By Bailey Dick
Last summer, I visited Kuhlin Center to choose my faculty office. There were several options, given some shuffling done thanks to graduate students leaving. The School of Media and Communications’ interim director, Al Gonzalez, along with Dana Watson, the school’s senior administrative secretary, showed me a half-dozen options. There was one office, Dana and Al agreed, was the best choice–the office they showed me last, and the office I ultimately moved myself, a ton of books, and too many plants into.
Kuhlin 400 has been my professorial home, if you will, for the last year, and it’s a dream–you really should come stop by if you’re ever in the building. There’s an east-facing wall full of windows that my plants just love, a designated space for pictures of my dogs, of course, and a spot I’ve designated as the “Take What You Need” corner, where I keep student-generated affirmations on Post-It notes, healthy snacks, travel-sized hygiene products, and emergency tissues and bubbles for overwhelmed students. The space is cozy, light-filled, and dare I say, “fun?”
But my favorite part of my office is the large glass pane next to my office door where I add stories written by students in my class for Falcon Media. If it wasn’t clear from the giant orange letters, I really am SO FALCON PROUD! of my journalism students and their hard work both in my class and for Falcon Media. There’s so much good work happening in the journalism program right now–work I’m so falcon proud to be a part of, and that alumni should be proud of, too.
As a former reporter and political press staffer myself, I was thrilled when I learned I’d be teaching hands-on writing and reporting classes here at BGSU. I knew from my own experience how vital (and even more educational?) my own student media work was as a journalism student, so I knew I wanted to build as many connections to Falcon Media into my classes as possible. This year alone, students in my JOUR 2000: Intro to Journalism and Public Relations Writing, JOUR 3200: Intermediate Reporting and Writing, and JOUR 4200: Public Affairs Reporting classes have published dozens of stories they worked on for my class through Falcon Media. They’ve covered stories ranging from mold-infested dorms that were making residents sick, the controversial arrest of a student at an anti-abortion protest, SB 83, the anti-DEI in higher ed legislation making its way through the state legislature, the continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, done a ride-along with BG police on St. Patrick’s Day, toled the story of 41-year-old mom who joined a sorority on campus, and even did the first-ever interview with BG’s resident pop-up Lightsaber dueling group.
Our student journalists are doing incredible work via Falcon Media, and their experience is not only helping prepare them for their future careers, but strengthening our local news coverage. Several current and recent graduate student media leaders have leveraged their Falcon Media experience to snag jobs and internships at local media outlets–even before graduating. Their work and skills have already helped revitalize our increasingly dire local news ecosystem here in Northwest Ohio.
I’m also really proud of the work my fellow journalism faculty have done to improve our students’ educational experience this year. We navigated a tough, year-long re-accreditation process through ACEJMC, which includes a self-study, peer evaluation and visit, and review by a national board. Through this process and with the feedback of our students, BGSU administrators, and of course, us journalism faculty, we’ve charted an exciting path forward for our curriculum. While the paperwork and behind-the-scenes work of this curriculum revamp is way too boring to spend too many words on, rest assured that our new curriculum is as up-to-date, useful, and impactful as possible for the future journalists we’re educating. As a member of our six-person journalism curriculum team remarked during one of our planning sessions, “this is what faculty work should be like.”
Lastly, I’m really falcon proud of you, our alumni. Each one of you I’ve had the opportunity to meet is so incredibly passionate about our profession, and any nay-sayers who think journalism is dying should be pointed in your direction. From the alumni I met at the tent party during Homecoming to the members of the Journalism Program Advisory Board, folks have been so enthusiastic and eager to help. On that note, we’d love to see you in our classrooms! Students LOVE meeting and learning from alumni like you, and not only because they get sick of hearing from faculty like me. If I’m training my students to check with and hear from multiple sources before running with something as fact, that means they need to hear about on-the-job experience from more than just me.
That’s where you come in. Feel free to reach out to me (bdick@bgsu.edu) or any of the other journalism faculty if you’re in town and want to visit one of our classes for a guest lecture. Each of us teaches different types of journalism courses and skills, but we’d each be happy to point you to a fellow faculty member’s classes if you’re not the best fit for what we’re teaching in a given semester. We (and our students) would love to have you.