In memory of Judy Franklin '68

Many have written me in recent days with the sad news that Judy Franklin, Class of '68, was killed in a car wreck Sunday. From her obituary in the Bryan-College Station Eagle:

Judy was in the first class of women admitted to Texas A&M and graduated in 1968, majoring in journalism. While at A&M she was editor of the A&M Review. For this and many subsequent activities her department later named her an Outstanding Journalism Graduate. Judy went on Iowa State University, earning a master's degree in journalism in 1970. She also earned an MBA at the University of Houston in 1984.

Judy had a long and illustrious career, both in development and journalism. In addition to working with Harvard and the Texas A&M Health Science Center in development, her experiences also included teaching English at the University of Tehran until the onset of the Islamic Revolution forced her students to shelter her safely off campus.

Judy was an Aggie to the core, proudly representing A&M in everything she did, including being a past president of the Houston A&M Club. She moved back to College Station in 2000 and was working with Texas AgriLife Communications Department at the time of her death.

Our Jerry Cooper '63, who had known her since their journalism classes at A&M, says, "She was a credit to A&M journalism and will be missed." Others have spoken to me also of her spirit and humor. Our thoughts are with her many friends and family.

Staff of Aggieland takes 13 national yearbook awards

Thank you Mr. Wegener for this:

Editors and staff members for Texas A&M’s 2010 Aggieland won 13 Gold Circle Awards in national yearbook competition.

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association announced its awards for collegiate yearbooks at the 33rd annual College Media Convention on March 13. Alyssa Smith, class of 2010, Doug Klembara, senior university studies major, and Stephen Fogg, class of 2009, received first place awards for yearbook division page design, feature photo, sports page multi-page presentation, student life spread multi-page presentation, organization or Greeks spread multi-page presentation and academic spread multi-page presentation.

Other awards include:

• Second place

Feature presentation, feature photo, academic spread multi-page presentation

• Third place

Opening and closing spread design, sports feature photo

• Certificate of merit

Title page design and sports feature photo.

The 2011 Gold Circles recognized superior work by student journalists produced between Oct. 31, 2009, and Nov. 1, 2010.

Choosing between news job offers: Does size matter?

I'm fixing to update my big ol' list of Texas daily newspapers ranked by size (circulation). But before I do, I'd like to pass along some wise words given to me recently.

Not too long ago, an Aggie job-hunter wrote to me trying to decide between jobs at two newspapers. One of the questions this new grad asked me was, "Which paper looks better on a resume?" For perspective, I asked a very smart person I know who recently served a good stretch as editor-in-chief of a Texas newspaper. The answer is below!


Job offers at midsize paper and small paper:
Which will look better on a resume?

In my experience, this is something people put too much emphasis on. I think there are really just three categories of newspapers in terms of the weight that a paper carries just by listing it on your resume.

At the top are papers in that New York Times/Washington Post strata. Having those on a resume means a lot, obviously. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the weeklies and the really teeny-tiny dailies. Seeing those on a resume tells me you were working your butt off every day but you were probably never getting coached or even edited, so you’ve probably got a great work ethic but still have a lot to learn. Every other paper falls into a middle category where the name or size of the paper doesn’t really tell me much about you either way. All those papers in the middle, whether they are the size of the Bryan Eagle or the Dallas Morning News, have plenty of people working there who are studs and plenty who are duds. It is much more about the quality of your portfolio, the strength of your references and how well you do in the interview than it is about which paper looks better on your resume.

Read more about what editors at Texas newspapers are looking for in job candidates in this Aggie Journalists series of interviews.

Byerly '99 again is NASA's voice on shuttle launch

Josh Byerly '99, right, who visited A&M this fall to talk with journalism students, served Thursday as the ascent commentator for Discovery's final launch. Video below.

At left is Byerly with Buzz Aldrin and NASA flight director Ron Spencer. (Photos courtesy of NASA)

Byerly spoke to students in September and again in November – he even brought an astronaut helmet with him; pretty cool :) If you'd like to have Byerly come speak to a group, you can contact him through his Web site, JoshByerly.com.

