We are happy that the 100th an-niversary is upon us.

Planning has gone into a centen-nial weekend, featuring lots of op-portunity to tour the facilities and campus, to mingle and to meet new and old friends.

The newsroom and pressroom will be clean and ready for visitors, and the current staff is excited to meet its predecessors.

For those who come on Friday, Lola Burnham (‘83) is planning a fun meet and greet with current stu-dents in Buzzard. Contact her at la-burnham@eiu if you plan to be here so she can give you details. Friday night, Reed and JR are hosting a re-ception at the Charleston Country Club. Questions: Contact JR at jmry-an@eiu.edu.

Saturday, relax during the day or attend the home football game, vis-it your favorite haunts and walk the campus. You can even pop into Booth Library to see the Eastern News Cen-tennial exhibit in the south entrance display case.

The evening’s festivities will start with a cocktail reception at 5 p.m. in Buzzard, with tours of the news-room and pressroom by current stu-dents and faculty, and drinks and hors d’oeuvres served until about 6:15 p.m.

We’ll make our way over to the Grand Ballroom in the Martin Lu-ther King Jr. University Union for dinner, souvenirs and a program fea-turing dignitaries, speeches, and a si-lent auction hosted by Madeleine Doubek (’85) and Mark Turk (’77).

After dinner, about 10 p.m., the festivities continue at the Brick-House, housed in the Unique Suites Hotel (formerly Best Western) on Lincoln Avenue and Douglas Drive.

And to cap off a perfect week-end, Dru Sefton (’82) booked the big room at the Airport Steakhouse for Sunday morning, and The Dai-ly Eastern New’s 100th Anniversary Gala Breakfastpalooza.

She and Andy Savoie (’81) write that they are dreaming up DOOR PRIZES just for giggles. She writes, “No need to RSVP, just show up at 9 a.m. at the airport. We’ll probably be there until 11 or after, recovering from the night before.”

Three giants in Eastern News lore will be interviewed at noon Monday, Nov. 2, on Issues and Attitudes, a live,

30-minute local news interview show on Hit-Mix 88.9 FM. You can listen to Jeff Owens’ interview with Reed, JR and Lola streaming live at www.weiu.net/hitmix/streaming.php

100 years … Can you believe it? Thanks for being a part of our histo-ry. We hope to see you then!

-30--30-

A publication for journalism and student media alumni

NON PROFIT ORGUS POSTAGE PAIDPERMIT NO 24CHARLESTON, IL 61920

EIU Journalism Dept.600 Lincoln Ave.Charleston, IL 61920

Volume 41, No. 1, October 2015

INSIDE:Letter from Dan Woike, pg. 3

Class Notes, Faculty Notes, pgs. 4, 5John Ryan retires, pg. 6

Bob Bajek receives SPJ award, pg. 7

MEET US AT:Daily Eastern News’ 100th Celebration

Nov. 7, 2015

First draft of history

Daily Eastern News to celebrate 100 years

Search Facebook for both the “Daily Eastern News 100th Birthday” and “The NO-BASH Chili Bash” for moreinformation and updates on these events.

The first edition of the Normal School News, the forerunner of The Daily Eastern News, said in its announcement that after three weeks of preparation The News would stay a “permanent publication.” The News has kept that promise for nearly a century, with Nov. 5 marking 100 years of publishing. To purchase tickets to the Nov. 7 Centennial Celebration dinner or to make a donation to the Publishing the Next 100 Years Fund, go to https://commerce.cashnet.com/eiujou1

The journalism department and student media will not be holding the Chili Bash during the 2015 Homecoming weekend of Oct. 24 because of The Daily East-ern News 100th gala event on Nov. 7.

However, alumni are still en-couraged to attend tailgating at O’Brien Stadium parking lot be-tween 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Stop by and see John Ryan, who will be heading the journalism tailgate.

After the game, several faculty will be at Roc’s Blackfront Restau-rant and Lounge located on the Charleston Square. See you there.

No Chili Bash, but drinks at Roc’s

2 -30--30- for EIU journalism and student media alumni

-30- is a publication of the EIU Department of Journalism

2521 Buzzard Hall600 Lincoln Ave.

Charleston, IL 61920217-581-6003

www.eiu.edu/~journal

-30- is organized, edited and designed by The Agency, the student-run public relations firm at EIU.

The Agency meets at 3:30 p.m. every Thursday in 2434 Buzzard Hall.

The Agency produces -30-, writes news for the department’s Wordpress blog at eiujournalism.wordpress.com and handles the department’s Twitter account @EIU_Journalism

Agency director: Alex Chan, achan2@eiu.edu

Editor: Megan Ivey, mkivey@eiu.edu

Agency Staff: A.J. Seidler, Ashley Jordan, Debby Hernandez

The Agency Adviser: Liz Viall, ekviall@eiu.edu

Photo by Randi BohannonStudent Publications alum V. Gene Myers (second from right) enjoyed seeing his adviser David Reed, 1973 Warbler yearbook editor Gayle Gleichman and Student Publications Director John Ryan at a reception honoring Myers, who received an honorary Doctor of Humane letters degree from Eastern at the College of Arts and Humanities graduation ceremony May 9. Myers, a heralded cartoonist, drew for the Warbler, the Eastern News and the Vehicle while an art major at Eastern in the early 1970s. Alums may remember his cartoon strip, “Catatonic State,” which was syndicated to several college papers and which continued for several years after he left Eastern with his master’s degree in 1972. Congratulations, V. Gene!

