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Mayor Fenty promises more Improvements

DCCA Meeting
Rebecca Wall


Mayor Adrian Fenty and Councilman Jack Evans promised to continue working on renewing neighborhoods and improving D.C.’s image at a meeting for the Dupont Circle Citizen’s Association on Monday.

The meeting, held at the Unitarian Universalist Church on 6th Street NW, included speeches by Jack Evans, D.C. Councilman, and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty.

“Even though our nation’s economy continues to struggle, the District of Columbia saw a $191 million surplus for the 2008 fiscal year,” he said. “This shows that we are able to balance and manage a budget well.“ Mayor Fenty’s current challenge, Evans said, lies in the 2010 budget. “Because we had such a surplus we’ll receive much less,” he noted.

Evans encouraged those with tough questions to make sure to ask them of Mayor Fenty. “I always get hit with the hard ones,” he joked. “And all the easy questions are left for the Mayor.”

Fenty emphasized the turnaround in the perception of the city that he has been able to achieve so far in his time as mayor. “We can now keep reaching higher up on the tree,” he said. One of his key initiatives, he said, is one to work to find housing for the homeless and to move more people into affordable housing. Fenty also emphasized economic development and renewal of neighborhoods through bringing more resturaunts in. “They are usually the ones to go into neighborhoods first,” he noted.
“We’ve made a number of achievements so far,” he said, “including the new baseball stadium, its surrounding area, and the new parks opened in D.C.” Fenty said that all issues with the baseball stadium’s rent being paid had worked out. “They will pay their rent,” he said.

Fenty also stressed his efforts to gain more D.C. voting rights in congress. “Obtaining voting members in the house will be able to get a few key things for the District,” he said. “Once we have more momentum, we can then go after getting two senators.”
Residents of D.C. were not allowed to vote for President until 1961, which granted D.C. three votes in the Electoral College. In 1973, the District of Columbia Home Rule Act passed, granting D.C. a local government administered by an elected mayor and a thirteen-member council. However, Congress still has the right to review and overturn laws passed by the council and to intervene in local affairs.

The District has drafted a proposed state constitution, but the necessary authorization from Congress has never been granted. D.C. still selects members of a shadow congressional delegation, which lobbies for statehood of D.C. but has no official voting rights.

Nancy Bearg said she was surprised by a few of the things Fenty said. “I didn’t know about the notion of going not only for voting members in the house, but for two senators. “That was definitely a new development,” she said.

Fenty also said he was surprised by a topic brought up by one of the audience members – the chief librarian’s opposition to hiring volunteers to keep the libraries open later. “I will look into that and find out exactly why that is right away,” he said.

Fenty encouraged attendees of the meeting to reach him at any time with questions, comments, or concerns via his e-mail: amf@dc.gov.

Jo Freeman, a member of the DCCA, said she’s been listening to politicians like Fenty and Evans for 60 years – and nothing has changed. “They’ve been saying the same things for that whole time,” she said. “They’re masters at saying something while still saying nothing.”

A special session held after the meeting brought attention to the “Rooftop Robber”, a burglar who lifts up unsecure hatches of row houses, particularly in the Dupont area, and drops into the bathrooms. The hatches are often covered only with a piece of plywood and a brick, and many residents do not even know they have this security risk in their homes.

The first robbery occurred in December, with 20 robberies occurring
since. There was a strong pattern in early December, and then they stopped
abruptly for awhile, only to pick back up in mid-January. In the last two weeks alone, the “rooftop robber” has hit five times successfully and attempted another burglary.

Police Lieutenant Eric Biller said that the MPD is devoting all of its available resources to catching the “rooftop robber”. “We’ve been using helicopters, covert officers and have been positioning ourselves on top of tall buildings to try to view any suspicious activity on top of rooftops.” He asked residents to call 911 with any suspicious sightings or information they may have.

