Dear CMA members:

It is my pleasure to announce that Brad Arendt, director of student media at Boise State University, has agreed to serve as director of CMA's Center for Innovation in College Media, effective immediately.

Brad, who has been advising for 13 years, intends to continue to provide hands-on training workshops at the national level, beginning with the Chicago convention this fall. 

He also has some exciting ideas he hopes to try, such as the possibility of offering video webinars for such topics as video editing, using digital online tools and using software.

Bryan Murley will continue to write the CICM blog and showcase examples of innovative student work. In addition, Bryan will continue to track emerging trends in news media that impact college media organizations. 

Training opportunities for journalists exist with TOL Training.  Upcoming sessions include:

• Digital Journalism (May 20-25)
• Foreign Correspondent Training Course (July 22-30)
• Photojournalism (July 20-27)

The courses are designed for journalists who wish to acquire new skills and keep on top of the latest developments in their profession. Journalism students, especially those in their final year of studies, also attend the courses.

Details can be found at: http://www.tol.org/client/training/open-courses/

Dear CMA members:

I am excited about a new committee structure and I’m hoping that you will see how it can benefit both you and CMA if you apply to be a member.

But first, I need to bury the lead to provide some explanation:

The primary purpose for the CMA committee structure is to provide sessions for CMA conventions, both fall and spring. The conventions are our primary revenue source and we need to provide exceptional sessions to continue to keep that revenue stream.

If the conventions decline in quality, or fail to reflect the full perspective of college student media, the conventions are at risk of losing their appeal and CMA faces the danger of losing that much-needed convention revenue. So our objective is to produce high quality, relevant convention programming - and to meet deadlines while doing it.

Unfortunately, our current committee structure has become too compartmentalized and cumbersome. For different reasons, the sessions we program are not always of the highest quality. This is not necessarily the fault of specific committee chairs. Instead, I think it is primarily an institutional failing by CMA to provide the necessary training to committee chairs on how to do their jobs. 

As you may have noticed through listserv postings, the reduced number of quality sessions is putting more of a burden on our convention director, who is taking, in my view, a disproportionate share of the work in trying to build conventions filled with quality sessions. He now has a full-time position in addition to his CMA duties. He simply cannot continue to take on more of this work.

So here's what the CMA Board recently approved:

1. We have eliminated all CMA committees that exist to provide programming for conventions. No longer is there a newspaper committee or a yearbook committee, for example.

2. Instead, we have agreed to create a single new convention programming committee. Any CMA member can serve but those on the committee will be required to apply. Applications will be reviewed by the board. To apply, you must submit your name, contact information, why you wish to serve on the committee, your experience with programming sessions, whether you have extensive contacts with professionals (to help us schedule more pro sessions) and whether your school will allow you to travel to both conventions. Please feel free to email any applications to david.swartzlander@doane.edu. I expect the committee to include 20 or so members.

3. The convention director will serve as the chairman of the committee.

4. The programming committee will work to establish goals for each convention - such as total number of sessions, ratio of adviser to pro sessions, session focus areas (newspaper, yearbook, photo, etc.), themes (if any) and potential keynotes and special events.

5. All programming committee members would work collaboratively to develop session proposals by a specific deadline. All of the members of this committee will be able to develop any sessions they want, keeping within the goals for the conventions. The committee members may present a session or two, but the vast majority of sessions at conventions will continue to be presented by professionals and advisers from various CMA-member schools. You do not have to be a committee member to present sessions, for example.

6. All proposed convention sessions would be judged as part of a competitive process by a review committee, which will include the CMA president, the VP of Member Services, the convention director and the executive director. Only sessions that match convention goals and meet strategic needs would be accepted. The review committee is intended to protect against favoritism for any individual proposer.

7. Here's where you could actually profit: For every accepted session, CMA would pay the programming committee member who created it $20 (for an adviser-led session) and $40 (for a session led by a working media pro). Landing a keynote or a major speaker could earn you $100.

8. Each programming committee member would be expected to attend both conventions to participate in planning meetings and oversee the sessions created.

The CMA Board believes that this system would enable members of this committee to engage in friendly - emphasis on friendly - competition to create the best possible sessions while allowing you to earn money to help pay your way to conventions.

