Campus Chatter

Blogging 101: Syracuse Univ. Offers Blog Writing Course

Christina Caron — 2011-05-10T16:09:50-04:00

ABC News on Campus reporter Danielle Waugh blogs:

If the stereotype of a blogger is a "guy sitting in his underwear in his mother's basement writing opinions," blogger Sean Keeley is trying to break it.

Keeley, 32, calls himself a "professional blogger." An editor of sports blog sbnation.com, he also maintains two of his own blogs: one about Syracuse University sports called nunesmagician.com, and another about local news in his neighborhood of Freemont in Seattle, called freemontuniverse.com.

He spends so much time writing blogs he could teach a course about it. And starting next week, he will.

Keeley will be teaching a summer course at Syracuse University called "Blogging for Information Professionals."

"It's going to be a course for people who want to blog for a living," Keeley said. "It's not just writing a blog for yourself, but what about writing a blog for a company or corporation? How do you go about making money?"

Blogging vs. Reporting

Offered through the university's School of Information Studies, also known as the iSchool, it's open to students of any major and is not journalism course.

"There's not going to be an attempt to teach journalist approaches to blogging, ethics, and things like that," said iSchool Professor Anthony Rotolo, who proposed the addition of a blogging class into the iSchool's curriculum.

Rotolo said the course will discuss how bloggers manage relationships with the media, but will not teach them how to be reporters per se.

"I think there's a stigma that [journalists and bloggers] are enemies, when in fact they work hand in hand," Keeley said. "It's a symbiotic relationship between the two."

This is how Keeley understands that relationship: journalists create the researched, fact-checked reports and bloggers reference those reports in their posts, providing their own opinions.

"I source it and make sure the person who wrote it gets credit, but then I give my own spin on it."

Keeley does acknowledge that there are many similarities between blogging and reporting, but he didn't go to journalism school to get his start.

Originally a business student at Syracuse University, he graduated in 2000 and moved to Los Angeles to get into screenwriting.

"Sometime around 2006 I looked around and realized that blogs were taking off," Keeley said. And his blogs began taking off as well. On average, his SU sports blog receives 400,000 page views and 250,000 visitors per month.

When he realized he could support himself with money coming in from his blogs, he quit his day job and became a blogger full-time.

Making Money from Blogging

"In theory, you can certainly make a lot of money doing it," Keeley said, and monetizing a blog will be one of the main topics in the syllabus.

Ad sales is just one way to create revenue. Keeley plans to discuss everything from affiliate programs (joining a larger network of blogs), to editorial sponsorships, to product promotion.

And that's just for the "independent bloggers" operating their own websites.

With the growing social media industry, there are more opportunities to be hired as a blogger for businesses of all sizes.

"One of the best things about this course is that [Keeley] will talk about more than just being the 'lone blogger,'" Rotolo said. "It's also the idea that blogging is becoming important in all companies and organizations."

One student enrolled in the class, Kim Brown, currently works as an alumni coordinator with Career Services and was asked to create a blog for them.

"For me, personally, it's important because we'll be venturing into the blogosphere here in Career Services, and I don't feel I have the skills yet," Brown said.

Building a Blog

But before bloggers can cash in, they have to have a following. The other topic in the curriculum will teach students how to be a better blogger, and according to Keeley, it's all about "content, content, content."

His advice is to "write as much you can, as often as you can. Make sure your audience knows 'I need to come back 3-4 times a day because I know there will be something new there.'"

The ability to create such constant content has to come from passion and interest in the topic.

"It has to be something where every morning you wake up and you're excited to write about it," he said. Though it may seem like common sense, Keeley said he's seen a lot of blogs come and go because the initial excitement wanes.

His last piece of advice: be yourself. "Readers are savvy," he said. "If you're not funny, you shouldn't try and be funny. Use a genuine voice."

For a summer class, the blogging course has high enrollment, at around 20 students.

The class will be held during Syracuse's "Maymester," and will meet from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., May 16 - 20.

Rotolo hopes the blogging class will continue after this summer, and wants to try and make it an online course offered during the regular academic year.

Students Aim to Curb Meningitis

Christina Caron — 2011-05-10T11:12:59-04:00

ABC News on Campus reporter Chelsea Smith blogs:

In 2006 entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie created TOMS Shoes after witnessing children living barefoot during a trip to Argentina. His company donates a pair of shoes to a child in need in one of 23 countries every time someone purchases a pair from TOMS. It’s a philosophy he refers to as “one-for-one.”