Lt. Biller said that he is trying to get the word out on how to secure hatches. He said that the information he provided residents with was not sanctioned by the MPD, but instead simply some options to consider. “There have been six attempted robberies over the past two weeks, five of them successful,” he said, encouraging residents to be pro-active to protect themselves and their homes.

Some of the suggestions Biller had included finding the any potential hatches in your home and securing them with a lockable hatch or skylight. He recommended installing a security system, or even simply putting a security system sticker over a secured hatch – noting that sometimes, the possibility may be enough to scare someone away.

Fenty said the “Rooftop Robber” was another of his major concerns. “Once we figure this out, it will stop,” he said.

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American Forum confirms Students' fears

American Forum
By Rebecca Wall

American University’s American Forum on Feb. 17 revealed that the number of papers with Washington Bureaus has declined by half since 1985, confirming some of Journalism students’ major concerns: the industry is changing rapidly.

The forum, “Washington Watchdogs: An Endangered Species?” was co-sponsored by AU’s School of Communication and WAMU 88.5 FM and was moderated by Wendell Cochran, a School of Communications professor at AU and focused on the decline of journalists covering the Washington, D.C. and government beat today. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and panelist Tyler Marshall revealed three major finds of a new study on the state of these Washington Watchdogs.

He said the study, “The New Washington Press Corps”, found a surprising increase in the size of “niche media”, or magazines newspapers and special interest magazines with a presence in Washington, and also an increase in the number of foreign correspondents registered at the Foreign Press Center in D.C.

Marshall said the study also found a decreased amount of staff in Washington offices for the mainstream media, and a reversal of the migration of bylines.

Originally, journalists started out in “niche” publications and aspired to write for big name papers. “Today, more journalists aspire to join niche publications, not the daily papers,” Marshall said.

Lauren Linhard, a sophomore at AU majoring in Print Journalism, watched the forum on C-Span, where it was broadcast live, and can clearly see the appeal of “niche” media to those just entering the journalism field.. “It gives you the opportunity to write more feature stories about topics you’re interested in,” she said. “In newspapers, you just kind of have to take whatever beat is open and available.” Linhard herself aspires to become part of the niche media . “I want to create my own magazine someday,” she says.

Mark Whitaker, the chief of NBC News, said that “audiences have been declining for news coming out of D.C.,” with the exception of 2008’s much-hyped presidential election. “The use of internet to find that information is up,” adding, “Readers can do some reporting themselves” with sites like Twitter, a micro-blogging site used for social networking.

Suzanne Struglinski, senior editor of Provider magazine, said that a major cause of the decrease in the so-called “watchdogs” was that “individual cities and towns just don’t pay as much attention to D.C. and D.C. news.”


Linhard can see firsthand the lack of attention being paid to D.C. in her hometown local news station, which originates in Baltimore. “It always focuses on local events – especially crimes,” she said. “I rarely hear anything about the day’s happenings in Congress unless it’s something really major.”

Struglinski said a huge reason for the decline in Washington journalists is that states are sending fewer reporters to function as the “Washington Watchdogs” and serve as chaperones.

“We can’t let those people [politicians] run around without a chaperone,” Cochran added jokingly.

Wittstock agreed. “Washington journalists should be that person with a notebook in the hallway,” she said. Struglinski added, “Capturing those moments and asking questions on behalf of those who can’t is what it’s all about. A webcast or phoning in a story is not the same.”

A student questioner from the audience asked if the decline of Washington correspondents could be partially blamed on the rising popularity of internet . “Yes – but we have ourselves to blame,” Marshall responded. “We were giving the information away for free, depending only on ads for revenue. We need other ways for the business to be translated.”

Melinda Wittstock, founder and CEO of Capitol News Connection, said that another key thing is that newspapers are losing money, and needed to find an economic model that suited them. “We started off giving away the information for free,” she said.

Whitaker noted the need to be careful about the content that is out on the internet now, and not to mistake certain prepackaged videos from interest groups as news. “We need to make sure people can tell the difference,” he said.

One student asked whether the fast-paced reporting in “real-time” is changing the integrity of news.