Steffy '86 signs BP book March 5 at A&M

"A carefully and powerfully written story."
Financial Times

The Houston Chronicle's Loren Steffy '86, all-around good dude and a past president of FJSA, will be signing copies of his book about BP, "Drowning in Oil," in College Station on March 5. He'll be at the Barnes & Noble on Texas Avenue across from campus from 1-3 p.m. (Map)

Booklist says:

"Steffy, business columnist for the Houston Chronicle, first began covering British Petroleum in 2005 after the deadly explosion at their Texas City refinery killed 15 people and injured 170 others. His investigations reveal a corporate culture of cost-cutting initiatives that put profits ahead of workers' lives and the environment."

More good words (I got all this off the book's Amazon page. Look, it's only $14.87 on Kindle!):

"When an author uses a loaded word like 'reckless' in a book's title, the burden of proof is high. . . . Steffy meets the burden by demonstrating that corporate behemoth BP . . . could have prevented the 11 deaths on April 20, 2010, aboard the Deepwater Horizon."
San Antonio Express-News

"Steffy has produced a fascinating, gripping, revealing account. . . . The book details events aboard the Deepwater Horizon in April of 2010 to start, but it digs deeper into what is revealed as a culture of cost-cutting boiling over within BP. Steffy documents years of incidents and poor management decisions."
Seattle Post Intelligencer

Get more Loren on his Chronicle blog, on Twitter and at this index of his blog posts.

Update on A&M's nascent SPJ chapter: events, trips

Head of Texas A&M Journalism Studies Dale Rice e-mailed me this nice bit of info about the students who make up A&M's SPJ chapter, which was revived in fall 2009. These are folks who are seriously interested in journalism careers, and seeking internships and jobs in the field:

Sixteen students came to the last SPJ meeting earlier this month. Small? Yes. But that's great when we didn't have a campus chapter a year and a half ago. They're co-hosting events, getting together socially, talking about careers, going on fieldtrips. They're even participating as a group in the Big Event next month.

I've asked Dale to extend an invitation to these students to join our LinkedIn group (at http://bit.ly/AJlinkedin), where they can maybe prowl around and make connections with Aggie professionals in the areas they're interested in.

Here's the A&M chapter's home page, Student Activities page and Facebook page.

Update on journalism at A&M: More classes coming

At the Fall Reception, head of Journalism Studies Dale Rice gave FJSA an update on the program that includes a Pulitzer-winner's visit, a high-tech political reporting class for the 2012 election cycle, and my new favorite fact: "We will have 16 journalism courses in the catalog next year, compared with eight a year ago." Read on for more!

The 2010-2011 academic year is off to a great start for Journalism Studies. Here are some examples of our progress:

• We’re continuing to raise the profile of Journalism Studies within the College of Liberal Arts and the university at large. We co-hosted, with American Studies, Pulitzer Prize winner Sonia Nazario in September. Her book, “Enrique’s Journey,” was selected by the college as this year’s Common Ground read for all incoming freshmen. Besides exposing a wide audience to an award-winning journalist, Sonia’s visit allowed time for her to spend several hours with journalism students, both in and out of classroom settings.
• Our newly reformed student chapter of SPJ has been officially recognized by both the national organization and the university. SPJ members are working hard to recruit new folks and build the organization. For example, they are meeting next week to build sandwich boards to place on campus, one of the perks that come with being an official student organization.
• We’re working to broaden the Journalism Studies program. We currently have six new course listings winding their way up the approval chain. They include five cross-listed courses (one of which is the blogging course I created with that purpose in mind) and a new course in political reporting.
• With two courses added to the books this year, we will have 16 journalism courses in the catalog next year, compared with eight a year ago.
• I am working now with Charlie Madigan, a former journalist at the Chicago Tribune and now professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago to jointly teach a course in political reporting via videoconference, with half the students in the class from Roosevelt and half from A&M. It was the suggestion of Charles Middleton, president of Roosevelt, who I met when he was here as the keynote speaker for a conference on campus. We will launch the course in the 2012 election cycle, which should offer lots of great reporting opportunities for the students.
• We are exploring with the university and Rick Dunham, the Washington Bureau chief for Hearst Newspapers, the possibility of placing a journalism student in Washington each semester as part of the Public Policy Internship Program. Working with Dunham, the students would report and write stories dealing with public policy issues for the Hearst wire.
• Finally, on a personal note, I’m really excited to see interest growing in journalism on campus. I’m teaching a one-hour freshmen seminar on food writing, part of the university’s effort to provide a small-class setting for first-year students who are mostly in very large classes. On Wednesday, after class, two of the students stayed behind to discuss the program and said they were going to apply now. That’s what makes this job fulfilling: to see freshmen joining Journalism Studies because they’re interested in a career in the profession. In just a few years’ time, you are going to look at those students who came into the program early and made use of our expanded offerings to obtain a first-rate journalism education and you are going to be very proud of them. FJSA’s support of the program has been a critical factor in our rebuilding effort, and we can’t thank you enough for that.