Above: The co-creators of OneShot. Photo courtesy of Rosie Gochnour/The State Press

Inspired by Mycoskie’s company, Tyler Eltringham, a sophomore at Arizona State University, decided to create his own “one-for-one” movement. But it wasn’t with shoes, it was with vaccines.

“When I got into ASU and moved into the dorms, I had to sign a waiver saying I was aware that meningococcal meningitis existed,” Eltringham said. “Rather that signing a waiver I believe we should be given the option first to get vaccinated, and have it be convenient and part of the mandatory processes.”

So Eltringham teamed up with four other ASU students to create OneShot in November 2010.

Recently they’ve been working with ASU Health Services and University Housing to give all incoming freshman the opportunity to receive Menactra, a vaccine for meningococcal meningitis, a bacterial infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.

Then, for every shot administered to students at ASU, OneShot plans on giving those vaccinations to high-risk places in Africa.

“Meningitis is a problem in the U.S.,” Eltringham said. “But it is a much bigger problem in the meningitis belt of Africa. Using one-for-one, I could literally solve two issues at once; one at our local community level, and one on a massive global scale.”

“This disease is completely preventable by vaccination,” said Ginger Whitesell, one of the five OneShot founders. “We are intent on helping eliminate the possibility of it ever occurring on the ASU campus.”

To help raise some awareness and finances for OneShot, the team submitted their idea to ASU’s Innovation Challenge, which is in its second year at ASU. The goal is to give young entrepreneurs and innovators the chance to get their ideas heard and funded.

“This is an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students of all majors to make a difference in our communities through innovation,” said Audrey Iffert, director of the ASU Innovation Challenge.

More than 150 teams competed this year and Eltringham’s OneShot took top prize, winning $10,000 in February.

Other winners included the Carbon Roots International (winner of $5,625), which is a nonprofit organization with the mission to address needs of rural subsidence farmers. A $1,500 winner was “Doc-in-a-Box” which would create mobile medical clinics in disaster areas while recycling unused shipping containers.

“I really appreciated that [OneShot] found an issue that affected both the developed and developing world,” Gemma Bulos, one of the final judges of the Innovation challenge, said in a press release.

They “found a sustainable way to address it. The more we as a global community can find things that connect us, the better potential for a collaborative way forward,” added Bulos.

The $10,000 is a start for OneShot, but there is still a lot more funding that goes into a project of this size.

A challenge that helped Eltringham discover just how passionate he was about the issue.

“At first, [competing] was purely selfish,” Eltringham said. “I thought the ASU Innovation challenge could be a catalyst for more personal successes. But the more and more I researched the disease, it all just got so heavy on me.”

“I became very attached to seeing this through; no longer for the chances of winning the ASU Innovation Challenge, but for the chance of truly leaving a mark on international public health, and actually impact the livelihood of a population,” he said.

Due to a lack of finances, the team cannot travel to Africa to administer the vaccinations themselves. To help raise money for OneShot, the team seeks out different competitions like the ASU Innovation Challenge, hoping to win more funding.

“As it stands right now … we will be donating our vaccinations to an organization already at work overseas to provide the immunizations on our behalf,” Eltringham said.

Whitesell and Eltringham have currently met with representatives from Sanofi Pasteur, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, hoping to get their help with OneShot.

“The exact price to OneShot being operational is really unknown,” Eltringham said. “A lot is riding on us securing a partnership with the pharmaceutical company that manufactures our vaccination.”

The organization is currently entered in the Edson Student Entrepreneurship Initiative Competition, which helps provide funding, training, and office space for teams of students across ASU to explore their innovative ideas. The winners of the competition are scheduled to be announced this month.

On ASU’s move-in day in August OneShot aims to vaccinate 10 to 15 percent of the 10,000 incoming freshman. This is heavily dependent on receiving more funds; and without additional financial support, they would only be able to provide vaccines for between one and three percent of the students.

“While we can certainly make impact with the funding we have already received, our impact can only scale upwards with additional funding,” Eltringham said. “I firmly believe that even if we save one life, it will all be worth it.

American Muslim Students React to Osama bin Laden’s Death

Christina Caron — 2011-05-03T21:07:46-04:00

ABC News on Campus reporter Reshma Kirpalani blogs:

On college campuses across the nation students learned of Osama bin Laden’s death, and the country celebrated. However, sentiments are split among Muslim-American students over the death of the infamous terrorist and the subsequent perception of Islam among non-Muslim Americans.

