It is difficult and embarrassing to make a correction when you publish a mistake in a newspaper. But, at least, errors in print are not written in stone.
So, what do you do when a monument includes a misspelled word?
For example, a neat plaque tastefully positioned under one of the trees along the sidewalk at the King Street entrance to the Snyder Hall reads:
IN LOVING MEMORY
PAUL M. SAAB
FOREVER GREATFUL
THE SISTERS OF SIGMA SIGMA SIGMA SORORITY
&
THE BROTHERS OF THETA XI FRATERNITY
APRIL 22, 2002
It is wonderful that the students remembered their professor so fondly. It would have been even better if they had remembered how to spell “grateful.”
As I gaze at this sign, I cannot help shuddering in dread that it will catch the eye of a visiting dignitary with an ingrained obsession for engraved glitches. I further imagine that shocked observer as being the presiding member of an evaluating committee from some big accrediting organization. Uh-oh….
Let’s assume the misspelling connotes reverence for a “great-hearted” and magnanimous individual who deserves to be remembered with full honor.
I suppose that I should take a deep breath and forget-about-it.
Does anyone but an English teacher worry about such trivia? Yet, typos, especially typos engraved for posterity, stick in my mind: I cannot help it.
Another pet-peeve I’ve been unable to forget involves the strange structure between Snyder Hall and Knutti Hall, where I teach most of my classes.
I refer to the anonymous orange-yellow storage-shack (or whatever it is) that stands along High Street, blocking the view of the green-houses connected to the Institute for Environmental Studies Renewable Energy Site.
When I step out of Knutti Hall, there it is, in all its enigmatic shabbiness.
But what is it, anyway?
The yellowish paint curling on the wood sidewalls appears to have been peeling since the Vietnam War. The building itself looks like a relic from the era preceding the War Between the States, as old as West Virginia.
One of the upper-windows is broken, and shards of glass lie scattered on the ground. Peering into the clouded window panes beside the locked front door, all I can see is a clutter even worse than the one on my desk.
You may have noticed the spanking fresh billboard-maps that have popped up recently to helpfully identify everything from parking places to the new buildings on West Campus to that pedagogical landmark, the “Little House,” which has an arrow and a dot, identified on the side panel as Number 12, between White Hall, Number 23, and Human Resources, Number 8.
(If there is a mystical meaning to the numbering system, I do not know it.)
But the guide-maps do not identify the broken-down painted wood structure. It has no name, nor number, nor any identifiable reason for its existence.
Some years ago, as I recall, there were plans to remodel the old joint as a lounge for students and professors, to drink coffee and share perspectives outside of a classroom. Now that we have the Bistro in the Rams Den, an alternative meeting place seems less necessary than it probably used to be.
But what was the building intended for in the first place? And how will it fit into campus beautification? One of these days, it may be deconstructed.
It could be all-but-erased from the collective memory of our campus.
Between my office and the faculty parking lot behind the library, within a radius of less than one square block, this shack is one of a variety of intriguing signs and puzzling sights. I enjoy the changing landscape.
Still, the letters identifying the Robert c. Byrd Science building shall endure, undaunted, chiseled in concrete with the lower-case middle initial intact!
Correcting THAT typo would take more effort than I would care to consider. All I offer, in consolation, is one of Shakespeare’s best-known sonnets:
“Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
But sad mortality o’er-sways their power….”
Eternity evidently lasts longer than any of us would wish to remember.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Battle Pay for Adjuncts
Whatever else is required for General Studies, English will be required.
The reason is simple. English rules the world. English rules, totally.
Originally, the Seven Liberal Arts included Grammar and Rhetoric.
Today, it might prove quite embarrassing how many Shepherd grads lack grammatical competence, not to mention effective rhetorical style.
The last chance for many students is in general studies English courses.
Granted: a basic knowledge of history is essential. In addition, I am grateful for the undegrad course I took in biology, where I first heard about DNA.
And, frankly, I just cannot comprehend how a liberal arts school can fail to require a rigorous introductory course in philosophy for all students.
It also makes no sense to send business and political science majors into the world while lacking knowledge of either Spanish or French or German, not to mention Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic. Just consider the added earning potential these grads could have had if they were fluent in another language!
But the sole requirement for success in our time is mastery of English.
The dirty little secret, of course, is that the vast majority of required English courses are taught by adjunct faculty, hired one class-section at a time.
For a one-semester course, an adjunct with a master’s degree earns $1600.
If that same adjunct teaches, as many do, a full load of four courses in both fall and spring semester, the total yearly salary earned would be $12,800.
Forget about health insurance or other benefits. Adjuncts do not qualify.
This reliance on adjuncts brings obvious benefits to the institution.
The tuition money collected from each student in the class-room remains the same whether the instructor is an adjunct or a tenure-track professor. But the margin of profit expands exponentially by slashing labor-costs.
Besides, English courses are an academic cash-machine. They do not require expensive laboratories or specially designed studios.
All that English instructors must do is to read books and grade papers.
How many papers do English adjuncts grade? In the typical English 101, each student hands in six papers and two revisions. So, for a class of 25, the instructor must read about 200 papers each semester.