Recapping the flap: A&M System re-examines FOIA rule

Toward the close of 2010, A&M journalism was in the news in a negative light: An A&M System policy suddenly became a source of controversy when the System's general counsel wrote a letter interpreting the long-dormant rule to mean faculty could not direct students to file FOIAs on System schools.

System officials are taking another look at the ruling, which brought angry rebukes from former students as well as Texas newspapers and national journalism groups.

For the full story, I encourage everyone to read San Antonio Express-News writer and past FJSA president Roy Bragg's examination of the issue.

Where has your blogger been? Pretty much underwater

Hey guys, I'm writing this to apologize for getting behind with the blog here. It's been an unusually busy December/January for me both personally and at work. So I'm going to catch up quickly on a couple items I should have posted long ago (see next two posts).

And after that, I will get back in touch with some of the great people I've asked for interviews for the blog... and then failed to follow up with. Kind people like Anthony Andro, who covered the Rangers' amazing ride to the World Series; Joe Ruiz, a Texas State grad who agreed to share the story of how his online coverage helped the Seattle Times to a Pulitzer; and Aggies who are starting all kinds of successful endeavors online and off.

So I hope these folks forgive me too, and I will be scrambling to catch up!

Yours from somewhere underwater (but rising to the surface!),
Sue

Memorial info for Hargrove '66; services are Saturday

Tom Hargrove '66 will be laid to rest Saturday in Rotan, northwest of Abilene, near the farm where he grew up. Here are today's stories about him from the Houston Chronicle and Bryan-College Station Eagle:

Thomas Hargrove risked his life to feed world's poor
Aggie who inspired "Proof of Life" dies at 66

The family has said that donations/flowers are not expected, but if people wish to make a donation, the family has given it a lot of thought and they suggest donations could go to the Borlaug International Scholars Fund at A&M. The fund has a touching note up on its website about Dr. Hargrove.

We are deeply saddened by the death of Dr. Tom Hargrove – scientist, humanitarian, author, friend, husband, and father. Dr. Hargrove dedicated his life to communicating the needs of international agriculture development. He was a long-time friend of Dr. Borlaug and the entire staff of the Borlaug Institute. He will be missed. The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, memorials be made to the Borlaug International Scholars Fund. Details can be found below. For more about the incredible life of Dr. Hargrove, two of his books can be found at the Texas A&M University Press: Dragon Lives Forever about his agriculture development work in Vietnam during the war and Long March to Freedom about his hostage experience in Columbia.

Memorials can be made to:

Borlaug International Scholars Fund
401 George Bush Drive
College Station, TX 77840

Submit online memorials at http://givenow.tamu.edu/.
From the two drop-down menus, select “College of Agriculture and Life Sciences” and “Borlaug International Scholars.”

Our love and respect go out to Dr. Hargrove's family.

Tom Hargrove '66 dies of heart attack

A brief report earlier today from the Eagle on Twitter gave news that Tom Hargrove '66 died Sunday of a heart attack. I'll look for more news to come, but I wanted to post here the text of our plaque honoring Hargrove, who in 1996 was the first journalist inducted by Texas A&M's Former Journalism Students Association into its Hall of Honor.

