting me see her, but I plan on going thru DYFS (the Department of Youth and Family Services) to get supervised visitations, so nothing could ever be said. Say I was at the mall and I was walking past the stores or the arcade…I am telling you right now I am leaving the mall and going home. VOICE: Have you ever have any sexual fantasies about your daughter? Werner: No, not at all. VOICE: You said you are confident enough that you are not going to reoffend. Where does that confidence come from? Werner: That confidence comes from this place. It teaches you how to accept yourself, how to love yourself, how to have the mind state that you can do anything that you put your mind to. A lot of us thought we really would not amount to anything, we didn’t love ourselves. Having empathy for yourself gives that feeling for others, because once you start to care for yourself then you know how it feels to get hurt, and how to feel those feelings, how to just love yourself. If you cannot love yourself you cannot love anybody else. That is my opinion. That is what I live by today. VOICE: Do you want to be supervised? Werner: I do not want anybody to have any type of thought that I would want to do this again, I don’t want to hurt anybody ever again. This jail lifestyle ain’t for me. I am tired of it. I have a family that cares for and loves me and I need to embrace that, that I think it is the most important things in anybody’s life, to have somebody there for you. Unlike me, not having my mother in my life, I want my child to have both of her parents in her life. I think every child needs it. I see a lot of kids turn into a life of crime, drugs and alcohol, and most of them are raised by a single parent. I don’t want that for my daughter. VOICE: What is the number one tool that you are going to use to stop yourself from reoffending and also to do the things that you have planned on? Werner: Trust. I am learning to trust other people. I am learning to trust my therapist, so if I ever have a thought of anything I can pick up my phone and call my therapist anytime. Or I can pick up my cell phone and know that they can help me. It is things that I didn’t do, I didn’t trust anybody. I think that had a lot to do with the molestation, what my mother did… I always had a thought that if my mother didn’t love

me nobody does. Trust is really big. I also think that one of the biggest things for me is to understanding myself, and understanding the things around me. Because if you don’t know who you are you are not going to know what to look out for, what you want in life, you are not going to be able to decipher between the two. This place helped me a lot in learning who I am and what I want in life. I have picked up two new crafts that keep me busy and keep my life at ease where I can sit down and crochet all day long and feel at peace. I work out to keep myself busy, when I am not doing that I am working on therapy. I have done a lot of work in this place; I went to NA group and completed that process. I just think that people who do a lot of work here deserve to have a second chance…I don’t think it will be up to one person to make that decision. I don’t think it should be up to the Attorney General. I think that it should be your therapist. Who knows you better than your therapist who sits with you in here every week? VOICE: What are some of the plans you have to move on with your life, other than therapy? Werner: I would like to go back to school, I would like to go to DEVRY, and get some type of engineering degree, whether it be in automotive or computer technician…At one point in time I would like to my own company, a landscaping company. I have done landscaping with my grandfather since I was 13. It is just a passion of mine. It is something I would like to pursue starting a landscaping company. Whether I am just cutting grass or not. It’s something I love to do. VOICE: Because of “Megan’s Law,” your crime is going to hang over your head for the rest of your life. How do you plan on handling that? Werner: That is right. I have no problem with it. I have done this to myself. I can’t complain about that. I don’t mind if I have to go to the police station every 90 days to register. That is fine with me. It doesn’t bother me because I know I will. I can go every other day because I know tier two is every six months, and tier three is every ninety days, whatever the case may be. I have no problem with “Megan’s Law.” “Megan’s Law” doesn’t stop me from living life. One day out of the year that I have to take time to go to the police station it is not a big deal to stay home. VOICE: College officials will be notified if you decide to go to school, and your picture could be posted depending on the tier you are in. Would that stop you from going to school? Werner: No, not at all. I can’t let things on the outside and people’s perspective and things that I can’t control stop me from what I need to do, not even what I want to do. In order for me to prove that I can be a good member of society I have to do things I need to do, not what I want to do. They can post my picture up on telephone poles. I don’t really care. I am already on the Internet. Anybody wants to see me go on the Internet, and it is no different. VOICE: You have 9 months until you get out of here. What is going through your mind? Werner: I am scared to death. I am scared of going home. I am scared of not going home. I am scared of being committed. Like I said I don’t think the process is very fair sometimes. You have people that maintain a level of therapy in this facility that have passed the SCRP board. You have guys who act out and sexually molest other inmates and they go home. It really doesn’t make sense. I have stopped trying to figure it out. There is a lot of anxiety about that, whether I am going home or not. But I will tell you one thing, my family is ready and prepared to hired a lawyer if [the Attorney General does] commit me. I am not going to just sit down and let them take my life away. I have done a lot of work to just let them take my life away. VOICE: Do you ever think about how is it going to be once you get out of here? Werner: It is going to be difficult. I believe that the first month is going to be the hardest. Not because of anything criminal. It is because a lot has changed in the last four years. It is going to be hard to try and get a job. That is why I want to go to school first. Anybody that does know me is going to see me. Word is probably going to get around that I am home. It is just something that I have to deal with. VOICE: Sex offenders are a great target for politics, law enforcement, human rights advocates and the community is general. Some would argue that sex offenders deserve a second chance and that treatment is the answer, many would argue that the only solution is a life sentence. There are those who believe that once you serve your time you should be free to go. How do you feel about that?

Werner: My opinion is put those on “Megan’s Law,” give them a second chance. There are some that deserve to be committed though. They just don’t care. They do whatever they want in this place, let alone what they would do in the streets. I am not against “Megan’s Law.” I am against how it is being run. I am against how they choose who should [be committed] and who doesn’t. That I am against. I was at NJN not too long ago as a part of a process and everything they said was right. That person said that 8 percent of those people deserve to be committed. Give you a rough number of 300 people, 24 of those people deserve to be there, that is a big difference. My opinion is they are trying to fill the beds because they need money, everything revolves around money. Politics, anything… everything revolves around money. But I do feel they should put us in Megan’s law, give me an ankle bracelet and a GPS tracker I don’t care. I am not coming back here, I don’t want to. VOICE: You don’t think you are coming back here? Werner: No. If they allow me another chance I will prove to them that therapy works. Therapy is not only while you are locked up either. It is a lifelong process. I will be coming back here for aftercare therapy. It’s free. I don’t have money to spend on therapist. VOICE: Some people say that sex offenders will only tell you what people want to hear [when they are being evaluated for a tier]. What do you think about that? Werner: It is funny you say that, because that is what politicians do all day long, they tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear. I don’t think there is anything wrong with most of the process of tiering. I think that depending on the crime I really can’t say, because to me it doesn’t matter what tier I am in. I think it is only a problem for sex offenders who want more freedom. I can’t speak for other people, but it doesn’t bother me. Like I said, therapy works in this place. It is not therapy that makes you work, it is the individual. If you don’t want to change, you can sit in groups for ten years. It is like an alcoholic…if you don’t want to stop drinking you are not going to. It is as simple as that. VOICE: Is there anything else you want to say? Werner: I just think that I would love to prove to society that I can make it, that I am not the same person that they see in that paper. That is another thing. In the screening process they are going by your past and paperwork. They are not going by who you are today. They are going by who you were when you got locked up. It may not seem like three years is a lot, but when you do nothing but constantly work on yourself and think about yourself and the things that you have done and how you can change your actions, there are so many things that you can do in order to change. I remember not too long ago on NJN the Attorney General made a statement that I think was a very biased statement… She said, ”I am trying to commit as many sex offenders as possible. That is a politician for you…They give you what you want to hear. I think she was premeditated in what she wants to do. Nothing is going to stop her. It is my opinion.

INVESTIGATIVE SAMPLE 2

Gone Without a Case: Suspicious Elder Deaths Rarely Investigated By Chisun Lee and A.C. Thompson, ProPublica, and Carl Byker, PBS “Frontline” Dec. 21, 2011, 10 a.m. Nothing, it seemed, was unusual about Joseph Shepter’s death. A retired U.S. government scientist, Shepter spent his final two years dwelling in a nursing home in Mountain Mesa, Calif., a small town northeast of Bakersfield. A stroke had paralyzed much of his body, while dementia had eroded his ability to communicate. He died in January 2007 at age 76. On Shepter’s death certificate, Dr. Hoshang Pormir, the nursing home’s chief medical officer, explained that the cause was heart failure brought on by clogged arteries. Shepter’s family had no reason to doubt it. The local coroner never looked into the death. Shepter’s body was interred in a local cemetery. But a tip from a nursing-home staffer would later prompt state officials to re-examine the case and reach a very different conclusion. When investigators reviewed Shepter’s medical records, they determined that he had actually died of a combination of ailments often related to poor care, including an infected ulcer, pneumonia, dehydration and sepsis. Investigators also concluded that Shepter’s demise was hastened by the inappropriate administration of powerful antipsychotic drugs, which can have potentially lethal side effects for seniors. Prosecutors in 2009 charged Pormir and two former colleagues with killing Shepter and two other elderly residents. They’ve pleaded not guilty. The criminal case is ongoing. Health-care regulators have already taken action, severely restricting the doctor’s medical license. The federal government has fined the home nearly $150,000. Shepter’s story illustrates a problem that extends far beyond a single California nursing home. ProPublica and PBS “Frontline” have identified more than three-dozen cases in which the alleged neglect, abuse or even murder of seniors eluded authorities. But for the intervention of whistleblowers, concerned relatives and others, the truth about these deaths might never have come to light.

For more than a year, ProPublica, in concert with other news organizations, has scrutinized the nation’s coroner and medical examiner offices, which are responsible for probing sudden and unusual fatalities. We found that these agencies -- hampered by chronic underfunding, a shortage of trained doctors and a lack of national standards -- have sometimes helped to send innocent people to prison and allowed killers to walk free. When it comes to the elderly, the system errs by omission. If a senior like Shepter dies under suspicious circumstances, there’s no guarantee anyone will ever investigate. Catherine Hawes, a Texas A&M health-policy researcher who has studied elder abuse for the U.S. Department of Justice, described the issue as “a hidden national scandal.” Because of gaps in government data, it’s impossible to say how many suspicious cases have been written off as natural fatalities. However, the limited evidence available points to a significant problem: When investigators in one jurisdiction comprehensively reviewed deaths of older people, they discovered scores of cases in which elders suffered mistreatment. An array of systemic flaws has led to case after case being overlooked: When treating physicians report that a death is natural, coroners and medical examiners almost never investigate. But doctors often get it wrong. In one 2008 study, nearly half the doctors surveyed failed to identify the correct cause of death for an elderly patient with a brain injury caused by a fall. In most states, doctors can fill out a death certificate without ever seeing the body. That explains how a Pennsylvania physician said her 83-year-old patient had died of natural causes when, in fact, he’d been beaten to death by an aide. The doctor never saw the 16-inch bruise that covered the man’s left side. Autopsies of seniors have become increasingly rare even as the population age 65 or older has grown. Between 1972 and 2007, a government analysis found, the share of U.S. autopsies performed on seniors dropped from 37 percent to 17 percent. Dr. Michael Dobersen, a forensic pathologist and the coroner for Arapahoe County, Colo., said he worries about suspicious deaths in nursing homes. “Sometimes, if I don’t want to sleep at night, I think about all the cases that we miss,” Dobersen said. “I’m afraid we’re not looking very hard.” With the graying of the baby boom generation, such concerns will only grow in urgency. Within a few years, nearly onethird of all Americans will be over 60. In a handful of locales, coroners and medical examiners have begun to view older Americans as a vulnerable population whose deaths require extra attention. Some counties have formed elder death review teams that bring special expertise to cases of possible abuse or neglect. In Arkansas, thanks to one crusading coroner, state law requires the review of all nursing-home fatalities, including those blamed on natural causes. But those efforts are the exception. In most places, little is being done to ensure that suspicious senior deaths are being investigated. “We’re where child abuse was 30 years ago,” said Dr. Kathryn Locatell, a geriatrician who specializes in diagnosing elder abuse. “I think it’s ageism -- I think it boils down to that one word. We don’t value old people. We don’t want to think about ourselves getting old.”

Checking the Wrong Box There were two reasons that Joseph Shepter’s passing initially triggered no scrutiny from authorities. He was in a doctor’s care. And his physician classified the death as natural. Across the country, state laws rely on doctors to separate extraordinary fatalities from routine ones, principally by what they record on death certificates. When a doctor encounters an unusual fatality -- a death that may have been caused by homicide or suicide or accident -the physician must report it to the coroner or medical examiner for further investigation. The investigative work can be as minimal as gathering clues from the place where a body was found, or as extensive as a full autopsy -- the dissection and evaluation of a corpse to pinpoint the precise reason for death. In Shepter’s case, Pormir, the nursing-home doctor, checked off a small box on the death certificate indicating that he never contacted the county coroner. There was no autopsy.

The laws assume physicians like Pormir will report deaths accurately and fully, flagging suspicious cases. In reality, though, death certificates are frequently erroneous or incomplete, academic research has shown. A study published last year in The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology found that nearly half of 371 Florida death certificates surveyed had errors in them. Doctors without training in forensics often have trouble determining which cases should be referred to a coroner or medical examiner. In a 2008 study, 225 physicians were asked to determine what killed an elderly man who had fallen and suffered a severe head injury. Just over half of the doctors correctly identified bleeding of the brain as the primary cause of death. Nearly two-thirds didn’t list the fall as a contributing factor. “I knew people were going to get it wrong, but it was a surprise just how poorly people did,” said Dr. Marian Betz, who led the study and teaches medicine at the University of Colorado. Robert Anderson, chief of mortality statistics for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said some doctors don’t grasp the significance of death certificates. “I’ve had instances where the physician just doesn’t understand the importance of what they’re writing down,” said Anderson, who trains doctors in how to certify deaths. “I’m appalled when I hear that.” State officials in Washington and Maryland routinely check the veracity of death certificates, but most states rarely do so, Anderson said. In Seattle, Dr. Richard Harruff has gone a step further. As the chief medical examiner for King County, Harruff launched a program in 2008 to double-check fatalities listed as natural on county death certificates. By 2010, the program had caught 347 serious misdiagnoses. Two cases were actually homicides. Two were suicides. More than 100 were accidental deaths due to falls or choking. “If we want ensure that all death certificates are accurate, there has to be a professional, independent review process,” said Harruff. In Shepter’s case, the death certificate deflected any investigation until an employee came forward with concerns about conditions at the nursing home, a public, 74-bed facility run by the Kern Valley Healthcare District. The same month that Shepter died, a nurse told state officials that staffers were using potent antipsychotic drugs to “chemically restrain” residents with dementia, which can cause unruly and erratic behavior. Her complaint prompted the California Department of Public Health to cite the nursing home for unnecessarily doping 23 seniors and led to the federal fine. It also spurred the California attorney general’s office to open a criminal inquiry. Prosecutors asked Locatell, the elder abuse specialist, to evaluate the medical files of the nursing home’s residents, including Shepter. “I saw all kinds of indicators of neglect,” said Locatell, noting that Shepter had lost almost 20 percent of his body weight over the span of three months. She said she was shocked by the “callousness of the staff towards this man.” In early 2009, prosecutors charged Pormir and two former co-workers with elder abuse that led to the deaths of Shepter and two additional residents, and with mistreating five others. Kern Valley Healthcare District chief executive Timothy McGlew said he could not comment on the case except to say that his staff is cooperating with investigators. The case has not yet gone to trial. Pormir and his co-defendants declined to comment.

For Shepter’s son, the charges of criminal elder abuse came as a terrible surprise. “I had no idea anything was wrong,” said Joseph Shepter III, who goes by Joe. He and his sister have filed a civil lawsuit in Kern County Superior Court against the nursing home, Pormir and other staffers, alleging that they committed elder abuse and violated Shepter’s rights. Pormir and the others have denied the allegations, court records show. Joe Shepter used to think that his father “died a somewhat peaceful death” surrounded by caring professionals. Instead, he now believes, his “father was lying in a hospital bed essentially dying of thirst, unable to express himself -- so people could have a nice, quiet cup of tea.” Signing Off Without Seeing the Body In many states, laws are so lax that doctors can sign off on death certificates without having seen a patient in months or actually viewing the body. As a result, even obvious signs of abuse have gone unnoticed by authorities in some instances. Take the case of William Neff, a diminutive 83-year-old who passed away in an assisted-living facility in Bucks County, Pa. A World War II veteran, Neff suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s disease, which had tangled the delicate fibers within his brain cells, limiting his speech. After Neff died on Sept. 11, 2000, a doctor employed by the facility signed his death certificate, citing a “failure to thrive” due to “dementia” as the reason for his demise. The physician, Anne Whalen, would later testify that she hadn’t seen Neff for 13 days before his death. She wasn’t at the assisted-living home when he died and never saw his corpse. Still, it was perfectly legal in Pennsylvania for Whalen to decide how Neff had died and what should be written on the death certificate. Neff’s family arranged for his body to be transported to a funeral home to be prepared for burial. The moment the funeral home’s director, Jeffrey Thompson, saw the corpse, he knew something was wrong. “I’m no CSI expert, but I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I’ve seen a lot of dead people,” Thompson recalled. “He was all bruised up and purple, and his ribs were all broken.” A bruise stretched from the man’s left hip to the middle of his torso. Thompson contacted the Bucks County Coroner’s Office, urging staffers to perform an autopsy. The autopsy showed that some kind of violent impact had snapped five of Neff’s ribs. One of the broken bones had pierced his left lung, flooding his chest with blood. The damage was fatal. If Thompson hadn’t spoken up, Neff’s injuries probably would never have been detected. “It could’ve fallen through the cracks,” said Joseph Campbell, the Bucks County coroner. The autopsy spurred county prosecutors and police to launch an 18-month criminal investigation, which eventually led them to Heidi Tenzer, an employee at the assisted-living facility. Prosecutors accused Tenzer of stomping on Neff’s chest, charging her with third-degree murder, neglect of a care-dependent person and aggravated assault. In 2003, a jury convicted Tenzer of the charges; three of her former colleagues were convicted of related offenses. Attorney David Zellis prosecuted Tenzer. “Dr. Whalen’s testimony was interesting because she didn’t know the first thing about” Neff’s death, Zellis recalled. Whalen did not return calls from ProPublica and PBS “Frontline” seeking comment. Zellis was astounded that a doctor could legally determine how Neff had died without actually seeing his body. “I was stunned,” said the attorney, who is now in private practice. “To this day, I find it outrageous.”

