[Imc] Racial Climate Survey Coverage Group
Paul Riismandel
p-riism at uiuc.edu
Mon Feb 26 19:51:07 UTC 2001
The newsroom group decided that the Racial Climate Survey in the Champaign
Public Schools deserved ongoing coverage, and so we formed an informal
working group to produce at least one radio piece to air on WEFT and to
produce written pieces for the website.
I wish to stress that this group is informal and completely open. Like
every group at the IMC, we can always use help--anyone interested in
assisting with this effort is welcome and invited. You can contact me or
anyone attending the meeting to get up to date. We can all work over
e-mail to figure out other angles or things to cover.
We're trying to treat this story as an ongoing effort and not a one-time
event. The Champaign Schools will not feel an incentive to actually do
anything about the survey if they feel like the lights are off
them. Continuing coverage of issues like these is what keeps people
thinking about them and provides incentive for change. Therefore we can
really use ongoing help from different people interested in getting their
feet wet in journalism. That way we can avoid burn-out while producing
something interesting, thought provoking and useful. I personally hope
this effort can serve as a model for the IMC to use in covering other
issues in a comprehensive, ongoing manner.
The next meeting of this group is next Sunday, 3/4 at 2:15pm after the
regular news meeting. Again, everyone is welcome and invited to participate.
Here's Notes from Sunday's meeting:
The group working on this story met after the news meeting Sunday.
Present were Gina, Mark E., Paul K., Paul R and Jason C.
Here's where we are:
We decided to do a series of 2-3 radio pieces, along with accompanying
written pieces for the site.
Story #1 -- The Survey Presentation, to air 3/7 on WEFT
We have most of the audio we need, between Mark's MD of the presentation
and Gina's interviews with attendees. Paul will talk to John Lee Johnson.
Story #2 + #3
One will cover some historical background to this survey. For example,
Rockford schools chose to fight a similar suit and it cost them $8 Million,
a fact not lost on Champaign Schools.
The other will cover where and what happens now? What action will spring
from this report?
Paul K. will work with Gina to get up to date on this issue to do some
recorded interviews with School Board members, school superintendent, etc.
Due to people's schedules we will have to delay stories #2 & #3 until late
March, early April, story #1 should be on schedule.
The group working on this story will meet again next Sunday, 3/4 at 2:15pm
(after news meeting) to begin putting together the first WEFT piece. Jason
C. will help with post-production as necessary.
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