Cartoonist V. Gene Myers receives honorary degree

Quite a year of change here at Eastern with a new president, no state budget and declining enroll-ments. On the other hand … SO MUCH NEWS TO REPORT! Our students are covering meetings, speeches, changes and controver-sies under the leadership of their ed-itors and anchors: DEN EIC Steph-anie Markham from Chicago, War-bler EIC Dominic Baima from Col-linsville, and NewsWatch anchors/reporters Nick Ruffolo from Naper-ville and Nathan Page from Mante-no, and their advisers Lola Burnham (’83), Joe Gisondi and Kelly Runyon (’92), respectively.

And that’s what we do best: Train journalists to cover news, whatev-er the medium. We know these stu-dents will enter the workforce ready for any entry-level position in what-ever career they try because they have solid journalism skills.

They can research, write, edit, shoot, design and THINK. And you know that because that’s exact-ly what DT, Reed, JR, Sue Kaufman, Tidwell, Poulter and the gang over the years taught you.

You may have heard that en-rollment at Eastern is down again this year, to about 8,500 undergrads

compared to about 8,900 last year. And our department’s enrollment is down, too.

Counting some freshmen who already have declared journalism as a major, we have 87 majors and 14 minors. That is down from a recent high of 175 majors in 2006.

We are not bemoaning those numbers, per se. In fact, Lola and I heard from leaders of our accredit-ing body in September that our in-structor-student ratio is admira-ble; our class sizes are still small and

we give individual attention in the classrooms and newsrooms. But we want more students. And you can help spread the word about Eastern, about journalism, and about student media.

You, the women and men of our department and student media pro-grams, are our most enthusiastic ad-vocates.

The time you spent here, in class-es, with The Eastern News, WEIU, WELH, The Warbler, The Agency,

and Minority Today/Fresh! influ-enced the adult you became.

Social and academic develop-ment of our students continues. We help young people move from what-ever level they come to us to a level that helps them in the adult world.

You embody the spirit of East-ern’s journalism department, no matter what career path you have chosen.

You are interested in the world around you, you think, you con-verse. And our students are follow-ing in your footsteps.

I hope that when you have the chance to promote Eastern, you take it.

If you want to send us your chil-dren, your neighbor’s children, your children’s friends, your friends, please do. We can call them, take them on tours, and introduce them to our students and faculty. Of course, we’d love them to study jour-nalism, but, really, it doesn’t matter.

We just want more students on our campus. We want to return East-ern to its most vibrant and healthy state.

We hope you can help.

Sally Renaud

Help us spread the word: EIU journalism is one of the best!Chair’s column

“You [alumni] embody thespirit of Eastern’s journalism department, no matter what career path you have chosen.”

-Sally RenaudSally Renaud

3October 2015

Alums have a couple of options to keep up with news happening in the Journalism Department and student media in between editions of -30-.

If you haven’t already joined the department’s alumni listserv, you can send your email address to Lola Burnham at laburnham@eiu.edu. The listserv is open to anyone who was a journalism major or minor at Eastern or who worked at Student Publications or WEIU. Current and retired faculty are also members.

The listserv is used to send out news about the department but mainly is used as a job listing notice. Anyone who is a member may post to it by sending an email to eiujou@lists.eiu.edu. If you have news of a job

opening, you may post directly your-self or send it to Burnham.

On Facebook, check out the de-partment’s page by searching for “Eastern Illinois University Journal-ism.” If you like what you see, you can like the page to get updates in your news feed.

For the 100th celebration, a Face-book event titled “The Daily East-ern News 100th Birthday” has been made. Current updates on the event will be posted there.

The student media all have their own pages, too. Search their name for their Facebook page, and look below for websites and other forms of social media.

Join our listserv or FacebookConnections Summer vocation

Daily Eastern News WEIU

Warbler Yearbook HitMix 88.9

Editor’s note: Dan Woike (‘05) is a former sports editor of The Dai-ly Eastern News. Woike is current-ly a Los Angeles Clippers beat report-er for the Orange County Register. He visited campus from Sept. 16-18 as a Fox-Thornburgh Visiting Professional and spoke to journalism and kinesiol-ogy and sport studies classes, and stu-dent media groups. Here is his reflec-tion after visiting.

The plan wasn’t for it to happen in Charleston, but sometimes, plans are overrated.

I never planned to attend EIU, but it happened.

I never planned to come back to campus for the first time a decade later, but it happened.

And I definitely never planned on seeing Mike Shanahan pose for pic-tures outside an off-campus bar.

But all that stuff happened – and more.

Thanks to EIU and the people here, that’s been my life.

Spending three days on campus this past week re-ignited my passion for learning and improving, and it re-minded me just how critical being a “Panther” was in my life.

Eastern is where I learned to take

chances, and really, EIU took a chance on me.

I was a bad student prone to mak-ing excuses. I didn’t take much serious-ly, with a lone exception – journalism.

Professors, particularly the ones in the j-department, saw this in me and instead of focusing on the weaknesses,

EIU became a place where I could focus on my strengths.

Whatever I’ve achieved since grad-uating from EIU, the people on cam-pus deserve some of that credit.