Ageism and Autopsies Erroneous death certificates and faulty reporting practices are partially responsible for few senior deaths being investigated. But there’s another factor: Many coroners and medical examiners resist looking into these cases. Of the 1.8 million seniors who died in 2008, post-mortem exams were performed on just 2 percent. The rate is even lower -- less than 1 percent -- for elders who passed away in nursing homes or care facilities. To a certain extent, the statistics reflect medically reasonable assumptions. The death of a young person is inherently unusual. By the time people reach their 60s, 70s and beyond, aging and disease have caught up to them, and death is more expected. But Hawes, the Texas A&M professor who studies elder abuse, thinks the numbers also reflect bias. For a 2005 report to the Justice Department, Hawes interviewed 40 coroners and medical examiners about how they handle deaths among the elderly. In anonymous sessions, they voiced deep reluctance to autopsy seniors. “Many of them made the blanket assumption that when an elderly person dies, it must have been because ‘their time had come,’” she said. “But they don’t make that assumption about any other part of the population.” In many jurisdictions, coroners and medical examiners are already struggling to autopsy the bodies coming into their morgues. Bringing in more seniors would further stretch their overtaxed resources. “Coroners will say, ‘We don’t have enough money to autopsy every old person who dies,’” said Dr. Laura Mosqueda, a professor of geriatrics at the University of California, Irvine, and co-director of the Orange County Elder Abuse Forensic Center. The problem, she said, “is that coroners around the country are using the fact that they can’t autopsy all older people who die as an excuse not to autopsy any older person who dies.” She trains coroners and their investigators to zero in on signs of abuse and target their efforts strategically. Some death investigators think concerns about elder abuse and neglect are overblown. Dr. Jon Thogmartin, the chief medical examiner for Florida’s Pasco and Pinellas counties, takes on more than 500 senior deaths per year, ordering full autopsies or checking bodies for external signs of injury. Thogmartin said “95 percent” of the elder abuse allegations he comes across “are completely false,” and that many of the claims originate with personal injury attorneys. But others in the field worry that some coroners and medical examiners may not be distinguishing fatal conditions caused by disease and aging from those caused by abuse and neglect. When younger people wind up in the morgue, death investigators typically have a clear trail to follow. Was the person shot? Killed in a car crash? Beaten? Did he or she overdose on painkillers? With seniors, however, they must hunt for more subtle clues. Harruff, the King County, Wash., medical examiner, teaches seminars about finding the forensic signs of elder abuse or neglect. Some of his colleagues “don’t take jurisdiction over neglect cases,” Harruff said. “I take the attitude that these are potential homicides.” When Harruff scrutinizes an older person, he checks out the stomach to see if the person had eaten recently. He tests eyeball fluid to see if the person was getting enough to drink. Often, seniors who are neglected or abused are malnourished or dehydrated. Harruff takes X-rays to search for broken bones, but he also looks for evidence of osteoporosis, which can cause bones to

fracture easily without any sort of violence. Harruff pays close attention to the body’s hygiene and cleanliness, and takes note of what the person was wearing. He gets concerned when he finds a senior clad in filthy clothes who hasn’t bathed recently. It’s never simple separating the damage done by natural processes from damage done by other people. “In an elderly individual, invariably there’s a combination of processes -- if there’s neglect, there’s usually disease and neglect,” he said. Decubitus ulcers, better known as pressure sores or bed sores, are a possible indication of abuse or neglect. If a person remains in one position for too long, pressure on the skin can cause it to break down. Left untreated, the sores will expand, causing surrounding flesh to die and spreading infection throughout the body. People with limited mobility are at greater risk of pressure sores. For patients in nursing homes, sores can mean that staffers aren’t turning or moving them enough, a serious violation of accepted standards of care. Federal data show that more than 7 percent of long-term nursing-home residents have pressure ulcers. The wounds can kill, notes Dr. James Lauridson, the retired chief medical examiner for the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. “Very often, that is the way these folks die,” he said. “It is a preventable mechanism of death that we’re missing.” Lauridson, who now performs autopsies for private clients, added, “Occasionally, there are elderly people who are being assaulted. But this issue of pressure ulcers is a far, far bigger issue, and really nationwide.”

‘I Don’t Think We Understood the Level of Poor Care We Would Find’ There is a model for conducting elder death investigations effectively. It has taken root in Arkansas, thanks to the unyielding efforts of a man named Mark Malcolm. In the late 1990s, while serving as the coroner of Pulaski County, which includes Little Rock and the surrounding area, Malcolm received a string of complaints about seniors dying in nursing homes under suspicious circumstances. He ordered the exhumation of six people, all of whom had supposedly died of natural causes. The autopsy results were stunning: Four seniors had been killed by suffocation; two had died from medication errors.

maltreatment may have contributed to a death.

Malcolm’s experiences prompted him to push for a new state law requiring nursing homes to report all deaths, including those believed to be natural, to the local coroner. The law, enacted in 1999, authorizes coroners to probe all nursing-home deaths, and requires them to alert law enforcement and state regulators if they think

In the first four and a half years after the measure’s passage, Malcolm reported 86 deaths to other authorities. The number represented a small fraction of the roughly 4,000 nursing-home deaths he and his staff investigated, but it was big enough to suggest there were widespread care problems. “I don’t think we understood the level of poor care that we would find. It came fast, it came furious,” recalled Malcolm, who now runs a private disaster management consultancy. After a death, Malcolm’s investigators would visit the nursing home, taking photographs, reviewing medical records and looking for potential signs of poor care such as multiple pressure sores, undocumented injuries or unsanitary conditions. They found such problems repeatedly at Riley’s Oak Hill Manor North in North Little Rock.

Lela Burns remembers watching her mother, Irene Askew, rapidly deteriorate during the four and a half months she spent at Riley’s in 2000. Admitted for rehabilitation after hip surgery, Askew soon developed ghastly pressure sores, including one that resulted in the amputation of her lower right leg. Askew died on Nov. 17, 2000. Malcolm ordered an autopsy, which concluded that another massive pressure sore had contributed to her death. The hole was the size of a fist and so deep it exposed bone on her lower back. “It was a horrible place,” said Burns. “You think to yourself, ‘How could this happen?’ It was just devastating.” The home came to a financial settlement with Askew’s family, the terms of which are confidential. The same year Askew died, another Riley’s resident died with five pressure sores so severe they were deemed to be potentially life-threatening. Yet another died with 28 pressure sores. Riley’s executives told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that they had done everything possible to meet government standards and had an explanation for every complaint. Malcolm’s investigations led state regulators to shut down the facility, in part because of the home’s failure to prevent and treat pressure sores. A 2004 review of Malcolm’s efforts by the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that the “serious, undetected care problems identified by the Pulaski County coroner are likely a national problem not limited to Arkansas.” Malcolm’s initiative prompted Medicare inspectors to start citing nursing homes for care-related deaths and to undergo additional elder-abuse training. Still, nursing homes inspections are not designed to identify problem deaths. The federal government relies on state death-reporting laws and local coroners and medical examiners to root out suspicious cases, said Thomas Hamilton, director of the Survey and Certification Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. So far, other states have not followed Arkansas’ lead. Its law remains the only one of its type in the country, according to experts who track legislation that affects elders.

Another Approach While Malcolm focused on nursing homes, investigators in some communities are developing new strategies for pinpointing suspicious deaths that occur in private residences. In 2007, Ingham County, Mich., formed an elder death review team made up of police, prosecutors, adult protective services, the medical examiner, emergency personnel and others to evaluate cases. Across the country, several counties have created such panels, including King County in Washington, and San Bernardino, San Diego and Los Angeles counties in California. It’s an idea borrowed from child-abuse investigators, who have established similar multidisciplinary teams to probe the deaths of young children. Shortly after Ingham County’s team began meeting, Margaret Robinson, 94, died at her home in Lansing, the county’s largest city. Robinson had been living with a man paid $220 a month by the state to care for her. Since Robinson died at home rather than in a medical facility, a police officer paid a visit to the scene, as is customary in most places. Piles of clutter littered the home, and the place reeked of dog feces and cigarette smoke. Robinson’s shriveled body, clad only in a T-shirt and an adult diaper, lay on a bed. The officer would later testify that he didn’t spot “any type of foul play,” so he called the medical examiner to collect the body. That’s when Connie McQuaid, an investigator with the medical examiner’s office, got involved. Fresh from a training session on how to detect elder abuse, McQuaid spent the night combing through Robinson’s medical records.

She spotted “red flags” in the files, she recalled in an interview. Robinson’s paid attendant, Ira Gudith, had failed to provide her with medication or diapers. Doctors had noted that Robinson looked “very thin” and emitted a “foul odor.” McQuaid said she was bothered by “what appeared to be a lack of concern about her well-being. ... He was not attending to her daily needs.” McQuaid voiced her concerns to supervisors and police detectives. The medical examiner ordered an autopsy. Forensic pathologist Brian Hunter found that Robinson was emaciated, weighing just 82 pounds, dehydrated and covered with pressure sores festering with staph and E. coli bacteria. Her brain displayed the signs of advanced Alzheimer’s disease. These problems contributed to her death. But the chief cause, Hunter said, “came as a surprise.” Tests of Robinson’s blood showed lethal amounts of morphine. No doctor had prescribed it for her, and it seemed impossible that in her bed-ridden state Robinson could have gotten the drug herself. Criminal charges quickly followed, and in October 2007, Gudith pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He appealed the conviction and lost. Gudith’s lawyer, Paul Toman, said in an interview that his client had struggled to meet Robinson’s mounting needs. “Ira’s just a simple fellow,” Toman said. “He was in way over his head.” For Ingham County, Gudith’s arrest proved the value of its new approach. “Without the elder death review team, this case would not have gotten the attention of the autopsy team. It would not have gotten the attention of the prosecutor’s office,” McQuaid said. “This man would have gotten away with murder.” ProPublica’s Krista Kjellman Schmidt, Joe Kokenge, Sergio Hernandez and Marshall Allen contributed to this report. This spring, PBS “Frontline” and ProPublica will explore how flaws in the American system of death investigation have left the elderly vulnerable to neglect, abuse and even murder and how a small cadre of innovators are working to bring such cases to light.

The student newspaper of Loyola University, New Orleans, LA

INVESTIGATIVE SAMPLE 3

A series on Sexuality: Baby Steps This article is the first in a four part series on sexuality.

By Precious Esie As a pregnant student, Sarah Nguyen believed she was no different from anyone else. “I never thought they (the university) would help me,” she said. “I thought I was just another student.” Nguyen, who was a general studies sophomore, is not the only one who felt this way. Jessica Williams, A’11, was also pregnant last semester and had a similar view. “The only difference was that I had a big belly,” Williams said. Though Nguyen and Williams shared similar feelings, university officials said there are resources available for pregnant students. Student Affairs committee focuses on struggling students The Care and Concern Committee is a Student Affairs committee comprised of representatives from Residential Life, University Police, University Counseling Center, Student Health, University Ministry and the Women’s Resource Center. Members discuss ways to help students with issues that could prevent them from doing well at the university, including academic and social issues. Robert Reed, assistant vice president for Student Affairs, said the committee was created to collectively reach solutions for those students. “As soon as a student in that situation came to our attention, then I’m sure they would come up and they would be added to the list of students we are concerned about,” he said. These students can include those who are pregnant. “If the student lived in the residence halls, of course Residential Life would be involved and I’m sure they would want to make sure the young woman was getting pre-natal care,” Reed said. Once a pregnant student notifies Student Affairs of her condition, Reed said they ask general questions such as: When are you expecting? Are you getting pre-natal care? Has that been arranged? “We have to find out a lot more information before I can say, ‘This is what we’re going to do, this is not what we’re going to do,’” Reed said. “We, a Catholic, Jesuit university, support life, so we make arrangements and make sure that it is going to occur.” Reed said it is possible for pregnant students to take a medical withdrawal from classes in the middle of the semester to give birth. Some do not need to withdraw and give birth in the summer, then return in the fall, for instance. Others can take a medical withdrawal for a semester or even a year, depending on the situation.

“We’re hoping that, as a general rule, the university community be open about assisting and supporting people in whatever situation they are in. We’re hoping that information comes to us,” he said. But not all pregnant students will come forward to provide such information, possibly because they don’t know it’s an option. “I wasn’t in danger of failing any of my classes,” Williams said. She also said this may have been a reason why she didn’t seek help. Loyola Life aims to assist pregnant students Help wouldn’t necessarily come from administrators. Loyola Life, a student organization that promotes a consistent ethic of life from conception until natural death, is one option available. Margaret Liederbach, economics junior, is a former copresident and current member of the organization. “We find ourselves in a place between advocacy and activism,” she said. The organization hosted a forum in spring 2010, “What Would Loyola Do for You?” which addressed the university’s resources for pregnant students. The organization hopes to serve as a liaison for students to other resources. Liederbach said one of Loyola Life’s longterm goals is to compile the university’s resources for pregnant students, and include resources outside the university that conform to Jesuit ideals, such as Woman’s New Life Center. “They have a lot of resources for crisis pregnancy,” she said. These resources include free pregnancy testing, counseling and limited free ultrasounds. Loyola Life wants the university to provide more accommodations to students with children, which include high chairs and booster seats in the Orleans Room and on-campus parent housing, Liederbach said. University departments offer various resources Student Health Services is another place students can go. They offer pregnancy testing, well-woman exams, prescriptions for pre-natal vitamins and referrals to OB-GYN specialists for prenatal care. “And we also provide education on smoking cessation, alcohol and drug cessation and medications to avoid,” said Alicia Bourque, director of Counseling and Health Services. Student Health provides student health insurance, which covers pregnancy, Bourque said, but only one person in the past three years—the wife of a student—used it. Bourque said the Counseling Center offers “supportive counseling related to the adjustment, emotional processing, problem solving around parenting and referrals to parenting classes.” “If students are considering adoption, we’ll assist them with referrals, as well,” she said. Another resource is the Whelan Children’s Center in Mercy Hall, a daycare that gives priority to the Loyola community— faculty, staff and students are in the first tier. However, space is limited and the center’s waiting list usually has about 100 names. Karen Reichard, Women’s Resource Center director, acknowledged the Whelan Center, but said for some students, that option is not financially feasible. Regardless, the university wants to help, she said. Reichard said the Women’s Resource Center acts as a voice for advocacy, University Ministry caters to emotional and spiritual needs, Student Health and the Counseling Center are resources for mental and physical needs and Financial Aid will help students with financial issues. “There’s a wide network for students to tap into,” she said. Despite advertising efforts, Reichard said she does not know why students don’t know about these resources.

“We advertise, we have interns, we have a website,” she said. “I can’t tell you why students don’t know the resources we have.” Bourque said she believes this could be due to students having outside resources, and they may not need to use the ones offered by the university. “They might have their own OB-GYN. They might find support in their friends and family and might not need counseling,” she said. Reichard said she encourages students to talk to her. “I’m also always open to any student who wants to have a conversation about it,” she said. Nguyen was a commuter and said she believes her situation would have been different if she lived on campus. “I probably would have tried to find help,” she said. Williams, who also was a commuter, agreed. “I would have been in the know more,” she said, if she lived on campus. Both Nguyen and Williams gave birth this past summer. Nguyen said she plans to return to Loyola in the spring.

INVESTIGATIVE SAMPLE 4

University makes millions off credit card debt By Daniel Burnett A multi-million dollar deal cut between the University and Bank of America — one that pays the University big bucks to sell student, alumni and faculty contact information to bank solicitors — pays even bigger bucks if those using the Bank of America credit cards go into debt. According to documents obtained by The Red & Black, the University received more than $12.5 million from the contract since 1999. And as personal finances across the country continued to deteriorate, the agreement netted nearly $1.3 million — the most since the agreement began — in fiscal year 2010 alone. The pact requires the Arch Foundation, the University’s main fundraising arm, to provide Bank of America with a list of at least 180,000 names, addresses and telephone numbers that the contract refers to as “members.” According to the contract, members can be nearly everyone associated with the University: parents, donors, season ticket holders and every student who has not opted out of the University directory. “This is just another example of how UGA has lost sight of its actual job, which is to educate, and has become like a giant corporation focused on financial gain,” said Amanda Reinke, a senior from Augusta. “I think that’s audacious of UGA to go out and give information away like that, and then to keep it from us.” “The target market for our collegiate affinity cards are alumni and team fans,” wrote Betty Riess, a spokeswoman for Bank of America, in an e-mail to The Red & Black. Overall, Riess said only 2 percent of accounts were held by students, and the agreement between the bank and the University is nothing unique — Bank of America has similar agreements with about 700 other colleges and universities. At the University, of the 23,000 total affinity accounts last fall, about 1,200 were student accounts, said Tom Landrum, senior vice president for external affairs. That’s a little more than 5 percent of student-held affinity accounts. An affinity agreement is a mutual contract between two organizations. At the University, credit cards in the affinity program can be emblazoned with either the Arch or Uga. In 2006, Cynthia Coyle, executive director of the Arch Foundation, signed an addendum to the agreement ensuring the organization would net at least $1 million per year as an advance against future royalties. At that time, the benefits of the contract were transferred from the UGA Foundation to the Arch Foundation and will last until 2013. Coyle said once Bank of America pays the Arch Foundation, the funds are equally split between the Athletic Association, the Alumni Association and the Arch Foundation.