How many papers for a full load of four courses? Well, you get the idea.
And, remember, the pay is less than students earn at their part-time jobs.
Why do adjuncts accept these terms? Many simply love to teach and often do as good a job, or even better, compared to their tenure-track colleagues.
But, the adjunct system relies on exploitation. The instructors suffer the most, obviously, since they do not receive fair pay for their work. The students and their parents would probably be shocked if they realized how little these professors were earning despite the rising tuition rates. Finally, the university as a whole is undermined by being built on a foundation of gypsy scholars who are the academic equivalent of migrant farm workers.
Shepherd is not the only institution that leans on adjuncts. The same adjunct scandal-that-is-not- a-scandal runs coast-to-coast, in departments of English from Yale to Berkeley. Reliance on adjuncts has become business as usual.
If proposed curriculum reforms become a reality, there could be a newly revised general studies program and fewer hours required for graduation. Then, the dependence on adjunct faculty might be significantly alleviated.
But, for now, it only seems fair that adjunct professors should receive battle pay for doing their bit in the trenches at the front lines of higher education.
The reason is simple. English rules the world. English rules, totally.
Originally, the Seven Liberal Arts included Grammar and Rhetoric.
Today, it might prove quite embarrassing how many Shepherd grads lack grammatical competence, not to mention effective rhetorical style.
The last chance for many students is in general studies English courses.
Granted: a basic knowledge of history is essential. In addition, I am grateful for the undegrad course I took in biology, where I first heard about DNA.
And, frankly, I just cannot comprehend how a liberal arts school can fail to require a rigorous introductory course in philosophy for all students.
It also makes no sense to send business and political science majors into the world while lacking knowledge of either Spanish or French or German, not to mention Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic. Just consider the added earning potential these grads could have had if they were fluent in another language!
But the sole requirement for success in our time is mastery of English.
The dirty little secret, of course, is that the vast majority of required English courses are taught by adjunct faculty, hired one class-section at a time.
For a one-semester course, an adjunct with a master’s degree earns $1600.
If that same adjunct teaches, as many do, a full load of four courses in both fall and spring semester, the total yearly salary earned would be $12,800.
Forget about health insurance or other benefits. Adjuncts do not qualify.
This reliance on adjuncts brings obvious benefits to the institution.
The tuition money collected from each student in the class-room remains the same whether the instructor is an adjunct or a tenure-track professor. But the margin of profit expands exponentially by slashing labor-costs.
Besides, English courses are an academic cash-machine. They do not require expensive laboratories or specially designed studios.
All that English instructors must do is to read books and grade papers.
How many papers do English adjuncts grade? In the typical English 101, each student hands in six papers and two revisions. So, for a class of 25, the instructor must read about 200 papers each semester.
How many papers for a full load of four courses? Well, you get the idea.
And, remember, the pay is less than students earn at their part-time jobs.
Why do adjuncts accept these terms? Many simply love to teach and often do as good a job, or even better, compared to their tenure-track colleagues.
But, the adjunct system relies on exploitation. The instructors suffer the most, obviously, since they do not receive fair pay for their work. The students and their parents would probably be shocked if they realized how little these professors were earning despite the rising tuition rates. Finally, the university as a whole is undermined by being built on a foundation of gypsy scholars who are the academic equivalent of migrant farm workers.
Shepherd is not the only institution that leans on adjuncts. The same adjunct scandal-that-is-not- a-scandal runs coast-to-coast, in departments of English from Yale to Berkeley. Reliance on adjuncts has become business as usual.
If proposed curriculum reforms become a reality, there could be a newly revised general studies program and fewer hours required for graduation. Then, the dependence on adjunct faculty might be significantly alleviated.
But, for now, it only seems fair that adjunct professors should receive battle pay for doing their bit in the trenches at the front lines of higher education.
Credibility is All
In journalism, credibility is everything.
With rare exceptions, journalists do not need doctorates. They do not belong to professional organizations such as those for lawyers and doctors. Journalists can be sued for libel, but they cannot be disbarred for misrepresentation or stripped of their license for malpractice.
There is no such thing as a license to practice journalism. You do not even need a bachelor’s degree to become a journalist, although it a long time since high school dropouts could hope to snag a job at the copy desk of a daily newspaper and work their way up to become the managing editor.
For now, it is hard for anyone to snag any kind of job at a daily newspaper.
Ten years ago, I could confidently assure a student who graduated from Shepherd with a major in English and a minor in journalism that it would be possible to find some kind of job as a beginning reporter.
Those were the nostalgic days of yore when journalism students could not only find jobs but keep them. One such Shepherd grad, for example, shared her experience as a newly hired reporter for The North Virginia Daily.
Her editor assigned her a story requiring an interview from a local official. She made an appointment, showed up on time, asked the questions she had prepared and took copious notes. But, for some reason, the subject of the story seemed surly and preoccupied, barely able to take the time to talk.
As she left, the reporter realized she had forgotten to ask how to spell the individual’s name and neglected to verify the person’s title.
Rather than go back and bother the source again, she simply looked up the office number on the directory in the lobby of the building, copied the name and title of the person listed, and used that information in her story.
