the journalist Students investigate tough urban issues in Baltimore with former editor of The Sun As a brand-new reporter, Holly Nunn, M. Jour. ’11 relished the chance to go into the heart of Baltimore and do on-the-ground reporting. Sandy Banisky’s class was just the ticket. “I knew I could sit in a classroom with amazing professors all day long and never learn how to be an actual reporter,” says Nunn, now a politics reporter for The Gazette of Politics and Business. “Sandy’s class is designed to make you go do the work. She makes her students look at tough issues from all sides.” Banisky, a former deputy managing editor at The Baltimore Sun, came to Maryland in 2008 as the Abell Professor in Baltimore Journalism. The position is the result of a gift from the Abell Foundation, which is dedicated to enhancing quality of life in Baltimore and Maryland. “It’s been extraordinary to watch young reporters, particularly many suburban students, explore a city that is in many ways struggling to reinvent itself,” she says. Over the last four years, her classes have explored issues including obesity, poverty, juvenile justice and even the impact of the Orioles’ then-13-year losing streak. All their work goes up on an interactive site, for which they create graphics, slideshows, videos and more. “Sandy’s class taught me that journalism isn’t easy work, and that I will do this job for years and years and still have a lot to learn,” Nunn says.–KS
ing and a mathematics fellowship in the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences. Former business school dean and UMD Foundation board of
directors chair William E. Mayer ’66, M.B.A. ’67 donates $5M, a portion of which created William E. Mayer Mall outside Van Munching Hall.
Sandy Banisky, center, with students at The Baltimore Sun.
Sandy’s class is designed to make you go
do the work. She makes her students
look at tough issues
from all sides.
—Holly Nunn, M. Jour. ’11
A $3M gift from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, an independent charitable foundation, significantly expands the Persian studies program.
Jean Mullan ’68 donates $500,000 to create the endowed Jeffrey and David Mullan Professorship in Teacher Education-Professional Development, named for her sons.
winter 2013 terp 27