“The Arch Foundation gets one-third,” she said. “We allocate it out immediately.” The contract nets the University $1 per student card opened, plus 0.4 percent of all retail transactions. According to the contract, if the student has a balance at the end of every 12-month period, the University collects another $1. However, Debbie Dietzler, executive director of alumni relations, says that’s not the case. Dietzler referenced a 2006 addendum that she said no longer requires the card to carry a balance in order for the University to collect. “From my understanding, what they’re considering the renewal is not about the balance, rather [that it’s] an active card,” she said. But according to the 2006 addendum, no such change exists. “They are not making a great deal of money from that,” Landrum said. “We generate most of our funding from just the original agreement [not renewal funding].” The story is similar for non-student credit cards — $1 per account opened, 0.5 percent of all retail transactions and an additional $1 if a balance remains on the card at the end of every 12-month period. Landrum said affinity cards were not originally created for students, but for alumni who wanted to show school pride and raise money for their university at the same time. “It really comes down to an adult relationship,” he said. “That in my mind is a responsible action by an individual who wants to help his or her school.” According to the contract, the annual percentage rate for a non-student member is a variable rate of prime plus 7.9 percent and 9.9 percent for student members. But Riess wrote in an e-mail “the rate on the Student Visa Platinum card is 14.24 percent plus Prime.” However, in documents obtained by The Red & Black, no change of the original rate was noted. The addendum states Bank of America will not have to pay the Arch Foundation the guaranteed $1 million if it is prevented from conducting at least five direct mail campaigns and three telemarketing campaigns to the full list of members. According to the contract, Bank of America is permitted to hold on-campus promotions at major events, as well as at least seven home football games and three home basketball games. However, Riess said bank representatives haven’t conducted tabling events “for some time,” and haven’t mailed information to students for a couple of years. Landrum said that while Bank of America is still permitted to engage in on-campus solicitation — as long as it follows University guidelines and recent credit card solicitation laws — its appearance on campus “has been pretty spotty.” He added the majority of students who sign up for the cards do so at banking centers, not at Tate Plaza tables. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, bringing sweeping change to the way banks can solicit to consumers. According to the legislation, people younger than 21 would not be permitted to sign up for a credit card without a co-signer or showing their means for repayment. Additionally, the free gifts from banks to sign up for a card — such as the ones used to entice students in Tate Plaza — were prohibited when the legislation took effect in February. “It’s a good thing that they can’t really entice you into it,” said Ashley Puckett, a senior from Statham, adding the agreement negatively affects her trust in the University. “It’s your own decision whether you want to get a card or not.” If Puckett were sitting in the same Tate Plaza location a few years ago as she was Wednesday afternoon, she may have seen tables of Bank of America representatives offering T-shirts, hats and Frisbees to students in exchange for filling out

credit card applications. Puckett said she, too, found herself in debt — to the tune of three credit cards. Now down to two due to her part-time job, she offered some advice to students tempted by creditors. “Don’t get more than one,” she said. “Don’t spend more than you can pay off.” As debt among students increases, so does the amount the Arch Foundation receives from the agreement. For fiscal year 2010, the Arch Foundation netted $1,294,855.62 — a more than 10 percent increase from the previous year. The University netted $1,168,808 in FY 2009 and $1,013,048 in FY 2008. The money raised from the contract for the Arch Foundation goes into a non-discretionary fund, and “every bit of it goes back into supporting the activity of the Arch Foundation,” Landrum said. One of those activities includes the President’s Club event, a $25,000 to $30,000 gala where they “invite those donors to the University of Georgia and we invite them to a reception and tell them how their funds are used,” Landrum said. John McCosh, spokesman for CredAbility, a nonprofit credit counseling organization, said it’s not necessarily a bad idea for students to have credit cards, provided it comes with a low credit limit of about $1,000. “Students are having more financial problems, just like everyone else is, in part because their parents are less likely to come to the rescue if there’s a problem,” McCosh said. His advice for students — create a budget. “If you start to get in trouble, buckle down and try not to carry these habits along later in life,” said McCosh, who said he often advises clients with tens of thousands of dollars of debt who fell into bad financial habits in their teens and young 20s. McCosh stressed when someone charges a purchase on a credit card, they are taking out a loan. And like most loans, credit cards come with interest rates. “In this economy, a good [interest rate] would be probably the low teens,” McCosh said, adding the 14.24 percent interest rate plus prime from Bank of America’s student card is “not bad.” Riess said students in the Bank of America program will not see an increased interest rate for any reason, no matter what. “We take a fair and responsible approach to lending,” wrote Riess when asked to provide a statement regarding the University profiting from student debt. “[A]nd, when we do provide credit cards to students under 21 who have the ability to pay or a guarantor with such ability, we have different terms and a strong educational component.” Other universities, such as the University of Michigan, have since made agreements with Bank of America to cease solicitation of affinity credit cards to students. While the University of Georgia has yet to formalize any such agreement, Landrum said he “would be open to discussing with Bank of America any addendum.” Meanwhile, Coyle said she received word from Bank of America that they are not “actively soliciting any student right now.” “We’re very concerned and very cautious with our students — they’re very strict about who they give a card to,” Coyle said, adding roughly half of student applicants are denied credit. But Landrum says the responsibility belongs in the hands of the person swiping the card. “As far as the University profiting from the card because of debt, I don’t have any hard data on that,” Landrum said. “I see that as a part of a contract that is a student’s decision as to whether or not that student wants to have a card, and whether they want to have a balance. I don’t see that as taking advantage of them.”

The student newspaper of Western Washington University

INVESTIGATIVE SAMPLE 5

Audit: high-level administrator squandered funds WRITTEN BY BENJAMIN WOODARD

State auditors have concluded a yearlong investigation of Doug Nord, the former executive director of the Center for International Studies, after an anonymous whistleblower tipped off the State Auditor’s Office. This marks the third investigation of Nord and his programs since 2005. State auditors have concluded a yearlong investigation of Doug Nord, the former executive director of the Center for International Studies, after an anonymous whistleblower tipped off the State Auditor’s Office. This marks the third investigation of Nord and his programs since 2005. The state auditor vetted claims that Nord failed to follow state travel regulations, and that he used his position as an executive director to secure time off without submitting proper paperwork for his absences from the university, according to the report released on Sept. 13. Under both assertions, the auditor “found reasonable cause to believe improper governmental action occurred.” Nord resigned his position in early August while the investigation was still in progress. His resignation went into effect Sept. 1. Provost Catherine Riordan said Nord is still a full-time, tenured faculty member assigned to the Provost’s Office. He will help write grant applications for external funding to the university. He is currently working for an annual salary of $81,900, said Paul Cocke, director of University Communications. Previously, as executive director, Nord made an annual salary of $105,000, according to the report. Cocke said the auditor’s report did not find that Nord committed fraud. Nord did not immediately respond to e-mails or phone calls. A staff member who worked under Nord said it has been easier to breathe now that Nord resigned his position at the center. The employee wishes to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation because Nord still works at the university. Since Nord was hired as the center’s executive director in 2007, the employee said working for him has been excruciating. “It has been almost three years of horrible, horrible management,” the staff member said. “I really hope he doesn’t get to walk away from this. I really hope he doesn’t find another job somewhere. I hope that no one else has to deal with it.” The report covers 22 trips Nord took from Dec. 1, 2007, to June 17, 2009, which cost Western more than $38,000. Based on their investigation, the auditors found inaccurate dates and conference information on travel forms. In some instances, Nord only attended portions of university-paid conferences. Auditors also found that Nord would sometimes arrive days early to a conference and leave days after the end of the events. They noted that although Western did not always pay travel expenses for those days, Nord still received his salary. The report noted that when Nord submitted his résumé to the university, he listed a job title at his previous employer, Wright State University, that did not exist, according to Wright State’s Department of Human Resources. The nonexistent title listed was “Special Assistant to the Provost for Internationalizing the Curriculum,” according to the report. The report found that Western paid for $1,410.51 in parking charges, and questioned whether the charges were a wise use of taxpayer money.

Western’s internal audit, conducted in 2008, was released Jan. 8, 2009, in a 10-page report. The report addresses complaints from three Western employees about Nord allegedly misusing university financial and employee resources, being extensively absent from campus and not properly reporting time he spent away from the university. Nord’s previous employer, Wright State University in Ohio, conducted a similar audit when Nord was the executive director of Wright State’s international education programs. After that audit was released in mid-2005, and with strong encouragement from Wright State’s provost, Nord resigned as executive director, according to a follow-up report to Wright State’s audit. Western hired Nord on Dec. 1, 2007, as the executive director of the Center for International Studies, which was a renewable 12-month position. Nord’s second term ended Dec. 1, 2009; his contract was renewed. Ann Carlson, former special assistant to Nord, said she brought concerns to Western’s administration over Nord’s extensive absences, questionable travel expenditures and improper allocation of budget money. “During the four months I worked for Dr. Nord, I — along with other employees — became concerned when we observed what we believed were breaches of the state ethics laws,” Carlson said last November. She said her intention was not to start a “witch hunt” but only to come forward with legitimate concerns about unethical actions of a state employee. “I think the university is going to be better for having done some self-examination and a little housecleaning, instead of sweeping these concerns under the rug and then hoping nobody trips over them,” she said. After Carlson and her colleagues expressed their concerns to the administration, Carlson was terminated from Western on Nov. 8, 2008. “All I can say is that the audit speaks for itself,” she said. Carlson could not comment extensively on her experience because she filed a Standard Tort Claim — which is a precursor to a lawsuit — against Western in December 2009, and an amended claim Aug. 31, 2010. The claim is for $3 million in damages, including discrimination and retaliation against whistleblowing by Nord and former Provost Dennis Murphy. The claim also mentions alleged Nord inflicted emotional distress on Carlson throughout her employment and firing. Murphy could not be immediately reached for comment. Ed Vajda, director for East Asian studies at the Center for International Studies, said Nord is enhancing the center’s visibility in his travels. Vajda said he has worked with Nord on a number of projects in Asia, including a trip to South Korea, Mongolia and Japan. “I’d swear in court that he really did a good job, and if I’d gone on that trip on my own, I could not have done nearly all the things that we did,” Vajda said. “And that was important for preparation for the grant we got.” Vajda said he and Nord co-authored a two-year grant worth $175,000. Vajda said Nord wrote most of it because of his past experience securing grants for international programs. In October 2009, the center received the U.S. Department of Education’s grant. At Wright State, Nord attained a number of grants. According to the Wright State internal audit, however, Nord charged incorrect accounts for grant expenditures. When Wright State’s audit was released, Nord corrected his mistakes. The audit reports Nord reimbursed the university for trips to Carlsbad, Calif., and Alaska. In total, the audit found $13,787 in owed taxpayer dollars, and according to a follow-up to Wright State’s audit, Nord reimbursed all owed money. According to the follow-up report, much of Wright State’s University Center for International Education policy was revamped by its new director, Michelle Streeter-Ferarri, to ensure grant, expenditure and travel compliance by all international center employees. Provost Riordan said that in light of the state audit, Western will train employees about parking guidelines when traveling. University travel will also be monitored more closely, “including time away from campus, itineraries and expenditures,” ac-

cording to the university response in the state auditor’s report. “We do have pretty good policies in place and we follow those and watch them carefully ever since we did an internal audit before I got here a couple years ago, which was evidence that we really needed to pay attention to these kinds of things,” Riordan said. “So we continue to pay attention to everybody’s travel. “We’re always vigilant about this kind of thing, especially in areas like international education where people in that center, as well as faculty, are working internationally. We’re expecting them to travel — to take student groups overseas and that kind of thing. The expenses can be high. We are always careful about that.” The staff employee in the center said all that has happened while working under Nord is in the past and a new future lies ahead for international education at Western. “The last few years working with Doug have been extremely difficult and challenging,” the employee said. “I really hope that he doesn’t get to walk away from this and that the university will take the appropriate action.” Excerpts from the State Auditor’s Whistleblower report Travels to Sweden In December 2007, Nord traveled to Umeå University in Sweden to discuss a potential exchange program between Western and Umeå, according to the report. He returned in 2009 to complete the exchange agreement. His previous employer, Wright State University in Ohio, had an exchange program with Umeå, and because of Nord’s “long-standing relationship with the university in Umeå and the fact that he was already familiar with its curriculum and campus,” the auditor questions in the report whether these travel were a prudent use of taxpayer money. Trips to Vancouver and Victoria The report gave three examples of Nord staying overnight in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Victoria, British Columbia, when he could have saved taxpayer money by driving the extra 50 miles home. In November 2008, Nord traveled to Victoria to brief government officials on the United States election and to discuss projects between Western and the Canadian government, according to the report. He told the investigators his “trip benefited the university by emphasizing its expertise on politics. He stayed the night in Victoria, and he said the British Columbia government paid for lodging. Western, however, paid $356.22 for meals, mileage, parking and ferries. The report concludes that because of the distance between Whatcom County and British Columbia, it’s questionable “whether an overnight stay is a prudent use of taxpayers’ resources.” Conference Planning in San Diego When Nord was the vice president of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, he planned the association’s November 2009 conference in San Diego, Calif. According to the report, Nord made three trips to San Diego, totaling about 18 days. The investigators interviewed a former vice president of the association who planned a previous conference. He said one visit to the conference location was sufficient, and that he was able to plan the rest by phone and e-mail. This, too, is questioned in the report as a legitimate use of taxpayers’ resources. Parking charges The auditor found the university paid $1,410.51 in parking fees during the 18 months under investigation, and questions whether it was a “prudent use of taxpayers’ resources.” For example, Nord took a nine-day trip to Sweden and Norway in August 2008 and left his car at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The auditor found Western paid $189 for the parking. He also left his car at the Bellingham International Airport during a two-week trip to Asia in March 2009; Western paid $130 for the parking. Leave Slips

Western policy requires administrators to submit leave slips, according to the state whistleblower report. The auditors found that Nord, as an administrator, did not submit any leave slips for proper accounting of his time away from the office. Westernâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s internal audit, conducted in 2008, came to the same conclusion. According to the report, the university trained Nord, during his first week of employment, how to properly submit leave slips.

100

PROBLEMATIC ARTICLES

101

BROKEN ARTICLE!

This article is included because it is not as successful as it could be.

As you read:

Determine what type of article it is. What elements should this article contain? Decide what aspects are working and which are not.

Two Classes, Divided by ‘I Do’ By JASON DePARLE

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Jessica Schairer has so much in common with her boss, Chris Faulkner, that a visitor to the day care center they run might get them confused. They are both friendly white women from modest Midwestern backgrounds who left for college with conventional hopes of marriage, motherhood and career. They both have children in elementary school. They pass their days in similar ways: juggling toddlers, coaching teachers and swapping small secrets that mark them as friends. They even got tattoos together. Though Ms. Faulkner, as the boss, earns more money, the difference is a gap, not a chasm. But a friendship that evokes parity by day becomes a study of inequality at night and a testament to the way family structure deepens class divides. Ms. Faulkner is married and living on two paychecks, while Ms. Schairer is raising her children by herself. That gives the Faulkner family a profound advantage in income and nurturing time, and makes their children statistically more likely to finish college, find good jobs and form stable marriages. Ms. Faulkner goes home to a trim subdivision and weekends crowded with children’s events. Ms. Schairer’s rent consumes more than half her income, and she scrapes by on food stamps. “I see Chris’s kids — they’re in swimming and karate and baseball and Boy Scouts, and it seems like it’s always her or her husband who’s able to make it there,” Ms. Schairer said. “That’s something I wish I could do for my kids. But number one, that stuff costs a lot of money and, two, I just don’t have the time.” The economic storms of recent years have raised concerns about growing inequality and questions about a core national faith, that even Americans of humble backgrounds have a good chance of getting ahead. Most of the discussion has focused on labor market forces like falling blue-collar wages and lavish Wall Street pay. But striking changes in family structure have also broadened income gaps and posed new barriers to upward mobility. College-educated Americans like the Faulkners are increasingly likely to marry one another, compounding their growing advantages in pay. Less-educated women like Ms. Schairer, who left college without finishing her degree, are growing less likely to marry at all, raising children on pinched paychecks that come in ones, not twos. Estimates vary widely, but scholars have said that changes in marriage patterns — as opposed to changes in individual earnings — may account for as much as 40 percent of the growth in certain measures of inequality. Long a nation of economic extremes, the United States is also becoming a society of family haves and family have-nots, with marriage and its rewards evermore confined to the fortunate classes.

102

Broken Cont.

“It is the privileged Americans who are marrying, and marrying helps them stay privileged,” said Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University. About 41 percent of births in the United States occur outside marriage, up sharply from 17 percent three decades ago. But equally sharp are the educational divides, according to an analysis by Child Trends, a Washington research group. Less than 10 percent of the births to college-educated women occur outside marriage, while for women with high school degrees or less the figure is nearly 60 percent. Long concentrated among minorities, motherhood outside marriage now varies by class about as much as it does by race. It is growing fastest in the lower reaches of the white middle class — among women like Ms. Schairer who have some postsecondary schooling but no four-year degree. While many children of single mothers flourish (two of the last three presidents had mothers who were single during part of their childhood), a large body of research shows that they are more likely than similar children with married parents to experience childhood poverty, act up in class, become teenage parents and drop out of school. Sara McLanahan, a Princeton sociologist, warns that family structure increasingly consigns children to “diverging destinies.” Married couples are having children later than they used to, divorcing less and investing heavily in parenting time. By contrast, a growing share of single mothers have never married, and many have children with more than one man. “The people with more education tend to have stable family structures with committed, involved fathers,” Ms. McLanahan said. “The people with less education are more likely to have complex, unstable situations involving men who come and go.” She said, “I think this process is creating greater gaps in these children’s life chances.” Ms. Schairer’s life offers a vivid example of how rapidly norms have changed. She grew up in a small town outside Ann Arbor, where her life revolved around church and school and everyone she knew was married. “I thought, ‘I’ll meet someone, and we’ll marry and have kids and the house and the white picket fence,’ ” she said. “That’s what I wanted. That’s what I still want.” She got pregnant during her first year of college, left school and stayed in a troubled relationship that left her with three children when it finally collapsed six years ago. She has had little contact with the children’s father and receives no child support. With an annual income of just under $25,000, Ms. Schairer barely lifts her children out of poverty, but she is not one to complain. “I’m in this position because of decisions I made,” she said. She buys generic cereal at about half the brand-name price, takes the children to church every week and posts their happy moments on her Facebook page. Inequality is a word she rarely uses, though her family life is a showcase of its broadening reach. “Two incomes would certainly help with the bills,” she said. “But it’s parenting, too. I wish I could say, ‘Call your dad.’ ”

Path to Single Motherhood The van with the cracked windshield arrived on a recent day at 7:30 a.m., and three people emerged, the smallest stifling yawns. Several days a week, Ms. Schairer opens the child care center 45 minutes before she can send her two youngest children to school. Bored children in work spaces make mornings tense. Savannah, 7, crossed the play area on stilts. Steavon, 10, threw a ball. As parents with infants and toddlers hurried past, Ms. Schairer chided the two to stay out of the way. “They’re really not supposed to be here,” she said. Steavon has Asperger syndrome, a mild form of autism that can lead to sharp mood swings. He slumped on her desk, wanting $2 to buy a bagel at school. Ms. Schairer does not carry cash — one way not to spend it — and handed him pretzels from home. “I don’t like those!” he said, shoving them away. Ms. Schairer is known for a spotless desk. Steavon found a leaky pen.