We've done the math. We can afford this. We think this will work to help us create quality sessions that will, in turn, drive traffic to our conventions. In other words, we view this not as an expense as much as an investment in our conventions.

I realize this is a radical departure from the past but, frankly, we need to shake up our committee system. The board decided it needed a new approach. The board has approved the structure. 

If you are interested in being a part of this new generation of CMA - this is not your father's CMA anymore - please apply by dropping me a line with the appropriate information. If you feel you need more information, I will try to provide it to you.

I'm hoping many of you will want to be a part of this. This is not just for board members or past committee chairs. This is a concerted effort to get new, innovative ideas for convention sessions from all of the CMA members, not just a few. I hope the committee will consist of a diverse cross-section of CMA members – those from large and small schools, from public and private, from faith-based and secular schools. We need committee member applications from all.

We will begin this process in New York City. The new convention programming committee will meet there to begin work on the Chicago convention. I fervently hope you will be on board for what I think will be a thrilling - and perhaps profitable - ride.

This announcement also will be posted on the CMA listserv.

Thank you for your interest. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

David Swartzlander

CMA President

By Sacha DeVroomen Bellman

In March, Michael Koretzky will direct his second New York CMA conference after being hired by the board to take over the conferences after the retirement of CMA executive director Ron Spielberger.

Koretzky also will direct the next three college media conferences, Chicago in the fall of 2012; New York again in the spring of 2013 and New Orleans in the fall of 2013.

Many of use know Koretzky from his flamboyant style: a cigar in his mouth, wearing army fatigues with a riding crop in hand -- presenting his latest, greatest motivation idea to the students at every convention. His journalism experience is just as eclectic. He’s worked at the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale and at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla. as a reporter; at tabloid newspapers (Globe, Examiner, Star and National Enquirer) as a designer/copy editor; at music magazines as an editor; and now has entered the realm of online journalism as editor for a personal finance website called moneytalksnews.com.

We also know him as the deposed adviser from Florida Atlantic University who continues to advise the student newspaper there as a volunteer. He has been a mainstay at many college media conventions. And now he runs them.

Although the early bird deadline for registration has passed, Koretzky said more than 200 people registered last year after the deadline and he’s hopeful about a good turnout at the conference March 17-20. The hotel rooms are sold out, but you can still book a hotel called the Wellington, which is two blocks away from the Sheraton and cheaper.

The conference itself will be different, which Koretzky addresses below, with fewer of the “regular” sessions and no College Broadcasters Inc. sessions. (Koretzky said CBI amicably withdrew in January.)

I talked to Koretzky by phone last week.

B: What’s your take on this year’s CMA NYC – What do you have for us?

K: A big thing was an edict from the board of directors that they wanted more professional speakers. Just adding up the numbers from 2010, we had 260 sessions and 54 were led by professionals – non-advisers . The first year in New York (2011) we had 68. This year, 109 of the sessions will be led by professionals.

It’s the one thing we focused on. We wanted to double that number from 2010. We have professionals from the New York Times and Daily News, but also National Geographic, Time and Newsweek. Even Sports Illustrated and ESPN. For new media, we have the COO of Mashable.

That ‘s the biggest change. Last year, we got a lot of attention for our keynote speakers -- both good and bad. We had the folks from Westboro Baptist Church and Helen Thomas. What we wanted to spend time on this year is improving the most basic unit -- the 50-minute sessions -- and not worry about the bells and whistles. We sent session descriptions back and advisers had to rewrite them, and we made sure we got better sessions.

B: Do you have any big names for keynote speakers?

K: We’re going to announce keynotes -- we are still trying to nail them down.

If last year was Helen Thomas and Westboro, this year we’re going in a totally opposite direction. We hope to announce this week. (First one was announced Sunday -- check NYC12 webpage)

B: You have been a great presenter at many conferences. Will you present at NYC?

K: I’m cutting my own stuff back to work with other presenters.

My favorite things we’re doing – a session on natural sound radio – in the dark.

Talked to play by play guy from Major League Baseball – he’s going to teach play by play and then the student will read scripts and who does best gets a gift certificate.

I used to get crap from CMAers: “All your sessions are bells and whistles.” But there has to be a lesson in it. Anyone can be a clown for five minutes. I don’t think it is a problem to go to a convention and have some fun.