“What’s better- fast or correct?”, Struglinski responded.

Wittstock added, “stories often evolve – there needs to be room for all of it.”

Linhard agrees with Struglinski and Wittstock. “Although the immediacy of digital media and the recent change to fast-paced reporting allows viewers to judge for themselves what is going on,” she says, “investigative journalism and digging beneath the surface is just as, if not more, important.”

To close, panelists expressed their hopes for the future of journalism. “There’s certainly going to be more and more room for entrepreneurship,” Whitaker said.

Journalism students may question their choices in a business that is shrinking, but Wittstock said she loved her job because “every day was different,” and Struglinski added that she enjoys having a “front seat to history.”

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Starbucks in NYC Chinatown

Professor John Hyman: Director of Freshman Year

Professor John Hyman shapes almost every student’s freshman year at American University.

As director of the College Writing Program, Hyman is in charge of the rite of passage students must take to fulfill university requirements.

“We help students learn how to do college,” Hyman said. “It’s a de-facto goal of the course.”

Arielle Klane, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, says that she feels that College Writing prepared her for her undergraduate career at AU. “I gained a lot more confidence,” she said.

Hyman came to the university in 1986 as an adjunct instructor. “I didn’t even know where it was,” he laughs. “I actually had to drive out the night before the interview just to make sure I could find it.”

Hyman stayed on as an adjunct instructor for two years, and then became a full-time instructor for five years. “At that time, they had a policy that limited full-time College Writing instructors to a five-year stay,” he says.

As his five years as a full-time instructor began to run out, the position as the head of the writing center opened.

Hyman served as the director for the writing center until 2000, when he took his current position as the director of the College Writing Program

“Whenever I visit other schools, and hear their complaints, I always return happy,” he said. “We have a really strong faculty that knows exactly what they’re doing.”

Professor Alison Thomas, who teaches College Writing, says that Hyman is “great to bounce ideas off of,” adding, “Students’ best interests are at heart, but he’s always attuned to helping professors.”

Thomas says that he takes the effort to get to know his faculty, and often sends her e-mails and clips articles out of the newspaper he thinks she might be interested in.

“He creates a nice sense of community,” Thomas said of Hyman. “He really does get to know people. We ride the Red Sox roller coaster together.”

Hyman has always been an advocate for professors and students alike. As director, he successfully made the argument to the central administration to get rid of the five-year cap on full-time faculty in the College Writing program.

Hyman said that getting rid of the five-year cap allowed faculty to become stronger instructors over the years, and gave the department a chance to “re-express our curriculum and give the program coherence.”

With a larger full-time faculty comes the challenges in making sure students are all learning the same key skills.

“Making sure students are graded according to a common criteria is not the tough part,” Hyman said. “The tough part is making sure teachers are always on the same page.”

Professors have grading workshops and look at each other’s teaching materials often in order to maintain program coherence. Coherence is key in the program, where students are expected to emerge with a common skill set.

The College Writing Program, however, has one of the lowest grade point averages out of all the departments and programs at American University.

Hyman sees this as a testimony of how successful the program is. He believes that when students are consistently given strong, valuable feedback, they will be more concerned about improving their writing skills instead of getting the best grades.

“Even though our GPA is often the lowest or one of the lowest, our Student Evaluations are usually some of the highest,” he said. “Students appreciate the consistency and feedback.”

Klane said she learned a lot about how to adjust to a College setting through the feedback she received in College Writing. “College is an entirely different ballpark,” she said. “There are a lot more rules to follow just to write a research paper.”

Some students can place out of the program by achieving a high enough score on an Advanced Placement Exam or an International Baccalaureate Exam in high school. Those who do place out experience a different freshman year.

Leah-Michelle Nebbia, a sophomore in the School of Communications, said she was afraid of missing out on the common college experience of taking a class with fellow freshman and figuring out the college world together, as well as the skills College Writing teaches when she placed out.

“I sort of made my own College Writing program,” she said. “I sought help from the Writing Center as a sort of safety precaution.”