Being back on campus reminded me of this, so I wanted to say “Thank you.”

Thank you to the professors who didn’t let me skate by because of my tal-ent, pushing me to learn new ways to do things.

Thank you to my fellow students who pushed me, who relaxed with me, who celebrated and struggled with me.

And thank you to Eastern for even letting a 22-year-old college washout resume his education.

This place has done so much for me, but this past week was a whole dif-ferent experience.

Being asked to come back and speak to students was such an honor.

Everyone on campus and, in par-ticular, inside the journalism program made me feel so welcome, and they have my gratitude.

From the students walking around campus, to the freshmen in a news writing class to the men’s basketball team, I saw people with big dreams. And I know Eastern helped make mine come true.

Take the opportunity to look around campus and use all the re-sources – the stunning WEIU studio, the DEN newsroom and most impor-tantly, the professors.

I didn’t plan for Eastern Illinois to change my life, but it did. And I’m so happy that happened.

Dan Woike letter‘I didn’t plan for Eastern to change my life, but it did’

Photo by Roberto HodgeDan Woike (right), former Daily Eastern News Sports Editor and ’05 alum, talks to associate sports editor Sean Hastings (left) and associ-ate news editor Jehad Abbed (center) in the newsroom while visiting Eastern on Sept. 19.

www.dailyeasternnews.comInstagram: @dailyeasternnewsTwitter:@DEN_news, @DEN_sports, @DEN_Verge, @DEN_PhotoDesk

www.weiu.netTwitter:@WEIUNewsWatch @WEIU1Youtube: weiutv

Instagram: @eiuwarblerTwitter:@WarblerYearbook

www.weiu.net/hitmixInstagram: hitmix889Twitter:@HitMixWEIU

Photo by Brian PoulterAs a part of his summer documentary project, professor Brian Poulter visited and photographed county fairs and festivals in Illinois. See page 5 for more information on his project.

Submitted PhotoProfessors Eunseong Kim and Byan Murley and participants gesture V.I.A. symbolizing verification, independence, and accountability, the three key elements of news literacy skills, during the 2015 News Liter-acy Summer Institute for Teachers in Chicago.

4 -30--30- for EIU journalism and student media alumni

Class Notes1980

Tess Norton Masek was named editor-in-chief of Vacation Agent and Agent@Home magazines.

1986

Dave McKinney is at home in a newly created position for Thom-son Reuters in Chicago focusing on breaking news and analysis of Illi-nois and Chicago finance, govern-ment and politics.

1988

Rick Stuckey is busily work-ing at NBC Chicago and Telemun-do Chicago as a videographer, vid-eo editor and live shot technician. Rick recently became secretary of NLGJA, The Association of LGBT Journalists. Rick can be contacted at rps66@hotmail.com.

1995

Rich Bird has started working at Crain Communications as digital managing editor for its Crain Na-tional Division. Rich left the Pioneer Press, where he had been for three years as the managing editor for 32 weekly newspapers under the ban-ner of the Sun-Times and then the Chicago Tribune. Rich and his wife, Hillary, welcomed a baby girl, Elea-nor Veronica, on May 18, 2015.

1999

Justin Kmitch and his wife, Jen-nifer, had a baby boy, Leo Gordon, born May 19, 2015. Justin is at the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights.

2000

Geneva White Slupski is a com-munications assistant for the Scha-umburg Park District.

2001

Heather Cygan’s media group, the Nurse.com brand, received the 2015 Publication of the Year award from the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors. It also received a bronze award for Best Use of Social Media for its “The Ebola Outbreak 2014.”

2003

Ryan Rinchiuso just published his second book, “Love and Fam-ily at 24 Frames Per Second: Fa-therhood and Films Passed Down Through the Generations.”

2004

Colin McAuliffe and his wife, Claire Vargo McAuliffe, welcomed their first child, Elizabeth Fran-

ces McAuliffe, at 1:04 p.m. July 21, 2015. Ellie was 17.5 inches long and weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces at birth. Colin reported two days later that “Baby and Mommy are happy and healthy.” He also promised to take and share lots of pictures.

2005

Sawyer Elizabeth Maberry Dan-iels was born at 11:53 a.m. July 22, 2015, at Carle Foundation Hos-pital in Urbana. Sawyer weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20.5 inches long at birth. Her parents are Matt Daniels (’08) and Nora Maberry (’05).

2006

Laura Griffith Inlow became the manager of media services at Lewis and Clark Community Col-lege on May 1.

2007

Jim Allocco married Dyns on Aug. 1, 2015. He is a graduate stu-dent in history at Illinois State Uni-versity.

Marcy Workman Jackson and her husband, Jordan, had a baby boy, Wyatt Dale, born on May 20, 2015. Marcy works at Leap Adver-tising Agency in Louisville.

Matt Stevens is the Auburn Uni-versity beat reporter at the Mont-gomery (Ala.) Advertiser.

Holly Thomas left Colorado in early August to begin orientation for the accelerated bachelor’s of science in nursing program at Duke Univer-sity that will eventually lead to her becoming a nurse practitioner.

2008

Jordan Crook is a senior report-er at the Hoopeston Chronicle.

Amanda Dugan is a marketing and event manager for the Wash-ington Post, a position she has held since March. She had a similar po-sition for four years at Bloomberg in New York City.

