Bylines Briefs

Students gather in the office of Dean Paul Voakes (standing at left of doorway) in the Armory on Nov. 20 for one of the new dean's Cokes with Voakes sessions. Voakes instituted the get-together to give him a chance to get to know students in an informal setting.

McLean named interim director

Associate Professor Polly McLean has been appointed interim director of the CU department of women's studies. She remains in her post at the CU-Boulder School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

McLean has been an affiliated faculty member with the women's studies and honors departments and has been a faculty member at CU-Boulder since 1984. She said she is excited about additional plans for enriching the women's studies program, including the development of an advisory board and curriculum enhancements.

Women's studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder is the only program in the state to provide a structured program of undergraduate study culminating in a degree in women's studies.

Student wins research grant

Jacob Pritchard, a University of Colorado at Boulder junior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has received a $1,200 grant to study the Plan Puebla Panama road project in Honduras.

CU-Boulder's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program awarded the grant to Pritchard, who left for Honduras on Dec. 6 with plans to stay through much of the spring semester. Plan Puebla Panama is a road construction project initiated by Mexico's president, Vicente Fox. The $8.3 billion project will connect the city of Puebla, Mexico, with Panama on a route through Central America. Plans for privatization of water, oil, forestry and mineral development along the route are included.

Pritchard, a News-Editorial major whose focus is photojournalism, intends to record the progress of the construction project along with reactions from the local people, many of whom are concerned that development of the natural resources will not benefit them.

Stewart Hoover, former interim dean, holds up his Jerry Garcia necktie during the Nov. 14 meeting of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication Advisory Board in Old Main as his wife, Karen, examines the gift. At right is board Chairman John B. Winsor. The tie was given to Hoover by the board in appreciation of his willingness to take on the interim position twice in recent years.

Clark's book wins national award

Assistant Research Professor Lynn Schofield Clark's book, From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural, has won the Best Scholarly Book award for 2003 from the Ethnography Division of the National Communication Association.

Rave is a Nieman Fellow

Jodi Rave ('96) has been selected to the 66th class of Nieman Fellows at Harvard University. The class includes 13 U.S. journalists and 12 international journalists.

Rave is a national reporter and columnist for Lee Enterprises, a chain of 45 newspapers in 18 states. She is based at the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska, where she has spent the last five years reporting on Native America. Her news beat ranges from spirituality and federal Indian policy to the environment and youth issues.

Prior to joining Lee Enterprises, Rave was a business reporter. Additionally, she has reported on the military since 1990 as a member of the Army and Air National Guard. In worldwide competition, Rave was named Army Journalist of the Year during a 1999 Pentagon ceremony.

The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism has twice recognized Rave for excellence in reporting – column writing 2003 and general portfolio of work 2002 – as part of its "Let's Do It Better" workshops on journalism, race and ethnicity.

Established in 1938, the Nieman program is the oldest midcareer fellowship for journalists in the world. The fellowships are awarded to working journalists of accomplishment and promise for an academic year of study in any part of the university. More than 1,000 U.S. and international journalists have studied at Harvard as Nieman Fellows.