New York Convention Sets the Agenda for SCJ's Future

It was SCJ's 52nd National Convention; in its ninety-one year history -- and the organization is poised for growth.

Yes, growth, at long last I believe our house is in order and all efforts can be concentrated on R&R: Recruitment and Retention. The Biennial National Convention has dotted the Is and crossed the Ts. Now it's up to us, the National Council members, Advisers, and active chapter members to work together for a common cause: an even better SCJ that will benefit all college journalists.

Why am I so optimistic and assertive? Let's list the outcomes of the Manhattan convention first.

Leadership: The National Council is not only intact, but it is stronger than it has ever been. We have two new members filling vacant positions; Dr. Jeff Harman of Muskingum College, Ohio is our new First Vice-President; Dr. Bill Ruehlmann of Virginia Wesleyan College, Missouri, fills a position created by delegates at the NYC Convention: Third Vice-President.

The specific charge of the Third V-P is R&R. Shirley is our finest adviser; Evangel, a McDonald Award Chapter, is one of our longest and strongest. She will coordinate a vigorous campaign.

I did not use the accolade "finest" in a loose fashion. Shirley was presented the Barker Award by Dr. Doug Tarpley a former SCJ President and Executive and Director. The Barker Award is analogous to the McDonald Award - it cited the National Adviser of the Year. This was our first presentation of the award created and authorized by the delegates at the last national convention. It's a fine start.

Recipients of the other two major awards were also announced. Melissa Harris of Virginia Wesleyan College is the SCJ Student Journalist of the Year. Her award is well earned, and it has also earned her a $500 scholarship, made possible by the National Dean's List and the support of Paul Krouse, Publisher. Melissa is our seventh recipient of the award.

Tennessee Tech has been named winner of the McDonald Award. Tennessee Tech joins the ranks of Evangel, Clarion, Kingsborough, Berry, Southeastern Louisiana, and Carson-Newman in being acknowledged SCJ's Outstanding National Chapter. During the leadership of Hix Stubblefield, Tennessee Tech emerged as a loyal and strong regional leadership chapter and earned a Chapter seat on National Council.

The results of the SCJ National Contest were announced, and Awards were presented to chapters at the SCJ Reception. The results are included as an insert with this newsletter. To all those who participated -- thanks because this is the foundation of our efforts, and for those of you who won, -- congratulations on this recognition for achievement and for your contribution to college journalism.

The delegates also decided to continue the "Big City" National Convention: it was left up to National Council to decide whether to link with a CMA autumn or spring convention site. There is, among the ancients of SCJ, a certain sense of sadness that we are losing our small town atmosphere of camaraderie as we shift the locus from a host chapter. But if regionalization, which is the foundation of R&R effort, succeeds, we will have four not one "local" conventions, and each year not every other year, while still maintaining a national event albeit being confined to "just getting the work of the Society done"; which is exactly what happened in NYC. The chapter delegates worked quickly, and they worked effectively -- thank you, and now... onwards.

Technology and Recruitment and Retention Report

Revamping The Reporter and the SCJ public relations materials, sponsoring web contest, regionalizing chapters, and creating an adviser training manual topped the agenda at the 2000 TARARP meeting. The SCJ National Committee on Technology and Recruitment and Retention Planning (TARARP) met to review the accomplishments in the last year and determine a future course of action.

Present at the meeting were SCJ Executive Director, Dr. Arthur Barlow, SCJ Web master, Adam Earnheardt, TARARP Chapter Adviser Representative, Dr. Sue Hilton, and SCJ Reporter Editor, Mary Beth Curry.

The top order of business was reviewing the materials in the SCJ public relations starter kit. These kits are sent to chapters who are interested in starting their own SCJ Chapter. Each starter kit includes a fact sheet, a Constiution/Handbook, a petition to charter a chapter, individual initiation forms and back issues of The Reporter.

SCJ intern, Bradford Ruhlman, will examine the materials in the kit and create a brochure and a new letter of invitation. "By jazzing up the starter materials, we hope to appeal to more people and condense some of the information into a more manageable format," said Dr. Barlow.