Please leave me news, updates or tributes in the comments or send to aggiejournalists (at) gmail (dot) com.
(photo of plaque, above, taken by Jerry Cooper '63)


The plaque reads:

Tom Hargrove is a distinguished writer and publisher whose life work has involved finding ways to get practical agricultural publications into the hands of farmers throughout the Third World.

He worked for 18 years as a writer and editor with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. By 1989, under his leadership, the institute had published 33 books in more than 40 languages in 29 countries. This included "A Farmer's Primer on Growing Rice," the world's most widely published agricultural book. He left the Philippines for Cali, Colombia, in 1992 where he headed the communications unit for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture.

On his way to work one day in September 1994, Hargrove was kidnapped by Colombian rebels and held for ransom. For 11 months, he lived in chains in primitive camps in the Andes. In an extraordinary display of courage and tenacity, Hargrove survived his ordeal and, starving, stumbled out to the mountains after his family had negotiated his release. Hargrove kept a daily journal, scribbled on checkbook stubs and other scraps of paper. His diary became an inspiring book, "Long March to Freedom: Tom Hargrove's own story of his kidnaping by Colombian Narco-Guerrillas."

Hargrove grew up on a cotton farm in Rotan, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural journalism in 1966.

Photos from FJSA Fall Reception: Manitzas '52

On Oct. 30 we added to our Hall of Honor a journalist who covered the moon landing, the Iran hostage crisis, the RFK assassination, Pinochet's coup in Chile and the world's first heart transplant as part of his work with ABC, CBS, NBC and the Associated Press and other news-gathering organizations: Frank Manitzas '52.

There was a real family feel to this year's Fall Reception, thanks largely to the fact that a good number of Mr. Manitzas's relatives made the trip to see him inducted.

Below are some photos -- courtesy of Jerry Cooper '63, to whom many thanks -- and more information about Mr. Manitzas' career and honors.

(Also, scroll down to the next post on this blog to read a full update on what's happening with Journalism Studies at A&M, provided for the reception by program head Dale Rice.)

Jay Socol '91, director of communications for the City of College Station, reads a proclamation honoring Mr. Manitzas for his many achievements in news.

Chuck Neighbors '54, who nominated Mr. Manitzas, made the journey also, and made the formal introduction. Well, more fun than formal, really! (Chuck is standing, right)

And I got to give Mr. Manitzas his plaque (I'm Sue Owen Whaley '94, features copy chief at the Austin American-Statesman and a past president of FJSA). One copy of the plaque went home with him, and one will hang with the others in the Battalion newsroom. Here's the text (scroll down for more readable version):

Frank N. Manitzas penned unpopular editorials calling for Texas A&M to allow women in the early 1950s, more than a decade before it happened. He interviewed presidents of 11 countries and coordinated television coverage for all three major networks. He reported on or produced coverage of many major events, including the world's first heart transplant, Robert Kennedy's campaign and assassination, the moon landing, all things Latin and South America and negotiations that led to the American hostages' release in Iran. And he's still working as an independent journalist, providing news of persons living in and interested in Cuba, as well as the Americas and the United States' relationship to the hemisphere.
After a year as co-editor of the Battalion with Joel Austin in 1952-53, Manitzas started his career at the San Angelo Standard-Times. Called to military duty, he served 22 months as public information officer in Wurzburg, Germany. He returned to Texas, working for the Associated Press in Austin from 1955-59 before a career-changing move to South America after a year on the Latin American Desk in New York. The AP took him to Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Urugauy, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela (1960-64). He moved to McGraw-Hill in Argentina(1964-1967) and to CBS (1967-1974), NBC (1974-1979) and ABC (1979-1994). He won the Columbia University's Cabot Prize as the senior producer to the three-hour ABC News documentary "American Held Hostage: The Secret Negotiations," revealing the efforts to free the U.S. Embassy employees held by Iran. He won a Lowell Thomas Award from the Overseas Press Club of America for his work on the Falkland Islands conflict between Argentina and Great Britain. As Deputy Director of Special Events at CBS News in New York, he covered or produced Dr. Christiaan Barnard's first heart transplant operation, the moon landing and the Kennedy coverage. In 1974, he and his family were among the last foreign journalists who witnessed General Augusto Pinochet's coup d'etat to leave the country. Manitzas graduated from Texas A&M in 1953 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Update on Texas A&M's Journalism Studies program

Dale Rice, head of Journalism Studies at Texas A&M, is doing some great work to raise the profile of the program on campus and off. For the FJSA reception Oct. 30, he gave us this great summary/update.