Above: On a Sunday evening in fall 2010, students pray at the Nueces Mosque at the University of Texas. As is custom in all mosques, men and women pray separately with several sheer curtains dividing the two groups. / Photo by Reshma Kirpalani

Georgia State University sophomore Arubah Khan was studying on Sunday night when she saw a friend's Facebook post: a link to Obama's speech on his Twitter page. Nearly one-third of Americans found out about bin Laden’s death through Twitter according to Mashable.com. Khan watched the President’s speech via an Internet livestream.

Despite Obama’s reassurance to the American public that “the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam,” Khan is skeptical about American attitudes towards Islam.

“I’m glad that President Obama said that but I don’t think that generally people will actually listen to it. A lot of people still view this war on terrorism as a war on Islam,” she said.

The young Muslim-American, who was just 10 years old on 9/11, is unable to shake the memories of past jibes about bombs in her backpack by her high school peers.

“I think that the greater (American) population still believes that … eliminating terrorist activities is the elimination of ideologies that only Muslims have,” said Khan.

University of Texas alumni Anwaar Huk likewise expresses caution rather than hope about bin Laden’s death, “Personally, I don't think this event, by itself, will change the cultural attitude of Americans towards Muslims,” Huk said.

“Despite the horror that [bin Laden] himself was, what's more important is not to just kill him but to eliminate that ideology of hatred and bigotry that he represented.”

Hussein Rashid, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, recognizes this sentiment of bin Laden as a larger than life threat among Muslim-American youth -- similar to his generation’s experience during the Cold War.

“We’re now getting a group of young adults whose first conscious memory was formed by Osama bin Laden. Their biggest enemy has always been Al Qaeda and bin Laden,” Rashid said.

The older American Muslim students who spoke to ABCNews.com were more likely to be infused with optimism.

Columbia University graduate student, Haroon Moghul views bin Laden’s death, in tandem with the Arab Spring revolutions, as “proof of something better around the corner.”

Moghul views the peaceful, democratic revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt as demoralizing precursors to the downfall of al Qaeda and its universal masthead: bin Laden.

“Bin Laden actually died in Tahrir Square,” Moghul says. “His death came on the heels of his irrelevance in the wider Muslim world.”

University of Washington law student Shamiq Hussain echoes these sentiments. “People are considering this with the Arab Spring revolutions and seeing that as a double blow against al Qaeda, zapping their moral argument that their way is the way to achieve change,” Hussain said.

One thing most Muslim-American college students do agree on is bin Laden's death as his due comeuppance.

University of Chicago graduate student Farhad Dokhani said, “I feel a sense of relief and am glad that Osama bin Laden will no longer be around to cause harm to any other innocent people.”

Hussain believes that the American population felt and expressed a due sense of retribution at bin Laden’s death -- one that he supported. He said, “I was happy that an evil man was dead.”

The Kamran’s, University of Texas alumni and a young Muslim-American couple, listened to Obama’s announcement of bin Laden’s death the old-fashioned way: on the radio, in their car, a rainstorm pounding on the roof of their Mazda and freshly bought Walmart Supercenter groceries taking up residence in their trunk.

“I was like woah, a second at the grocery store and this is what you come back to!” said Sobia Kamran. The young couple remained in the driveway of their apartment in Arlington, Texas while listening to Obama’s entire speech in their car.

Kamran treads the fine line between future hopes and past realities, saying, “It seems as if all the families who suffered during 9/11 will finally reach closure and will hopefully unite. However, the process of recovery for those families and our nation still has a long ways to go.”

Bob Woodward Laments “Curse” of Celebrity Journalism

Nancy Ramsey — 2011-04-22T14:01:30-04:00

ABC News on Campus reporter Ashley Jennings blogs:

On Thursday evening, former Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, along with actor and producer Robert Redford, gathered in Austin to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the film “All the President’s Men.”

Drawing a crowd of more than 700 people, the famed reporting duo, who broke the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974, discussed how investigative journalism has changed over the years and offered their take on the current state of the industry.

“How do you redeem journalism? How do you get better at it?” Woodward said. “And I think some of the answer is slowing down- don’t be in such a hurry to put out the sound bite.”