Sara Cuadrado Gulo is a mar-keting specialist at DQS Inc. in Chi-cago.

Matt Hopf and wife Melissa wel-comed a daughter, Elizabeth Anne “Bess” Hopf, born at 5:17 p.m. Sept. 27, 2015. Bess weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces and was 19.5 inches long at birth.

Eugenia Jefferson is an associ-ate community manager at Golin, a public relations firm in Chicago. She works with Matt Kelly (’08), who is

an account director/senior manager for the firm.

Kevin Kenealy teaches language arts for the Crete-Monee School District.

2009

Rick Kambic was elected chair-man of the Pioneer Press employee union in April 2015, which is part of the Chicago Newspaper Guild — CWA affiliate local 71. Rick is a staff reporter covering news across many subjects in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. As chairman, Rick is the main official who works with Pio-neer Press management and the Chi-cago Tribune liaisons when it comes to contract negotiations, contract enforcement, workplace conditions, workload changes and employee discipline, among other topics.

Zach Nugent is starting a new job as a content and earned media producer at the Animal Humane So-ciety at the Twin Cities.

Kristina Peters is the assistant managing editor for CSP Business Media.

2010

Heather Holm is a teacher’s aide for Hunting Ridge Elementary School in Palatine.

2011

Jordan Boner and his wife, Brit-tany, have welcomed a daughter, Kinlee Jo, born Sept. 15, 2015.

Brittney Ferris received her cer-tified journalism educator certificate from the Journalism Education As-sociation. She is a yearbook repre-sentative for Walsworth Publishing.

Lamar Holliday is a PR spe-cialist at the Indiana Department of Transportation in Indianapolis. He had been at WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, Ind.

2012

Wally Swenson is Gov. Bruce Rauner’s advance director. He has worked for Rauner in similar capac-ities since November 2014.

2013

Ashley Holstrom has joined the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights as a multi-platform editor.

Marcus Smith started working at the Mount Carmel Register in July. Marcus is the news editor, which means he does everything for the thrice-week-ly paper: reporting, writing, shooting photos and laying out pages.

2014

Rob Downen was named the managing editor of Times Newspa-per Group’s five regional publica-tions: Pekin Daily Times, Woodford Times, East-Peoria Times-Courier, Washington Times-Reporter and the Morton Times.

Brad Kupiec is a director of broadcasting/media relations for the Peoria Rivermen hockey team.

Shea Lazansky has recently ac-cepted a reporter position at the Harrisburg Daily Register in Harris-burg.

Tyler Noel is working at Home Depot.

Aldo Soto is a writer for Sports Monkey.

2015

Cody Delmendo is a reporter at Iroquois County’s Times-Republic in Watseka.

Olivia Diggs is a line cook at Peel Wood Fired Pizza outside St. Louis.

Liz Grubart is doing design and publicity for Re/Max Action.

Katelyn Ifft is an assistant ac-count executive at DCC Marketing in Decatur.

Jarad Jarmon started working as a reporter at the JG-TC in Mat-toon-Charleston in July. Jarad is covering Charleston, Eastern and the Mattoon school district.

Josh Jones is a reporter at the Centralia Sentinel.

Nathan Kissel is working with the Indianapolis Colts in the au-dio-visual department.

Cayla Maurer is a graduate stu-dent at Eastern.

Lauren Morrow is an admis-sions counselor at Millikin Univer-sity.

Jasmine Randle is working at State Farm in Bloomington.

Jazmin Smiley has started law school at Northern Illinois Univer-sity.

Katie Smith started working as a reporter at the Daily Chronicle in DeKalb in May. She is covering courts and general assignments.

Savanna Tommei is a morning anchor at WKOW 27 in Madison, Wis.

5October 2015

I interned at The Dis-patch/Argus newspapers in Moline and Rock Is-land, in the Quad Cities. I started the internship on May 18 and it ended on Aug. 7.  During much of my time, I covered things I’ve been meaning to get experience in such as car accidents, a shooting and natural disasters.

I met editorial page editor Kenda Burrows, who told me she was a former administration edi-tor for The DEN.

I even got to meet GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, which I honestly could not have cared less about (Democrat here), but! Nonethe-less the experience was well enjoyed and deserved. I actually learned how to cover the Santorum event from all of the forum coverage I did last semester as an editor—it was basically the same setup.

The most rewarding thing from this internship was the natural disaster coverage, shooting and car accidents—that stuff was fun! I wanted more expe-rience in that than anything else.” 

-Roberto Hodge senior journalism major,

from Galesburgand news editor for

The Daily Eastern News

As I headed into my final semester at East-ern, I decided to try out a network that several pro-fessors had mentioned I should look into.

The newspaper in Robinson, Ill., which is five miles away from my hometown, had sever-al writers who had attended Eastern or knew the staff very well.

After prodding from professors Joe Gison-di and Sally Renaud, I called the managing editor, Greg Bilbrey. He set up an interview with me, and he took me on as an intern around the 4th of July weekend.

Throughout my job I wrote up the police re-ports, covered city council and school board meet-ings and even took pictures, which I had never be-fore done professionally.

After graduating in December, I will be work-ing a full-time job with the Robinson Daily News, covering most of the same topics I did before.”