There are lots of professional want to do something a little different and I think we have a good range of sessions. People want to to go to the ones that are a little more interesting. We have dedicated rooms just for Christians, sports, media law…

We have taken our time with they keynotes --- I’d rather have average keynotes and kick-ass sessions.

B: Tell me about your team this year?

K: Michelle Boyet is assistant director – she’s great at this because she works at a hotel. She is the social media director at Breakers… That means marketing is easier because she used to do it for a living. Negotiating also is easier at hotel because she knows what services we do and do not need to pay for.

The rest of the team: We have six women who are former students who help and we don’t pay them. They have been to this convention before -- I give them a room and they pay their own air fare.

B: Looking forward to Chicago for those of us who can’t make it to New York – what can we expect there?

K: I went there in January to check out hotel (Sheraton Chicago). It’s a really cool hotel – the way the space is laid out. One thing I’m trying to do there…. We usually have something called midnight snack – they have hamburger stand in their basement. I’m negotiating to do free hamburgers at midnight.

The hotel is really close to a lot to things – it’s next to bar, bowling alley and gourmet organic market.

One of the things I keep hearing … that in these tough economic time (people) have to chose between conventions. I want to make conventions very different. My goal is to make Chicago a little different. My goal is people who go to both, will notice a difference.

B: What kind of work have you been doing since being fired from FAU?

K: I’m the editor for personal finance website moneytalksnews.com… it gets a million hits. … I work from home. I still volunteer at FAU go there a couple of times a week. Actually it is more fun because don’t have to worry about a dress code and no meetings with deans…

B: What job in media is there still left for you to do? What’s your next venture?

K: I love volunteering. I work more with student media now than I did when at FAU. I’m on the SPJ national board and I go to all these other Florida schools and do programming there. The “Will Work for Food” we’re taking to a national level.

I’m doing more with college journalists, because not all in one place. It works for me.

I’m lucky. I have no kids, no pets, no hobbies. I have a very understanding wife works for the state and provides us with benefits.

Share your expertise on ‘Issues Facing the Campus Media’

The college press will have a presence at the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in 2012 – with your help!

CMA is soliciting research papers on the topics of concern to media advisers, whether they be about their jobs or about the successes and challenges for college students as they produce their newspapers, magazines, yearbooks, television and radio programs and online sites

According to former CMA and AEJMC President Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver, for more than 10 years, CMA has had a research paper session at the convention dealing with issues facing college media. At the AEJMC convention in August 2012, this tradition will continue. 

While the papers should be about issues the college media face, that topic is wide open. For example, one topic of interest is getting students to embrace the culture and immediacy of multimedia: advisers can show them tools but students often don't see the urgency. Perhaps this is a cultural issue. What else? Perhaps some research on the job load/training of advisers?  Perhaps funding of student media? Perhaps millennial students and how newsroom dynamics have changed because of them? 

Other thoughts? All would make interesting research papers. 

Brian Steffen of Simpson College, who was panel's moderator last year, will repeat his performance in Chicago.

Based on the paper's topics and findings, selected panelists will make 10- or 12-minute presentations. In addition, because the papers will be relevant to members of CMA, it is hoped the papers might be selected for publication in future issues of "College Media Review." Selected papers will be chosen by early May.

Papers should be sent to Sally Renaud, CMA past president, by April 1: Department of Journalism, Eastern Illinois University, 600 Lincoln Ave., Charleston, IL 61920. For more information, contact her at serenaud@eiu.edu.

By Sacha DeVroomen Bellman

The day I got my new copy of  “The Student Newspaper Survival Guide,” the business manager of The Miami Student walked into my office asking whether I had some ideas about how to train a few of the new sales people he just hired. I turned to Chapter 20 and copied several pages for him.

That was easy.

In the next few months, I relied on the book several other times, explaining copyrights to the student magazine editor? who was using stuff off the internet. And when I was planning my online journalism course, I used some of the multi-media tip sheets from the book as well.

I had planned to give the book to the newspaper staff and put it on the shelf with the other reference books I have provided them over the years. But I haven’t. It’s on my desk instead, guiding me along the way to answer everyday questions and more difficult questions I had not encountered before. It’s probably getting more use this way.