Unfortunately, the name on the office directory belonged to somebody who had retired a few weeks before. The same job now belonged to another person with very different name. Ooops…..
Her editor did not fire her. But it was a close call.
The former student wrote to me so that I could share her learning experience with students coming after her. Yes, you do need to verify the correctly spelled name and the accurate title of the individual quoted in your story.
Whether you are writing for The Picket or The New York Times, the standards of credibility apply to every article, even if there is no governing board to enforce professional practices. Credibility counts.
Beginning jobs in journalism are now harder to find than the snows of yesteryear. Nevertheless, enrollment in journalism schools has burgeoned beyond expectations. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, there are more than 200,000 students currently enrolled in graduate programs in journalism, an increase of 35 percent in the past ten years.
Many of those students are clearly hoping to make careers in the new media rather than in the fast fading field of print journalism. Still, certain truths remain valid even as the technology changes before our eyes.
As a journalist, your credibility defines who you are.
With rare exceptions, journalists do not need doctorates. They do not belong to professional organizations such as those for lawyers and doctors. Journalists can be sued for libel, but they cannot be disbarred for misrepresentation or stripped of their license for malpractice.
There is no such thing as a license to practice journalism. You do not even need a bachelor’s degree to become a journalist, although it a long time since high school dropouts could hope to snag a job at the copy desk of a daily newspaper and work their way up to become the managing editor.
For now, it is hard for anyone to snag any kind of job at a daily newspaper.
Ten years ago, I could confidently assure a student who graduated from Shepherd with a major in English and a minor in journalism that it would be possible to find some kind of job as a beginning reporter.
Those were the nostalgic days of yore when journalism students could not only find jobs but keep them. One such Shepherd grad, for example, shared her experience as a newly hired reporter for The North Virginia Daily.
Her editor assigned her a story requiring an interview from a local official. She made an appointment, showed up on time, asked the questions she had prepared and took copious notes. But, for some reason, the subject of the story seemed surly and preoccupied, barely able to take the time to talk.
As she left, the reporter realized she had forgotten to ask how to spell the individual’s name and neglected to verify the person’s title.
Rather than go back and bother the source again, she simply looked up the office number on the directory in the lobby of the building, copied the name and title of the person listed, and used that information in her story.
Unfortunately, the name on the office directory belonged to somebody who had retired a few weeks before. The same job now belonged to another person with very different name. Ooops…..
Her editor did not fire her. But it was a close call.
The former student wrote to me so that I could share her learning experience with students coming after her. Yes, you do need to verify the correctly spelled name and the accurate title of the individual quoted in your story.
Whether you are writing for The Picket or The New York Times, the standards of credibility apply to every article, even if there is no governing board to enforce professional practices. Credibility counts.
Beginning jobs in journalism are now harder to find than the snows of yesteryear. Nevertheless, enrollment in journalism schools has burgeoned beyond expectations. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, there are more than 200,000 students currently enrolled in graduate programs in journalism, an increase of 35 percent in the past ten years.
Many of those students are clearly hoping to make careers in the new media rather than in the fast fading field of print journalism. Still, certain truths remain valid even as the technology changes before our eyes.
As a journalist, your credibility defines who you are.
Where is the News from Iran?
Iran is not Iraq. By now, I hope, we have learned that much.
In the months leading up to, and for years after, the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, I cannot estimate how many talking heads on television -- reporters, pundits, government officials – mixed up the two names.
No, Senator, Baghdad is not the capital of Iran.
Yes, the vast majority of Iraqi people are Arabs, but most Iranians are not.
Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, but he never had any nuclear weapons.
The Iranian rulers may be a bunch of pious buffoons, but they are probably closer to building an atomic bomb than the Iraqis ever were.
So, what does this topic have to do with The Picket? Good question.
Clearly, it would be unrealistic to expect a student newspaper to cover international affairs in competition with the professional press corps.
Not altogether incidentally, even leading news organizations have not had reporters on the ground in Iran since the disputed elections of last summer. Journalists disappeared, willingly or otherwise, during the popular uprising in the streets of Teheran and subsequent crackdown by the ruling theocracy.
Canadian/Iranian filmmaker and Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari has been held in solitary confinement in an Iranian dungeon for months.
The New York Times has been covering news from Iran with datelines from Beirut, Lebanon, and Toronto, Canada: as if reporting on Beijing from Paris.
Up-to-the minute news from Iran is, nevertheless, available from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard online at http://tehranbureau.com/
From the Teheran Bureau, you can learn how “massively fraudulent” the election of June 12, 2009, seems to have been.
The “Supreme Leader” of Iran has commanded the populace to accept the election results re-electing the current president by a majority of about eleven million votes over his nearest rival.
Yeah, the Ayatollah-in-Chief told the faithful, maybe the powers-that-be could have stolen, say, even a million votes -- but not eleven million!
The actual tally seems to have been reversed so that the eleven million margin landed in the column of the status quo rather than the opposition.
As for the Iranian protestors who took to the streets: they have been jailed, beaten, and, allegedly sexually violated by official Islamic rape-squads.
The Teheran Bureau also informs its readers how the repression of the mullahs has backfired to such an extent that their ruling legitimacy is evidently shot for good.