In addition to revamping the starter kits, the committee discussed changing the format of the newsletter. "Getting on the web has opened a new line of communication," said Earnheardt. "I can post articles and SCJ business directly to the web site which will cut down on reproduction and mailing cots."

Next year The Reporter will become a web publication. In addition to the web site, a one page supplemental mini-newsletter will be sent to active chapters. This will announce SCJ business and recognize the accomplishments of local chapters at the national level.

The committee also reviewed a rough draft of an Adviser Training Manual. The manual was designed to make the transition between advisors and development of a new chapter an easier task. Dr. Barlow plans on publishing the manual in the same form as the Constitution/Handbook. The manual is part of the recruitment and retention efforts.

Regionalization was the final item on the agenda. The National Office is developing a list of chapters that will form the next set of Regions. Each Region will then be assigned a leader chapter to coordinate events. The National Office will lead the regionalization efforts.

"The meeting was very productive," said Barlow. "I am continually impressed by the amount of work that has been invested in the revitalization of SCJ."

The Supreme Court ruled today that public colleges and universities may use money from mandatory student fees to fund campus groups that engage in political speech, as long as the funding system is viewpoint neutral.

In a unanimous decision, the Court rejected the argument by a group of students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison that the university's fee system violates their First Amendment rights by forcing them to fund groups with which they disagree on political, religious or ideological grounds.

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said, "The First Amendment permits a public university to charge its students an activity fee used to fund a program to facilitate extracurricular student speech if the program is viewpoint neutral."

The Court's ruling in the case, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth, reversed an earlier decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which had held that the university's fee system was unconstitutional.

In his opinion, Kennedy cited the clear interest of the university in promoting the exchange of ideas.  Although the university's fee-allocation program inevitably subsidizes speech with which some students disagree, Kennedy, said a Court-imposed system allowing students to opt out of contributing to groups they oppose "could be so disruptive and expensive that the program to support extracurricular speech would be ineffective."

"The First Amendment does not require the University to put the program at risk," he said.

Had the Court ruled in favor of the students protesting the fee system, many public colleges would have been forced to revise or even eliminate, their student-fee programs, possibly changing them to allow individual students to select the groups they want to fund or excluding groups with political, ideological or religious objectives entirely.

Many free-press advocates had worried about the negative impact a ruling in favor of the students could have had on college student news media.  If the Court had ruled the other way, student media could have lost student-fee funding or been prohibited from publishing editorials or endorsing candidates for office.

The Court did not uphold one aspect of the University of Wisconsin's student fee system, in which a vote by the majority of the student government can take funding away from or give funding to a campus group.  Kennedy said in his opinion that this process did not appear to be viewpoint neutral, and may "undermine the constitutional protection the program requires." The justices directed a lower court to rule on the constitutionality of this funding method. The Court's decision in the Wisconsin case will likely affect the outcomes of several cases challenging the constitutionality of student fee systems that are currently pending in federal courts.

NOTES FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Look to next month's newsletter for profiles of our Student Journalist of the Year, Melissa Harris; our Adviser of the Year, Shirley Shedd of Evangel College, MO; and our McDonald Award winning chapter at Tennessee Tech. Also look for more updates from the National Council.

Chapter Notes

Mount Yearbook Wins National Awards at New York Conference

Pridwin yearbook of Mount Saint Mary's College won five awards in national competition announced at the SCJ biennial convention of the Society for Collegiate Journalists in New York during Saint Patrick's Day weekend.

First Place in Photography went to 1999 Editor, Brenda Smith of Olney, Maryland. She also won Third Place for the Display category for layout, design, and graphics, and the 1999 Pridwin took Third Place in Overall Excellence for Small Schools behind Wartburg College and the University of North Alabama. Pridwin also took Third Place in Concept of Book and an Honorable Mention for Coverage of the Year.

Congratulations to our new members at:

Bethany College, WV - 2 new members
Muskingum College, OH - 1 new member
Mount Saint Mary's College, MD - 10 new members
Cabrini College, PA - 1 new member
Southeastern Louisiana University, LA - 11 new members
Western Maryland College, MD - 2 new members

Copyright 1998-2000
Clarion University of Pennsylvania
Adam C. Earnheardt, Web Master