“I don’t feel I missed out, per say – I just had a completely different experience,” said Courtney Klamar, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs who also placed out of College Writing.

Klamar says that she had to jump right into her college career not only in skipping the warm-up course of College Writing, but in general. Klamar came in with a full year’s worth of credits, so she began at AU as a sophomore.

A major feature of the College Writing Program is Writers as Witness, where an author of a required book speaks to incoming freshmen before classes begin every fall.

“It began as an experimental program 11 years ago,” Hyman said. “It was kind of a, ‘We have an idea! We’d like to do this wacky thing!’” The program is now a regular tradition for AU students.

“It’s a year-long process [to choose an author],” Hyman said. A council of full-time faculty debates the books and writers on the list and narrows it down to a shorter list to present to the dean and the provost.

The toughest part, Hyman says, is working through the layers of ‘people’ many authors have working for them– but usually, it’s worth it.

“I loved this year’s author [Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil’s Highway] especially,” Hyman said. “He really helped students understand the process of going from an idea to a piece of writing. Not to mention, he was one hell of a writer.” Hyman added, “He was terrific, really enthusiastic.”

The same thing could perhaps be said of Hyman. He and makes it clear to whomever he is speaking to simply through his mannerisms that he truly loves his job.

Thomas said that Hyman is “very energetic” about all of his classes, and that he “really relates well to his students.”

Hyman said he couldn’t just pick one favorite aspect of teaching. “I just love all of it,” he said. “When I was a coach for my kids’ little league teams, I didn’t particularly like the games so much, but I loved the practices,” he says. “I can remember pushing one kid in particular who didn’t want to slide and get his pants dirty to do just that.”

Hyman takes the same kind of approach with his students. “I want to help students become writers,” he says. “I find it’s not hard to teach a student who just has a few issues with writing. It’s the students who come from a wordless world who present a challenge.” For Hyman, students who come from a “wordless world” are those who don’t read often or have a low comfort level using language.

He says that those students who don’t have a lot of experience with language benefit from the two semesters of College Writing. “After two semesters, students begin to really conceive of themselves as writers,” Hyman said.

Hyman’s favorite book to teach is This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolfe. “It’s easy to read, but it’s still very complicated – and the understanding of those complications is only earned with class discussions and close attention to detail,” he said.

“I couldn’t pick just one book that students should read to make them a better reader,” Hyman said. “Students should read as much and as often as they can.” He says that students who read gain a better understanding of language, and a better ability to manipulate it themselves, and manipulate it well.

Looking around Hyman’s office, you can tell that he views reading as a key element of learning. Bookshelves line the room, crammed with title upon title from a number of different genres.

“Force yourself to read outside the ordinary,” he said. “A student who’s read a thousand novels still hasn’t read enough non-fiction. Everything has something new to offer and make a student a better author.”

Hyman said he doesn’t worry about the future of literature, despite naysayers who predict the end of literature thanks to the new digital age. “As a generation, students have read hundreds upon thousands more words than I have,” he says. “Some are writing all the time and have honed a comfort with language.”

He said the use of e-mail and the Internet is simply a different kind of reading and writing, which boosts some key skills. “Honing those skills is what’s important,” he added.

Just as the future of writing and reading is changing, so is the College Writing Program – but only slightly. Hyman says the changing university requires the program to flex with it.

“The core isn’t changing,” Hyman said. “We simply have to do a better job of explaining what we’re up to.”

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State of the Business:

http://www.onthemedia.org/episodes/2009/01/30/segments/122507 - Click on "transcript" :)

"Out on a Limb-augh" from On The Media on NPR

Text of Limbaugh's quote about Obama: "I don't need 400 words, I need 4: I hope he fails!"
-- Discussion Questions --

Limbaugh is famous for twisting or even making up facts, and attacking people based on personal and ridiculous things. Do we as journalists and as the "watchdog" have the responsibility to call him out?