Even many conservative Iranians are outraged by the outrages.
The government has indicted alleged agitators in Stalinist-style show-trials to cause shame and intimidation in the public at large, as well.
Yet that television show did not make it through the season, according to the Teheran Bureau, because the target audience received it with sheer derision.
Nor has the governing apparatus been able to squelch dissent. Brave citizens of Teheran are still going up to their roofs at night to cry out Allah-hu-akbar!
Their slogan, taken directly from the 1979 revolution, simply seems to declare the greatness of the deity. Thus, there would appear to be no legal justification for arresting these exalted souls for subversive activity.
But, of course, the protestors’ real meaning is Down with the Dictator!
The Teheran News Bureau has also called on its supporters to express their international protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he addresses the United Nations in New York City on Sept. 23, 2009.
Still, what does any of that have to do with The Picket and its readers?
Should The Picket be interviewing faculty and students on campus who may have traveled or lived or still have family in Iran?
Are there professors in the departments of history and social science who could be interviewed to add to our understanding of recent events?
Last year, the Common Reading program selected Persepolis as the book to be read and discussed. There were a lot of classes assigned to read the book and many informative forums offered to the public.
Does that mean that the topic of Iran has become old news?
Not at all.
In the months leading up to, and for years after, the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, I cannot estimate how many talking heads on television -- reporters, pundits, government officials – mixed up the two names.
No, Senator, Baghdad is not the capital of Iran.
Yes, the vast majority of Iraqi people are Arabs, but most Iranians are not.
Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, but he never had any nuclear weapons.
The Iranian rulers may be a bunch of pious buffoons, but they are probably closer to building an atomic bomb than the Iraqis ever were.
So, what does this topic have to do with The Picket? Good question.
Clearly, it would be unrealistic to expect a student newspaper to cover international affairs in competition with the professional press corps.
Not altogether incidentally, even leading news organizations have not had reporters on the ground in Iran since the disputed elections of last summer. Journalists disappeared, willingly or otherwise, during the popular uprising in the streets of Teheran and subsequent crackdown by the ruling theocracy.
Canadian/Iranian filmmaker and Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari has been held in solitary confinement in an Iranian dungeon for months.
The New York Times has been covering news from Iran with datelines from Beirut, Lebanon, and Toronto, Canada: as if reporting on Beijing from Paris.
Up-to-the minute news from Iran is, nevertheless, available from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard online at http://tehranbureau.com/
From the Teheran Bureau, you can learn how “massively fraudulent” the election of June 12, 2009, seems to have been.
The “Supreme Leader” of Iran has commanded the populace to accept the election results re-electing the current president by a majority of about eleven million votes over his nearest rival.
Yeah, the Ayatollah-in-Chief told the faithful, maybe the powers-that-be could have stolen, say, even a million votes -- but not eleven million!
The actual tally seems to have been reversed so that the eleven million margin landed in the column of the status quo rather than the opposition.
As for the Iranian protestors who took to the streets: they have been jailed, beaten, and, allegedly sexually violated by official Islamic rape-squads.
The Teheran Bureau also informs its readers how the repression of the mullahs has backfired to such an extent that their ruling legitimacy is evidently shot for good.
Even many conservative Iranians are outraged by the outrages.
The government has indicted alleged agitators in Stalinist-style show-trials to cause shame and intimidation in the public at large, as well.
Yet that television show did not make it through the season, according to the Teheran Bureau, because the target audience received it with sheer derision.
Nor has the governing apparatus been able to squelch dissent. Brave citizens of Teheran are still going up to their roofs at night to cry out Allah-hu-akbar!
Their slogan, taken directly from the 1979 revolution, simply seems to declare the greatness of the deity. Thus, there would appear to be no legal justification for arresting these exalted souls for subversive activity.
But, of course, the protestors’ real meaning is Down with the Dictator!
The Teheran News Bureau has also called on its supporters to express their international protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he addresses the United Nations in New York City on Sept. 23, 2009.
Still, what does any of that have to do with The Picket and its readers?
Should The Picket be interviewing faculty and students on campus who may have traveled or lived or still have family in Iran?
Are there professors in the departments of history and social science who could be interviewed to add to our understanding of recent events?
Last year, the Common Reading program selected Persepolis as the book to be read and discussed. There were a lot of classes assigned to read the book and many informative forums offered to the public.
Does that mean that the topic of Iran has become old news?
Not at all.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
What's Health Care Got to Do With It?
After I graduated from college, I suffered an appendicitis attack.
You want to talk about pain? It was pure agony.
When the illness hit, I was in a car on the way from New York to Chicago. My companions were my buddy from high school and my college fiancé.
We had answered newspaper want-ads to arrange a “drive-away” vehicle -- a big, swanky Oldsmobile, if I recall correctly. The owner, a middle-aged man from Long Island, had paid us to deliver his ride to some address in the suburbs of Chicago, while he moved the rest of his household by van. I do not know if there are still such deals to be made for “drive-away” cars today.
By midnight, we were somewhere on the Pennsylvania tollway. My buddy was sharing the driving with my fiancé. I was doubled up in the back seat.
