hubbard

Rocky Mountain News reporter Burt Hubbard, above, prepares a lesson for Electronic Journalism in the New Media Center. A freedom Forum grant brought him into the classroom to teach for a semester.

Award-winning journalist Burt Hubbard strolled into his Electronic Journalism class confident he had prepared enough the night before. He's accustomed to doing his homework when covering city hall, the business beat and environmental issues with the Rocky Mountain News.

Hubbard, visiting the School through a Freedom Forum Professional-in-Residence grant, found himself in front of his students with no lecture material and lots of class time. Many neophyte instructors panic when this happens. Others are content to let class out early.

But Hubbard acted like a veteran. Calmly, he turned on a computer and had students huddle around while he demonstrated Netscape Navigator and the World Wide Web for the remainder of the period.

Hubbard's visit is the result of a $75,000 grant from the program. This is the second time the School won it. No other university in the country has received the Freedom Forum grant twice since its inception in 1992.

That year, the School won a $75,000 grant to bring in two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Knudson from The Sacramento Bee and Dianne Dumanoski from The Boston Globe.

Hubbard's experience has been an eye-opener.

"The myth that teachers work 10 hours a week is just that, a myth," said Hubbard, who earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1975. He said he spent 50 to 60 hours a week teaching classes at the School.

The computer whiz is used to working hard, long hours, though. Before coming to the News, he reported for The Albuquerque Tribune, where he had to be at his desk at the red-eye hour of 4 a.m. each day. His first deadline was three hours later.

While he doesn't have to be on campus quite that early, he does keep long hours researching on the Internet and learning about the ever-changing medium. "He was very enthusiastic about teaching courses and training the faculty," Moritz said. "He's been the key person at the Rocky Mountain News for several years."

In the past two years, Hubbard won six first-place awards from the Colorado Press Association, the Colorado Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists and Scripps Howard Newspapers.

Freedom Forum judges thought highly of the journalism school's idea of bringing in a professional astute in the field of computer technology, said Felix Gutierrez, senior vice president and executive director of the Pacific Coast Center in Los Angeles.

Willard D. Rowland Jr., dean of the School, said leaders in their field such as Hubbard bring state-of-the-art journalistic techniques and inspiring accomplishments to the classroom.

This semester Hubbard taught Electronic Journalism, teamed up with Associate Professor Len Ackland to teach Precision Journalism, and hosted a number of faculty training seminars -- including the National Institute of Computer Assisted Reporting boot camp in October.

A Web-page design and research expert will visit the School during the spring semester as part of the grant.

After the fall semester, Hubbard returns to the News where he will write in-depth articles for weekend editions of the paper and aid reporters in computer research for investigative pieces. But he said he will fondly remember his days in Boulder. "It's rewarding to see students grasp things," he said. "It will help the whole profession."