-Blake Nashsenior journalism major,

from Palestinefootball beat reporter and

sports writer forThe Daily Eastern News

This summer I was fortunate enough to have a copy editor internship at the Daily Herald. Be-cause I was working at the copy desk, I worked at the main office in Arlington Heights around people who were extremely en-couraging and helpful. The feeling of knowing I was going to work in an actu-al newsroom this summer was like no other, it was a dream come true.

My supervisor was Neil Holdway, who was the assistant managing director, but along with him there were a lot of others who worked the copy desk that were there to give me assignments and most importantly, guide me to successfully com-plete my assignments.

Some of them were EIU alums:, Sean Stang-land, the assistant senior copy editor, Doug Gra-ham, Brian Shamie, and Ashley Holstrom.

I’m really glad I was chosen to be an intern at the Daily Herald because it showed me all I can do as a journalist and encouraged me when I saw so many people doing what they’re passionate about.”

-Shirmeen Ahmadsenior journalism major, from Romeoville

copy editor for The Warbler andStudent Body President

Students spend summer interning with alumni

Lola Burnham completed the heroic task of serving as acting chair of the journalism depart-ment during the summer month of 2015, while Sally Renaud was with her family in New England. And what a time to take over: With low enroll-ment, budget cuts, layoffs and a new president, Burnham had her hands full.

Oh, and she advised The Daily Eastern News’ coverage of the campus happenings, which some-times was the only area coverage of the complicat-ed events. New EIC Stephanie Markham did the bulk of the reporting for the paper admirably.

Burnham this semester is teaching Copy Ed-iting and Comm Law, taking over the class from retired professor John Ryan and his predecessor, James Tidwell.

The big question on alums’ minds: With no heavy Oklahoma accent to define her, how will students remember Lola’s recitation of George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words”?

Joe Gisondi directed the Illinois Press Foun-dation/Eastern Illinois University High School Journalism Workshop.

For 12 days in June, high school journalists wrote stories, took photos and interned at multiple newspapers around the Charleston and Cham-paign area.

Gisondi brought in alumni and faculty to con-tribute to the event, including Lisa Green (’86), Graham Milldrum(’08), Dan Hagen, Liz Viall, Herb Meeker (’82) Kayleigh Rahn (nee Zyskows-ki) (’10), Dann Gire (’75), Amir Prellberg (’14), Emily Steele (’11) and Evan Hill. To see the com-pleted stories written by the high school students from the conference, visit www.illinoisreporter.wordpress.com

Gisondi is finalizing his book “Monster Trek: The Obsessive Search for Bigfoot.” The book is available for pre-order on amazon.com.

Eunseong Kim and Bryan Murley participat-ed in the 2015 News Literacy Summer Institute for Teachers in Chicago.

The program was hosted by the Center for News Literacy of Stony Brook University and funded by a grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. The workshop trained teachers to es-tablish and teach news literacy courses.

Training took place throughout the month of July, with the institute taking place from July 20-24. Kim and Murley completed 50 hours of train-ing, with 40 in class and 10 in a hybrid-online set-ting.

The journalism department began offering JOU 1000: News, Information & Media Literacy as part of the social and behavioral sciences gener-al education options this fall. Kim is teaching two sections of the course.

Bryan Murley is using Github in his online media class this semester.

Github is a version control system center where developers can store projects and network with others.

Murley said he is using it as a platform for col-laboration on a final class project. He is blogging about integrating the site into the course and mod-ifying it for use at Murley on Media at murleyon-media.wordpress.com.

Brian Poulter received another grant from Verizon Wireless this summer. He used the grant to create his project “Fair People of Illinois.” The documentary project focused on visually captur-ing the faces and people at county fairs and fes-tivals across Illinois. To see all of his work on the project, visit www.fairil.com. An example is on Page 3.

On July 21 and 22 WEIU news director Kel-ly Runyon participated in a professional broad-cast-in-residence program at WTHI-TV (CBS)

in Terre Haute, Ind. Runyon is a former employee of WTHI, serving as newsroom assistant, report-er, anchor and producer from 1992-2001. In her capacity as news director at Newswatch, Runyon oversees a nightly, live, half hour newscast that’s solely produced and anchored by students at East-ern. Runyon also teaches Broadcast News Writing at Eastern, which focuses on story development and execution.

Runyon said she thought it would be benefi-cial to both her and her students for her to return to a commercial newsroom to explore storytelling concepts, reporting, shooting, editing, equipment procedures and production elements. She had the opportunity to participate in the daily morning news meeting, pitch story ideas and work with re-porters and videographers in the field.

She also witnessed a news crew execute a tele-vision live shot from the campus of Indiana State University and observed several newscasts from the production control room. The experience was invaluable and provided Runyon will useful infor-mation to share with the WEIU news team.

Liz Viall is using Flipboard extensively this se-mester in Advanced Reporting class. Students flip public affairs stories into the magazine each week as examples of important coverage and excellent writing.

Viall has also been named the head of the Par-ticipatory Journalism Interest Group for the As-sociation for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication for the coming year.

Viall, who led a Media Entrepreneurship work-shop in August at the national AEJMC convention in San Francisco, was the vice head of the group in charge of programming for the convention.

AEJMC is a nonprofit, educational association of journalism and mass communication educa-tors, students and media professionals.

