Newhouse students tend to carry a bad rap. Whether it’s a genuine ego problem or just jealousy from the outsiders, it’s usually unwarranted.

But sometimes we downright deserve it.

I like to blame the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications taboo on ditzy, freshman broadcast wannabes who are drawn more to camera lights than police lights. I usually defend the school using the noble profession of newspaper journalism as hope for the future of the communications industry.

This week, I cannot hold that claim.

Newspaper students need to take one capstone course, a class that will essentially round off their educational experiences and allow them to study a specialized topic. During registration this week, Sports Reporting filled on the first day, and by Thursday night, Feature Writing almost reached its full capacity.

Only three students signed up for Urban and Minority Affairs Reporting.

The newspaper industry frequently overlooks, or underestimates, the importance of topics like this, thus degrading the quality of its coverage and causing a disservice to readers. Urban issues involve politics, policies, economics and crime. Most young reporters do not have the background or diversity training to effectively cover minority affairs.

In a time when critics attack the media for lacking news value and over-corporatization, classes like these are especially important. Training young journalists and giving them the passion and drive to cover such topics is essential. Entering the field, journalists need to know about these issues and learn the tools to cover these stories.

I do not blame Newhouse for this debacle. The school requires at least 10 students to offer a new specialized class. Joel Kaplan, newspaper department chairman, told my Advanced Reporting class that low enrollment frustrates professors who want to teach these lessons to aspiring young journalists, but cannot garner the interest from its 110 newspaper majors.

What is wrong with these people?

I couldn’t think of a better class Newhouse could offer. The class allows students to expose themselves to the most challenging, encompassing and fulfilling newsroom beat.

And I know from personal experience in class with Francis Ward that he is an excellent teacher. He brings years of experience, a unique perspective and witty sense of humor into the classroom. His media and ethics class has been my favorite class thus far, and it is a shame that he cannot share his expertise with more students.

Former Washington Post Managing Editor Robert G. Kaiser spoke earlier this year at Newhouse about the decline in American news quality. Students packed the foyer of Newhouse to hear the journalist critique the state of the modern media, most of them not on their own accord but on assignment from a newswriting professor. Some students even shamelessly defended their trade and values.

But where were those values when it came time to register? Why is it that students are more interested in taking sports writing or feature writing than an actual issue-oriented class?

The Daily Orange is constantly criticized for not being in touch with minority issues enough to include these groups in its coverage. Newhouse students should be held to those same standards. Students who want to take this class may not have the opportunity to because the rest of the school is uninterested.

It is sad to think that the people who hope to run the news industry in 20 years seem uninterested in studying these issues.

I may agree with Kaiser on this one. You can move beyond a corporate structure and rise above incompetent editors. But one thing that will definitely lead to the demise of quality media is apathy, and lacking interest in societal issues.

I think we have witnessed that apathy this week at Newhouse.

Tiffany Lankes is a senior newspaper and policy studies major. E-mail her at tllankes@yahoo.com.

Published on November 14, 2002 at 12:00 pm