News from from the the News Raymond Simon Simon Raymond Institute at at Institute Utica University Utica University
December January 2023 2025
Journalism Professor David Chanatry Announces Retirement David Chanatry, a distinguished professor of journalism, retired at the end of the fall 2024 semester after 21 years of teaching service to the Communication and Media major. He taught courses in broadcast news writing, television news reporting, producing and documentary film making. Throughout his tenure, he inspired many students to pursue careers in broadcast journalism. Chanatry came to Utica University as a veteran journalist whose career spanned television, radio and print, spent 20 years at NBC News, writing and producing news stories for several programs including NBC Nightly News and The Today Show. His expertise allowed Utica University to build a strong broadcasting program. He created the broadcast journalism concentration in the public relations and journalism major. Chanatry designed
several courses including Broadcast News Writing, Television News Production and Reporting, and Producing the Newscast. Eventually Chanatry added, as an elective, Documentary Filmmaking. And recently he redesigned the Media Ethics course. His reporting work has also appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Day to Day and Living on Earth; Public Radio International’s The World; BBC Radio News; and The World Vision Report, and he was a contributor to The Washington Post and other publications. He has reported overseas from Kosovo, Albania and the Sudan. Chanatry’s work with students often went beyond the bounds of the classroom. He mentored students in covering Utica University’s Forensic Anthropology Field School in Albania. Chanatry and students reported on students’ experienc-
es analyzing the human skeletal remains from Roman and medieval graves. Stories about the experience aired on WRVO and WAME. Chanatry recalled taking students into the field to work on a superfund cleanup, the local dairy industry, abolition day in Utica, Word of Life vigil following the beating death of a youth by church followers, hydrofracking, Nano-Utica, Chobani Yogurt boom, and “my all-time favorite – Ray Biggs and I crowding into boats with USGS and Cornell University scientists as they gill-netted fish on Oneida Lake.” Biggs’ story was broadcast all over Texas. “I remember what it was like when I got out of school and had no idea what to do or if I could even get a job,” said Chanatry. “So what really stands out to me now are those students who I helped
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