Shirmeen Amad Blake Nash Roberto Hodge

Faculty notesJournalism faculty focus on summer workshops, projects

6 -30--30- for EIU journalism and student media alumni

Ryan retires after 30 years at EasternBy Ashley Jordan

Professor and Student Publica-tions Director John Ryan retired in May 2015 after spending more than 30 years at Eastern Illinois University.

Ryan first came to EIU as a stu-dent, working at The Eastern News, eventually as government editor. He began his teaching career at EIU in 1985 after earning a master’s degree at the University of Illinois and after working at The State Journal-Register and The News-Gazette. He spent 10 years working with those newspapers. He earned his doctorate in journalism at Southern Illinois University-Car-bondale.

Ryan has taught every class in the journalism curriculum but ethics and copy editing.

“What I miss about teaching is working with students and developing their knowledge of a subject over a se-mester,” Ryan said.

Even though Ryan has taught many of the classes offered in the jour-nalism department, news writing was his favorite class to teach. He said he liked that the class gave the students the foundation to be a good reporter.

Ryan was the editorial adviser of The Daily Eastern News for 18 years.

He said he worked with editors, reporters and staff members and truly enjoyed the times they had shared.

“It was fun getting to know them, give them direction and encourage-ment to continue practicing journal-ism,” Ryan said.

Journalism department chair Sally Renaud said Ryan had a one-on-one relationship style and was always there for his students.

Renaud has admired his commit-ment to the department and to the journalism field.

“He is one of the reasons I am here,” Renaud said.

Although Ryan has retired, he has continued to run the Mid-America Press Institute, which puts on semi-nars for working or college journalists. As the executive director, he plans and

hosts seminars and runs the organiza-tion’s headquarters.

Ryan may be directing seminars and continuing to put his journalism skills to use, but he makes time to en-joy his retirement by playing golf.

“The journalism department is like a family and I have many fond memories,” Ryan said.

Ryan may not be spending as much time with his journalism family anymore, but he is busy at home with two high schoolers and a student in college.

“I gained so much being on the EIU staff, it’s hard to put into words,” he said.

Ryan has a will for his students to succeed, which is deeply admirable, Renaud said.

Ryan will always be in contact with alums and the journalism department, seeing them at different events.

He said he could not have a better career and his time as EIU has flown by.

“As they say, time flies when you’re having fun,” Ryan said.

Former pressman Johnny Bough remembered By A.J. Siedler

Johnny Bough, former pressman for The Daily Eastern News, left a leg-acy not to be forgotten.

Bough worked as a pressman for the Mattoon Journal Gazette (JG-TC) before coming to Eastern in 1982.

Dave Reed, former adviser for The Daily Eastern News, said he asked Bough to be the new pressman for The Daily Eastern News and Bough said he could do it.

“I was surprised when he asked to do it and thankful, too,” Reed said.

Reed said Bough was a laid-back person whom everyone could get along with. Reed said Bough nev-er got annoyed, even when students turned their pages in late.

John Ryan, former journal-ism professor and director of Stu-dent Publications, said Bough was a high-energy person.

“He worked fast and was always energetic while working,” Ryan said. “He was thin, wiry, and his body im-age matched his personality.”

Ryan said he was a favorite with

students and easy to get along with.

Ryan said Bough always did whatev-er he could to get the paper out even when things went wrong. Ryan said Bough

never would get angry at the stu-dents.

“One time a student wished him a happy birthday and asked him how old he was,” Ryan said. “When he re-plied 60, she said 60, like she couldn’t believe it. The student then said, ‘Six-ty, really? My uncle is 60, and he looks much better than you do.’”

Reed said Bough never missed work except one time when he was in a motorcycle accident. Reed said Bough was a reliable and loving per-son.

“He always stayed calm through-out anything,” Reed said. “He was al-ways a personal, warm, friendly guy.”

Tom Roberts, production super-visor for Student Publications, said Bough was active in his church and was an avid golfer.

Roberts said their job was to pre-craft the pages the old-fashion way back in the ’80s, which took a while.

Roberts said he worked for a month with Bough and during that

time, he said, he found Bough to be a great man to work with.

“He was a funny person with a good sense of humor,” Roberts said. “He was a very calm and easy-going guy.”

Bough died April 22 at the age of 73.

Johnny Bough

Submitted photoJohnny Bough looks over an edition of The News coming off the Goss Community Press he ran for about 30 years.

Left: New journalism professor John Ryan grades papers at his desk in the 1980s. Right: Commencement Marshal John Ryan leads the graduation processional carrying the University Mace inscribed with the names of past marshals at the noon ceremony of the College of Arts and Humanities on May 9, 2015 in Lantz Arena. Photo by Bev Cruse

John Ryan

7October 2015

Bajek receives SPJ journalism ethics awardfor reportiong on pollution concerns

By Dan Hagen

EIU 2010 alumnus Bob Bajek has received the Ethics in Journal-ism Award from the Society of Pro-fessional Journalists for his investiga-tive reporting on the former Chanute Air Force Base.

County Star editor Chris-tine Walsh nominated her former News-Gazette Community Newspa-pers colleague for his “continuous commitment to seeking the truth and reporting it.”

An SPJ press release said, “Bajek fulfills his duty as a journalist to be a watchdog over the government and military. He shows compassion when reporting and remains fair and accu-rate.”