We continued through Ohio and Indiana and rolled into Chicago at dawn.
I directed them to the hospital on the North Side where my family doctor had his practice. When they wheeled me into the emergency room, I was passing in-and-out of consciousness from the relentless, stabbing spasms.
But I recall that my health insurance, from college, covered my expenses.
My student health insurance policy included the summer after graduation. Two days later and I would have been out of luck. It seems unbelievable.
Yet that same kind of health insurance could be provided to Shepherd students in the not-too-distant future.
Now, according to Registered Nurse Ardyth Gilbertson, director of student health services, a student at Shepherd who came to the student health clinic in Gardiner Hall with appendicitis would be sent to a nearby hospital.
By e-mail, Gilbertson noted that the campus clinic provides “ambulatory care.” For any condition requiring more treatment, all hospital and doctor’s bills would be the responsibility of the student or the student’s family.
‘I can’t think of a better reason for health care reform,” Gilberston stated.
A recent article in Business Week reported that more than 5 million college students are not covered by their parents’ insurance plan.
Yet help may be on the way, whether the government passes new legislation or not. There are plans in the works to provide a health care option to Shepherd students, available for a reasonable cost and covering basic needs.
In a telephone interview, Sharon Kipetz, vice president for student affairs, said that Shepherd students may soon be able to enroll for health insurance. International students and uninsured Shepherd students who travel abroad would be required to sign up for the policy. For others, it would be optional.
Kipetz said that she has been advocating for student health insurance for years, without success. The new plans now being developed are based on a shift from a “catastrophic” approach to a “wellness” model of coverage.
The policies would run from August to August. Even if a student dropped out of school, the health insurance would still be valid for the duration of the school year. Students graduating in May would be covered through the summer. Similar policies are in place at other campuses, Kipetz noted.
“No one should have to be in a position to need health care, and then worry over how to pay,” Gilbertson added. “I look forward to a time when we will be able to offer a plan to students.”
Many, perhaps most students already have coverage under their family insurance plans. They do not need to worry, but should be aware.
Before accepting the insurance plan, you should be sure it is not a rip-off. The Business Weekly article gives some tips online: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_20/b4084041503239.htm
But no matter how well you are, no matter how lucky you have been, you never know when appendicitis, or whatever, may strike.
If The Picket does not demand adequate health insurance for all Shepherd students, who will?
You want to talk about pain? It was pure agony.
When the illness hit, I was in a car on the way from New York to Chicago. My companions were my buddy from high school and my college fiancé.
We had answered newspaper want-ads to arrange a “drive-away” vehicle -- a big, swanky Oldsmobile, if I recall correctly. The owner, a middle-aged man from Long Island, had paid us to deliver his ride to some address in the suburbs of Chicago, while he moved the rest of his household by van. I do not know if there are still such deals to be made for “drive-away” cars today.
By midnight, we were somewhere on the Pennsylvania tollway. My buddy was sharing the driving with my fiancé. I was doubled up in the back seat.
We continued through Ohio and Indiana and rolled into Chicago at dawn.
I directed them to the hospital on the North Side where my family doctor had his practice. When they wheeled me into the emergency room, I was passing in-and-out of consciousness from the relentless, stabbing spasms.
But I recall that my health insurance, from college, covered my expenses.
My student health insurance policy included the summer after graduation. Two days later and I would have been out of luck. It seems unbelievable.
Yet that same kind of health insurance could be provided to Shepherd students in the not-too-distant future.
Now, according to Registered Nurse Ardyth Gilbertson, director of student health services, a student at Shepherd who came to the student health clinic in Gardiner Hall with appendicitis would be sent to a nearby hospital.
By e-mail, Gilbertson noted that the campus clinic provides “ambulatory care.” For any condition requiring more treatment, all hospital and doctor’s bills would be the responsibility of the student or the student’s family.
‘I can’t think of a better reason for health care reform,” Gilberston stated.
A recent article in Business Week reported that more than 5 million college students are not covered by their parents’ insurance plan.
Yet help may be on the way, whether the government passes new legislation or not. There are plans in the works to provide a health care option to Shepherd students, available for a reasonable cost and covering basic needs.
In a telephone interview, Sharon Kipetz, vice president for student affairs, said that Shepherd students may soon be able to enroll for health insurance. International students and uninsured Shepherd students who travel abroad would be required to sign up for the policy. For others, it would be optional.
Kipetz said that she has been advocating for student health insurance for years, without success. The new plans now being developed are based on a shift from a “catastrophic” approach to a “wellness” model of coverage.
The policies would run from August to August. Even if a student dropped out of school, the health insurance would still be valid for the duration of the school year. Students graduating in May would be covered through the summer. Similar policies are in place at other campuses, Kipetz noted.
“No one should have to be in a position to need health care, and then worry over how to pay,” Gilbertson added. “I look forward to a time when we will be able to offer a plan to students.”
Many, perhaps most students already have coverage under their family insurance plans. They do not need to worry, but should be aware.
Before accepting the insurance plan, you should be sure it is not a rip-off. The Business Weekly article gives some tips online: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_20/b4084041503239.htm
But no matter how well you are, no matter how lucky you have been, you never know when appendicitis, or whatever, may strike.
