Campus Life Story of the Week

Here's a story about a student who is helping other students adjust to life on campus. This is a story that involves one person helping many people, so it's just the type of feature story that my beat can cover.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_4bcee9c0-6300-11e5-9ba7-5f098f3ab002.html

Enterprise Story Pitch

Two-sentence explanation: In rural communities, it can be difficult for young people to breakaway from their families to go to universities. This story intends to focus on the competition between a person's desires for a higher education and a family's desires to stick together more.

Evidence: Rural communities tend to be poorer than suburban or urban communities, which makes finances a difficulty for rural children to make it to college. Rural communities are also labor intensive, so many young people have already learned farming and may just continue the family tradition in that field. Rural school districts tend to have less funding, so the students in these districts may not have enough education to make it to college. Lastly, many students can face a bit of culture shock going to a university with a population larger than their town.

Why now: A lot of farmers are harvesting crops at this time in the season, so it's a good time to examine the push-pull relationship that occurs between themselves and their kids when it comes to education and advancing in the world.

Interviews: I plan on talking with four or more residents in Colfax. A person I know said he knows a family who has lived their for many years and should be able to offer a personal narrative to help illustrate the story.

Format and Length: 500 words, written in an hourglass form. A lot of data in the more fact-based section. Focus on quotes and stories to give a voice to the rural community.

This Week in Campus Life

Here's a story that hits close to home for journalism students. The ASWSU cut funding to the collegiate newspaper program from $60 thousand to $10 thousand. ASWSU found that the free papers provided by the New York Times were not being read by undergraduate students, who were the ones paying for the papers through S&A fees. As such, newspaper availability on campus has drastically dropped, which is a danger to having informed students when it comes to current events, only partially offset by the ability to get news online.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_e36b81e8-5ce9-11e5-9fc9-7bf8f9e88a3b.html

Additionally, last week saw a campus celebration for the WSU foundation's multi-year campaign. Festivities occurred on the Terrell Mall to commemorate nine years of raising over $1 billion. This fundraising will go back into the university in the form of scholarships, research funding, and many other areas that will impact all members of the campus community.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_6a99e1fe-5da4-11e5-a75f-d38e9f445cd2.html

International students face barriers adjusting to American college life

By Shawn Hutchinson

As students across the nation head back to their respective campuses, there will be some new faces around. While most of these students are American, as many as two thousand international students from 90 different countries are represented as Washington State University’s Pullman campus. 

One of the biggest challenges facing international students is adjusting to the language, said Ryan Chen, an international student from Taiwan. Chen said the language barrier is particularly noticeable in classes, where professors teach in English. Chen said it is tough to talk and engage in class because of his limited English ability. 

Another international student, Ehsan Mohandesi also said the English language can be difficult to adjust to. “Sometimes it’s difficult to keep up with the speed Americans talk at, and some words can be confusing,” said Mohandesi. 

International center intern Esmeralda Murua said language is one of a few common issues international students face when they come to the United States. “Some come with a small amount of English knowledge, and some have more,” said Murua. 

Murua said culture shock is another common issue for a lot of international students. Murua said the way that people interact with each other in the United States is very different. This culture shock can make some international students scared to break away from their groups of other students of their own culture. 

Mohandesi said the American culture is different in some ways, but also shares some similarities to his native Iran. Mohandesi said singers like Shakira, Katy Perry and Enrique Iglesias are all popular in both Iran and the United States. Mohandesi also said that a lot of American movies are popular in Iran. 

At WSU, international students have a resource called the International Center, where they can interact with other students from many cultures and have a safe place to go. Murua said one key part of the International Center is the Campus Friends and Family program, which allows a structured interaction between American and international students. “It allows international students to immerse themselves easier,” said Murua. “It also helps them to get involved in multiple cultures.” 

Mohandesi said the International Center had a program in 2013 that allowed American students to interact with international students by playing board games and have conversations on a weekly basis, but that program is no longer active. Mohandesi said he liked this program as well as the events that get international students involved with Americans because it helped him to integrate with the culture. 

As much as international students want to interact with Americans, the process goes both ways. Americans also need to be willing to accept the difference between themselves and international students. “Americans should learn and know the boundaries for interaction,” said Murua. “The getting-to-know process is mutual and respecting other cultures is important.” 

Murua said the best way to make international students feel welcome is to initiate interaction and befriend them. “They want to know Americans and practice English, but some can be shy,” said Murua. Chen said having American friends talk to him and go out to dinner with him made him feel more welcome in the United States. Mohandesi said being roommates with three Americans helped him to feel welcome and adjust. “They taught me a lot about American culture and interaction,” said Mohandesi.

Sources

Ryan Chen, (509)-339-4110

Esmeralda Murua, (360)-620-4546

Ehsan Mohandesi, (832)-417-8639

Campus Life Story - Week of 9/14

This week's story in campus life details the new gateway on the south end of campus at the corner of Stadium Way and Main Street. Originally, WSU planned to build a fountain to commemorate the recently-completed Campaign for Washington State University, a billion-dollar fundraising adventure. The fountain proved to be too expensive for the university. In its place, a new entrance to campus was built, complete with a quote from the late president of the university, Elson Floyd.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_40497774-572e-11e5-ac93-b3e76b10aee6.html

Writing off the News Pitch

Two-sentence explanation: International students face a lot of challenges when coming to the United States and WSU, with two major issues at the forefront of their acclimation. These two issues are language and culture shock.