Bajek’s 2013 articles for the week-ly Rantoul Press examined claims of Agent Orange and other contami-nants at the former base.

“Local readers gave me positive feedback on the story, saying they would never have moved to Rantoul had they known of the pollution con-cerns,” Bajek said.

Local economic interests weren’t so pleased, however, and Bajek was ultimately fired from the reporting position, his first out of college.

Warned not to continue report-ing on the Chanute environmental

story, Bajek did anyway, taking his work to DCBureau.org, a project of the Public Education Center focus-ing on investigative reporting on se-curity and environmental issues.

Rantoul Press general manager Tim Evans told DCBureau.org that Bajek had been a “troublemaker.”

“When asked about his paper’s lack of in-depth coverage of the Cha-nute story, Evans said that the paper did not have the resources to investi-gate such a complicated story,” DC-Bureau reported.

“Bob Bajek risked his entire ca-reer to tell the truth he uncovered about Chanute Air Force Base,” said Joseph Trento, president of the Pub-lic Education Center Inc. “In the best of times in journalism, such courage is rare. To do what he did in a dismal job market for all reporters is amaz-ing. To take on timid editors and publishers is almost unheard of.

“Bob did that after he and I spoke about what the blowback on him could be,” Trento said. “He told me if we would edit and run his work, he would take the chance. We collab-orated and the result was a terrific piece of investigative work accompa-nied by an inside look at how his for-mer editors did business. I have the highest regard for this young man.”

“Bob and I both transferred (to

EIU) from College of DuPage,” Pio-neer Press reporter Rick Kambic re-called. “We were both relentless workaholics, and Bob clearly car-ried that into his professional ca-reer. He’s developed skills and tech-niques over time, but he’s always had his principles. Bob values putting in a hard day’s work and being a produc-tive member of society. Even when he writes positive feature stories, he’s guided by a strict obligation to tell a meaningful story.”

When people ask Bajek why he wrote the articles, even at the risk of his job, he cites the long-time DEN motto.

“One tenet I hold fast to as a jour-nalist is to tell the truth and not be afraid,” Bajek said. “If one is report-ing on a true matter, sooner or later it will come out, no matter how much the forces stifling the truth try to pre-vent it. This was something I taught as a journalism instructor at Mid-town Center for Boys in Chicago.

“After doing significant research-ing about chemicals, interviewing sources, reading public documents obtained about Chanute from the local library’s microfilm collection and FOIA requests, I knew the sto-ry needed to go out to the public. My responsibility as a reporter was to let my readership know, especially when

it concerned the public health.” That came at a cost. “I was unemployed for six

months, so it was a financial hardship on me and quite stressful,” Bajek said. Was it worth it?

“Despite the financial hardship and long hours, it definitely was. My parents raised me to make a positive difference in this world, and I hope I have with my writing and sharing my experience. My little sister Ange-la, 15, said that she looks up to me.”

Bajek now works as a corporate journalist for News Link Inc., a cor-porate communications firm in Lin-coln, Neb., that contracts with For-tune 500 companies. In 2014, he was nominated to be a Giraffe Hero by the Giraffe Heroes Project, which celebrates ordinary people who stick their necks out for the common good.

The Ethics in Journalism Award honors journalists or news organi-zations that perform in an outstand-ing ethical manner demonstrating the ideals of the SPJ Code of Ethics. Those SPJ ethical principles include “Seek the truth and report it,” “Min-imize harm,” “Be independent” and “Be accountable.”

Articles by and about Bajek can be found online at DCBureau.org and the Giraffe Heroes Project.

Submitted PhotoBob Bajek (‘10) won the Ethics in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for continuing his investigative reporting on the former Chanute Air Force Base despite being fired from the Rantoul Press.

8 -30--30- for EIU journalism and student media alumni

By Debby Hernandez

Editor’s note: We’ve been noticing a pattern. Some of our recent graduates have found themselves working with colleagues with familiar backgrounds—fellow Eastern journalism alums. In the coming issues of -30- we’ll be hearing from some of them.

The Daily Herald is a leading Chi-cago suburbs newspaper. It is also the third-largest newspaper in Illinois. Justin Kmitch (’99), Sean Stangland (’01), and Ashley Holstrom (’13) are only three of the many Eastern alum-ni who help bring together the success of the publication.

The following are their stories:

Growing up in the south side of Chicago, Justin Kmitch never imag-ined he would one day be working for the Daily Herald, a newspaper he was merely familiar with at the time.

Kmitch enjoys being able to tell good stories as a journalist. He said even stories with unhappy endings are good.

“Every morning we have break-fast, coffee or share a train commute with hundreds of thousands of our best friends, and we tell them good stories,” he said.

Kmitch is the legal affairs writer of the Daily Herald’s DuPage Bureau. His job allows him to tell captivating sto-ries about the DuPage County courts and state’s attorney office.

“I have a front row seat to all of the high-profile cases working their way through the DuPage legal system. Murders, assaults, financial crimes, you name it,” he said.

Kmitch joined the Daily Herald in June 2000, shortly after obtaining his master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Before UIS, Kmitch graduated from Eastern in May 1999. At Eastern, he was staff writer, government edi-tor, administration editor, and news editor for The Daily Eastern News. It was at The DEN where he met a few of his lifelong friends, including Dea-na Poole, Tammie Sloup, Amy Thon, Christy Kilgore and Jill Tridgell.