If The Picket does not demand adequate health insurance for all Shepherd students, who will?
Forget "Perfection"
Perfection is possible in the game of baseball.
Journalism is not baseball.
In journalism, the word “perfection” can only be ironic.
For example, facing a deadline while lacking a quote from the one source crucial to make your story complete, the cell-phone rings! The source is on the line! After patiently explaining how crucial the comment of this source will be to the story you are going to run, the source says, “No Comment.”
In journalism, that is as close as you can expect to achieving “perfection.”
In the timeless sport of baseball, in contrast, perfection does, occasionally, occur, if only to show us poor mortals what the word means.
On July 23, 2009, for example, Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle threw a perfect game. Because I have been a White Sox fan since I was a sprout growing up in Chicago, Buerhle’s achievement means a lot to me, as well as to all baseball fans, whatsoever their favorite team may be.
Since May 5, 1904 when the legendary Cy Young of the Boston Red Sox blanked the Philadelphia Athletics by a score of 3-0, there have only been sixteen perfect games in the Major Leagues. A perfect game means that not one batter reached base, even on a walk or an error, over nine innings.
Twenty-seven hitters stepped to the plate. All twenty-seven went down.
That is perfection, just to define the term in specific detail.
Meanwhile, in the world of journalism, mistakes happen. Inevitably.
In the world of student journalism, we include the mistakes in our lesson plans so we can learn not to make them next time around.
When we make the same mistakes, we go back to the lesson plans.
Even so, in baseball, if you can knock out a base hit in every one-of-three times at the plate, you are most likely headed for the Hall of Fame.
One-in-three decent stories in the world of journalism is not all that great.
So give credit where it is due. Most of the articles in the Sept. 2, 2009, issue of The Picket were hits. Hats-off to the editor and The Picket staff.
Not only were there a lot of solid stories, the photos were excellent!
Also, the layout of The Picket has reached new levels of satisfaction.
Let us not forget that when Mark Buerhle threw nine pristine innings, he still needed utility outfielder DeWayne Wise to save his perfection.
Without Wise’s leaping, falling, miraculous catch, Buerhle would not be in the record books. Even perfect game pitchers need excellent back-up.
So, the editor of The Picket deserves kudos. But so do the whole staff.
Yes, a panoply of bloopers landed in the Sept. 2, 2009, issue. But why dwell on AP Style, apostrophe usage, floating quotes, and similar troubles?
For once, and it is to be hoped for many issues to come, The Picket deserves a vote of thanks from the Shepherd community. Especially from students.
Are you clapping?
I don’t hear you.
Let’s hear some applause for The Picket!
Forget “perfection.”
Published in The Picket 9/9/09
Journalism is not baseball.
In journalism, the word “perfection” can only be ironic.
For example, facing a deadline while lacking a quote from the one source crucial to make your story complete, the cell-phone rings! The source is on the line! After patiently explaining how crucial the comment of this source will be to the story you are going to run, the source says, “No Comment.”
In journalism, that is as close as you can expect to achieving “perfection.”
In the timeless sport of baseball, in contrast, perfection does, occasionally, occur, if only to show us poor mortals what the word means.
On July 23, 2009, for example, Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle threw a perfect game. Because I have been a White Sox fan since I was a sprout growing up in Chicago, Buerhle’s achievement means a lot to me, as well as to all baseball fans, whatsoever their favorite team may be.
Since May 5, 1904 when the legendary Cy Young of the Boston Red Sox blanked the Philadelphia Athletics by a score of 3-0, there have only been sixteen perfect games in the Major Leagues. A perfect game means that not one batter reached base, even on a walk or an error, over nine innings.
Twenty-seven hitters stepped to the plate. All twenty-seven went down.
That is perfection, just to define the term in specific detail.
Meanwhile, in the world of journalism, mistakes happen. Inevitably.
In the world of student journalism, we include the mistakes in our lesson plans so we can learn not to make them next time around.
When we make the same mistakes, we go back to the lesson plans.
Even so, in baseball, if you can knock out a base hit in every one-of-three times at the plate, you are most likely headed for the Hall of Fame.
One-in-three decent stories in the world of journalism is not all that great.
So give credit where it is due. Most of the articles in the Sept. 2, 2009, issue of The Picket were hits. Hats-off to the editor and The Picket staff.
Not only were there a lot of solid stories, the photos were excellent!
Also, the layout of The Picket has reached new levels of satisfaction.
Let us not forget that when Mark Buerhle threw nine pristine innings, he still needed utility outfielder DeWayne Wise to save his perfection.
Without Wise’s leaping, falling, miraculous catch, Buerhle would not be in the record books. Even perfect game pitchers need excellent back-up.
So, the editor of The Picket deserves kudos. But so do the whole staff.
Yes, a panoply of bloopers landed in the Sept. 2, 2009, issue. But why dwell on AP Style, apostrophe usage, floating quotes, and similar troubles?
For once, and it is to be hoped for many issues to come, The Picket deserves a vote of thanks from the Shepherd community. Especially from students.
Are you clapping?
I don’t hear you.
