Alex Myers, an undergraduate journalism student at the State University of New York at Oswego, isn’t so sure he wants to be a reporter when he graduates.

The Australian exchange student experienced the potential chilling effect of a university … Read more

Downtown Devil | Kickstarter
Students of the SPJ chapter at Arizona State University's Cronkite School are raising money via a bold, perhaps somewhat optimistic project: a "Men of Journalism" calendar.

"Most of the Cronkite School and the Downtown campus are female, so we wanted to capitalize on that market and create a calendar of men that hopefully the ladies of the Downtown campus will buy,” SPJ chapter president Anne Stegen told Alexis Macklin.

"I found out I was one of two freshman in the calendar, so that made me feel awesome,” Nick Wicksman told Macklin. He's one of two calendar models whose identities SPJ has confirmed so far, and he's the fellow featured in this video: (more...)

The Daily Collegian
Penn State's student newspaper has suspended a writer who fabricated and plagiarized quotes by Sue Paterno in a story about the opening of a center on campus named for her. Paterno is the widow of former coach Joe Paterno, who died just months after being fired from the university for his role in Jerry Sandusky’s ongoing sexual abuse of young men.

Daily Collegian editor-in-chief Casey McDermott did not name the student in her note today, but the story she cites carries the byline of Nick Vassilakos. Poynter chose to include his name here to make it easier for others to review his work and to avoid implicating other Daily Collegian writers.

McDermott said that this was not the student’s first offense: (more...)

First Amendment Center | Student Press Law Center
Gerian Steven Moore has won his job back at Chicago State University after a judge ruled that he had been fired because Tempo, the student newspaper that he advised, had published stories critical of the university. Trouble is, Tempo stopped publishing in April 2009, and the judge decided not to force the school to reinstate it. The judge ruled that student interest in the paper probably waned after it ceased publication and  editor George Providence II left the school, following multiple clashes with the administration over press freedom. "A win for the university’s students ... would include a free and independent campus newspaper," writes the First Amendment Center's Douglas E. Lee. The school has to bring Moore back as executive director for communications or offer him a similar job, according to the Student Press Law Center. || Related: Student adviser fired from ECU appeals termination on First Amendment grounds (Poynter)

J-School Buzz | Student Press Law Center
J-School Buzz, an independent blog covering the Missouri School of Journalism, has found an ally in its complaints about the Columbia Missourian's policy forbidding its student reporters to work for other media. Adam Goldstein of the Student Press Law Center believes the Missourian's policy violates the First Amendment, in part because the Missourian isn't a typical student-run newspaper. It's overseen by faculty members, who are state employees. He says the Missourian's conflict of interest policy boils down to this: "a public university imposing limitations on free speech." And he finds the policy ironic considering the more obvious conflicts present at Missourian:

It’s hard to see how an organization edited by people who are full-time paid agents of the entity it most frequently covers, who also happens to be the biggest employer in town, could ever have a conflicts policy that isn’t a joke. (more...)

The Spectrum
Editor in Chief Matthew Parrino eloquently describes what happened after an assistant news editor for The Spectrum, the student newspaper at SUNY's University at Buffalo, expressed her opinions on tattoos:

Beware of what you write. It can destroy you. Readers' comments have nearly destroyed her and it's awful. She's my staff member and I can't do much to help her. She's kind and hard-working and always willing to attack a story or take on a tough assignment. She wrote the tattoo piece as a counterpoint to another staff writer's piece on why she gets tattoos. In her zeal to win the argument, perhaps she got carried away. ... What has baffled me more than anything is how much people care about this issue. Last month, we reported that this university gave money illegally to (then) County Executive Chris Collins' political campaign and that UB President Satish K. Tripathi broke SUNY regulations. We got almost no response. I respect people's attachment to their tattoos and the personal and emotional value they hold for many. But as a student hoping to make my career as a journalist, I would also like to believe that the public cares about issues that extend beyond themselves.

Related: How to respond when the Internet calls you names (Poynter)

Paul Isom, who was fired as East Carolina University's student media adviser after the college paper published photos of a streaker, is appealing his termination on free speech grounds. The deadline to appeal is today, but Isom said he sent a letter Wednesday asking for an extension because he hasn't received all of the emails the university has unearthed related to his employment. Contrary to a recent editorial in the local newspaper stating that the school hasn't allowed him to review the documents, Isom said he gets about one batch of emails a week. "The last batch I got, I was told there were more, but they didn't tell me how much or when I'd get them," he said in a phone interview. Isom said he won't decide whether he'll allow the documents to be released until he sees everything. So far, though, he hasn't come across anything that would cause him to withhold them. (more...)

J-School Buzz
Kelly Cohen, editor-in-chief of J-School Buzz, an independent, student-run blog about the Missouri School of Journalism, had to choose between working for the blog or The Missourian because of the newspaper's conflict of interest policy. The Missourian doesn't allow its paid staff and students in staff classes to work for other local media. Tom Warhover, The Missourian’s executive editor for innovation, said in an email to Cohen that working for J-School Buzz could also “run afoul of prohibitions against participating in groups that seek to influence public policy.” In response, J-School Buzz Founder and Publisher David Teeghman wrote that the site will “be reporting and writing and ranting about the ... antiquated conflict of interest policies.” Nick Castele pointed out on Twitter that this type of policy isn't uncommon in the student media world.