I was awarded a $30,000 Ford Foundation grant to develop a multimedia ethnic reporting class. I emailed a final report to Ford December 31. I am publishing some excerpts from the report. Here’s the first:
My $30,000 Ford Foundation Grant: Grant Proposal Excerpts
January 7th, 2009Final Grades, Fall Semester – Basic Reporting (So-called)
January 5th, 2009This was one of the most talented classes I’ve had in a few years. However, two students who could have achieved at least a B flunked because they seemed to believe they could bluff their way through the course and get a C  without completing the assignments (that’s my impression), and one was very late-late several times and in one conversation conveyed that she was hoping to bluff – again, my impression – her way to a passing grade that she could get without doing the homework.
The other attended class regularly but … refused to turn in assignments or refused to turn in assignments on time.
Because of the internecine war with my department about my classes and how I want to teach, final grades is always serious manner. The usual attrition rate – F’s, D’s, W’s and WU’s – is one-third.
I’m expecting that the two INCs eventually become passing grades.
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A — 2
B+ — 3
B — 3
B- — 1
INC — 2
W — 1
WU — 1
F — 2
I Pinged F/M December 10, 2008
December 20th, 2008This is an esoteric post. It most likely will be abstruse and cryptic for anyone unfamiliar with my postings on the Hunter College Listserv known as Hunter-L, the f/m listserv of the Department of Film and Media Studies, the SENATE-FORUM@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU or the CUNY UFS Discussion Forum as well as numerous inter-department emails and postings and memos and Fatwas. So, I asked the big question at December 10 department meeting. Quotation marks for effect: “Don’t you think this ongoing conflict can harm the department’s image?”
The WORD & UWIRE
December 2nd, 2008I’m just getting the hang to posting my students’ stories in UWIRE. So, the plan, beginning near the end of the week, is to start re-publishing some of my students’ stories about Hunter clubs. I believe, because of Hunter’s diversity, that it might make interesting reading — across college campuses in the country. One already published is, Roosevelt Institution Begins Its Second Term, also published at UWIRE.
Follow-up: “A Victory for Student Journalism at the City University of New York”
December 2nd, 2008Activist Attorney Ronald B. McGuire follows up an earlier email to his “Community List” regarding a federal court ruling against a former President of City College found guilty of violating the First Amendment rights of a student editor.
December 1 — Youngbloods, Elders and Friends:
Today’s edition of the New York Law Journal (NYLJ) features a front page article reporting a federal judge’s decision to hold former City College President Yolanda Moses liable in a civil rights lawsuit brought by three former City College student activists who worked at the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community and Student Center at City College.
Excerpts from today’s NYLJ article on the Sigal v. Moses decision are reprinted below.
A Victory for Student Journalism at the City University of New York
November 27th, 2008The following comes via the “Community List” of Activist Attorney Ronald B. McGuire regarding a federal court ruling against a former President of City College who had the temerity to violate First Amendment rights of a student editor.
Tuesday, November 25, 11:42:27 EST 2008
Youngbloods, Elders and Friends:
After nearly eleven years of litigation, a federal judge has finally held that former City College President Yolanda T. Moses violated the First Amendment rights of the editor of a student newspaper and candidates for positions on a college student government when President Moses nullified the result sof a student government election because she concluded that a special election edition of a student newspaper was a student activity fee funded piece of campaign literature that unfairly favored a slate of candidates running in the student government election.
Jonathan Mena’s CNN iReport
November 25th, 2008
The WORD’s Next MM-Teams
November 19th, 2008Â Â Â
I posted the following yesterday on Hunter-L, the College’s main listserv for college-wide information:
While F/M putters along trying to resuscitate its journalism effort, Advanced  Reporting, Media 293, is about to go multi-media (as part of an ongoing experiment with the WORD).
New York Times Spoof
November 18th, 2008Note: This info comes via Tikkun – Rabbi Michael Lerner:Â
We hope the people who did this spoof on the NY Times and Tom Friedman don’t get sued or go to jail because this is some of the funniest and at the same time smartest things that have come down the pike in a long time.
Send it to your friends.
The [!@#$%&!!*] O’Reilly Factor
December 6th, 2008This is a lazy man’s blog post, but I’m trying to wrap up classes and get to work on some projects that have been idling on the back burner far too long, so here is a column from Media Matters bloggers: Eric Boehlert and Jamison Foster:
Despite falsehood after falsehood, O’Reilly reportedly claimed canceledRadio FactorÂ
Tags: Bill O'Reilly, Commentary, journalism, Media Matters for America
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