103

Broken Cont.

“I’m ready for you to go,” she said. Time away is money lost — Ms. Schairer punched a clock by the door — so she hurried the children to school and returned with a look of relief. A stop in Ms. Faulkner’s office brought a bit of rejuvenating gossip: two teachers were having a tiff. Adult diversions are absent at home. “I talk to myself a lot,” Ms. Schairer said. Although she grew up in the 1990s, Ms. Schairer’s small-town childhood had a 1950s feel. Her father drove a beer truck, her mother served as church trustee and her grandparents lived next door. She knew no one rich, no one poor and no one raising children outside of marriage. “It was just the way it was,” she said. William Penn University, eight hours away in Iowa, offered a taste of independence and a spot on the basketball team. Her first thought when she got pregnant was “My mother’s going to kill me.” Abortion crossed her mind, but her boyfriend, an African-American student from Arkansas, said they should start a family. They agreed that marriage should wait until they could afford a big reception and a long gown. Their odds were not particularly good: nearly half the unmarried parents living together at a child’s birth split up within five years, according to Child Trends. Ms. Schairer has trouble explaining, even to herself, why she stayed so long with a man who she said earned little, berated her often and did no parenting. They lived with family (his and hers) and worked off and on while she hoped things would change. “I wanted him to love me,” she said. She was 25 when the breakup made it official: she was raising three children on her own. She had just answered an ad from a child care center that needed a teacher’s assistant. Ms. Faulkner hired her and promoted her twice, most recently to assistant director. “She was always stepping out of the classroom and helping,” Ms. Faulkner said. “She just had that drive, that leader in her. I trust her completely.” Ms. Schairer took night classes and earned a degree from Washtenaw Community College. A supervisor from the corporate office wrote, “We are so lucky to have you.” Still, after nearly six years, she remains an hourly employee making $12.35 an hour, simultaneously in management and on food stamps. After Ms. Schairer had an operation for cervical cancer last summer, the surgeon told her to take six weeks off. She went back to work five weeks early, with a rare flash of class anger. “It’s easy when you make $500 an hour to stand there and tell me to take six weeks off,” she said. “I can’t have six weeks with no pay.”

A Broadening Gap Despite the egalitarian trappings of her youth, Ms. Schairer was born (in 1981) as a tidal surge of inequality was remaking American life. Incomes at the top soared, progress in the middle stalled and the paychecks of the poor fell sharply. Four decades ago, households with children at the 90th percentile of incomes received five times as much as those at the 10th percentile, according to Bruce Western and Tracey Shollenberger of the Harvard sociology department. Now they have 10 times as much. The gaps have widened even more higher up the income scale. The reasons are manifold: the growing premium a college education commands, technological change that favors mind over muscle, the growth of the financial sector, the loss of manufacturing jobs to automation and foreign competitors, and the decline of labor unions. But marriage also shapes the story in complex ways. Economic woes speed marital decline, as women see fewer “marriageable men.” The opposite also holds true: marital decline compounds economic woes, since it leaves the needy to struggle alone. “The people who need to stick together for economic reasons don’t,” said Christopher Jencks, a Harvard sociologist. “And the people who least need to stick together do.” Changes in family structure do not explain the gains of the very rich — the much-discussed “1 percent” and the richest

104

Broken Cont.

among them. That story largely spills from Wall Street trading floors and corporate boardrooms. But for inequality more broadly, Mr. Western found that the growth in single parenthood in recent decades accounted for 15 percent to 25 percent of the widening income gaps. (Estimates depend on the time period, the income tiers and the definition of inequality.) Gary Burtless of the Brookings Institution found it to account for 21 percent. Robert Lerman of the Urban Institute, comparing lower-middle- and upper-middle-income families, found that single parenthood explained about 40 percent of inequality’s growth. “That’s not peanuts,” he said. Across Middle America, single motherhood has moved from an anomaly to a norm with head-turning speed. (That change received a burst of attention this year with the publication of Charles Murray’s new book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010,” which attributed the decline of marriage to the erosion of values, rather than the decline of economic opportunity.) As recently as 1990, just 10 percent of the births to women like Ms. Schairer (white women with some postsecondary schooling but not a full college degree) occurred outside marriage, according to Child Trends. Now it has tripled to 30 percent, compared with just 8 percent for women of all races with college degrees. Less-educated women are also more likely to have children with more than one man. Analyzing nearly 2,000 mothers in their mid- to late 20s, Child Trends found that a third of those with high school degrees or less already had children with multiple men. So did 12 percent of mothers with some post-high-school training. But none of the women in the study who had finished college before giving birth had children with multiple men. “That’s a dramatic difference, and it varies by education more than by race,” said Mindy Scott, a Child Trends demographer. “It tells you these families are on different trajectories. Having men in the house for a short time with ambiguous parenting roles can be really disruptive for children.” Ms. Schairer did not have a child with another man, but she did find a new boyfriend, who she thought would help with the children and the bills. They dated for a year before he moved in. Kirsten, 11, and Savannah liked him fine, but Steavon adored him. “I’m not the only boy anymore; we’re going to do boy stuff!” Ms. Schairer recounts him saying. “What’s boy stuff?” she asked. “We’re going to play video games and shoot Nerf guns and play Legos,” he said. “We do that now,” she said. “Yeah, but you’re not a boy,” he said. The details of what followed are less important than the disappointment the boyfriend left behind. No Legos got built during his six-month stay, and it took a call to the police to get him to go. The children asked about him a few days later but have not mentioned him since. Whether measured by Legos or marriage rates, the pattern is similar: the middle is shifting toward the bottom. Forty years ago, the top and middle income thirds had virtually identical family patterns: more than 95 percent of households with children in either tier had two parents in the home. Since then the groups have diverged, according to Mr. Western and Ms. Shollenberger: 88 percent at the top have two parents, but just 71 percent do in the middle. “Things remained extremely stable in the top third,” Mr. Western said. “The middle is increasingly suffering some of the same disadvantages as the bottom.” That is the essence of the story of Ms. Faulkner and Ms. Schairer. What most separates them is not the impact of globalization on their wages but a 6-foot-8-inch man named Kevin.

School Trips and Scouting Kevin Faulkner works the sunrise shift twice a week, leaving home at 5:30 a.m. for a computer programming job so he can leave work in time to take his sons to afternoon swim practice. Jeremy, 12, is serious and quiet. Justin, 10, is less driven

105

Broken Cont.

but more openly affectionate. They arrived home recently to a note from Ms. Faulkner about the next day’s Boy Scout trip. Thursday night: Pack Kevin — Pay Home Depot Chris — Sort clothes The couple’s life together has unfolded in to-do-list style. They did not inherit wealth or connections or rise on rare talent. They just did standard things in standard order: high school, college, job, marriage and children. “I don’t think I could have done it any more by the books,” Ms. Faulkner said. The result is a three-bedroom house, two busy boys and an annual Disney cruise. The secret to their success resides in part in old-fashioned math: strength in numbers. Together, the Faulkners earn nearly three times as much as what Ms. Faulkner earns alone. Their high five-figure income ranks them near the 75th percentile — hardly rich, but better off than nearly three of four families with children. For Ms. Schairer, the logic works in reverse. Her individual income of $24,500 puts her at the 49th percentile among parents: smack in the middle. But with only one paycheck, her family income falls to the 19th percentile, lagging more than four out of five. The Faulkners built a house in Livingston County because of the good schools. Ms. Schairer cares about education, too. But with Ann Arbor rents wreaking havoc on her budget, she is considering a move to a neighboring town where the school system lags. She shops at discount grocery stores and tells Savannah to keep away a friend who raids the cabinets. “I feel bad, like maybe she’s not getting enough to eat,” Ms. Schairer said. “But sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to feed my own kids, never mind another.” Jeremy Faulkner plays tennis and takes karate. Justin plays soccer and baseball. They both swim and participate in Boy Scouts, including a weeklong summer camp that brings the annual activities bill to about $3,500. Boy Scouts has been especially important, offering the boys leadership opportunities and time with their father, who helps manage the troop and rarely misses a weekly meeting or monthly camping trip. Jeremy started as a shy boy terrified of public speaking. Now he leads the singalong and is racing to make Eagle Scout. “He’s just blossomed through Boy Scouts,” Ms. Faulkner said. “I could do the scouting with them, because we have single moms who play that role. But they have different experiences with their dad. Kevin makes good money, but he’s an awesome dad.” Ms. Schairer tells an opposite story: constraints in time and money limit her children to one sports season a year. That compounds Steavon’s isolation, she said, and reduces her chances to network on his behalf. When she invited his classmates to a park on his birthday a few months ago, no one came. “He cried and cried and cried,” she said. “I tried the parents I had numbers for, but they didn’t respond.” Researchers have found that extracurricular activities can enhance academic performance, and scholars cite a growing activities gap to help explain why affluent children tend to do so much better than others in school. Four decades ago, families in the top income fifth spent about four times as much as those at the bottom fifth on things like sports, music and private schools, according to research by Greg J. Duncan of the University of California, Irvine, and Richard J. Murnane of Harvard. Now affluent families spend seven times as much. Two parents also bring two parenting perspectives. Ms. Faulkner does bedtime talks. Mr. Faulkner does math. When Ms. Faulkner’s coaxing failed to persuade Jeremy to try hamburgers, Mr. Faulkner offered to jump in a pool fully clothed if he took a bite — an offer Jeremy found too tempting to refuse.

106

Broken Cont.

While many studies have found that children of single parents are more likely to grow up poor, less is known about their chances of advancement as adults. But there are suggestions that the absence of a father in the house makes it harder for children to climb the economic ladder. Scott Winship of the Brookings Institution examined the class trajectories of 2,400 Americans now in their mid-20s. Among those raised in the poorest third as teenagers, 58 percent living with two parents moved up to a higher level as adults, compared with just 44 percent of those with an absent parent. A parallel story played out at the top: just 15 percent of teenagers living with two parents fell to the bottom third, compared with 27 percent of teenagers without both parents. “You’re more likely to rise out of the bottom if you live with two parents, and you’re less likely to fall out of the top,” Mr. Winship said. Mr. Winship interprets his own results cautiously, warning that other differences (like race, education or parenting styles) may also separate the two groups. And even if marriage helped the people who got married, he warns, it might hurt other families if it tied them to troubled men. “You get back to the question of how many marriageable men there are,” he said. At the same time, scholars have found that marriage itself can have a motivating effect, pushing men to earn more than unmarried peers. Marriage, that is, can help make men marriageable. As Mr. Faulkner tells it, something like that happened to him — he returned to college after an aimless hiatus because he wanted to marry Ms. Faulkner. “I knew I had to get serious about my life,” he said. His experiences as a father so far suggest just how much there is to be said for simply showing up. “Thank you for coming, Dad,” Justin wrote after a school trip. “I like it when you’re with me at every event and watching me do every activity.” He added 16 exclamation points.

End of the Day Left to do the showing up alone, Ms. Schairer makes big efforts. She rarely misses a weekend of church with the children, and she sacrificed a day’s pay this spring to chaperon field day at Steavon and Savannah’s school. “They were both saying, ‘This is my mom, my mom is here!’ ” she said. In February, she received $7,000 of refundable tax credits, the low-wage worker’s annual bonus. She prepaid her rent for six months and bought plane tickets to Orlando, Fla. After years of seeing pictures of Ms. Faulkner’s vacations, she wanted to give her children one of their own. “Do you think we’ll see Jesus?” Savannah asked on the flight. “I hope the plane doesn’t run him over.” They stayed with Ms. Schairer’s brother, visited SeaWorld and Gatorland, and brought back happy memories. But the trip soon began to seem long ago, more a break from their life than an embodiment of it. Ms. Schairer sank into the couch on a recent Friday night, looking weary, and half-watched a rerun of “Friends.” Steavon retreated to his room to watch “Superman” alone, and Savannah went out to play with the girl who always seems hungry. Kirsten was in her pajamas at 7 o’clock. They had few weekend plans. Thirty miles away, Troop 395 was pitching tents beside a rural airstrip, where the next day the boys would take glider rides and earn aviation badges. The fields and barns looked as tidy as cartoons, and an extravagant sunset painted them pomegranate. The clipboard in Justin Faulkner’s hands called for an early reveille. “I’m the patrol leader,” he said, beaming. Thirty minutes later, a rope appeared. Boys started to boast. Mr. Faulkner snapped on his tug of war gloves, only to

107

Broken Cont.

discover that Justin had disappeared. He found him sitting in the grass nearby, fighting back tears. “I want to go home,” Justin said. Mr. Faulkner did not say much. Jeremy used to get homesick, too. Now he is halfway to Eagle Scout. After a while Mr. Faulkner asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to do a tug of war against me?” Justin watched the other boys tumble. “When?” he said. “We can do it right now,” Mr. Faulkner said. It was not much of a contest for a man who outweighs his two sons combined by more than 100 pounds. Justin fell face first and bumped through the cool grass — a laughing tenderfoot pulled along by his dad.

108

BROKEN ARTICLE!

This article is included because it is not as successful as it could be.

As you read:

Determine what type of article it is. What elements should this article contain? Decide what aspects are working and which are not.

Gods forsake mortal Written by: Shawn Havel

ot much in my life seems to be going well, and recently I’ve been feeling as though I’ve pissed off the gods—all of them, including Regular God, Zeus, Thor, the Tree Spirit living in the evergreen in my front lawn and probably others.

During the last few weeks I’ve been feeling optimistic. Because my life was so chaotic and void of all joy, I felt situations probably couldn’t get worse. Yet, somehow, someway, things did manage to get worse.

My social life has not had a pulse for about a year. The demands of being an editor and homework take up all my time on weekdays, and having a job on the weekend to make extra money took up any other free time I had. I guess I shouldn’t complain because it’s my duty as an American to chase the mighty, mighty dollar sign endlessly, but there probably isn’t anything more soul-crushing than that pursuit. So I thought I would give myself at least somewhat of a break by quitting my weekend job. I had put in my two-week notice at my pizza job, and with the most brutal issue of Wingspan winding down, I thought joy might find its way back into my life. About this time, Thor decided to deliver a hammer-blow. As I was driving home after leaving my final shift at my weekend job, my car died on the highway. I managed to get it into town near a gas station, and then it was towed back to my house. But not having a car is pretty inconvenient especially when you’re busy. It’s also very inconvenient because despite the many hours I’ve worked, I don’t have much money. I am to blame for this because I recently bought a fairly pricey camera, and that used a lot of my saved money. And because I do have an expensive hobby, that means I cannot do much to improve my equipment. I, again, assume this is because all gods/spirits hate me. My future is ruined Anyway, because I don’t have a car now, it’s ruined my plans for the summer, which is when I make most of my income at a fireworks store. I like riding my bike, but riding my bike from north Cheyenne to the southern outskirts every day after working several hours might be too brutal for me anyway. This is why Zeus hates me because I’m hardly a man. A Greek man would probably ride his bike wherever, whenever

109

Broken Cont.

without complaining. I on the other hand…well, I fail. So with school winding down, I’m trying to find a new job that is close to home because I am apparently too lazy to commute across town daily. This added a new stress and uncertainty I don’t really like having in my life. On top of that, my social life is still destined to be dead. I have free time on weekends now, but it’s extremely doubtful I’ll have the motivation to ride my bike around town in search of places where cool kids hang out. And I guess because Regular God is the most popular god, he hates me and doesn’t want me to have friends. Tree Spirit is my friend The only positive to this is that the Tree Spirit will probably like me more because my carbon footprint will be nonexistent. But, I’m living in treeless Wyoming, instead of a hipster paradise in the Pacific Northwest, so I’m not a favorite son of the Tree Spirit and will probably get hit by a huge truck. I guess most of the gods have their own reasons to hate me, but it would kind of be cool if they’d leave me alone at least for a while so that I could experience a good moment in my life. Until then, I guess I’ll just keep on keeping on and gaining bike points with the Tree Spirit until he relocates me to a hipster friendly city or until Thor and Zeus decide simultaneously to lightning-bolt me to oblivion.

110

BROKEN ARTICLE!

This article is included because it is not as successful as it could be.

As you read:

Determine what type of article it is. What elements should this article contain? Decide what aspects are working and which are not.