The event, "Could the media break a story like Watergate today?", drew panelists from across the nation, including Peter Baker of The New York Times, Dana Priest of The Washington Post and Mark Miller of The Texas Tribune. Glenn Frankel, the director of the University of Texas School of Journalism, moderated the panel.

“All the President’s Men,” directed by Alan Pakula, was released in 1976. Redford played Woodward, and Dustin Hoffman played Bernstein. In the film, the journalists are hard-hitting, meeting sources in dark parking lots, aware that their actions may bring down a President. The film sparked a slew of young people eager to enter the profession.

Frankel opened the discussion by asking what Woodward and Bernstein thought the greatest challenge was in journalism today.

“We’ve got to go back to the basics, and the basics are what are really endangered in this environment,” Bernstein said. “In this cultural and speedy environment, the basics are getting overwhelmed.”

Addressing government in both the time of Watergate and the present, Bernstein says, that same “secret government” is the nation’s biggest problem.

“At all levels, there’s so much unnecessary secrecy,” Bernstein said. “As a journalist you have to develop a method to get around that- try to get people’s head in the game.”

During the panel discussion, Bernstein -- whose recent books include “A Woman in Charge,” a biography of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- said the same journalism skills and persistence he and Woodward used could break a similar story today, but the culture around journalism has shifted dramatically.

Woodward (“Obama’s Wars” and “Bush at War”) called this shift the “curse” of celebrity journalism itself- the “Paris Hilton factor and Kardashian equation.”

“It should be our job not to give equal time, not to give 12 inches in a newspaper story about what Donald Trump says and 12 inches to what the Secretary of State of Hawaii says,” Bernstein said, referring to the birther controversy that, though investigated and settled, continues to provide provocative soundbites for President Obama’s critics. “Then our agenda becomes manufactured controversy as a means of getting more readers, more viewers, and we skew the political debate.”

The Woodward and Bernstein Watergate papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Center at UT, with the agreement that both men hand over notes from confidential sources after the sources’ death.

The most famous confidential source, known as Deep Throat, was Mark Felt, a former associate director of the FBI whose identity was kept secret for more than 30 years. While many, including Nixon himself, suspected Felt, it was not revealed until 2005, when Felt was 91.

On Tuesday, the writers released their latest set of reporting notes, detailing a private conversation with Alexander Haig, Nixon’s chief of staff and one of 17 confidential sources.
“Basically, Nixon said [to Haig] if there were a pistol in his desk, he would have taken his own life,” Woodward said.

A display titled “All the President’s Men: Newsroom to Big Screen,” including reporting notes, film scripts, book drafts and the official film rights to Robert Redford are also on display at Lyndon B Johnson Library at UT through April 29.

“The reason I’m here is that I’m so anxious and hopeful about journalism’s future,” Robert Redford said to a crowd of students. “I want us to give you the reins. Take these reins and see if you can correct something that’s in such horrible shape right now. The future is in your hands and journalism is part of that future.”

Playboy's Top Party Schools

Christina Caron — 2011-04-15T10:35:01-04:00

ABC News on Campus reporter Nathan O’Neal blogs:

Playboy has declared the University of Colorado at Boulder the No. 1 party school in America, citing “reefer madness,” the town’s four breweries and several local distractions that tempt the school’s students. It is followed by Penn State University and Arizona State University, which rank second and third respectively.

According to Playboy, the rankings are determined via Playboy on-campus Facebook pages, surveys and other interviews with students. They consider the male to female ratio, the winning percentage of sports teams, vicinity to beaches and ski slopes, and the music scene.

The University of Colorado’s ranking was in part due to its vicinity to medical marijuana dispensaries and the annual turnout of about 24,000 undergrads to an April 20th smoke-out on school grounds.

“Literally dozens of world-class ski resorts are a drive away,” Playboy said on its website. “You know Boulder is a party school because whenever you tell someone that you went there, the first thing they ask is, ‘Did you graduate?’”

“I think most people are excited and proud of [ranking No. 1 party school] and I don’t think it will affect job opportunities at all,” said Amanda Presley, 22, a senior at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“The people that go here work really hard at school,” Presley said. “It’s a very difficult school...and we just like to party hard too.”

The University of Colorado at Boulder says they don’t take this ranking seriously.

“It’s a joke rating,” said Bronson Hilliard, a spokesman for the university. “It’s not meaningful, it doens’t measure anything important...it measures perception and it’s unfortunate.”

“The impression that our students here are doing nothing but partying here is overwrought,” Hilliard said.