Evidence: At WSU, seven percent of all students are international. On the Pullman campus, these students represent 90 different countries. At the Pullman campus, there are slightly less than 2,000 international students, and as the student population continues to grow, the number of international students admitted will likely grow as well.

Why now: The back to school season is an especially chaotic time for all students. Students, especially incoming freshmen, are learning a new campus. Professors and instructors are getting to know new classes of students. For international students, the challenges can be even more daunting. The goal of this story is to highlight the challenges facing international students and help the university community know how to overcome barriers to enrich the lives of everyone involved.

Interviews: Ryan Chen, international student from Taiwan who has attended WSU for a few years. Jung Wang, a more recent WSU transfer student. Someone who is involved with multicultural students frequently, for an expert perspective.

Format and Length: 500 words, hourglass/broad feature format. Start with one voice, express the general trend, wrap up with advice.

This Week in Campus Life

Here's a story about ROTC students. This is a story that falls under campus life because they are one of the small but distinct populations of students on campus. They have experiences that other students don't because of their chosen path. It also begins to detail the demands of the ROTC program at WSU.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_d839dae4-529a-11e5-841c-6fef528c35f4.html

Beat Note

The Campus Life Beat

The beat that I want to focus on this semester is something I call the campus life beat. This may seem like a vague phrase, but I have a vision for the kind of stories that will fall under this particular beat. The campus life beat is made up of two major factors: the campus of WSU, and the students who provide the heart and soul of this campus. Likewise, the types of stories that fall under this beat have to do with changes around campus (buildings, events, and other tangible things), as well as stories about the student population. These kinds of stories can be social issues, rallies, public opinion, reactions to university decisions, or any number of other things that may have a grasp on the student body's attention. In essence, if it happens on campus, it could be a part of my beat.

The topics on this beat will be fast-moving and ever-changing, much as the larger news world does the same in our social media-fueled world of information. Last semester, I would have pursued a story about Wake Up WSU, the localized focal point on the larger topic of race relations and police violence. In the 1980s, Cold War stories would have fit on the beat, particularly if anxiety or worry rippled throughout the student body over the latest moves from the Soviets. Some of the upcoming issues could be how students might vote in the 2016 election, long-time students reacting to the decisions made by interim president Dan Bernardo in a post-Elson Floyd WSU, and a look at how the campus could change in the next few years via construction.

My beat does not exist in a vacuum by any means. With a very broad scope, the other beats that could overlap with my beat are health, campus safety, crime, athletics, education, and economics, just to name a few. While each of these beats exists independently, I can draw anything that overlaps from those beats into how the students on campus are affected by these other beats. On the campus life beat, there exists a certain flexibility to either follow the actions on campus, or the little pieces of the campus that go home with students and professors when they return to their apartments and houses every day. Each of these people are part of campus for at least some of their day, and their voices should be heard in the scope of current events that may occur in the near future.

Story Ideas

•  WSU Police's most common crime of the new school year. Taking a look at a story like this would show what kinds of things the campus police have to deal with most frequently and what the students need to know about the local laws. I see this as more of a political/criminal story, but it could also fit the trend story motif.
•  New students adjusting to first semester away from home. I see this story as a profile/feature type of story, focusing on the life of one student in the context of the experience virtually all students share when coming to WSU in their freshmen year.
•  How students with breathing problems cope with poor air quality. This idea is definitely inspired by the recent wildfire situation that saw a lot of smoke come into Pullman. The concept here is to work off the wildfire news and localize it to students who had to climb up the famously tall hills on campus while facing very poor air quality, a double whammy that many likely never have experience before.

Relevant Articles related to Campus Life
http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_e1464f3e-503b-11e5-8548-ffb3c5aad180.html
This story, about the summer renovations at the CUB and the process of Cougarfication is a prime example of the type of story that would be on my beat. It ties into the hopes that students had for the CUB, as well as changes at a major building on campus that thousands of students go through every day.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_4352c452-4c6b-11e5-bd6f-c3c09fee1368.html
This is another story that really fits the essence of campus life. Elson Floyd, the university's president who died over the summer, played a major role. While not directly interacting with students all the time, the decisions he and other officials made had an impact on the university. Students cared enough to show up to his memorial, so this story fits my beat pretty well because it matters to the students and it impacts their lives.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_5a7493da-ed3f-11e4-a0d5-83dfed930db4.html
Here's a story that would dip more into the crime realm, but also has an effect on campus life. Students should know what laws they are subject to as members of a federal land-grant university, and also what rights they have as students. Stories like this one are more of an awareness/public interest thing than an uncovering of little-known situations, but again, it affects students on campus, so it's a part of campus life.

Potential sources

• Robert Tattershall, Director of Housing and Conference Services 509-335-7732
• Salman Ibrahim, RA 253-277-1555
• Brittany Griffin, Residential Education Director 509-335-1227 

Video Interview