Why Put a Bumper Sticker on a Ferrari? By Lisa Khoury

I get it. It’s the 21st century. You’re cool, you’re rebellious, you’re cutting edge, you have a point to prove, and you’re a woman. Awesome. Ladies, I know you’re at least at the legal age of making your own decisions, but before you decide to get a tattoo, allow me to let you in on a little secret. A secret you may have not fully realized yet thus far in your life. What you must understand is, as women, we are – naturally – beautiful creatures. Seriously, though. Your body literally has the ability to turn heads. Guys drool over us. We hold some serious power in our hands, because – as corny as this sounds – we hold the world’s beauty. But something girls seem to forget nowadays, or maybe have not been taught, is that women hold the world’s class and elegance in their hands, as well. So what’s more attractive than a girl with a nice body? I’ll tell you what: a girl with class. Looks may not last, but class does. And so do tattoos. An elegant woman does not vandalize the temple she has been blessed with as her body. She appreciates it. She flaunts it. She’s not happy with it? She goes to the gym. She dresses it up in lavish, fun, trendy clothes, enjoying trips to the mall with her girlfriends. She accentuates her legs with high heels. She gets her nails done. She enjoys the finer things in life, all with the body she was blessed with. But marking it up with ink? That’s just not necessary. I’m not here to say a girl should walk around flaunting her body like it’s her job – that’s just degrading. Instead of getting a tattoo, a more productive use of your time would be improving and appreciating the body you have been given, not permanently engraving it. Can you get meaning out of a tattoo? Arguably. If you want to insert ink into your skin as a symbol for something greater than yourself, then maybe you are proving a point to yourself or the rest of the world. But at the end of the day, are you really a happier person? Has this tattoo, for instance, caused you to learn something new about yourself? Has it challenged you? Has it led you to self-growth? Nothing comes out of getting a tattoo. You get a tattoo, and that’s it. You do something productive, though, and you see results. That’s a genuine, satisfying change in life. Not ink. Invest your time, money, and effort into a gym membership, or yoga classes, or new clothes, or experimenting with different hairstyles if you’re craving something new with your body, not a tattoo. I promise, it will be a much more rewarding experience, and you won’t find yourself in a rut when your future grandkids ask you what’s up with the angel wings on your upper back as you’re in the middle of giving them a life lesson on the importance of values and morals. God knows the last thing this world needs is another generation of kids questioning their basic values and morals.

111

BROKEN ARTICLE!

This article is included because it is not as successful as it could be.

As you read:

Determine what type of article it is. What elements should this article contain? Decide what aspects are working and which are not.

Diamond in the muff: new strip club now open for business By Paige Howell

Jerry and Amber Elledge have made bare breasts their business. As husband and wife, the two own the Blue Diamond Cabaret, a strip club, at 7320 E. Sixth St. The club opened Jan. 13, less than a month after the Doll House closed. Jerry, who has worked in adult entertainment for 15 years, said his passion for his work started when he was an Oklahoma State University student. “I went to my first topless club at 21, and I never really left,” Jerry said. Jerry and his best friend’s dad opened up their own club, the Sunset Strip, in the mid 90s while Jerry was still at OSU studying marketing. Jerry has owned and managed three clubs. “I enjoy being the host of a party,” he said. Jerry most recently managed at Oklahoma City’s Red Light Nights, where Amber worked as a bartender. Amber said she enjoys co-managing with her husband. “We work really well together,” she said. “It’s actually better than me working for him. We have good communication. It makes the job easier because you have somebody there that can do the same things that you do and help you out.” Amber said she understands the apparent oddity of a woman owning an adult club with her husband. But she said she

112

Broken Cont.

doesn’t worry about her husband. “A lot of people get in it and get jealous,” Amber said. “I would see that as being the main problem, but it’s not really with us. He’s not the typical manager. He runs a good, strict club.” Jerry said his hope is to bring an improved reputation to the club. The club opened nearly four months after a 21-year-old man was allegedly stabbed at the Doll House on Oct. 5. Jerry did not own the Doll House. He said he doesn’t really feel a negative stigma from the October stabbing. “Stuff happens anywhere,” he said. “It could have happened at Walmart.” Amber said customers tell her the club is more cleaned up than the previous one. “The things I’ve heard, customerwise is that it’s cleaned up a lot,” Amber said. “It’s run a little more strict, more organized. There’s a lot more structure as far as the girls go.” She said one customer told her the new club is comparable to Night Trips, an upscale adult club franchise in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Amber said they met with the Payne County Sheriff and haven’t had any complaints of problems. “They’ve even said that the clientele they see leaving here has improved drastically,” she said. Amber said owning an adult club has more worries to it than just owning a bar. “The challenges are with keeping decent girls and the drama,” she said. “You’re also in an establishment where you have drinking. Just being able to keep all that in line is probably one of the main challenges.” Jerry said he has learned a lot since the Sunset Strip. He said he learned that customer service truly does provide the best atmosphere. “We try to gear beer specials to people’s needs,” Jerry said. An example is Wednesday college nights. College students get free beer if they come in with a student ID, Jerry said. But Jerry said safety is one of his main priorities and looks after his customers. “If someone seems to not be able to drive, I’ll call them a cab,” he said. Jerry said he makes sure his employees get home safely, and that he has parking lot security as well as club security. In addition to owning the club, Jerry said he participates in the Toys for Tots programs, as well as hosting pole dancing exercise classes on Wednesdays from 2-4 p.m. The Blue Diamond Cabaret is open seven days a week from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Those attending must be 18 to enter. More information can be found by calling the club at (405) 372-3655.

113

BROKEN ARTICLE!

This article is included because it is not as successful as it could be.

As you read:

Determine what type of article it is. What elements should this article contain? Decide what aspects are working and which are not.

For Some, the Beginnings of Gay-Wedding Fatigue By BROOKS BARNES

MARK SHIELDS wholeheartedly supports same-sex weddings — so much so that he spent six years working at the Human Rights Campaign, where marriage equality is front and center. But please, pretty please, don’t invite him to another one. “The equality people will have a fit about this, but I’ll say it anyway: I have gaywedding burnout,” Mr. Shields, 35, said one day this spring. “I spent my 20s going to weddings, being in weddings, shopping for weddings, helping to plan weddings. In my early 30s they finally started tapering off, and I was like, ‘Oh, thank God, we’re over the hump.’ ” He paused for dramatic effect. “Nope. Here come the Gays.” Be careful what you wish for? The legalization of same-sex marriage in a few states and the District of Columbia — and now at its one-year mark in New York — has resulted in a gay wedding boom, the natural outcome of decades of pent-up demand. And even hardhearted gay men (like me) are thrilled that the happy couples finally have their chance to say “I do.” Finally! But some unexpected emotions are also bubbling up as the invitations roll in: puzzlement (I don’t know you that well), concern (can I afford another cross-country trip?), dread (not another one, please). At the same time, there is a lack of surprise. Watching straight friends from high school or college marry as they stagger into adulthood (two or three couples a year, some in their 20s and some in their 30s or older) is thrilling in a way that a near-simultaneous stampede of samesex couples to the altar is not. Guess who’s getting married! Oh, right: everyone. Don’t misunderstand. Seeing the look on my friend Tim’s face when he showed off Matt’s ring was a highlight of my life,

114

Broken Cont.

truly. I am grateful to Jeff and John for the crab claws I gobbled at their postcard-perfect Hollywood Hills reception. I’m in no way making fun of the commitment Melissa and Shari made to each other. (Although I will mock their selection of music: “Love Can Build a Bridge” by the Judds. Really?) It’s just that, at least until the backlog burns off, some of us are starting to feel like 20-something sorority sisters — a wedding a weekend, seemingly for eternity. I’ve attended six same-sex weddings over the last couple of years, with two more on the horizon. That hardly makes me Katherine Heigl in “27 Dresses.” Having too many happily marrying friends is also a minuscule problem, as problems go. As my friend Shaw snapped, “Be grateful anyone wants your whiny face around at all.” But whine I will: when you’re not used to attending any weddings (or have grown out of the practice), this starts to feel like an awful lot of toasting and tuxedo wearing and traveling. “I completely support gay marriage and understand the value and beauty of it, but like anything else there’s a saturation point,” said Scott Cooke, a principal at GCK Partners, a New York marketing firm. “A little goes a long way, and most gay men don’t have any interest in little. They feel a need to make a big show — ta-dah! — and you get burned out on that really quickly, or at least I do.” Mr. Cooke, who has attended seven gay weddings and was recently invited to an eighth, added in a whisper: “This is kind of a taboo thing to admit. Does it make me sound like a bad gay?” Some people would probably say yes — same-sex marriage needs all the support it can get at a time when states like North Carolina are willing to ban it outright. Even joking about fatigue can rub people the wrong way. Dustin Lance Black, the marriage equality advocate and Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Milk,” responded to an e-mail about high-frequency gay-wedding guests like this: “Weddings among my friends have come to a screeching halt in hopes of legal weddings here in California sooner than later.” Janet Barros, a 71-year-old retiree in Taunton, Mass., said she had been to at least 12 same-sex weddings since her home state legalized them in 2004 and can’t imagine anyone tiring of them. “Each and every one has been lovely and moving,” she said. “I love that gay couples get to write their own rules about what the ceremony and reception should be like. They always thrill with their unpredictability.” Or they can turn awkward, as couples, looking for guidance and finding little in wedding books and on Web sites, cling a little too rigorously to tradition. The throwing of a garter? If you’re two guys, just don’t do it. Ever. But in most ways, gay weddings are exactly the same as straight ones, which is to say, an emotional minefield. The push and pull between the sets of parents. Who was asked to make a toast and who wasn’t. The pity parties (always a bridesmaid, never a bride). Same-sex weddings can also add an additional layer of angst: Why can’t my father be more supportive of my relationship, the way that weeping father of the groom appears to be? Am I really allowed to feel euphoria for my marrying gay friends when the Defense of Marriage Act is still in place? Same-sex weddings can also make us wince as stereotypes go on display in mixed company. Exhibit A: lesbians plodding down the aisle to the Judds. (Or all those times I shrieked and Rockette-kicked when “Dancing Queen” came on at the reception.) I’m talking about one bride in a frilly Vera Wang and one in a butch pantsuit. You’re a better person than I am if that attire doesn’t make your mind wander into areas of their relationship it doesn’t belong. Mr. Shields, who has been invited to five gay weddings and has a sixth coming up, recalls two men who married in an art gallery filled with S-and-M paintings. “One was a picture of a naked George Washington dwarf standing on top of a pile of slave dwarfs in fetish gear,” he said. “All I could think was, ‘Oh, please, no — we have moms in the room.’ ” Daniel Nardicio, the New York night-life promoter, said he was invited to a nude gay wedding last fall on Fire Island; not all of the 150 or so guests took the invitation at its word, including Mr. Nardicio, but most did. “Be who you are, I guess,” Mr. Nardicio said. (Can you imagine the starvation diet you’d have to go on after getting that invite?) Judgment, a favorite gay hobby, factors in, too. A lot of my friends, for instance, think it’s weird for two men who have been together for 30 years to have a big, traditional wedding. In the opposite extreme, it’s hard not to worry when new boy-

115

Broken Cont.

friends decide to leap into marriage. We’ve all been to straight weddings and wondered how long they would last. But it’s easy to put those thoughts aside and enjoy the party. So what if they end up getting divorced? Society accepts that. It’s not as easy with the Gays. Since the battle for marriage equality is still raging, the last thing you want to do is hand the opposition ammunition. See! They’re destroying the sanctity of marriage! Toldja! “There are a lot of gay people running out and getting married who probably shouldn’t,” Mr. Nardicio said. “It’s understandable, of course, because they’re so excited that they finally have equal rights. But still.” How is he navigating the invitations? “I choose very judiciously,” he said. “You just have to be confident enough to say no.” Mike Vollman, a movie marketing consultant, laughed when I complained about the wed-a-thon happening among my friends. Enjoy it while you can, he said, because weddings are a breeze compared with what comes next. “Oh, just wait,” he said. “We’re now on the other side of the gay-wedding bubble with our friends. You know what’s there? I call it death by gay baby shower.”

116

BROKEN ARTICLE!

This article is included because it is not as successful as it could be.

As you read:

Determine what type of article it is. What elements should this article contain? Decide what aspects are working and which are not.

117

BROKEN ARTICLE!

This article is included because it is not as successful as it could be.

As you read:

Determine what type of article it is. What elements should this article contain? Decide what aspects are working and which are not.

Being happy at Princeton By SUSANNAH SHARPLESS

ne night, coming home from the Street, I came across a close friend who was sobbing. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me she hated Princeton and had made the wrong decision in coming here. When I pressed her to explain more specifically what she meant, she spat out, “Everyone here is so douchey!” None of my attempts to cheer her worked, and she stormed away. The next day, when I ran into her and asked vaguely how she was feeling, she brushed the episode off. “It was just a depressed moment,” she said. “We all have them. I don’t actually hate Princeton.” Fine. Chalk it up to moodiness. But there are definitely things about college that are worth bursting into tears about — very few, in my opinion, but even these merit attention rarely found in the Princeton community. As high achievers, we Princeton students expect to be successful in every aspect of our lives — even emotionally — and often we deny our discontentment, which is why my friend dismissed her tears and why I felt awkward bringing them up, like I was calling attention to a personality flaw. Another friend of mine had our parents in stitches over dinner at Parents Weekend while riffing on how Princeton students will never admit to being incapable of handling everything on their plates. Nothing is ever too much for us, she joked — not dance practice, club swim tryouts, homework, rush or long-distance relationships. Even when moaning about how much we have to do, we won’t take any steps to make our lives easier because we’re also bragging a little. To admit to being overwhelmed would be to lose the contest of who can do the most without breaking a sweat. What my friend didn’t say is that the flip side of nothing ever being too much is that nothing is ever enough. I have friends who, no matter how many service organizations they join and how many challenging classes they take, are plagued by a sense of inadequacy. They’ve told me they feel like they’re wasting their time here, that they’re letting opportunities pass them by. It’s not just them — it’s a generational thing. This expectation of quick and easy triumph, even when undeserved, has earned us the nickname “trophy kids,” and I’m sure college students across the country have the same problems. In addition to desiring academic and extracurricular success, there’s a lot of pressure on the college student to be socially successful. Over and over again, young people are told that college years are the best four years of their lives — and not because of easy access to academic resources. From Animal House to Asher Roth, there is a cultural expectation that college will be a boozy, wild affair, and to be unhappy while surrounded by friends and alcohol would be a disaster equivalent to failing a class. We also cannot escape the knowledge of how valuable a college education is, especially a Princeton education. To feel all this and expect to feel constant good cheer can make it really hard to do just that — not that we’d ever admit it.

118

Broken Cont.

I know it seems hypocritical to say now, but I’m happier at Princeton than I ever was in high school. I don’t feel any of the pressure I hear my peers complain about: to get perfect grades while also being the perfect member of all the clubs they’ve joined. At Princeton, I’ve made friends, I’ve found extracurricular activities I enjoy and my academics are fine. I can think of one moment when I was miserable, and — uncharacteristically for me — I dealt with it by telling my friends how upset I was. They were comforting and supportive, but it was really the act of confiding in them that helped the most. All I needed to do to be happy again was admit that, for an instant, I was not. I think people like me, who struggle to tell others when they’re unhappy, feel that to admit that they’re unhappy is to admit that they’re less than perfect. As people accustomed to being pretty close to perfect, Princeton students are often reluctant to admit any failures on an emotional level. We avoid talking about unhappiness like we avoid talking about bad test grades. It happened, and it could happen again, but we won’t call attention to it. This is why I’m concerned by my friend’s refusal to admit that her doubts about her decision to come to Princeton aren’t gone just because she stopped crying. It’s why I don’t believe my ridiculously overextended friend when she insists everything is fine and then regularly pulls all-nighters. It’s why I was anxious about my friend who had a bad experience with rush and assured me she was fine as tears of disappointment welled in her eyes. What we don’t understand is that being happy isn’t like being a good student; emotions aren’t graded. If they were, the only way to get an A would be admitting to others and, more importantly, to ourselves when all we want to do is cry.

119

CMN 231 - Journalism 2

Good Article Topic Scavenger Hunt

Directions: Use your smart phone or computer access anywhere on campus to find as many of the items listed below as possible in the time allotted. Group Name: ___________________________ Group members: ____________________________________ 1. Using Patch.com uncover a local political issue affecting the town in which the oldest member of your group lives. Describe the issue, in brief, below:

2. Go to the US 1 newspaper site and find a cultureal event that is happening today. Write the event details below (name of event, location, date/time, contact person) 3. Find an author discussion and book signing that is happening at Barnes & Noble at Marketfair that occurs before your next rough draft deadline. Write down the deadline date for rough drafts, then write the B&N event details below: Deadline? Event: 4. Who is the director of public and community relations at McCarter Theater in Princeton, what is that personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s email or phone number (NOTE: You will be disqualified if you call McCarter Theater to answer this question)? Director:

email?

Phone?

5. Write down an event that is sponsored by a church or temple within ten miles of MCCC that is open to the public, non-religious in nature and occurs before your next rough draft deadline?

6. Imagine you wanted to write an article about the sexual habits and health of college students in our area and you wanted to collaborate with the staffs at the school newspapers at Rider, TCNJ and Rutgers to gather survey data on this topic. Write down the name of the newspapers of each school, their current Editor in Chief, and his or her contact info. Rider: TCNJ: Rutgers:

120

Scavenger Hunt cont. 7. Imagine you wanted to write a profile article about a deaf student at Mercer and his or her sign language interpreter, their relationship in the classroom. What office would you call that oversees disabled students who might be able to put you in touch with a student and/or interpreter? Provide the name of the office and the phone number. 8. Bergen County College has an award-winning student newspaper that Mercer routinely competes against in state and national competitions. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s steal a good story idea from them! Find a recent edition of their newspaper and a hard news topic that could be translated into a topic we could cover here at MCCC . Answer the questions below: What is the name of their paper? What topic did you find and how would you rework it so it could apply to MCCC?

9. What is Urban Word? 10. Find three free up-coming events at MCCC that are open to the public and occur before your rough draft deadline. 1. Event name ____________________________________________________________ a. Location ______________________________________________________________ b. Date/time _____________________________________________________________ c. Organizer/contact person _________________________________________________ 2. a. b. c.

Event name ____________________________________________________________ Location ______________________________________________________________ Date/time _____________________________________________________________ Organizer/contact person _________________________________________________

3. a. b. c.

Event name ____________________________________________________________ Location _______________________________________________________________ Date/time _____________________________________________________________ Organizer/contact person _________________________________________________

BONUS . Find a free up-coming event open to the public at a Mercer county public library that sounds like a typical Mercer student might actually attend. Event name __________________________________________________________________ a. Location _______________________________________________________________ b. Date/time _____________________________________________________________ c. Organizer/contact person _________________________________________________

121

CMN 231 – Journalism 2

ATTRIBUTION BASICS What is attribution?