Arizona State has made its mark on the party list before. Last year they were ranked No. 6. With a student population of about 70,000 and warm desert climate, Playboy points to ASU’s tendency to shed clothing to their No. 3 ranking.

“The Sun Devils live up to their name,” Playboy said on its website. “Thanks to Tempe’s toasty climate, there’s always a wealth of exposed skin at ASU.”

“At night students head to Tempe’s barhopping nirvana, the Mill Avenue District, we give props to a school that turned streaking into a yearly tradition,” Playboy said.

On ASU’s campus, the sentiment is mixed.

“I think we have a large student body…and a large percentage of them are young and are down for the get down,” said ASU senior Valery Lopez. “And there’s something going on every night.”

“I think its probably fitting, won't really make [ASU President] Michael Crow happy but for those that do it right, there is definitely a chance to enjoy that part of ASU while still getting a top notch education,” said Nick Licalzi, an ASU junior.

And not all students think being ranked for partying looks so appealing.

“I’d rather be at a school that has a lower ranking because it looks better than having a degree from a party school,” said Kyle Goldstein, 24, a senior at the University of Texas at Austin. The University of Texas at Austin was ranked No. 1 last year but slipped to No. 5 in the newly released list.

Playboy started listing the top party schools in January 1987 and the rankings have appeared sporadically in various issues over the past decade.

Here's the full list:

1.    University of Colorado at Boulder
2.    Pennsylvania State University
3.    Arizona State University
4.    University of Western Ontario
5.    University of Texas at Austin
6.    University of Wisconsin
7.    University of Georgia
8.    University of Tennessee, Knoxville
9.    University of Central Florida
10. University of California, Santa Barbara

ABC News on Campus reporter Melanie Torre contributed to this report.

New Nike Uniforms Take ASU By Surprise

Christina Caron — 2011-04-13T16:20:55-04:00

ABC News on Campus reporter Tia Castaneda blogs:

The tiny pitchfork-wielding devil with the mischievous grin has been a fixture on ASU’s football field. But yesterday Arizona State University gave their beloved maroon mascot Sparky a backseat, revealing new football helmets with a simple large yellow pitchfork emblazoned over black.

Images courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics

The helmets were introduced alongside several other new ASU uniforms, all designed by Nike. ASU is one of many colleges to partner with the global sports brand in the past two years.

The new ASU football uniforms bear a striking resemblance to the Nike-designed University of Oregon black uniforms that debuted last year. Earlier in 2010 Nike announced they would be the exclusive provider for Arkansas’ Razorback Athletics.

Nike’s influence also extends to Washington State University, which introduced new Nike uniforms yesterday as well.

In a room packed with students, media and hall-of-famers, the ASU athletics department unveiled the new designs. Jim Healey, the voice of the Sun Devils since 1988, emceed the ASU event along with athletics vice president, Lisa Love.

Love says the updated pitchfork represents not only the “past, present, and future,” but represents the “integrity, scholarship and winning tradition” of Sun Devil athletics.
“Our friends at Nike were fantastic at stepping up to the plate and helping us,” Love said.

The maroon and gold uniforms were also redesigned, but students fixated on the newest color: black.

“The logo itself is nice, I suppose it stands out… but black? I hope those are not going to be worn during summer, or home games,” said Josh Peterson, 22, of Apache Junction, Ariz. “I like the fact that the school is trying to enhance themselves and update. At least it shows some awareness.”

Haley Shook, a 19-year-old sophomore, is more accepting of the new look: “I like them, I like the helmets… but they kind of make us look like Tritons.”

Junior Charmaine Genge said, “At first I couldn't tell a difference, and didn't notice the changes made to the uniform, until I saw the black one.”

She added, “I think the black one looks really nice.”

A new Facebook campaign asks students to “black out” (instead of “gold out”) the stadium when the Sun Devils kick off against Missouri later this year.

The athletic department also debuted a new font called “Sun Devil Bold Lettertype,” which is now owned by ASU and Sun Devil Athletics. The famous pitchfork was the inspiration behind the font. Love describes it as “simple” and “classy.”

The redesign came at zero cost to the university state funds, but a donor paid for the uniforms, according to ASU officials.

Before the new uniforms were unveiled, ASU fueled student speculation by releasing numerous videos over the past month telling the student body that the Arizona State University brand is due for an overhaul.

One video that went viral from the ASU athletics department shows how the university has changed throughout the years.

