This intended spring 2011 post, below, is just seeing the light of day.
From: “Ming Fearon, Chui-Hung Wong”
To; Hunter-L@HUNTER.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDUDear Hunter students + staff:
I’m trying to get the word out about The Envoy, Hunter College’s print newspaper.
The complete lament of the Envoy Editor-in-Chief rests at the end of this post. In between this sentence and that lament is a succinct accounting of student journalism at the College and undergraduate journalism in D:F/M, both waddling in a bad states of affairs.
Student journalism and subsequently D:F/M undergraduate journalism were hijacked many years ago, dumped in a septic tank of woe, essentially for students serious about journalism as a career or interest. It didn’t have to be that way.
Many years ago Colleague Peter Parisi and I were brought on board to rejuvenate the College’s journalism effort via D:F/M (at the time known as the Department of Communication before it morphed in to the Department of Film and Media Studies with the conscription of the film program from the theater department). That Morris & Parisi rejuvenation was to include breathing life into the Envoy, which had been publishing on average one or twice a year. There were times when it didn’t publish.
Easy, I was thinking at the time about the plan. I will teach three news writing classes for a few semesters and require my students to submit articles to the Envoy for publication. They did. The Envoy, my second semester, started publishing biweekly and caught the College by surprise.
I wasn’t surprised.
Then, of course, Colleague Parisi did his thing. And the Chair at the time, Stuart Ewen, did his thing. And then the Student Liberation Action Movement did its thing and THERE WENT THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
The Ming Fearon Lament in Its Entirety
Dear Hunter students + staff:
I’m trying to get the word out about The Envoy, Hunter College’s print newspaper.
Like any newspaper, we’re in constant need of new writers, photographers, and layout staff. The Envoy encounters a pretty high volume of technical issues that stem from being especially understaffed. This isn’t surprising, given the blank stares I often receive when I divulge that Hunter actually has a newspaper. Those clunky wooden boxes actually do contain newspapers.
This school contains many brilliant, articulate people who simply don’t know that the paper exists. I’m hoping that this message will broadcast the fact that The Envoy can provide an outlet for thoughts and opinions, as well as a way to disseminate sorely needed information about a school that is inexplicably complicated to navigate much of the time.
I look forward to hearing from any students who are interested in writing, photographing, drawing, doing layout, etc., for the paper. My email is envoyeditor@gmail.com, and we hold meetings every Wednesday (though not this Wednesday– it’s a Monday schedule) at 1 pm in room TH211.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sincerely,
Ming Fearon
Editor-in-Chief
Now, for anyone still reading this far down, here is a succinct contextual description regarding MF Editor-in-Chief, the MF lament and Envoy background, et.al, published in October, 2010.
Tags: Hunter College, Hunter Enovy, Ming Fearon, Student Journalism