In journalistic writing we don’t have footnotes, end notes, bibliographies or works cited lists, so we have to indicate where information came from in the text of the article itself. What are the types of attribution?

THE 3 TYPES OF ATTRIBUTION

Direct = quotes

Example: In an interview with The VOICE, Mercer President, Dr. Patricia Donohue said, “Those ID tags can save your life!”

Indirect = paraphrases

Example: In an interview with The VOICE, Mercer President, Dr. Patricia Donohue indicated that the ID tags each student must wear can save their lives.

Factual = indicates where facts came from

Example: According to a survey of the American Safety Institute published in the Journal of Public Policy in June 2009, “There is no correlation shown between wearing ID tags and an increase in student safety on college campuses.”

When do you attribute?

You must attribute all quotes and all facts used in any article! What are some common attribution errors? 1. One common error is taking facts from another source, such as TV or print news and not saying that that’s where the information came from. WRONG: Tyler Clementi was digitally recorded by his roommate, Dahrun Ravi and Ravi’s friend Molly Wei. RIGHT: According to The New York Times article “Clementi’s suicide ruled manslaughter” by Byron Jones that appeared in the October 28, 2010 issue of the paper, Tyler Clementi was digitally recorded by his roommate Dahrun Ravi and Ravi’s friend Molly Wei. 2. Another common error is not letting the reader know why you are quoting the source you are quoting. WRONG: Justina Peeple says, “The Miami Heat are clearly the favorite team to win this year.” RIGHT: Sports Analyst and long time sports reporter for the Miami Herald, Justina Peeple says, ““The Miami Heat are clearly the favorite team to win this year.” Another error is using attribution some of the time by not all of the time. This usually indicates the writer isn’t sure which ideas are his own and which are someone else’s.

122

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. H. Johnson

ATTRIBUTION PRACTICE Directions: First read each pair of statements. Then circle the one which one is not attributed properly. Next, in the space provided, rewrite the sentence that needs it with proper attribution included. 1. According to audience member Jana Stevens of Hamilton Township, Seussical was an exciting theater performance that suited a family audience. 2. Special lighting was used for the performance in order to enhance the colors.

1. Only 10 percent of students at Mercer say they regularly wear their ID tags. 2. The ID tag policy at Mercer is one that has come under scrutiny recently according to Director of Security Bryon Marshall.

1. The Viking women’s basketball team has nine new players this season. 2. According to player Showana Paul, the fact that the players are relatively short will not affect the team’s overall game strategy this year.

1. Peter Hicks says “The Kindle and other e-readers are becoming more and more popular.” 2. Kindles will be on sale during the holiday season said Amazon.com representative Armand Goldman.

123

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. H. Johnson

Diagnosing and Fixing Basic Writing Problems The 9 Obstacles to Clear and Concise Writing Redundancy What is it? Redundancy means saying the same thing more than once, often using slightly different words each time.

Examples: At 10AM in the morning… (if you have the AM you don’t need “in the morning). The large skyscraper… (if it’s a skyscraper, it’s obviously large). The professors gathered for the meeting of professors (the second half of the sentence gives exactly the same information as the first half).

Generalizations What are they? Generalizations are broad statements that sum up information in terms that are too large to be meaningful.

Example: All students here hate the parking situation…(sure, most do, but some may not. Contrast this to a sentence like “All students must take the Accuplacer exam unless they place out with their SAT scores” which is a sentence that uses “all” in an accurate way).

Pretentious Language What is it? Sometimes people have the incorrect idea that good writing style means using words that sound sophisticated to them (the kind of words you learn for the SAT’s and might use occasionally, but seldom use in day-to-day speech).

Example: The Viking advanced the game through judicious salvos on goal, driving their pusillanimous opponent into fits of apoplexy.

Wordiness What is it? Wordiness means using three words where a single word would do.

Examples: Due to the fact that (use “because”), as per the request (use “as asked”), in the immediate future (use “soon”).

Inclusion of unnecessary information What is it? A journalist always has more information than she uses in the final article, so part of the craft of writing is knowing what to leave out.

Examples: Honors student Mai-Ling Kwon, a second year Liberal Arts major who grew up with her adoptive parents on the island of Fiji and had her wisdom teeth removed on her eighteenth birthday, just received a full scholarship to Boston University. (You guessed it: unless the wisdom teeth are somehow related to her scholarship, they don’t need to be in the article).

Inaccurate word choice What is it? When asked to do journalistic writing, students are often aware that they need to sound more formal than they would in their usual conversations. For some this results in choosing words that “sound” right although they don’t actually mean what the student intends. (This problem can be solved by reading more complex texts

124

and reading with a pen and dictionary in hand)

Example: The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) helps hungry people in a city that is ravished by poverty. (The student likely means “ravaged” but has selected ravished instead, creating an image of Trenton being sexually assaulted by poverty). The number of students who fail ENG 101 is truly mind bottling. (The fact that students don’t read enough to know that the term is “mind boggling” is suggests that they have been mind bottled).

Self reference What is it? Using the words “I,” “me,” and “my” in your articles is not good form. Even in a review you don’t need to use these words. Although they are acceptable in opinions, it’s best to learn to write without them. If you have an editor who endorses them (for opinions) you can always put them back in later. The rationale for not using them, particularly in journalistic writing, is that the reporter is NEVER the central focus of the story, and inserting the “I” into the story detracts from the people, ideas and events that the story is really about.

Example: I think the restaurant is over-priced and the food is generally over-cooked…(Just take out the “I think” and make it a declarative statement). I interviewed the coach of the other team who said his players were in better shape than ours, which is why they beat us 9-0...(Just take out the words “I interviewed” and the word “who”).

Passive voice What is it? Writing in passive voice means you are constructing sentences in which action takes place, but the entity that performs the action is not named/positioned first. Moving the agent of the action to the end of the sentence diminishes the importance of the verbs in the sentence and journalism relies on verbs.

Examples: The contract was ratified by the board of trustees. (The board of trustees are doing the ratifying, so they should be positioned first, as in: “The board of trustees ratified the contract.”) It was decided that the student government meetings would be held on Tuesdays. (Who made this decision? The SGA? We need to figure out who did the deciding and then put them back at the beginning of the sentence rather than implying some mysterious force caused this to happen, so: “The SGA decided to hold student government meetings on Tuesdays.”).

Adverbs What are they? Words that modify verbs (the usually end in –LY or -Y)

Examples: The professor hastily took away the student’s phone. (Remove “hastily” – you don’t need it). Every player fought bravely to the finish. (Remove “bravely” – you don’t need it).

NOTE: What do you do with this information now that you have it? Most writers make all of these errors once in a while but there are one or two that they make regularly. After receiving several rounds of critique, identify which of these issues you need to look out for most in your own writing. During the revision process, devote one draft specifically to ferreting out your own most common writing errors.

125

What an Editor Does with a Final Draft Task 1 - Read Through and Identify Problems Editor in Chief (EIC) followed by Managing Editor (ME) and Copy Editor: Identify fundamental problems and take first action: The VOICE uses Google Docs for their workflow. Every article is put into Google Docs for editing. This is a common system used in actual newsrooms across the country. Most internal notes are made using the “Comment” function.

Problem LIBEL – Did the author of the article write something that could harm the reputation of a person or organization and that may be false (i.e. they don’t provide proof)? Note: if the defamatory statement is in a quote and is clearly someone else’s personal opinion, you can still run it.

BIAS – If the author has inserted him or herself into the article or made it clear how he or she feels about the topic (except in the case of reviews and opinion pieces), it is a problem.

ACTION Spike the article. If an article is genuinely libelous (or an editor suspects information has been fabricated) it should never see the light of day.

Highlight (usually in yellow) the biased sections and plan to contact the reporter to request the necessary changes be made in a timely manner.

WORDINESS – Is the article too long, full of redundancies and awkward sentences, or are paragraphs unclear or not concise?

Delete all words that are not needed and highlight awkward sentences that need to be reworked (usually in purple).

MISSING W’s or H in LEAD/NUTGRAPH–

Write “missing” and the name of the missing W or H in capital letters beside the paragraph (using the comment function with relevant highlighting in green).

After a first read through the editor looks to see that all the W’s + H are answered either in the lead paragraph (for hard news) or nutgraph (for features).

ARTICLE IS INCOMPLETE – Do we get ALL sides of the story? Do we have quotes or views from everyone who has a stake or interest in the topic? For example: Hard news – students, faculty, staff and admin. Sports – both teams and coaches? Reviews – patrons/audience, manager/director?

GRAPHS ARE OUT OF ORDER – Are the ideas presented in a logical (not necessarily chronological) order using appropriate transitions?

COHERENCE, FACTS & STORY TELLING– Are there questions left unanswered? Are there facts that aren’t attributed to a source? Is there no sensory detail or attempt at story telling?

126

Note which aspect is missing and put it in the margin using the comment function.

Move the paragraphs in the order that the should appear and add appropriate transitions as needed. Note which part is missing and put it in a margin comment. Plan to contact the reporter to request necessary changes.

Task 2 – Contact the Reporter If there is time, the editor may try to contact the reporter to get them to go find the missing quote, to remove the bias or wordiness, or fill in the missing W or H. The editor must be very specific about what parts are missing and must give the reporter a firm deadline for submitting the corrections. This applies to staff reporters (and J2 students) but not to Journalism 1 students who are done with their work once the final draft is submitted.

Task 3 – Rewrite After (hopefully) receiving the corrected copy of the article, the copy editor begins the final editing process. Using the electronic copy of the reporter’s draft, the editor(s) does the following: 1. Deletes any remaining unnecessary words and biased phrases 2. Reworks clunky sentences, makes everything concise 3. Puts the paragraphs into more logical order and adds transitions as needed 4. Does research to fill in any missing W’s or H if needed 5. Examines to see that quotes/facts/storytelling that the reporter missed have been inserted. If a lot of these are still missing, the editor usually spikes the story. If the story is so important it must run, the editor will try to go back and finish reporting the article by getting the quotes him or herself. If this is needed, the editor puts his own name in the byline atop the other reporter’s name. 6. One more read through to smooth it out, proofread and spell check.

Task 4 – Layout The copy editor sends the article to the layout editor who flows the text (and any photographs) into the space allotted for the article. At this point, if the article is too long, the layout editor may trim it from the last paragraph up. The layout editor reads through the article, fixes and last minute proofreading and spelling errors, then comes up with a headline for it. If the layout editor spots an instance of libel, bias or a missing attribution, he or she will inform the copy editor and spike the story.

What gets a story spiked? Libelous statements or evidence of plagiarism or fabrication Bias that is so pervasive it can’t be fixed by the copy editor Too much missing info or to many unanswered questions Lack of attribution for information (especially when the editor can’t track down the source) Serious problems with awkward writing that can’t be fixed without hours of work

Did You Know?

When editors decided to hold a story or not use it at all, they said that the story had been “spiked.” The term comes from the precomputer era, when stories were typed on paper. Most editors kept a sharp metal spike on their desks. If a story was deemed not ready or not worthy of publication, the editor would push the paper onto the spike rather than move it further along in the editing process.

EDITORS’ SPIKES

• • • • •

127

You be the Editor – Rewrite Activity

Team members: __________________________________________________________________________ Directions: This worksheet picks up where “You be the Editor” leaves off. Imagine you are the EIC of the school newspaper. You received this article, marked it and emailed to reporter asking them to add some missing information and make some other changes. You gave the reporter 24 hours, but the time is up and you have gotten nothing from them at this point. You think the article is to important to spike, so now you and the ME have to rework the article on your own. Follow all the procedures in the “Rewrite” phase on page 69. Mark up the draft then rewrite it on a blank sheet of notebook paper. Note: If you find a gap in the information and think you would be able to get the info or the quote if you looked something up on the computer or asked the right person the right question, you can try to do that: go to the professor and tell her either “computer search” or give the name of the person you want to interview and see if that person will respond. You may get assistance, or you may not get the help you need and be forced to decide how best to proceed.

Parking Feature

Nine weeks into the current fall semester and the car parking lots at Mercer are still fuller than the Parkway on a Fourth of July weekend. Although parking at Mercer can sometimes be seen as a challenge, how bad is the parking at Mercer in comparison to parking at other community colleges? “Parking [at Camden County College] is horrible… we park in the grass, we park on the dirt… its ridiculous. We even park on the soccer fields,” says Elizabeth Cardona a second year nursing major at CCCC. Elizabeth continued, “they marked off spots with spray paint… we basically park wherever we can that we aren’t blocking anyone in or in the way of moving traffic.” “I think that the parking lot needs to expand a lot more towards the school. There is no reason that we have to walk that far. We don’t need scenery to enjoy at school, we have parks for that,” said third year Exercise Science major Gianna Marchesi. “I took all online classes this semester to avoid the long walk in the rain or snow and avoid falling [on ice],” Gianna confessed. Enrollment at Mercer seems to be going up a lot lately and that may be why there is not enough parking. Maybe administrators are just hoping some students will get bad grades or find work and will drop out mid-semester so then parking will open up, but that is not what we see happening this term. “The parking at the Pemberton campus at Burlington County College is horrible. If you don’t have an 8 AM class then most likely you will have to park far away from the actual buildings,” says second year Education major Ashley Denti. Like the students at Mercer, and Camden County College students at Burlington are also required by campus security to obtain a parking permit and affix it to their vehicle, but its not clear if the permits are helping at either Mercer or at the other community colleges. Even though Mercer’s parking situations haven’t excelled into extremities such as parking on soccer fields, or making up parking spaces, it is evident that there is an over abundance of enrolled students, and a lack of parking accommodations to meet these demands. The parking permit policy just recently went into effect last semester, but what exactly are these permits designated to do? There are still cars parked on the grass, and not every student in the parking lot displays one on their window.

128

CMN 231 Journalism 2 Prof. Johnson

Evaluating Article Excerpts Spotting Basic Writing Problems Directions: Read over the sample sections of student articles and determine what elements are most and least successful. Write your comments in the margins. Excerpt 1Mastoris is the ultimate spot to unwind with classmates after a long day of lessons and work. With a variety of rooms that each give off their own personal vibe. The upbeat lounge, located next to the bar is perfect for a dinner date while the diner area is fitting for a night out with a few friends and more formal occasions can be seated in the banquet room. Each provide a melancholy atmosphere for an enjoyable meal. Excerpt 2The hosts, who literally will open the door for you, and are polite and friendly, speaking broken but understandable English. The décor is unmistakable Indian, with a fine-ding flair if dark lighting and smell intimate tables. Excerpt 3As fall approaches at Mercer, many of the college’s athletic teams are preparing for a fresh new season. One of the most impressive of these teams is the Mercer County Community College Women’s Soccer team, lead by Head Coach Jodie Ricciardi, who will be coaching the team for her third year. This upcoming weekend will mark their first home game and a very exciting day for the team, their coaches and members of the student body who will be supporting one of their finest athletic teams. Excerpt 4Amanda P. a 20 year old college student of Middlesex travels all the way from Sayerville for Small Worlds Coffee “whenever [she] gets a chance” because “there is nothing better”. She goes on to say that Small World “… has great coffee without the pretentious dime-a-dozen Starbucks vibe.” Excerpt 5On September 6th, 2pm Sunday afternoon the Alice and Wonderland production had it’s second show in the Kelsey Theater at Mercer County Community College. The student cast of the production sang and danced their way through the show to a mostly full audience of children and adults from around the community. Excerpt 6Some students feel that there are not enough study abroad offerings at Mercer, while others feel that extra languages would be helpful. Excerpt 7Marissa Mariano says “Mercer’s parking problem is notorious. I have friends who won’t even come here because of it. One of them goes to Middlesex instead. “ Marissa is furious about the parking problem and frequently complains about it in class.

129

Using The Five Senses

Directions: For each sample: 1. First, look at the facts that each reporter has gathered in her notebook. 2. Next, in the space provided, write a hard news lead that is fewer than 60 words, but which uses sensory details to aid in storytelling. You may be creative and add extra information but stick to the spirit of the original fact pattern. Note: Try to get all 5W’s + H into the lead in the best possible order, but remember, if you have to skip one of the W’s or H, it can go right at the beginning of the next paragraph.

