Several activities for members of the CIC/New York Times Partnership in Education took place in the fall of 2005, including a day-long Students Newspaper Editors Workshop and a half-day meeting of the Presidents Council, both in New York City.

More than 70 student newspaper editors from 30 CIC member institutions benefited from the opportunity to spend a day at the New York Times in October in a workshop to explore the role of a newspaper in society and to develop their journalistic skills.

Entitled “Inside the Times,” the workshop began with an editing session with Times editors and personnel recruiters. The students proofed and wrote headlines for a number of articles, and then were given an inside look at the decision-making and reporting process at the Times with a panel discussion that included reporters Tamar Lewin, Soma Golden-Behr, and David Leonhardt. They also met with a representative from the newspaper’s advertising department, and had a chance to meet their peers from campus newspapers across the country over lunch.

“Being up-close to one of the nation’s leading newspapers stimulated me to take what I learned from the workshop and apply it to my work here at Bethany and later in life as well,” said Jennifer Braum, a Bethany College (WV) junior.

In addition, 11 members of the Partnership attended a Presidents Council meeting at the Times in New York in September. During the session, Times correspondent Joe Treaster, who had just returned from several weeks in the New Orleans area reporting about the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, described his experiences covering the nearly deserted city for several days with little food, water, or sleep. An interesting discussion on leadership followed Treaster’s report, focusing on “What did we learn about leadership and community in times of crisis from the New Orleans experience?” This discussion prompted a plan to have Treaster visit several CIC/NYT Partner campuses to lead discussions about leadership in crises.

The Presidents Council meeting concluded with the decision that Richard Guarasci, president of Wagner College (NY), would serve as chair; Tom Williamson, president of Westminster College (PA), as vice chair; and Tom Kepple, president of Juniata College (PA), as projects chair for 2005–06.

To sign up for the CIC/New York Times Partnership, contact CIC Vice President for Communications Laura Wilcox at lwilcox@cic.nche.edu or (202) 466-7230.