Professor Michael Tracey, right, works with a production crew from CBS' "48 Hours Mystery." The School found itself the object of intense media attention for a few weeks this fall when Tracey's role became known in the identification of a possible suspect in the 10-year-old JonBenet Ramsey murder case. The suspect, John Mark Karr, was arrested in Thailand and brought to Boulder, but he was released two days later. Television crews from as far away as Japan descended upon the Armory – or lay in wait in the parking lot – in hopes of an interview with Tracey. Pundits ranging from Westword and The Denver Post to Editor & Publisher and The (London) Observer debated the ethics of his role in the Karr investigation.

Student reporters featured on MSNBC
Four SJMC Broadcast News majors were interviewed this fall on MSNBC as part of the network's "MSNBC On Campus" program. The reports are shown during regular morning and afternoon MSNBC programming.

Callie Zanandrie presented two stories, one on campus reaction to former CU football kicker Katie Hnida's book and another on CU football player Abe Wright, who knows sign language and helps give tours to hearing-impaired guests. David Tauchen profiled a CU student who is a former congressional page. David Franz presented student reaction to a new law banning Internet gambling, and Dan Watson's story was about students heavily involved in political campaigns.

All the students are in the capstone "NewsTeam" class and semiweekly TV newscast, taught this fall by Assistant Professor Lee Hood (MA '97, Ph.D. '01) and Instructor Paul Daugherty (MA '93).

"We look at this as a tremendous opportunity for our students to get experience and national exposure for their work," Hood said.

First-time awards go to Hood, Jones
Assistant Dean Steve Jones is the first recipient of a $12,000 award for faculty excellence funded by William Payden ('57). Jones was given the award at the May graduation ceremony.

Assistant Professor Lee Hood (MA '97, Ph.D. '01) was the first recipient of the SJMC Faculty Development Award. Hood plans to use the $5,000 to fund fieldwork in local news.

McDevitt gets grant for civic research
Associate Professor Mike McDevitt has been awarded an $85,000 grant from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the University of Maryland for his study: "The Colors of Socialization: Pathways to Civic Identity in Red States and Blue States."  McDevitt also won the Outstanding Applied/Public Policy Research Program Award for 2006, which was presented at the annual International Communication Association meeting, in Dresden, Germany, in June.

Students earn various achievements
NAHJ: Broadcast News major Josh Sanchez, a longtime student assistant at the School, won the Reuben Salazar Scholarship, a national award of $2,000 sponsored by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Prejournalism student Bethany Andrews is the recipient of a Colorado Association of Black Journalists Scholarship.

Emmys: Four broadcast students won National Television Academy Heartland Regional Emmy awards this fall for a documentary they produced last spring titled "To Pluto and Beyond." Students David Tauchen, Nick Ernst and Nathan Gang were in the documentary class taught by Adjunct Instructor Tony Perri.

Devaney fellowship: Doctoral student Nadia Kaneva will be a CU-Boulder Center for Humanities and the Arts Graduate Fellow for 2006-07 and the recipient of one of the Thomas Edwin Devaney Dissertation Fellowships.

News research lessons go on the road
Internship Director Alan Kirkpatrick (MA '96), who has taught computer-assisted reporting at the School, and master's student Justin Crawford (MA '06) led successful workshops on modern techniques in newsgathering in Boulder, Loveland, Fort Morgan and Durango, this summer.

The Loveland workshop was attended by several staff members of the The Daily Reporter-Herald. Dean Paul Voakes joined them in Durango to present a session on ethics during the workshop there, which packed a computer lab at Fort Lewis College for a three-hour session.

Student, prof present biology workshop
Associate Professor Tom Yulsman and master's student Hillary Rosner led a workshop for biology Ph.D. students and faculty at the University of Michigan's Biological Research Station this fall. The workshop was part of an NSF-funded Integrated Graduate Education Research and Training program.