Sample 1: Reporter’s Notes: • The Late Night Series (LNS) at Mercer on Sept. 18 was held in the Studio Theater • Open mic sign up was at 9:30. More than 25 people were waiting to sign up for 15 spots. • Line to get in formed at 9pm and stretched to PE building. Temp was 52 degrees. • Doors opened at 10:00 for the free show. • People didn’t want to lose their place in line. • Smokers stayed in line instead of going off to smoking huts which are not illuminated at night. • LNS has been going for 12 years and is run by Prof. of Theater Arts, Jody Person. • Sept. 18 was first LNS of season. Next one is hosted by LGBTF and has a $5 cover to raise money for the club, but entry is free if you dress in drag. • After doors opened, crowd went in. Room was full. People sat on the sofas and chairs provided. More people sat on floors and on top of speakers and other equipment around the room. Your lead: _________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Sample 2: Reporter’s Notes: • Rt. 1 three car pile-up just past Market Fair mall on south bound side. • Time of accident (according to Police PIO Det. Sgt. Abdul Ramirez) = 10:22am, Mon. Sept. 28 • Cause = ??? Police not sure. “Wet road conditions possibly a factor.”-Ramirez • Cars involved = 1999 silver Volvo 4-door, 2004 Honda CRV (blue gray), and 2009 Ford Tahoe (red). • Honda = flipped in median, smoking. Fire dept. engine #9 from Lawrenceville arrived at 10:45 – had trouble getting past traffic. • Traffic backed up as far as South Brunswick. Road not cleared until after 2pm. • Two drivers taken to Princeton Med. Cent. In serious cond. One person (female) taken away in gurney with sheet over it at 10:50 (Ramirez said “no comment on fatalities”). • Roadway obstructed by glass and debris. Left lane closed still (as of 6pm filing deadline). Your lead: _________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

130

CMN 231 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Journalism 2 Prof. Johnson

Practice with Showing Verses Telling Goal: Good journalistic writing focuses on showing rather than telling the reader what happened, in order to include the reader in the action as much as possible. The goal of this worksheet is to provide an opportunity to practice this skill. Directions: Look back over the articles you have written so far this semester. Pick one to work on and copy one body paragraph into the space below. Note: a feature or review may be easiest to work with. __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ Next, look over this paragraph carefully and rewrite it adding description that uses at least two of the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch). You may trim out text and change or add however you like, but you must keep all the key facts. The details you add must be VERIFIABLE. __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Read the following paragraph and consider the ways that it tells rather than shows, and how that could be changed. The Mercer menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s baseball team played hard throughout the game, achieving a score of 5-2 against Salem. Pitcher Matt Smith was particularly strong during the game, facing several league top hitters without any hesitation and pitching a perfect third inning with no runs scored. Mercer fans in the stands showed excitement throughout the game. Rewrite the paragraph above adding description that uses at least three of the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch). You may trim out text and change or add (use your imagination) however you like, but you must keep all the key facts. __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

131

Journalism Laws to Know and Love

aka – A cheat sheet so you look like you know what you are talking about when someone talks to you about JLaw. First Amendment

The right to a free press, one not subject to censorship by the government, and with the express purpose of curbing the excesses of power is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. It reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Fifth Amendment

Due process. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Tinker and Hazelwood (not laws, but legal precedents)

Tinker and Hazelwood are the two most significant cases of student First Amendment rights to ever be decided by the US Supreme Court. Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969) was when students were suspended from high school for wearing armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The students sued, arguing that their freedom of speech rights were violated. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the students. The decision famously noted that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech at the schoolhouse gate.” In 1988 the case of Hazelwood School District v. Kulhmeier reduced, to some extent, the broad rights preserved by Tinker. In Hazelwood a high school journalism class created a final edition of its school paper, the principle censored two stories --one on teen pregnancy, another on divorce- saying they were unfair and inappropriate. The students sued, claiming their rights were violated. In this case, unlike Tinker, the Supreme Court said that, the high school principal is acting in place of the parents (in loco parentis) and therefore, in the case of minors, has the right to censor the paper if there is a valid educational reason to do so. The decision indicated that when the publication (student paper) was an extra curricular activity (as opposed to a class project) then students enjoy somewhat greater freedom than they would for an in-class activity. For public college journalists, the Tinker standard prevails because college students are (mostly) not minors and are do not fall within the scope of Hazelwood. Private colleges, however, are NOT bound by these same laws as they are not public (federally funded) entities. So, if you want to write an article on how often students masturbate and publish it in The College VOICE, we may get hate mail, but if someone tried to pull the story or sue us, we’d win. If you wanted to write the same story and publish it in the newspaper at Catholic College of St. Mary, they could pull the story and/or fire you from your position at the paper.

FERPA – Also known as the Buckley Amendment – 1974 – revised 2x –

The regulations provide that educational agencies and institutions that receive funding under a program administered by the U. S. Department of Education must provide students with access to their education records, an opportunity to seek to have the records amended, and some control over the disclosure of information from the records. With several exceptions, schools must have a student’s consent prior to the disclosure of education records. Examples of situations affected by FERPA include school employees divulging information to anyone other than the student about the student’s grades or behavior, and school work posted on a bulletin board with a grade.

132

FOIA – Freedom of Information Act

This act allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States Government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures and grants nine exemptions to the statute.

Sunshine Laws –

Your state’s open public records and meetings laws. In NJ it’s OPRA – the Open Public Records act. Allows you access to records of all state level governmental institutions. A physical record includes: “any paper, written or printed book, document, drawing, map, plan, photograph, micro-film, data-processed or image-processed document, and information stored or maintained electronically or by sound recording.” A record is considered to have a government purpose when it has been “made, maintained, kept on file or been received in the course of official business.” Documents available under OPRA include, but are not limited to: institutional data, meeting minutes, policies and handbooks, official memos, salary information, contracts, attendance sheets, crime logs and statistics (must be made available under the Clery Act).

Clery Act –

The Clery Act requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to keep and disclose information about crime on and near their respective campuses. Compliance is monitored by the United States Department of Education, which can impose civil penalties, up to $27,500 per violation, against institutions for each infraction and can suspend institutions from participating in federal student financial aid programs. The law is named for Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old Lehigh University freshman who was raped and murdered by another Lehigh student in her campus residence hall in 1986. The Clery Act, signed in 1990, was originally known as the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act.

133

Practice with JLaw Directions: Read each scenario, then, in the space provided, determine which of the laws we’ve covered apply to the situation described. 1. You work as an editor at your college’s newspaper. There was a frat party last night and you get word from a party-goer that campus security was called after a fight broke out between two fraternity brothers. You want to get a copy of the campus crime logs to find out the basics of what happened. Which law will help you get what you want? ___________________________________ 2. A student comes to Mercer wearing a shirt that says “Fags go to Hell!” on it. The dean of students approaches the student and says he is not following the dress code policy in the student handbook which requires that students “dress appropriately for an academic environment.” The dean says the student has to go home and change or risk being expelled. The student refuses. Which law and which legal precedent will the student likely use to justify his refusal to go home and change? ________________________________ and ___________________________________ 3. A high school journalism class is producing a student newspaper and one student wants to write an article about the best ways to perform oral sex. The principal gets word of the article and insists it cannot run in the paper because it defies the educational purpose of the school. The principal pulls the article. If the case goes to court, which legal precedent will the court rely on to determine if the principal acted appropriately? _______________________________________________ 4. You work as a reporter for your college’s student newspaper. There is a small Bank of America branch in the student center located on your campus. The bank is robbed at gunpoint one evening during finals week. You have already seen the campus crime logs and they don’t help you much. You want to get more information. Where do you go and what law do you refer to try to find more information about the case? _______________ ___________________ and _____________________________ 5. You work as a reporter for your public college’s student newspaper and you want to write an article about how many students coming out of remedial writing classes actually go on to pass English 101 the first time they take it. To write the article you need several years’ worth of data showing how many students passed remedial writing and how many went on toe pass English 101. You intend to ask for these records from the registrar’s office or the office of Institutional Research. What law will you have to work within in order to secure the documents? ____________ 6. A Mercer student was busted for shoplifting at Quakerbridge Mall in West Windsor over the weekend and you want to write a brief article about it. You need basic information about the arrest. What law will you use to get the arrest report for the student? ______________________ 7. You print an article in your college’s newspaper alleging that a math professor –who is named in the article – had an affair with one of her students. You got the information from the student, but now he denies having the affair and having told you about it.

134

Practice with JLaw cont. If the math professor sues you, what will she likely sue you for? ____________________ 8. You get word that your college’s president is having an affair with a professor who recently received a promotion ahead of schedule. You wait outside the president’s house with a telephoto lens camera and when the professor comes calling you take photos of the two of them in a passionate embrace standing inside the president’s kitchen. The next day you run the photos with an article about the affair in the college paper. You have damaged the college president’s reputation and she will likely sue you, alleging that you committed what crime? ______________________________________ 9. You are a high school student preparing for the big homecoming football game of the season. Your rival school’s mascot is a dragon. After school there is a pep rally in which a friend of yours holds up a sign saying “Go smoke your bongs, dragons!” The rally is interrupted by the school principal who orders the sign be removed and expels your friend from school for three days. If you friend sues saying her First Amendment rights have been violated, the school will fight back by citing what case to support their position? ___________________________ 10. In the course of an investigation of your college’s chief school nurse, who has been accused of handing out anti-abortion pamphlets in the student union, you legally obtain documents that show the school nurse once had surgery to remove an enormous non-cancerous growth from her genitals. Your paper runs an editorial mentioning this fact. The school nurse will likely sue you for what? __________________________________

135

136

AP Style Cheat Sheet Journalists follow AP (Associated Press) style. It is totally different from MLA style (used in the humanities) or APA style (used in the social sciences). It has a zillion little obnoxious rules to remember.

Two key points 1. citations and attributions go IN TEXT (no bibliographies or works cited pages) 2. and punctuation is minimalist (also known as “downstyle”). Copy editors and editors should know the basics. Everything else you should look up in the most recent AP Stylebook (copies can be found in the VOICE office).

NUMBERS

The Basic Rules for Numbers in AP Style While there are numerous exceptions, for most cases spell out numbers under 10, and use numerals for numbers 10 and above. (aka. “The Rule of 9”) For large numbers of people, sums of money, etc, round unless vital to a story to include an exact number. Thursday, 15,000 protesters danced in Garfield costumes. (Instead of Thursday, 15,218 protesters danced in Garfield costumes). Exceptions! Always Use Numerals for... Let the exceptions begin! Always spell out a number that begins a sentence. That is, unless it is a year. If the number is large or would be cumbersome to spell out, reword the sentence so the number doesn’t begin it. The goal is readability. Use numerals for the following: • Ages • Days of the month • Degrees of temperature • Dimensions • House numerals • Percentages • Proportions • Scores • Serial Numbers • Speeds • Sums of money • Time of day • Time of races • Votes • Years Avoid two sets of numbers back-to-back. If it is necessary to use them consecutively, spell one of the numbers out. • She cut 20 three-inch sections for the project. (Instead of She cut 20 3 inch sections for the project.) When to Use Roman Numerals Use Roman numerals (IV, III) for popes, royalty and wars. Use Roman Numerals if they are a part of a brand, company or product name. AP Style for Large Numbers It’s time for the big ones! Those numbers most of us could only hope to earn over a lifetime. For large numbers (millions, billions, trillions, etc) do not write out the zeros but instead use numerals followed by the word: Tuesday’s gathering brought together an astonishing 3.5 million participants from across the nation. Remember, writing in AP style might seem complicated, but its ultimate goal is to simplify writing for the reader. With practice, AP style will become easier, and keep in mind that writing numbers in AP style challenges some of the greatest journalists. When in doubt, refer to the journalist’s most valuable tool: the most current copy of the AP Stylebook.

RELIGION

Capitalize names of religions, adjectives used to describe religious denominations and words used to mean a Supreme Being.

137

Lowercase pronouns that refer to deity. • Last week at the Methodist church, the minister talked about God’s will. • Last week at the Methodist church, the minister talked about God and said he was not a vengeful deity.

RACE

Capitalize the names of races and nationalities, but lowercase the adjectives used to describe them. Keep in mind that race is only to be noted when necessary to the story’s integrity. It’s easy accidentally to use out-dated terms for race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. LOOK UP THE CORRECT term in the AP Style book. •

Is your friend African American or white?

African-American Acceptable for an American black person of African descent. Black is also acceptable. The terms are not necessarily interchangeable. People from Caribbean nations, for example, generally refer to themselves as Caribbean-American. Follow a person’s preference. See nationalities and races, and race entries. (see also “black”) Asian-American A person of Asian birth or descent who lives in the U.S. When possible, refer to a person’s country of origin. For example: Filipino-American or Indian-American. Follow the person’s preference. See nationalities and race, and race entries. black Acceptable for a person of the black race. (Use Negro only in names of organizations or in quotations.) Do not use colored as a synonym. See colored, nationalities and races, and race entries. Chicano Sometimes used by Mexican-Americans in the Southwest. Not interchangeable with Mexican-American. Use only if a person’s preference. See Hispanic, Latino, nationalities and races, and race entries. indigenous A term used to refer to original inhabitants of a place. Aboriginal leaders welcomed a new era of indigenous relations in Australia. Bolivia’s indigenous peoples represent some 62 percent of the population. See nationalities and races, and race entries. Latino Often the preferred term for a person from -- or whose ancestors were from -- a Spanish-speaking land or culture or from Latin America. Latina is the feminine form. Follow the person’s preference. Use a more specific identification when possible, such as Cuban, Puerto Rican, Brazilian or Mexican-American. See Hispanic, nationalities and races, and race entries.

nationalities and races Capitalize the proper names of nationalities, peoples, races, tribes, etc.: Arab, Arabic, African, American, Caucasian, Cherokee, Chinese (both singular and plural), Eskimo (plural Eskimos), French Canadian, Japanese (singular and plural), Jew, Jewish, Nordic, Sioux, Swede, etc. See race for guidelines on when racial identification is pertinent in a story. Use derogatory terms only in direct quotes when essential to the story and flag the contents in an editor’s note. Native American Acceptable for those in the U.S. Follow the person’s preference. Where possible, be precise and use the name of the tribe: He is a Navajo commissioner. In stories about American Indians, such words or terms as wampum, warpath, powwow, teepee, brave, squaw, etc., can be disparaging and offensive. See nationalities and races, and race entries. Orient, Oriental Do not use when referring to East Asian nations and their peoples. Asian is the acceptable term for an inhabitant of those regions. Oriental rug is standard. See nationalities and races and race. Saudi Arabia Use Saudi as the adjective in referring to the people or culture of Saudi Arabia. It’s Saudi diplomacy, not Saudi Arabian diplomacy. For the Saudi monarchy, follow the style on British and other monarchies. Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal would be Prince Saud on first reference and Saud on second reference. tribe, tribal

138

Refers to a group in a traditional society that is made up of linked families or communities sharing a common ancestry or culture. Use sparingly. Ethnic group is preferred. See the nationalities and races entry.

SEXUALITY

The AP Stylebook has updated its gay entry. The new guideline: gay should be used to describe men and women attracted to the same sex, though lesbian is the more common term used for women. Use homosexual ONLY in clinical contexts or references to sexual activity. Include sexual orientation only when it is pertinent to a story, and avoid references to “sexual preference” or to a gay or alternative “lifestyle.” Transgender Refer to human beings by the gender with which they identify (ask them – do not base on appearance!). Note transgender identity only if it is relevant to the article. After initial indication that the subject is transgendered use the pronoun that applies to the gender with which they identify.

IMMIGRANTS

When referring the people living in the United States who do not have a current visa, The VOICE uses “undocumented citizens” instead of “illegal immigrants” except in direct quotes where the speaker (usually some jiggerhead conservative) refers to the people in question as “illegals” or “illegal immigrants.”

CAPITALIZATION

Titles Capitalize titles that precede a name, but lowercase titles that follow a name, stand alone or are used as informal references. Lengthy titles should be placed after the name. • President Obama addressed the nation yesterday. • Jessie, the class president, addressed the student body yesterday. War & Historic Events Always capitalize names of wars, battles, generals and historic events. • The Battle of Coral Sea was a crucial point in WWII. Holidays Capitalize all holidays. • Christmas is celebrated about a month after Thanksgiving. Proper Nouns And a basic rule of capitalization: Capitalize all proper nouns. Just remember that proper nouns can be tricky to identify when it comes to specific and nonspecific. If a basic word like “math” or “government” is attached to a specific course or department, it should be capitalized, otherwise it should be lowercased. For a further discussion of capitalization of proper nouns, reference the AP Stylebook. • At the University of Louisiana, Sara ran into Justin Timberlake on Rex Street just after College Algebra.

What NOT to Capitalize • The abbreviations a.m. and p.m. Also be sure to use these with times attached, and there are no spaces between the letters. Do not capitalize the words noon or midnight. • Names of college classes unless specific. Don’t capitalize names of academic degrees. • The seasons. • Prepositions, conjunctions, articles in titles of books or stories unless they begin or end the title. Remember that memorizing all the rules of capitalization may not be the most practical way to learn AP style. Double-checking your work with the most current copy of the AP Stylebook is a sure way to learn the rules and ensure accuracy in your copy, something crucial for journalistic writing. Remembering the basics will help you better write a first draft of an article.

ABBREVIATIONS

The Basic Rules of AP Abbreviations Never abbreviate something that won’t easily be understood to readers; the purpose of abbreviations in journalistic writing is to make the reader’s job easier, not harder. For this reason, do not use excessive acronyms, or as the AP Stylebook says it, “avoid alphabet soup.”

139

Cities & States When writing a city that is not well-known, write the state with it for the first mention. Certain well-known cities never require a state listed: • New Orleans • Chicago • Los Angeles • Houston • Orlando • New York • Tokyo • And many more well-known cities. See AP Stylebook for entire listing. When a state is used alone in a sentence, spell it out, but if a state is used with a city, follow these abbreviations (Note that some states are never abbreviated): • Alabama -- Ala. • Alaska -- Alaska • Arizona -- Ariz. • Arkansas -- Ark. • California -- Calif. • Colorado -- Colo. • Connecticut -- Conn. • Delaware -- Del. • D.C. -- District of Columbia • Florida -- Fla. • Georgia -- Ga. • Hawaii -- Hawaii • Idaho -- Idaho • Illinois -- Ill. • Indiana -- Ind. • Iowa -- Iowa • Kansas -- Kan. • Kentucky -- Ky. • Louisiana -- La. • Maine -- Maine • Maryland -- Md. • Massachusetts -- Mass. • Michigan -- Mich. • Minnesota -- Minn. • Mississippi -- Miss. • Missouri -- Mo. • Montana -- Mont. • Nebraska -- Neb. • Nevada -- Nev. • New Hampshire -- N.H. • New Jersey -- N.J. • New Mexico -- N.M. • New York -- N.Y. • North Carolina -- N.C. • North Dakota -- N.D. • Ohio -- Ohio • Oklahoma -- Okla. • Oregon -- Ore. • Pennsylvania -- Pa. • Rhode Island -- R.I. • South Carolina -- S.C. • South Dakota -- S.D. • Tennessee -- Tenn. • Texas -- Texas • Utah -- Utah • Vermont -- Vt.

140

• • • • •

Virginia -- Va. Washington -- Wash. West Virginia -- W. Va. Wisconsin -- Wis. Wyoming -- Wyo.

