eChaser: January 2011 / p2

PRSA local update: The Independent Practitioners SIG will have its first meeting in the first quarter of 2011. No date yet, but stay tuned. Chair Nancy Farrar of Farrar Public Relations is developing the e-mail list for the meeting; contact her at nancyfarrar@att.net. Program ideas are welcome.

PRSA local update II: Standing reminders. Have something to say? Be a speaker at a North Texas PRSSA chapter meeting. E- Kevin Williams at kw757@yahoo.com. ... The DFW Communicators Job Bank lists full-time, part-time and internship positions in PR, media affairs, advertising/sales, event planning, graphic design, marketing, and corporate and employee communications throughout North Texas. Employers who are members of the participating organizations may post a job listing for $50; the cost for nonmembers is $75. Nonprofits get a 50 percent discount. Each posting runs three weeks. Greater Fort Worth PRSA receives a portion of the proceeds when a member marks his or her membership status on the submission form. More from Jerrod Resweber at jresweber@webershandwick.com. ... Stay on top of emerging trends and industry news, extend your network while increasing your knowledge, and keep learning and stay competitive. Any practitioner with at least two years in the field is eligible for membership in the world’s leading organization for PR professionals. Those with fewer than two years experience or who recently graduated from college and were active in PRSSA may join as an associate member. More from new chapter president Carol Murray at cmurray@fwmsh.org or 817-255-9408.

PRSA local update III: The Thursday, Jan. 13, monthly luncheon at Dallas PRSA promises, “It's All About Blogging: Learn Strategy & Pitching Techniques From the Best Bloggers in the Biz." Info here.

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Of Aggies and FOI

Tarleton State University j-students and instructor Dan Malone have received extensive support from the national journalism community recently, thanks to an effort that started with Fort Worth SPJ and the Journalism and Women Symposium.

The Texas A&M University System, of which Tarleton is a part, ruled that an obscure policy could be used to forbid journalism instructors from directing their students to file open records requests with any institution in the system. Furthermore, Malone was told, to do so could be a firing offense. Not coincidentally perhaps, Malone’s students in the last couple of years have done investigative pieces that ired A&M administrators.

After the system ruling became known, Fort Worth SPJ asked SPJ national to get involved, and chapter president Gayle Reaves-King, a past president of the national Journalism and Women Symposium, brought the issue to that group’s attention and to the Council of National Journalism Organizations. Subsequently, three protest were letters sent to A&M and Tarleton administrators signed by 19 organizations representing thousands of journalists and journalism educators.

A&M administrators have not announced any change in the system’s stance, but neither have they taken steps to enforce the ruling.

One of the investigative pieces by Malone’s students led to Tarleton being fined $137,500 (later reduced to $27,500) after the U.S. Department of Education agreed with findings that the university was not adequately complying with federal laws regarding the reporting of crime on campus. Another investigation detailed allegations that state political leaders exerted pressure to get a play on the Stephenville campus involving a “gay Jesus” character canceled.

Malone, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from his days at The Dallas Morning News, received Fort Worth SPJ’s 2010 Open Doors Award, honoring his work in support of open government, both as a reporter and a teacher. His students at Tarleton and, before that, at the University of North Texas won numerous SPJ First Amendment awards and national awards for their investigative work.