"Times change, children grow up, things evolve… don’t fear change… just the Sun Devils. It's time, April 2011," a mysterious narrator says. "People might ask why we’re changing … I say to them, 'When did we stop changing?'"

Arizona Students Construct ‘Border Fence’ On Campus

Christina Caron — 2011-03-25T10:25:15-04:00

ABC News on Campus reporter Tia Castaneda blogs:

University of Arizona students have been dealing with quite an obstacle this week. A 400-yard mock border fence has been constructed right in the middle of campus. The fence spans the distance of four football fields, making it difficult to move from one side of the campus to the other.

Student groups erected the fence during their spring break last week. Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization that seeks to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, collaborated with the group No More Deaths. They spent the past eight months coming up with funding and project materials.

John Washington, a graduate student at UA, is a member of No More Deaths, an organization that provides humanitarian aid to migrants. He says the temporary detour is worth every penny.

“There’s been a lot of people speaking out but the message is just not getting heard,” said Washington. “Not very far from here there are people suffering and dying because of our policies and we want to educate and bring this knowledge closer to home.”

But for some UA students, such as sophomore Rachel Feuerbach, the fence is more of a hassle than a conversation starter. “Go down to Mexico and help people out there. Don't waste your time preventing people from coming back and forth conveniently on campus,” said Feuerbach.

Joshua Schafer, 21, said he understands why the fence was put up by the organizations, but added, "All it’s done for most people that I have spoken to is make them mad that it is hard to cross campus now. There are plenty of other ways to give education about this, and this one is a little too extreme because of the impact it is having on people going to class."

The students who installed the fence asked humanitarian groups to decorate it, and talk with students and community members about the potentially dehumanizing aspects of border walls.

Heather Craigie, a member of Borderlinks, a non-profit organization that creates awareness on border issues, came to adorn the fence with handmade posters.

“This whole display here is a really good opportunity to expose not just the University of Arizona but the Tucson community to the border that is right in our backyard,” said Craigie.

Carol Thompson, the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs at the University of Arizona, said the organizations followed the required steps to be granted permission to host an event in the mall area of the campus.

"We don't make decisions based off of the content of what the speech is about, we just look at what the time, place and manner guidelines are and if they follow the campus' policy," said Thompson.

According to No More Deaths, they received permission from the university to keep the $1,500 “road-block” up for a total of 10 days.

Photos by Tia Castaneda/ABC News on Campus

College Radio Stations Beloved but Struggling

Nancy Ramsey — 2011-03-22T15:01:58-04:00

ABC News on Campus reporter Caitlin Kern blogs:

Casey Welsch was in the sixth grade when he first heard KRNU while shopping in a Lincoln, Neb., record store. The college radio station played all his favorites: Modest Mouse, Nine Inch Nails and Queen.

“I asked the clerk what the station was,” said Welsch. “So when I got out to the car, I turned it on and fell in love with it.”

Today Welsch, now 21, works at KRNU at the University of Nebraska.

KRNU has been on the air since the 1970s and is still a viable learning tool for potential disc jockeys and journalism students at UNL.

But for other students in the country, college radio is a dying institution. Schools have a hard time keeping up with Top 40 networks because they just don’t have the money to do it. Without necessary funding, schools nationwide have to sell their airspace to commercial stations, and use the extra cash for other expenses. Some choose to move their programs online, or get rid of them entirely.

The University of San Francisco sold its 38-year old station, KUSF, to KDFC, a classical station for $3.75 million. At Vanderbilt, WRVU, the student-funded radio station, announced it would be moving exclusively online due to “changing student habits and evolving changes.”

Schools have countless other ways to utilize their airspace.

Texas Tech’s student-run station, KTXT, switched from student-run content to educational programming after the university no longer had the funds to keep the FM station.

Augustana College in South Dakota believed its station was “underutilized” and not linked to the college’s mission statement. In 2009 it started to play Minnesota Public Radio instead of the student-run content.

Rice University sold its station, but to another university. The University of Houston bought Rice’s broadcast tower, FM frequency and license for $9.5 million.

Even when universities choose to include their campus stations as part of broadcasting curriculums, instead of relying on student-fees or donations, it doesn’t guarantee them an audience.

KRNU encountered this problem a few years ago, so it created its own niche.

In 2009, KRNU refocused its formatting to appeal to more alternative and indie music listeners. Its advertisement had new tag lines, “get INDIEd” and “where new music begins.” KRNU has the edge of being the only station in Lincoln that plays this type of music.