Let’s hear some applause for The Picket!
Forget “perfection.”
Published in The Picket 9/9/09
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Growing Pains
“He not busy being born is busy dying"-Bob Dylan
For years, I feared that if I criticized it, The Picket would turn to dust and blow away. But so much has gone wrong so often for so long that I am no longer scared. At this point, I am confident The Picket will survive.
The question is whether it will report newsworthy stories in an interesting and relevant style. That question remains....
For example take the recently published Orientation Issue. Please….
Thank goodness and give credit to the editors that it was published at all!
But is this painful effort the best we can hope to see?
The lead story is a case in point. It is presumably reassuring that the university is taking campus security seriously enough to stage mock emergency situations complete with hostages and potential victims.
But you have to read down to the sixth paragraph to learn that the exercise was not really reassuring after all: “Two victims went unaccounted for during the sweep.” In other words, if the mock emergency had been an actual “open shooter incident” those victims could have been left behind.
The reason for this kind of buried news lead is not that the writer and editor don’t know how to write. The problem is that it might cause discomfort to report what happened rather than what was supposed to happen.
Instead of boasting that the campus security are “taking strides to provide students with a safe campus,” the article might have begun by noting that the security forces are striving but not always succeeding in their noble mission.
I bet more people would have read the article if it had not pulled its punches.
I also would be willing to wager that more students would read The Picket if it did not focus on the public relations aspects already well-represented on the university website. Instead of stories about how well the administration is doing its job and how highly regarded Shepherd is rated, what if The Picket focused on those who are metaphorically or literally left behind?
What about a few more stories on the plight of commuter students juggling the demands of work, family, and fifteen hours of class credit?
Why don’t we read more about the non-traditional students who have become an increasingly significant part of the campus scene?
I would like to see more stories about minority populations on campus.
And though we know that there are problems with issues such as handicap access, we rarely read about these issues in the student newspaper.
And, finally, is it inconceivable to imagine an article devoted to the students who do NOT succeed at Shepherd? Why do so many students drop out or transfer after their first or second semester? It would be a challenge to get people to talk on the record about why Shepherd is not working for them. But it could make some interesting copy to read.
Nothing I am saying is original. Last year’s Picket editor Autumn Papajohn pointed me to the buried news lead. And my riff on the unrepresented voices is based on a talk given last summer by Kate Parry of The Minneapolis Star Tribune at the Associated Collegiate Press workshops.
I am just writing my ruminations.
But what if the student paper included the voices and the perspectives of the struggling individuals who are too often left behind in the parade of recycled news releases about the triumphs and prizes collected by the fortunate few?
The biggest news scoop of all might be just to tell it as it is.
-JL
For years, I feared that if I criticized it, The Picket would turn to dust and blow away. But so much has gone wrong so often for so long that I am no longer scared. At this point, I am confident The Picket will survive.
The question is whether it will report newsworthy stories in an interesting and relevant style. That question remains....
For example take the recently published Orientation Issue. Please….
Thank goodness and give credit to the editors that it was published at all!
But is this painful effort the best we can hope to see?
The lead story is a case in point. It is presumably reassuring that the university is taking campus security seriously enough to stage mock emergency situations complete with hostages and potential victims.
But you have to read down to the sixth paragraph to learn that the exercise was not really reassuring after all: “Two victims went unaccounted for during the sweep.” In other words, if the mock emergency had been an actual “open shooter incident” those victims could have been left behind.
The reason for this kind of buried news lead is not that the writer and editor don’t know how to write. The problem is that it might cause discomfort to report what happened rather than what was supposed to happen.
Instead of boasting that the campus security are “taking strides to provide students with a safe campus,” the article might have begun by noting that the security forces are striving but not always succeeding in their noble mission.
I bet more people would have read the article if it had not pulled its punches.
I also would be willing to wager that more students would read The Picket if it did not focus on the public relations aspects already well-represented on the university website. Instead of stories about how well the administration is doing its job and how highly regarded Shepherd is rated, what if The Picket focused on those who are metaphorically or literally left behind?
What about a few more stories on the plight of commuter students juggling the demands of work, family, and fifteen hours of class credit?
Why don’t we read more about the non-traditional students who have become an increasingly significant part of the campus scene?
I would like to see more stories about minority populations on campus.
And though we know that there are problems with issues such as handicap access, we rarely read about these issues in the student newspaper.
And, finally, is it inconceivable to imagine an article devoted to the students who do NOT succeed at Shepherd? Why do so many students drop out or transfer after their first or second semester? It would be a challenge to get people to talk on the record about why Shepherd is not working for them. But it could make some interesting copy to read.
Nothing I am saying is original. Last year’s Picket editor Autumn Papajohn pointed me to the buried news lead. And my riff on the unrepresented voices is based on a talk given last summer by Kate Parry of The Minneapolis Star Tribune at the Associated Collegiate Press workshops.
I am just writing my ruminations.
But what if the student paper included the voices and the perspectives of the struggling individuals who are too often left behind in the parade of recycled news releases about the triumphs and prizes collected by the fortunate few?
The biggest news scoop of all might be just to tell it as it is.