Kmitch said he also obtained a benefit from his daily interaction with

Eastern journalism faculty such as James Tidwell, David Reed, John Ryan and Susan Kaufman.

Today, Kmitch has the chance to work with some of his Eastern col-leagues at the Daily Herald, where many of the alumni now work.

“Not too long ago there were even more EIU alums here, and we had our own little fraternity,” he said.

Some other alumni he works with include Dann Gire (‘75), Tim Broder-ick (‘84), and Sean Stangland.

“Sean and I worked together at The Daily Eastern News, and now he’s one the last guys to check over my copy before it goes live every night,” Kmitch said. “That’s a cool connec-tion.”

Sean Stangland grew up as a de-voted reader of the Daily Herald, and his dream was to work at the publi-cation. Stangland grew up in Wheel-ing, Illinois. His passion for writing reviews derives from his family’s love for films.

Stangland wrote reviews in ele-mentary school and in college wanted to become a film critic. He said most of what he knows about writing comes from reading reviews from Roger Ebert and his colleague and co-worker Gire.

Today, he is a copy editor and writes weekly entertainment columns for the Daily Herald. Stangland’s ti-tle is senior multiplatform editor. He said the word “copy editor” is a defi-nition too narrow to describe the var-ious functions of the job.

“Nowadays, the most enjoyable part of my job is designing sports pag-es. Especially in this time when the Blackhawks and Cubs are generating so much excitement,” he said.

Stangland’s job varies from de-signing the front page, preparing the weather page, helping the sports ed-itor with the scoreboard page, and compiling the business section. Nev-ertheless, he enjoys the variety of his work.

“It’s a job that requires skill and flexibility. If you can excel at many dif-ferent things, you’ll have a more var-ied and exciting work life,” he said.

After obtaining a summer copy desk internship at the Daily Herald in 2001, Stangland was given a position as a copy editor.

Stangland graduated from East-ern in May 2001. Before the Daily Herald, Stangland was the Verge edi-tor for The DEN and wrote a weekly column. He also worked as a copy edi-tor and wrote film reviews in The DEN for four years.

Stangland said one of his most memorable moments is designing his own magazine and website for classes with professors Mary Wohlrabe and Brian Poulter. He also enjoyed con-tributing to the “Top 10” movies list for the Verge.

“One year editor Dan Ochwat and I posed for a top 10 cover that paro-died the ‘Fight Club’ poster,” he said. “ I was Edward Norton, he was Brad Pitt. Christy Kilgore gave us a won-derful design.”

At the Daily Herald, Stangland works with new Eastern alumni who are now staff, including Doug Graham and Ashley Holstrom.

“It’s wonderful to have a bond with people who share my background and training,” he said. “(Doug and Ashley) have become invaluable assets to the company in a short time.”

Ashley Holstrom, joined the Dai-ly Herald staff just six months ago in April 2015.

She saw the job posting for copy editor through The DEN alumni Face-book page.

“One of my friends had interned there,” Hosltrom said. “I went for it and I got (the job).

She said the Daily Herald has a va-riety of alumni.

“I don’t think any of the people (at the Daily Herald) were at Eastern at the same time, but we all have the

same (sort of) experience,” she said. Before working for the Daily Her-

ald, Holstrom worked as a designer for Lee Enterprises’ Regional Design Center in Indiana for about a year and a half.

She said she has always had a pas-sion for language and grammar and enjoys working in the sports copy desk.

Holstrom graduated from East-ern in May 2013. Her freshman year at Eastern, she began writing for The DEN. Holstrom was also a copy editor for The DEN for three semesters be-fore becoming managing editor. She also worked as a copy editor and de-signer for the Warbler and the Vehicle.

Holstrom’s most memorable mo-ment at Eastern is writing and design-ing a story for the Warbler about ca-davers.

“I had no idea anatomy classes ac-tually have cadavers. It was almost my semester-long project, working on the story,” she said. “I went in and sat…the first day the class was dealing with the cadavers. I had a photographer with me and (was) just watching how ev-eryone was reacting to it. It was fun.”

Ashley now works the night shift at the Daily Herald with Sean and oth-er alums such as Doug Graham, a re-porter.

“I have become pretty good friends with Sean mostly because he is an awesome person and we have the Eastern connection,” she said.

While she still sees other alum-ni on occasions, such as Gire, most of them work during the day.

“Dann Gire always says he takes Eastern people out for lunch, but I work nights, so he isn’t taking me out for lunch,” she laughed.

Holstrom said Eastern alumni could be found working in various places, including in her old job at Lee Enterprises.

“Eastern is such a big family; and then when you work somewhere you find the Eastern people,” she said.

Together againAlumni bring Eastern connection to Daily Herald

Justin Kmitch (‘99)

Dann Gire (’75)

Tim Broderick (’84)

Robert Sanchez (’94)

Justin Kmitch (’99)

Doug Graham (’12)

Ashley Holstrom (’13)

Brian Shamie

Eastern alums at the Daily Herald

Photo by Brian ShamieAshley Holstrom, Sean Stangland and Doug Graham work at the Daily Herald with Brian Shamie, Justin Kmitch, Robert Sanchez, Dann Gire and Tim Broder-ick.