Even if listeners do fall off, KRNU is still not in jeopardy of losing airspace since it’s run like a classroom lab.

Chemistry students take labs with their classes, as well as other majors; at UNL, the broadcasting population is no exception. Only journalism students are allowed to run the programs at KRNU. The work is hands-on experience, it’s graded, and anyone in the Lincoln area can tune in.

“Other internships I’ve done were less hands-on. I’ve probably learned more from the classes I’ve taken here than when I actually worked for a station,” said Ryan Penney, a senior broadcasting major at UNL. He does say that the beginning of the semester can be a little rough, since the DJs range from beginners to grad students, but everyone has to start somewhere.

Students interested in radio careers after college need live on-air experience if they want to be contenders in the industry. Internships at local stations do help, but students often don’t get the chance to be on-air, and when they do, to write their own material. Without experienced DJs, where does that leave the future of radio?

“Radio is magic. Radio is a medium that exists in the mind of whoever’s listening to it,” said Welsch. “When you listen to radio, all you get is that one sensory input. Other media require a person to devote their full attention to it. You have to sit down and read a newspaper. You have to stare directly at a television. You have to log onto the Internet. With radio, you flip a switch, turn up the volume and as long as you can hear it, you’re consuming it. You can do whatever else with your attention."

Welsch also argues that radio is the most local of all media. It’s where listeners get traffic reports, weather alerts, community news, local sports, and people in the area can call in with opinions.

Dustin Hunke, a senior broadcasting major at UNL, originally came to UNL as a journalism major with no intention of pursuing a career in radio. Presented with the opportunity of KRNU in his classes, he now has five years of radio experience.

“My love of being an on-air personality and picking music to play to people has made me consider going into the field of broadcasting once I graduate,” said Hunke. He says that KRNU served as the first step in his career, and made him realize what he wanted in the future after earning his degree.

Homework That Saves Animals

Christina Caron — 2011-03-16T16:20:05-04:00

ABC News on Campus reporter Suyun Hong blogs:

When Jessica Nittolo first visited Venus at the Austin Pets Alive animal shelter, she was not welcome at all.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Nittolo.

“She [Venus] was so mean and defensive and very scared,” said Nittolo, a freshman at the University of Texas. Nittolo says that didn't stop her from visiting again. She eventually befriended Venus, one of the two cats she helped to save by writing an adoption biography. It was all part of her freshman English course called Leadership, Ethics, and Animals. In the class, new to UT last fall, students write biographies for homeless pets waiting to be adopted at the Austin Pets Alive animal shelter.

“It was a really unique class. Every day we would meditate before we started and my professor was really into this animal spirit thing, so we all adopted our own animal name and it was quirky and interesting,” Nittolo said.

Professor Jerome Bump, who has been teaching English for nearly 40 years, said he asked his students to adopt animal names for themselves so that they can truly sympathize with the animals in need of adoption. Nittolo's animal name is ‘Cat.’

"It's called the sympathetic imagination -- the ability to put yourself in the position of another being. If you have this, you can be a moral ethical person, if you don’t, you can’t be a moral or ethical person," Bump said.

Perhaps that so-called sympathetic imagination may have helped Nittolo become one of the first students to see both her animals get adopted.

“I was really excited. I felt like I had actually done something to help Venus get adopted and it was a really great feeling to know that because of my class animal lives were being saved,” Nittolo said.

Bump estimates that two-thirds of the animals his students profiled last semester were adopted, and he has high hopes for this semester.

When the university created new curriculum requirements mandating freshmen take one course with leadership and ethics, Bump decided to create a course that combined writing with leadership and ethics.

“I thought the perfect thing was to have them write a plea about a dog or a cat whose life depends on it,” Bump said.

Bump is not new to saving animals. He is the proud owner of two longhorns, one donkey, two mustangs, two pigs, three dogs, and three cats. So the partnership he created with Austin Pets Alive, a non-profit animal shelter that saves animals on the euthanasia list at Town Lake Animal Center in Austin, comes as no surprise.

Students in Bump’s class submitted biographies imagined from the animal’s point of view and they were published on the Austin Pets Alive homepage, something that Nittolo believes can help Austin attain a record a no-kill month for the first time. Austin's no-kill status is determined by the percentage of animals that are saved from Town Lake's euthanasia list every month.