-JL
Bugaboos and Bright Sparks
When I pick up a fresh issue of The Picket, I have a typical reaction.
At first, I go: Wow! The Picket!
Eagerly, I scan the front page and flip through the sections.
Then I’m, like: Whoa…. The Picket….
The thrill is not gone. But journalism comes without guarantees.
Since some time in the last century, I have been serving as faculty adviser to this student newspaper. Contrary to the assumptions of many, I am not responsible for what gets published. In fact, like everyone in the general public, I see the paper for the first time only when it hits the news-stands.
There is neither prior-review nor prior-restraint for what goes in The Picket.
It has to be that way. Otherwise, students would lack freedom of the press, as guaranteed in the First Amendment and backed up by many court cases.
I used to tear my hair out because of The Picket.
Eventually, I stopped. By then, my hair was gone.
If anyone tries to deny their freedom of expression, I will do everything in my power to defend the students’ constitutional right to be wrong.
Even The New York Times and Washington Post regularly print corrections for the errors they inadvertently make. That is why they say journalism is the first draft of history. It is only the first draft.
The difference in a student publication is that errors should be not only corrected but expected as part of the learning experience.
Yet I still hope that learning from our mistakes can sometimes be possible.
Certain kinds of mistakes can never be excused: misspelled names, inaccurate information, mixed up attributions. These require corrections to be printed in the following issue of the publication.
But I also have a long list of pet-peeves that occur as the common mishaps of even experienced journalists, not to mention those with less experience.
Buried news leads, hiding the most relevant information half way through or near the end of an article, will always drive me to distraction.
Long rambling quotes also give me pain. Just because somebody said something does not mean it should be printed to waste time and space.
Finally, worst of all, opinions of the writer do not belong in news stories. All articles need multiple sources. The reporter should not be one of them.
These Bugaboos of Bad Journalism are not going to disappear, I realize, but I am not going to make peace with them either.
On the other hand, there are also hopeful elements in the bigger picture of student journalism in general and, specifically, in each issue of The Picket.
Student journalists give a lot of time and effort to putting out The Picket. Hard work and devotion to pursuit of the truth goes into every issue.
The editors, writers, photographers and layout people are the Bright Sparks who deserve the respect and gratitude of all the readers of The Picket. They represent the voice of the student body.
In order to make the Orientation Issue available to incoming students, the newspaper staff had to cut into their summer break.
Anyone who would like to contribute to their collective effort should send a message to pickweb@shepherd.edu or simply show up at the regular Tuesday meeting at 3:15 p.m. in the Blue-Grey Room of the Student Center.
Everyone is Welcome!
-published in The Picket 13 Aug. '09
At first, I go: Wow! The Picket!
Eagerly, I scan the front page and flip through the sections.
Then I’m, like: Whoa…. The Picket….
The thrill is not gone. But journalism comes without guarantees.
Since some time in the last century, I have been serving as faculty adviser to this student newspaper. Contrary to the assumptions of many, I am not responsible for what gets published. In fact, like everyone in the general public, I see the paper for the first time only when it hits the news-stands.
There is neither prior-review nor prior-restraint for what goes in The Picket.
It has to be that way. Otherwise, students would lack freedom of the press, as guaranteed in the First Amendment and backed up by many court cases.
I used to tear my hair out because of The Picket.
Eventually, I stopped. By then, my hair was gone.
If anyone tries to deny their freedom of expression, I will do everything in my power to defend the students’ constitutional right to be wrong.
Even The New York Times and Washington Post regularly print corrections for the errors they inadvertently make. That is why they say journalism is the first draft of history. It is only the first draft.
The difference in a student publication is that errors should be not only corrected but expected as part of the learning experience.
Yet I still hope that learning from our mistakes can sometimes be possible.
Certain kinds of mistakes can never be excused: misspelled names, inaccurate information, mixed up attributions. These require corrections to be printed in the following issue of the publication.
But I also have a long list of pet-peeves that occur as the common mishaps of even experienced journalists, not to mention those with less experience.
Buried news leads, hiding the most relevant information half way through or near the end of an article, will always drive me to distraction.
Long rambling quotes also give me pain. Just because somebody said something does not mean it should be printed to waste time and space.
Finally, worst of all, opinions of the writer do not belong in news stories. All articles need multiple sources. The reporter should not be one of them.
These Bugaboos of Bad Journalism are not going to disappear, I realize, but I am not going to make peace with them either.
On the other hand, there are also hopeful elements in the bigger picture of student journalism in general and, specifically, in each issue of The Picket.
Student journalists give a lot of time and effort to putting out The Picket. Hard work and devotion to pursuit of the truth goes into every issue.
The editors, writers, photographers and layout people are the Bright Sparks who deserve the respect and gratitude of all the readers of The Picket. They represent the voice of the student body.
In order to make the Orientation Issue available to incoming students, the newspaper staff had to cut into their summer break.
Anyone who would like to contribute to their collective effort should send a message to pickweb@shepherd.edu or simply show up at the regular Tuesday meeting at 3:15 p.m. in the Blue-Grey Room of the Student Center.
Everyone is Welcome!
-published in The Picket 13 Aug. '09
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