(My favorite fact here is that next year's course catalog will have 16 journalism courses, up from eight a year ago. But there is lots of good news contained below. Enjoy!)

The 2010-2011 academic year is off to a great start for Journalism Studies. Here are
some examples of our progress:

• We’re continuing to raise the profile of Journalism Studies within the College of Liberal Arts and the university at large. We co-hosted, with American Studies, Pulitzer Prize winner Sonia Nazario in September. Her book, “Enrique’s Journey,” was selected by the college as this year’s Common Ground read for all incoming freshmen. Besides exposing a wide audience to an award-winning journalist, Sonia’s visit allowed time for her to spend several hours with journalism students, both in and out of classroom settings.
• Our newly reformed student chapter of SPJ has been officially recognized by both the national organization and the university. SPJ members are working hard to recruit new folks and build the organization. For example, they are meeting next week to build sandwich boards to place on campus, one of the perks that come with being an official student organization.
• We’re working to broaden the Journalism Studies program. We currently have six new course listings winding their way up the approval chain. They include five cross-listed courses (one of which is the blogging course I created with that purpose in mind) and a new course in political reporting. With two courses added to the books this year, we will have 16 journalism courses in the catalog next year, compared with eight a year ago.
• I am working now with Charlie Madigan, a former journalist at the Chicago Tribune and now professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago to jointly teach a course in political reporting via videoconference, with half the students in the class from Roosevelt and half from A&M. It was the suggestion of Charles Middleton, president of Roosevelt, who I met when he was here as the keynote speaker for a conference on campus. We will launch the course in the 2012 election cycle, which should offer lots of great reporting opportunities for the students.
• We are exploring with the university and Rick Dunham, the Washington Bureau chief for Hearst Newspapers, the possibility of placing a journalism student in Washington each semester as part of the Public Policy Internship Program. Working with Dunham, the students would report and write stories dealing with public policy issues for the Hearst wire.

Finally, on a personal note, I’m really excited to see interest growing in journalism on campus. I’m teaching a one-hour freshmen seminar on food writing, part of the university’s effort to provide a small-class setting for first-year students who are mostly in very large classes. On Wednesday, after class, two of the students stayed behind to discuss the program and said they were going to apply now. That’s what makes this job fulfilling: to see freshmen joining Journalism Studies because they’re interested in a career in the profession. In just a few years’ time, you are going to look at those students who came into the program early and made use of our expanded offerings to obtain a first-rate journalism education and you are going to be very proud of them. FJSA’s support of the program has been a critical factor in our rebuilding effort, and we can’t thank you enough for that.

FJSA Fall Reception - Saturday, 12:30. C'mon!

The time is set, the weather should be awesome and you should be there to meet with us Saturday at 12:30 p.m., 2 hours before kickoff, at the "POD" in Cain Hall (room B-111) to help us induct Frank Manitzas '52 to the FJSA Hall of Honor.

I would LOVE to meet you and we particularly want as many people as we can get to make Mr. Manitzas feel honored, so please swing by, hang out for a couple short speeches and meet Eagle editor Kelly Brown. You might see some of your old profs or former Battcavers. Shout at me at aggiejournalists@gmail.com if you need anything.

Wright '92 part of this year's Aggie 100

Sherman Wright '92 came to campus last weekend to be honored as part of the Aggie 100 -- his agency, Commonground marketing of Chicago, was No. 12 on this year's list of the "100 fastest growing Aggie-owned or Aggie-led businesses in the world," as chosen by the Mays Business School's Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship.

Wright says he got to meet with College of Liberal Arts folks and with Dale Rice, head of the journalism program, and that he had a great time. Whoop!

The list is pretty impressive -- pop over there and check it out!