Dates Spell out months when used alone or with either a date or year but abbreviate them to the following when used with a date and year. All months with five letters or less are never abbreviated. Never abbreviate days of the week. • January -- Jan. • February -- Feb. • March -- March • April -- April • May -- May • June -- June • July -- July • August -- Aug. • September -- Sept. • October -- Oct. • November -- Nov. • December -- Dec. Examples of dates: Brooks went missing on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2001. The game will be held in mid-October. The results were posted Saturday, December 5. Before or After a Name Certain titles may be abbreviated only when used before a person’s full name: • Doctor -- Dr. • Governor -- Gov. • Lieutenant Governor -- Lt. Gov. • Mister (formerly master) -- Mr. • Miss --Ms. • Mistress -- Mrs. • Representative -- Rep. • The Reverend -- The Rev. • Senator -- Sen. See the AP Stylebook for more military titles. Also note that Mr., Mrs., Ms. and Dr. are rarely used in articles. When using the title “Reverend,” the word “the” should always precede it. Also, a few abbreviations are acceptable following an individual’s or a company’s name: • Junior -- Jr. • Senior -- Sr. • Company -- Co. • Incorporated -- Inc. • Corporation -- Corp. Although there are exceptions to each abbreviation depending on the situation, the one rule that is important to remember when deciding on whether or not to use abbreviations when writing in AP style is to avoid confusion. The purpose for abbreviations in journalistic writing is to simplify, not complicate.

THE SERIAL COMMA – DON’T USE IT

Although modern American English is moving to including the serial comma (the final comma in a series of words or phrases), AP style rarely includes the serial comma. • Never use the serial comma for short, simple lists: He bought bread, milk, eggs and cheese. • Use the comma for long, complicated lists: He left her because of her insipid tendency to hover around him needlessly, her complete conceited nature and refusal to think about anybody but herself, and most of all because of her insane mother.

141

QUOTES

Each quoted person should have its own paragraph. No exceptions. When the same speaker begins a new paragraph or changes topics, either change paragraphs or use an interrupting line. Remember that accuracy in quotes is essential to avoid libel. •

“It’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous!” Then, after a moment of silence, “But there’s nothing we can do about it, is there?”

For more information on AP style, refer to the most current edition of the AP Stylebook.

142

Journalism Lingo & Vocab Journalists use a lot of specialized terms and jargon. These are a few vocab words that, if you’re new to a newsroom, may be confusing. The list is not complete, there are many local variations and other terms but this will give you a start. beat A reporter’s topic area. Courts, religion, education and Macomb County are all beats. Think of reporters covering their areas as a cop might walk a beat. box A sidebar or extra information. breakout (highlighted text box) The synopsis of the story. Key highlights of the story that stand out. brief A small or tiny story. brite or bright A funny, short story. broadsheet The size of most dailies, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today and the Free Press. Folded in half, it’s a tabloid, or tab. bullet Arrows, dots or squares that point out key topics of the story. byline The name of the writer, appearing at the top of an article. Artists and photographers typically get credits. When the reporter’s name appears at the end, it often is preceded by a dash and is called a signer. column inch One inch tall and one column wide. It is used to measure ads and articles. copy desk The desk where articles are edited, headlines and captions are written, newspaper style is enforced and deadlines are either made or missed. cutline A caption. The term comes from the day when engravings or “cuts” were used to make the impression on the page. dateline The city or place designation at the beginning of a story. Some newspapers strictly enforce a rule that the dateline must say where the reporter was when the story was gathered. A foreign story gathered by phone at home, then, might run with no dateline. deadline Every paper has dozens in a day for the hundreds of parts that go into it. You might ask what the deadline is for the piece you’re working on, the deadline for the last type to be set or the time when the presses should start. double truck A story that runs across the two middle pages of the paper, including the gutter between the two pages, and if the pages are on the same sheet, rather than two adjacent sheets, it might be called a “true” double truck. This name comes from the days when the heavy forms for newspaper pages, largely filled with lead type, were rolled around the composing room floor on heavy carts called trucks. Two pages for one project meant a double truck.

143

JOURNO VOCAB Cont. first reference The first time someone is mentioned in an article, and generally should have their full name. flag The newspaper’s name on page one. Also called the nameplate. FOIA Used as a noun or a verb (when it is done to balky government officials), it is the Freedom of Information Act. folio The page number, newspaper name and date appearing in the corner of a page. graph A paragraph. gutter The space between two columns. inside Not on the front page, as in, “we’ll run this story inside.” jump The part of a story that continues on another page. Also called a break. The readers get directions from jump lines. lead The start of a story, usually 60 words or less for hard news. A features lead may be an anecdote followed by a nut graph. Pronounced lede, and sometimes spelled that way, too. leg A column of type. A two-column headline will likely have two legs of type under it. masthead The box on the editorial page with the names of top editors which may include phone numbers and contact information. Usually appears on the editorial page or one of the first inside pages. mug A mug shot or a small photo of someone. If someone says, “get me a mug,” don’t come back with coffee. nut graf After a delayed lead it’s the paragraph in a story that tells readers what the story is about and why they should care. Some papers have rules about how close this should be to the top of the story. Also spelled nut graph. oped The opinion page facing the editorial page. paraphrase To summarize or rewrite in your own words a quote. Paraphrasing should not have quote marks. pool A certain number of reporters or one reporter who goes out and represents everyone else. For example, a high-interest court case, a presidential appearance or a concert may not have room for all the journalists who want to cover it, so the organizers may restrict coverage to a press pool. Pool coverage is usually shared with other media outlets.

144

JOURNO VOCAB Cont. proof Any printed copy before it goes to press. Usually made on a printer or photocopy machine. rim The copy editors, collectively. Dates back to the days when the copy desk was a horseshoe shaped piece of furniture with rim editors around the outside and slot editors on the inside, doling out and checking work. scoop As a noun, a story no one else has; as a verb, to do it to the competition. sidebar A story that accompanies the main story, detailing a particular angle or aspect, such as the hero’s early childhood. slot One of the people on the copy desk who checks over the copy editors’ work before committing it to type. Also used as a verb: “Hey, Terry, slot me on this, will you?” slug An internal name for a story, usually just one or two words. Elex might be the slug for a story on school elections. spike To kill a story. At one time, when editors were finished with a piece of paper, such as a story, headline or page proof, they would slam it down on an upright nail on their desk. Then, they would know they were done with it, but could go back to it later if they needed to. Today, many newsroom computers have a “spike” key for killing a story or file. skybox A term for promotional boxes that are usually above the nameplate of the newspaper. Also known as a teaser or refer, stringer A writer or photographer who is not a full-time employee, but who is paid by the job. The term comes from the days when a writer would get paid by the column inch and would measure his or her contribution by holding a string along the story to measure its length, knot it, measure the next column or story, and so on, reporting the final length for pay.

145

Useful Contact Information at Mercer REPORTING: Who should I interview for my article? Use this list to find contact information. If someone is NOT on this list, use the college directory which is online at www.mccc.edu under the directory tab at the very top and center of the homepage. Mercer Main #609-586-4800 Look on the MCCC web directory for more up-to-date contact info and email addresses:

www.mccc.edu/welcome_faculty_staff_dir.shtml Whom to call

What this person knows ABOUT

Phone Ext./Office

Deans Robin Schore Dean of Liberal Arts – easiest way to find him is drop by his office, door is almost always open Dean Schore’s assistant is Debbie Stotland – she has tons of information at her fingertips. Be kind and she can help you figure out whom to talk to next. 3378 LA 166 Winston Maddox Dean of Business – ET 106 Linda Martin Dean of Science & Health Professions – To set up an interview with Dean Martin call her assistant Marie Mendez at 3383 MS Helpful Faculty Members Prof.Amy Iseneker Horticulture and Environmental Task Force Prof.Linda Scherr Curriculum Committee and Advising Prof.Kathi Paluscio Public Speaking – Mouthworks Prof.Laura Knight ENG 101/102 coordinator Prof.Carol Friend Remedial reading coordinator Prof.Denise Ingram Diversity, women, GLBT studies Prof.Karen Bearce Psychology and Phi Theta Kappa Prof.Amy Vondrak Remedial English instruction ENG 023/024 Prof.Carol Bork Honors classes, English and tutoring center Prof.Leonard Wingora Adjunct issues

3372 3839 3454 3309 3371 3587 3569 3891 3890

MS 124 LA 121 ET 120 LA 133 LA 121 LA 122 LA 131 LA 172 LA 172 LA 132

Theater and Arts Kitty Getlick Kelsey Theater productions – she can put you in touch with directors, actors etc. 3580 TH Prof. Jody Person Student theater productions – He’s in charge. 3524 ET 123 Prof. Jim Kelly Coordinator of music programs and student bands 3716 CM 149 Prof. Mel Leipzig Student artwork, competitions etc. 3353 ET 130 Tricia Fagan Curator of the art gallery at Mercer 3588 CM 205 Sports Mike DeAngelis Fitness Center coordinator 3758 John Simone Director of athletics + asst. dean of student services 3740 Charlie Inverso Men’s soccer (fall) 3746 Jodie Ricciardi Women’s soccer (fall) Mark Vecchiolla Women’s tennis (fall) 3537 Library Pam Price

146

PE 131 PE 105 PE 109 PE 101

Director of the Library – everything library related 3562 LB 104

Contacts at MCCC cont. Martin Crabtree

librarian in the know

3545 LB 109

Student Resources Nancy Sobala &Nina May Institutional research data gatherers 3221 SC 236 Arlene Stinson Dir. Of Academic Support Services – helps students with learning and all other disabilities, + tutoring center 3525 FA 129 (temp) Linda Scherr Dir. of Virtual Campus – online classes 3312 CM 126B Michael Sullivan Coordinator of online classes 3315 CM 126B LeVar Hylton Very helpful office manager for testing center 3297 LA 216 Susan Bowen Information and technology 3670 Latonya Ashford Director of Student Advisement 3292 SC 262 Director of Financial Aid 3218 SC 264 Beth Knight Secretary for the registrar, call to get info or set up an interview with Joan Guggenheim, the actual registrar 3206 SC 259 Savita Bambhrolia Dir. of Admissions + International Student Services 3438 SC 252 Danielle Garuba Student Activities – clubs, student government, 3677 SC 160 Dr. Khalida Haqq PASS – Program for Academic Services & Success 3327 SC 245 Laurene Jones Transfer and Career Counseling 3307 SC 230A Tony Bruzaitis Tech stuff in the classrooms 3704 CM 129 Security Bryon Marshall Carol Hoppock Michael Flahherty

Director of facilities –and Security Marshall’s assistant – call her if you can’t get him Chief of security

SC Security Office

Bookstore, Cafeteria and other Services Mike Massa Director of the bookstore 3414 SC 21 Jackie Dunn Manager of food services 3420 SC 136 Frank DiBella General Manager of Conference center – food etc. 3599 MC 149 James Kerney Campus Monica Weaver Kerney campus provost

3153 KC 334

Other Helpful People Marge Archer LA Student advocate

3268 LA 171

Top Administrators Diane Badessa Secretary for the college President. Call her to set up interviews with Dr. Pat Donohue.

NOTE: Before you set up an interview with anyone above Dean level (suck as the president of VP) email the editor in chief, Laura Pollack, at pollack.laura@gmail.com FIRST to arrange for an editor to accompany you to your interview.

147

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. Holly Johnson

Fact Checking Worksheet

Directions: Journalists are held to the highest ethical standards. They must corroborate information, avoid libel and present information in an even handed manner. Journalists cannot make up quotes, fabricate data, use information or quotes from another source without attribution or otherwise deceive the reader. Breaking these rules violates journalistic ethics and college academic integrity policies. To ensure that your work is free from error --advertent or inadvertentcomplete and sign this worksheet.

After you have written a draft with which you are satisfied, your next step is to check all your facts. In order to do this, you must have saved all documents you used (or book-marked websites), and after interviewing people made sure you had their contact information so you could get back to them to check your facts. If you are not sure a fact is accurate or you could not find sources to corroborate it, do NOT include it in your writing. Never make up facts or use other reporters’ work without giving them credit for it using proper AP style attribution. Note: These sheets are saved for several years and may be referenced if there is a claim of inaccuracy or plagiarism.

STEP 1 – Check names and spellings Go through your document and highlight or underline all names of people, places and other proper nouns. Check the spelling against original documents and online directories. If needed, call any person you talked to back, and check that his or her name is spelled correctly. If you double-checked during your interviews, that is sufficient. Get into the habit of checking the spelling of names as you are reporting. STEP 2 – Check numbers and statistics Underline all numbers, percentages, dates and statistics mentioned in your article. Now go through them one at a time and check them against documents, websites and personal interviews. If you cannot find the same number (or date or time or percentage) given by MORE THAN ONE source then you cannot use it in your article. If an individual gave you a number (date etc.) during an interview, call him or her back and ask if there is a document that contains that information or if there is another person who can verify before you submit it. STEP 3 – Check quotes Circle all the quotes you used in your article. If you did not check these quotes at the time you write them down, contact the person who gave you the quote (using email at this point is perfectly acceptable) and let them know you are simply double-checking your facts and quotes for your article. Read (or email) them the exact quotes you are using and ask if they were recorded correctly. If the person does not confirm, you cannot use the quote, unless you have it on a tape recording or there was a second person at the interview who wrote down the same quote. (Note: in NJ you must ask before taping any interview, and always let interview subjects know when they are “on the record” with a reporter. Signing this document indicates you understand and have adhered to these rules). STEP 4 – Check for bias Read through your article and check to see if there are any words you’ve used that may show bias or a slanted position (this does not include reviews or opinions). Have you presented all facts and information in as fair and balanced a way as possible? If you wrote a review, which contains your opinion, did you provide adequate facts to support your position? By signing below you certify that you have completed all parts of this fact checking assignment, that you understand the ethical and legal obligation to fact check and that you have done all due diligence in your reporting. Signed: ___________________________________________ Date: _____________________

148

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. Holly Johnson

Fact Checking Worksheet

149

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. Holly Johnson

Fact Checking Worksheet

150

CMN 231 – Journalism 2 Prof. Holly Johnson

Fact Checking Worksheet

151

Prof. Holly Johnson CMN 231 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Journalism 2 COURSE EVALUATION When you are instructed to do so, at the end of the semester, please take a moment to fill out this anonymous course evaluation form. What you write here is confidential. It will be used to help improve the course for future learners. Write as much or as little as you want (use the back for extra room!). Thank you! What grade do you think you currently have in this class at the moment?_________ Do you feel this grade accurately reflects the work you have done in the class?

About how much time did you spend on work outside of class each week?

Was the amount of work required in this class (circle one): a. too much b. a lot but not too much c. too little d. just right e. other (please describe) ____________________________________________ Which assignments did you find most useful this semester? Least?

Which in-class activities did you find most useful this semester? Least?

If another student needed to take CMN 131, would you recommend this instructor?

152

Course Evaluation cont. What three words would you use to describe this professor? 1. ___________________________ 2. ___________________________ 3. ___________________________ If you could change anything about this class, what would it be?

What was the most challenging aspect of this class for you this semester?

Is there any other feedback --positive or negative--- that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to offer?

153

Learning to Take Criticism Effectively “There is no crying in journalism” – Joseph Pulitzer

Remember that you are a professional. Even if you think your peer reviewer, or editor, or adviser is being a jerk, you can’t say it to them or complain about it at work (or in the classroom). Save your reaction for your dog/mom/friend/boyfriend/wife/husband girlfriend/house plant/other.

In the workplace you will receive far more critique/criticism than compliments. This is a sign of RESPECT for your maturity and work ethic.

Be suspicious when people offer you too much praise; it usually means you are about to be fired or they are too lazy to bother taking your work seriously.

Your first instinct may be to defend your work. This is understandable. But try to move on quickly and assume you can always make your work stronger.

Act on about 70-80% of criticism you receive (unless the person criticizing you is obviously crazy and doesn’t know what they are talking about). Ignore the 20% you think is off base or that you can’t get to. One thing at a time.

Train yourself to believe that anyone, even people who seem less skilled or who are lower than you on the ladder, can offer you helpful insights and that you will be a better writer if you take it in.

Develop a thick, but not impenetrable, skin.

154

CMN 231 - Peer Review Worksheet

Directions: Any student who fails to complete peer review will automatically have their final article grade reduced by 30% (i.e. a 100 becomes a 70 etc.).

Each article should take roughly 25 minutes to review. Set aside the needed time, and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t skimp.

Be firm yet polite with your comments and provide sufficient detail for the reader to understand your suggestions. Apply comments using the comment function in Google Drive.

If any of the items element is missing or not working, make a note in the margins!

STEP 1 - Check the lead: What kind of lead is it? If the person is writing a hard news story make sure they are using a hard news lead. If they are writing a feature make sure they have an anecdotal lead followed by a nut graph. Note any problems.

STEP 2 - Check the content: When you are done reading the article are there questions you have that remain unanswered? If so, note what they are. Make a note of ideas that seem out of order, weak transitions, or biased content that should not be biased.

STEP 3 - Check the quotes and evidence: Check that there are quotes from people on all sides of the topic and that they are attributed correctly and appear in the right part of the story. If there is a problem make a note of it.

STEP 4 - Check for specific elements that are needed for the type of article: Determine what kind of article your partner is writing (review, sports, hard news, feature etc.) and if they have included all the things that type of article needs. Check your book if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not sure. Make a note of any missing elements.

STEP 5 - Check for mechanical problems and style: Correct any grammar, spelling and punctuation errors you notice. If there are too many, point out a few and make a note that there are more.

STEP 6 - Write a detailed final note Highlight this note and place it directly in text at the top or bottom of the article, also put your name at the end of it. Write several sentences summing up the issues you have spotted and noting the strengths. Make concrete suggestions for improvement. Avoid being harsh or being over praising.

155

Welcome to Honors J2 - Student Survey Name: ______________________________________ Major: _______________________________________ Current joh: __________________________________ Dream job: ___________________________________ Do you speak any languages other than English fluently? Describe yourself in five words or less: _________________________________________________________ How do other people who know you describe you? What is something unusual that you do regularly?

What is something you are obsessed about?

What movie can you watch over and over again? What is your most pronounced feeling when you interact with new people? What are some political issues that concern you?

Where would you travel if you could go anywhere you wanted? Who are your heroes or role models?

What matters most to you in the world?

What do you read on a regular basis? What makes you mad? What inspires you?

156