“The Student Newspaper Survival Guide” by Rachele Kanigel published its second edition last fall. Kanigel, who is the vice president of CMA, is an associate professor at San Francisco State University. She also is the adviser of the Golden Gate Xpress.

She was the obvious first choice in a series of Q & A’s I’m planning to do as CMA’s news director. Much of the daily news items are taken care of by the national staff and board, and I hope to provide some “extras” for the webpage. If you have a suggestion for a Q & A or if you have some news you’d like to share with the rest of the membership, please email me at bellmasd@muohio.edu.

Bellman:  How did you become interested in journalism?

Kanigel:  I guess I was trying out different majors. I was an English major, film major and psychology major. Then I took a journalism class, and I thought ‘this is it.’ I had class with an old-school journalist. I loved journalism and got hooked. That was my junior year in college at SF State. I went to grad school at Columbia – and got my master’s in 2002. I had worked as a journalist and then went back to school. 

B:  How did you become the adviser of the Xpress?

K: I started teaching first. After teaching a few semesters, I was asked to become adviser of the newspaper.  I co-advised with someone for several years and then he retired. Now I co-advise with a photojournalism professor.

B:  Is that how you started working on The Student Newspaper Survival Guide?

K: When I finished grad school, I got a job at California State University Monterey Bay. It was a different situation – here at SF State I am part of journalism school where the paper is part of a class. At CSUMB, we didn’t have a journalism department. I got there in the fall of 2002 and here were students working on the newspaper who had never worked on a newspaper and many had never taken a journalism class before. I was having to help them with everything all at once. I was looking for a book that I could give them to help them with photography, writing, design, advertising. I found a book that was out of print and completely out of date. I thought, ‘Wow, I need to write a book.’ So I wrote a book. I wrote the first edition in 2006. Almost as soon as it came out, I felt the field was changing so much. There was nothing in the first edition about social media, multimedia. It needed updating almost immediately.

B:  Who do you see as your audience for the book?

K:  I see the audience as student editors, writers, reporters and ad sales people. And advisers and business managers and anyone directing them. It is really geared to the students and also to advisers.

B: What’s different in this edition?

K: A lot. It is about 100 pages longer and has two brand-new chapters, one on social media and one on multimedia. The chapter on websites is almost completely new.

Then there are special new sections – the chapter on covering a campus now includes covering higher education and health and science. The book also has more on blogging and what to do with blogs. There’s a new section in the legal chapter on copyright and fair use. And the book has been completely redesigned. It’s full color now and includes a lot of new illustrations, most of them pages from award-winning student newspapers.

The media is changing so fast, it is hard to keep up with. There already are some new things that have come up.

The book has a lot of new information on breaking news. Breaking news has completely changed in the last five years with Twitter, live blogging and (also) in terms of putting up multimedia. We used to just use video on big packages. Now students are using video to cover protests, natural disasters and other breaking news events. I incorporated how the Northern Star covered a shooting at Northern Illinois University and how The Daily Reveille at Louisiana State University covered a hurricane.  I’m trying to give students working on papers more of a sense of responsibility for covering breaking news. It used to be many student newspapers came out weekly or even less often. What I’m trying to say in the book is that I don’t care if you’re a monthly or weekly or daily, you can still cover breaking news on your website.

B:  Tell me how you got involved in CMA.

K: I got involved in CMA when I was teaching at CSUMB in the fall of 2002.  I went to a convention and it was so exciting to meet other people who advise student media. All these questions would come up. I still have questions I can take to the listserve or ask people at conventions.  I used to go to AEJMC conventions and meetings of other groups, but compared to all those other groups, people in CMA are very generous with time, resources and knowledge.

I’ve kind of moved through CMAundefined starting out as new member and then doing some sessions, then I became professional development chair – then I was secretary. (She was elected vice president last year)

B:  What made you want to run for vice president?

K: I really enjoyed being on the board, so I wanted to get back on the board. I felt CMA was going through a great period of change. We’re putting more emphasis on training advisers and legal matters … I wanted to be part of that change. The organization is changing in part in response to the changes in the industry. The advisers I have met are often in two different categories – they were journalists for 20 years and often don’t have multimedia skills or  they are coming from other kinds of jobs and don’t have a lot of journalism background.  A lot of advisers are well-versed in journalism, but need help in business and advertising. Each individual adviser has his or her own needs and at the same time the business is changing and how we cover our campuses is changing. We really need to think about training and support for business and advertising as well as social media and marketing and multimedia.

