Star-studded journalists’ roundtable talks past, present and future of Ottaway Visiting Professorship
NYT Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger (center)
A distinguished group of award-winning journalists met with SUNY New Paltz faculty and administrators at the New York Times building in Manhattan to talk about their experiences as James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professors of Journalism.
A total of 16 journalists have taught New Paltz undergraduate students as Ottaway Visiting Professors since the program was first endowed in 2001.
They are among the very best in their field, have enjoyed long careers at institutions including the New York Times, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Consumer Reports, and are winners of Pulitzer Prizes, Peabody Awards, Emmys, and other major industry awards.
The April 27, 2017 Roundtable and Reception in Boardroom at the New York Times building represented the first time the members of this exclusive club have gathered together to discuss their experiences teaching at New Paltz.
They were joined by James Ottaway Jr. and his wife, Mary Ottaway ’70g, as well as President Donald P. Christian, Dean of Liberal Arts & Sciences Laura Barrett, Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Erica Marks, outgoing Ottaway Coordinator Lisa Philips, new Ottaway Coordinator Rachel Somerstein, and other members of the College staff.
“I want to thank all of you who have taught at New Paltz and brought a unique point of view that students would not have gotten in the normal course of their journalism programs,” said Ottaway Jr. “It’s enriched the College, enriched those students, and has made me feel that this was worthwhile. I’ve never felt better about a gift. It’s more than exceeded my great hopes when we began.”
Additional opening remarks were given by Arthur Sulzberger, publisher for the New York Times Company and recipient of an honorary doctorate from SUNY New Paltz, and James M. Follo ’81, a New Paltz alumnus now serving as executive vice president and chief financial officer for the New York Times Company.
What followed was a free-form conversation that touched on the journalists’ varying approaches to developing and running their courses, and their sense of the value of the Ottaway Professorship in preparing undergraduate journalism students for a rapidly-changing media industry.
“What I enjoyed most about teaching the class is that it was a class for undergraduates – not Columbia Journalism School, and not narrow, pre-professional training. To me, the gift of the program is that they’re learning how to think critically about the world. I think you see everyone from law firms to human rights organizations to NGOs to businesses wanting to hire people who can introduce the story of what they do with a piece of narrative non-fiction, a human story that captures it and broadens it out. If the students can learn that, no matter what they do, I think the class will have had a really positive effect.” – Eyal Press, 2016 Ottaway Professor, author and journalist.
“If you don’t have reporters, you can’t dig and you’re not going to have the content. That was one of the prejudices I took to teaching my class. They were going to do investigative stories – I wanted my students out in the field, reporting. They were travelling the state, working the phones, using databases, checking videos. Everyone in the class eventually was part of two group projects, both published, and one was a finalist for an [Investigative Reporters and Editors] award for best student journalism in the country. Before coming here I emailed students to ask what we did right, and what we did wrong. One wrote back and said ‘One of the best parts of our class was that we were guided to put together a really comprehensive article that made an impact for many people in upstate New York.’” – Andrew W. Lehren, 2012 Ottaway Professor and New York Times investigative reporter.
About the Ottaway Visiting Professorship
The James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professorship, SUNY New Paltz’s only endowed professorship, is named for the founder of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., now the Local Media Group, which operates print and online community media franchises in seven states. The flagship newspaper of the chain is the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y.
Much of the success of the Ottaway Visiting Professorship owes to the dedicated effort of Robert Miraldi, emeritus professor of journalism, who helped create the program and coordinated it for the first several years, and Lisa Phillips, associate professor of journalism, who has coordinated the program for the last seven years. Assistant Professor of Journalism Rachel Somerstein will be taking over the role beginning in the 2017-18 academic year.
More information about the Ottaway Visiting Professorship is available online.