To write history

or re-write history

By ROGER SOENKSEN, Media Law Committee Chair

The May 15 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education contained an article that has provoked lengthy discussion on the College Media Advisers e-mail discussion group. The article addressed the growing concern among alumni that student press Web sites should eliminate past stories that capture former students in a less-than-positive light when they were attending school.

Advisers to gather in Florida

for summer workshop activities

Thirty five college media advisers will be heading to St. Petersburg, Fla., this week to attend the inaugural edition of the Summer Advisers Workshop.

The four-day event begins with a reception on Sunday, June 28, followed by three days of intensive instruction in two tracks designed for new advisers and veterans.

For many years, College Media Advisers had held separate workshops. The New Advisers Workshop was held during the summer as a boot camp to prepare newcomers for their early years of advising college media.  Advising College Media Today was held in conjunction with Associated Collegiate Press' summer workshop and offered a theme-based refresher for advisers.

Texan Henderson was journalism advocate

Obituary reprinted with permission of the Austin American-Statesman

Jeff Henderson was a student's teacher.

Friends and colleagues of the long-serving journalism professor at Texas State University-San Marcos said he wasn't one to lecture pedantically. Rather, his style made students feel as if he were just sharing knowledge.

Henderson died in June after being hospitalized for a heart illness. He was 67.

"He instilled a love of newspapers in his students," said San Marcos City Council Member Kim Porterfield, who was a student of Henderson's in the 1980s. "He was a great professor. He was very interested in his students and encouraged us to really reach in our writing."

Reducing 'island mentality'

among your students

By WARREN KOZIRESKI, President of College Broadcasters Inc.

From walking the halls and listening to conversations at fall and spring conferences for many years, I know this issue permeates throughout most of our organizations.

How do we get students who are involved in one area of our operation (an island) to be aware of how their actions or inactions affect other areas (islands)?

Case study (and a real one from the past semester): Your women’s basketball team gets a bid to the playoffs and has a game scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday. The sports department will be broadcasting the game with pre-game scheduled to begin at 4:45 p.m. The department drafted a live promo and produced a recorded promo for the broadcast.

Although useful, law

still has loopholes

By ROGER SOENKSEN, Media Law Committee Chair

After the death of their daughter, Jeanne Clery, at Lehigh University, the Clerys lobbied for federal legislation which would mandate that college campuses across the United States would keep their students informed of campus crime.  As a direct result of their efforts Congress passed The Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act.  This legislation in 1998 was re-titled the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.  We refer to this law as the Clery Act.  This article will briefly discuss the key components of this important statute as well as its weaknesses.