Last February, Town Lake Animal Center hit the 92 percent barrier -- surpassing the percentage saved rate required to become a no kill city.

“That is the record high for Austin,” said Sarah Weinstein, public relations manager at Austin Pets Alive. “In addition to it being the highest ever for Austin’s Town Lake Animal Center, it's also the first month it has been no-kill." The success comes after nearly three years of work by Austin Pets Alive, but Gretchen Meyer, public relations director at the shelter, is quick to add that it’s too early to make it official.

“Because there is such a fluctuation in intake and prospective adopters throughout the year, I think that a full year is probably needed above 90 percent to be an official no-kill city, said Gretchen Meyer, public relations director. “But if we can stay above 90 percent throughout the summer months, when intake is higher, I think we'll be safe in calling ourselves no-kill.”

And Bump already has his sights set on the future. He hopes to expand his class into a study abroad course in Africa, where students would write biographies to save wildlife there.

“Study abroad is the most powerful educational experience so if I can combine it with this exercise, then I think it can be really powerful,” Bump said.

Police Seize Thousands Of Fake IDs In Arizona

Christina Caron — 2011-03-09T11:09:16-05:00

ABC News on Campus reporter Tia Castaneda blogs:

College students have long been associated with using fake IDs as a quick ticket to a good time -- that is, if you don’t get caught.

Photo courtesy of Tempe Police Department.

But in Tempe, Ariz., more than 2,000 people did get caught. The Tempe Police Department says 2064 people were caught using fake IDs in the Mill Avenue District, a frequent hangout for college students, between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010.

Mill Avenue is a lively street within a mile of Arizona State University that caters to the younger crowd with shops, pizza joints, and nearly 30 bars.

Sergeant Steve Carbajal of the Tempe Police Department wrote in an e-mail to ABCNews.com that the number is actually down 34 ID’s from last year’s total -- but the number still illustrates the department's commitment to seize fake IDs.

Mill Ave’s Cue Club, School of Rock, and Zuma were among the top three bars for fake ID seizures.

Arizona State University and University of Arizona are not ranked on the Princeton Review's 2010 Top Party School list. So we wanted to find out how other school regions notorious for partying stack up.

We contacted the number two party school on the Princeton Review list, the University of Ohio in Athens, to find out how many IDs they confiscated.

Tom Pyle, Chief of Police at the Athens Police Department, wrote in an e-mail to ABCNews.com that the department charged only nine people with ficticious ID use.

Next, ABCNews.com spoke with the Austin Police Department. The University of Texas at Austin is ranked sixth on the latest Princeton Review list. Their fake ID confiscation total was also substantially smaller than that of Tempe's. Laurie Najjar of the Austin Police Department says there were only 50 ficticious ID offenses during 2010.

Police departments near other schools that ranked highly on the party school list said they don’t collect this type of data.

In Tempe, Oscar Puente, 22, said he knows what it is like to be questioned by a bar’s security team.

“Your heart[rate] is rapid, you are nervous from the core but you have to be visually calm and cool,” said Puente. Like many other fake ID users, Puente took a risk.

“Using a fictitious identification to enter a liquor establishment is a crime and the person can be arrested and fined,” said Carbajal.

Puente said before he turned 21, he would use his fake ID without worrying about the consequences.

“It doesn’t hurt [to use a fake] because all they [the bartenders] do is keep the card and then throw you out,” said Puente.

Jessica Gomes, who lives in Tempe, but is a bartender in Scottsdale, said it is important for employees to know the protocol.

“If the liquor board was to come in and catch [the guest]… there is not only a fine for them but an additional fine for me and the restaurant with the possibility of the bar's liquor license to be taken away,” said Gomes.

“I don’t go through specific training to check IDs, but if someone comes up to the bar and they look under 21 I’ll request an ID again,” Gomes added.

She said the patron usually does not have an issue with her asking for an ID.

“The only time people get defensive [if I ask for ID] is if they have gray hair,” said Gomes.

And Gomes shared some advice for those considering to use a fake ID on Mill Avenue: “Just don't do it, they are tougher on Mill because it’s a college crowd down there.”

Every one of the 2064 fake IDs are being held as evidence at the Tempe Police Department, until the offender is checked for any criminal charges.

Carbajal said the IDs are usually impounded for destruction so there will be a few less fake IDs out on the streets.

“We work to educate employees working in the downtown district on what to look for when checking identification cards.”

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