The College Media Association has begun an inquiry into the Jan. 4 firing of East Carolina University Student Media Director Paul Isom and the impact his firing might have on First Amendment rights of student journalists at ECU.

The chair of CMA’s Advocacy Committee, Kate McCarty is leading the inquiry, which also includes an offer to help mediate any possible resolution of the issue and help redraft university policies.

CMA members and its board have expressed concern at the university’s lack of an explanation for suddenly firing Isom and fear that the action is in retaliation for content published in the student newspaper.

According to Isom, he was relieved of his duties in a surprise visit on January 4 from university officials, who told him only that they wanted “to move in a different direction” and gave him initially four hours to clear out his office. Univerity officials have deferred CMA’s inquiries so far to ECU Director of Public Affairs Mary Schulken, who said the University is not commenting upon reasons for the termination.

In November, university administrators expressed displeasure after the student newspaper, the East Carolinian, when it published on the front page a full-frontal photo of man streaking on the field at a home football game. The photo was one in a series of three photos documenting the incident and the photos accompanied a story about the incident, which occurred in ECU’s 50,000-seat stadium.

CMA is concerned that if Isom’s firing was in retaliation for student exercising their right to free expression, the result will be a chilling effect upon student journalists at ECU and elsewhere.  Speaking for the ECU, Ms. Schulken said the university is not saying whether the termination was or was not related to the publication of the photos.

The CMA Adviser’s Code of Ethics prohibits advisers from making decisions regarding the content of a student publication. CMA believes that advisers train and advise, but leave content decisions in the hands of student editors. Holding students responsible for editorial decisions makes the best sense pedagogically, in CMA’s opinion, and serves to protect the university as well. If an adviser determines student publication content then the university can be held liable for the content.

CMA also is especially concerned Isom’s firing was an ECU is attempt to control the student publication through punitive action against its adviser. Firing an adviser often has a chilling effect on student journalists and student media. The consequence of such an action is one that serves as a prior restraint on student speech and press because following such an incident student journalists often refrain from publishing controversial reports or photos in fear that an adviser will again become the victim of such action.

Many other journalism- and student media-related organizations are also making inquiries into or commenting about Isom’s firing.

Among the statements was a letter sent to ECU from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which provided a comprehensive account of case law protecting student journalists and publication rights, and from Gene Policinski, senior vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center in Nashville. The Student Press Law Center in Washington also is assisting in the case.

McCarty said the CMA inquiry will attempt to gather facts surrounding the termination and if possible, mediate any dispute in an attempt to have Isom returned to the position he has held for 3.5 years. In addition, CMA will offer to help university officials draft policies that will protect students and advisers in the future.

Isom is the second North Carolina student media adviser to lose his job in the aftermath of the publication of controversial photos. Last year, North Carolina State Adviser Bradley Wilson was terminated after students published a photo determined to be racially sensitive in a student orientation issue of the student newspaper. Wilson did not seek CMA assistance in that case, however.

CMA in the last year has investigated and sent letters of concern regarding the transfer of two other advisers at colleges in Kentucky and Illinois and the dismissal of an adviser in New York state. CMA also has in the past issued censures against schools when it was determined that advisers have been dismissed or punished for defending student First Amendment rights.

McCarty noted, however, the goal of adviser advocacy is to resolve the disputes without censure or without any adverse impact on the adviser, student staff or university.

For more information about FIRE’s letter to ECU administrators and other reports about the case,  please, see the following links:

Letter from Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to ECU officials:

http://static.mgnetwork.com/nct/media_path/documents/FIRE_Letter.pdf

Student Press Law Center Release:

http://www.splc.org/news/newsflash.asp?id=2311

News and Observer’s comprehensive story:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/01/06/1756524/ecus-newspaper-adviser-fired.html

Blog post.
http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2012/01/05/university-wrong-to-fire-student-paper-adviser-over-photo-of-nude-streaker/

First Amendment Center release:

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/streaker-isn%E2%80%99t-college%E2%80%99s-greatest-embarrassment