Many people listen to Limbaugh, and believe everything he says at face value - including the things that aren't always true. How do we gain that audience back and create shows and material they would want to watch that has been fact-checked and double checked? Do we have a commitment to entertain as well as inform?

Many media outlets played this quote about Limbaugh's wishes for Obama over and over again. Should we play this quote over and over? Should we as the media and as journalists give him the time of day and the power he likely wants and craves? Do we have a responsibility to, because it is in the news, or are we simply fanning the fire?

What does this blurred line between pundits and journalists mean for the future?

Housing and Dining Preps for Inauguration

Obama Housing
By Rebecca Wall

The American University Housing and Dining Department prepared this week for a rush of guests in dormitories for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

The record-breaking turnout brought millions to Washington D.C., and almost anyone in town exploited it – including on the American University campus.

Housing and Dining officials said that for security purposes, they do not release information on the occupancy in residence halls, and therefore would not provide a number of guests who stayed on campus over the long weekend.

Officials imposed a special registration process over the weekend to make sure only people authorized to stay in the dorms entered the dorms.

In a Jan. 5, 2009 e-mail to students, Housing and Dining said “In order to promote safety, American University will initiate a special guest registration process for the period of Friday, Jan. 16 to Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009.”

The special registration gave guests permission to stay beyond the usual limit for visitors, which is three days. Instead, they were able stay for five days.
However, guests had to obtain a special guest ID card, which is not usually the case.

Residents can normally claim an unlimited number of people who do not live in the building, regardless of whether they live on campus, or are AU students. During the inauguration weekend, residents could claim only their guests and students with a valid, current AU ID.

The policy was enacted to prevent any visitors to campus who are unauthorized to enter the dorms to somehow sneak in with a large group of people according to Sean McGrath, resident director for Hughes Hall.

“This policy makes it easier for Housing and Dining to do their jobs,” McGrath said. “This makes it less likely that everyone will be able to abuse the claiming system, and claim seven people,” he added. “Security is our No. 1 priority.”

Another concern is making sure that guests do not violate fire codes, McGrath said. That is the reason for the limit of guests that can be registered for each building.

“These buildings are 40 to 60 years old,” McGrath said. “We need to go easy on the pipes.”

Leah Gates, resident assistant for the sixth floor of Hughes Hall, said that her floor had about 10 guests for the inauguration weekend. “I’m surprised that campus isn’t visibly more crowded,” she said.

To deal with the influx of people on her floor, she revisited community guidelines regarding quiet hours and courtesy hours at the opening meeting for the semester.

Quiet hours are between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. on weekdays and 1 am – 8 am on weekends. Courtesy hours are considered to be 24/7. Students are expected to always keep music, TV and general conversation at a reasonable level.

Because of the nature of the inaugural weekend, Gates said she “definitely expected more noise complaints.”

Gates worked extra shifts to accommodate the influx of guests. The front desk for every dormitory was double staffed, and there were 2 RAs on duty at all times for the extended weekend.

During her RA duty shifts, she said that there were “definitely more calls than usual.” However, during shifts at the front desk, she “expected less cooperation in terms of showing IDs.”

Several students said they hadn’t noticed too much of a change in security or noise over inauguration weekend. Jennifer Hoefler, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she felt that her floor didn’t really feel the influx of people as much as others may have. “I haven’t noticed much of a change,” she said.

In fact, Hoefler has been questioning how vital all these precautions were for safety. “What’s the point of the extra staff?” she asked. “Do you really need an extra person to look at ID cards?”

Hoefler wondered what those ID cards did after they were given out. “Once a guest has an ID card and a friend, they can do whatever they please,” Hoefler said.

“And if they damage something on the floor, how do you know who did it?” Hoefler added. “It functions to make sure the buildings are structurally sound and to make sure our toilets don’t overflow, but not to make sure the whole floor doesn’t get charged for somebody else’s guests or even to make sure the students are safe in the traditional meaning of the word.”

Housing and Dining Programs had no comment on the inauguration weekend.

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