http://www.famu.edu/sjgc/UserFiles/Image/Dean%20Hawkins.JPG Caption: James E. Hawkins
FAMU J-School to Move Teachers Lacking Master’s
Because they lack master’s degrees, three full-time employees at Florida A&M University’s School of Journalism & Graphic Communication¬†are losing their classroom positions and a visiting instructor is "unlikely to return" to the faculty, Dean¬†b confirmed on Friday.
Six adjunct instructors are similarly affected, he told Journal-isms.
Hawkins spoke after the student newspaper, the Famuan, reported Friday that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools had recommended that FAMU not renew the contracts of any professors at the school who do not have a master’s.
"Keith Miles, who manages FAMU’s radio station, WANM 90.5 FM; Ernest Jones, who manages FAMU TV-20 and Ron James, graphic designer for the university, are three out of the four full-time professors who will stay employed in their Administrative and Professional positions, but will no longer be allowed to teach," Kellee Bassaragh wrote.
"However James has already submitted his resignation.
"William Jiles, the fourth full-time professor cited by SACS, said he is affected most by the decision. Jiles has been an employee of the school since January 2006. He was officially notified Tuesday of SACS’ recommendation."
"Essentially, the University’s position is everyone teaching at the undergraduate level is required to have a master’s degree," Hawkins told Journal-isms by e-mail. "The requirements also say…Only exceptions that may be considered are for nationally renowned individuals in the field.
"Regarding our full-time employees, one is on a faculty line; the other three have administrative and professional positions. It is our plan to allow these three persons to continue in their administrative and professional roles; however they will not be able to teach. It is our plan to give these persons three years to earn a master’s degree. The fourth person has been serving as a visiting instructor. His employment with the University is clearly affected by this decision. It is unlikely that he will return unless he is reassigned.
"The six adjuncts are all people with professional experience. One person taught in the graphic communication curriculum. He has 40 years experience as a print manager but was determined to be unqualified to teach undergraduate print management courses. Each has been informed of the situation. Another had more than 20 years experience in newspaper journalism."
“I agree with the dean,” Jiles said in the Famuan story. “My years of experience surpass a master’s degree. Peter Jennings only had a high school diploma and his ability to perform was never questioned.”
Veteran journalist Dorothy Bland, a former publisher of the Coloradoan, a Gannett paper in Fort Collins, Colo., directs the journalism program.
Images: http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/files/images/MUG_Hendricks.jpg Caption: Mike Hendricks http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/files/images/MUG_Penn.jpg Caption: Steve Penn
Metro Columnists Go Part-Time at Kansas City Star
Metro columnists at the Kansas City Star are working as part-time employees as part of a belt-tightening that has also seen rearrangement of news sections and a charge to readers of 25 cents for the Sunday TV book.
"We have four metro columnists, which may be a bit much for a metro area the size of Kansas City, and we like them all and didn’t want to lose any of them," Editor Mike Fannin told Journal-isms.
The four are columnists Mary Sanchez, who also writes for the editorial-page section, Steve Penn, Mike Hendricks and, C.W. Gusewelle, a Sunday columnist described as the paper’s most popular.
With the paper’s reorganization, the columns were trimmed to 400 words and in one case, their frequency was reduce. Their authors lost some employee benefits and their salary was cut. However, Fannin said, the newly part-time workers, whose work week is now 32 rather than 40 hours, also received a one-time 10-week "bridge" salary.
Publisher Mark Zieman told employees in March that the Star planned to cut about 15 percent of the Star’s work force and that their wages would be reduced, as the Associated Press reported¬†at the time.
"Those making more than $100,000 a year will see a 10 percent cut, and those making less will have their salaries reduced by 5 percent. Wages for Star employees were frozen last fall," the AP story said.
Hendricks, whose column goes from three times a week to twice, and from about 550 words to about 400, told Journal-isms, "I have come to accept the situation, and I’m going to make the best of it. Writing shorter columns will enforce more discipline, he said. "They cut my pay quite a bit, but I’m still making a decent amount. I’m still making as much as a lot of reporters."
Hendricks, 53, who has written his column for 12 years, retained his health insurance but lost his life- and his long-term disability insurance, he said.
He said he would be also writing a blog, figuring that "either we’re all going to go online completely or we’ll fatten the paper again" down the line and have more space.
In a front-page column on Monday, Fannin told readers that, "Like close siblings, Kansas City and The Kansas City Star have grown up together over the last 129 years. When the city has thrived, the newspaper enjoyed the benefits. And when the city has suffered, The Star not only reported on but shared in those pains. l. . . As we have for nearly 13 decades, we will come through this together."
He said he readers responded positively.
- DeWayne Wickham, Gannett News Service: As newspapers disappear, so does nation’s link to real journalism
image: Caption: Jim Asendio
News Director to Rookie: Give In Now, Report Later
David Schultz is a 26-year-old reporter for public radio station WAMU in Washington.
"Last Tuesday night, he was covering a public event at the V.A. Hospital in Washington, D.C.," Mark Segraves wrote¬†in his column on Friday for Washington’s WTOP, all-news radio.
"While interviewing one of the veterans about the poor treatment he was receiving at the hands of the V.A., Ms. Hairston demanded that Schultz stop recording the interview and hand over his recording equipment," he continued, referring to Gloria Hairston, an internal communications specialist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
"’She said I wouldn’t be allowed to leave,’ Schultz tells WTOP.
"At first he refused. But after being surrounded by armed police officers who stood between him and the exit, he looked for a compromise.
"’I became worried that I was going to get arrested,’ Schultz says.
"Schultz convinced Hairston that all she really needed to confiscate was the memory card to his recorder, rather than all of his equipment. While this was going on, many of the veterans from the meeting had come out to watch the confrontation.
"One of those veterans, an amputee in a wheelchair, approached Schultz and asked him for his phone number.
"’I started to give it to him and then the woman [Hairston] became irate, she said you can’t give him your phone number. You have to give me all of your equipment or I’m going to get ugly. She used the phrase "get ugly," Schultz says,
"Like any good reporter, Schultz stood his ground and called his boss for direction. Longtime newsman Jim Asendio is the news director for WAMU.
"’I told him to give them the flash card and get out of there,’ Asendio says. ‘I didn’t want this to get out of hand.’
"Schultz reluctantly handed over the memory card from his recorder."
"’I’ve been a reporter for two and a half, three years, I’m sort of at the beginning of my career,’ Schultz says. ‘I wish I had handled it differently, I think they preyed on my inexperience and I really feel bad about that.’
"Eventually, Schultz went around the VA PR machine and got the story, interviewing Canady on the phone," Art Brodsky, communications director of the public-interest group Public Knowledge, continued in the Huffington Post.
Asendio told Journal-isms, "I stand by my decision to have him turn over the flashcard.
"He was being detained by federal armed guards and as an African-American male, I was brought up to do what a police officer with a badge and gun tells you to do and then fight your battle in a court afterwards.
"I also thought it was more important for David to be free to return to the station to produce the story (about what the minority vets said about how they are treated by the VA and how he was treated by the VA) on the air the next morning than to have him be detained any longer.
"We did just that and have continued to do so."
Asendio wrote back shortly before 8 p.m.: "The VA just now agreed to return our flashcard with no conditions."
- Jake Tapper blog, ABC News: VA Authorities Confiscate Tape of Journalist Reporting on Bad Treatment of Veterans
