UA to Host Alabama Scholastic Press Association Convention

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – High school journalism students and teachers from across the state will participate in the Alabama Scholastic Press Association’s annual convention March 7-8 at The University of Alabama.

Student and teachers will take part in sessions and competitions for newspapers, yearbooks, literary magazines and broadcasts, as well as photography and desktop publishing. The Alabama high school journalist, adviser and administrator of the year will be announced, as well as the results of ASPA’s annual critique competition. The Alabama high school journalist of the year also will receive the $2,500 J.B. Stevenson Scholarship at the convention.

A number of journalists, journalism educators and media professionals are scheduled to speak and to lead workshops at the convention, including:

Matt Bunker, UA journalism professor, recently published “Critiquing Free Speech.”

Dr. E. Culpepper (Cully) Clark is UA’s College of Communication and Information Sciences dean. His book “The Schoolhouse Door” is an account of the university’s desegregation.

George Daniels, UA assistant professor of journalism, spent eight years as a TV news producer in Richmond, Va., Cincinnati and Atlanta.

Ed Darling is publisher of The Cullman Times and president of the Alabama Press Association Journalism Foundation.

Danny DeJarnette, news editor of The Tuscaloosa News, also was editor of an award-winning college yearbook.

April DeRome is editor of the Marr’s Field Journal, UA’s undergraduate literary magazine.

Merle Dieleman of Bettendorf, Iowa, retired from Pleasant Valley Community High School after 34 years of advising student publications, including newspapers, yearbooks and literary magazines. He is a former Dow Jones National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year and a recipient of the Journalism Education Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. JEA is the nation’s premier organization of high-school journalism teachers.

Dr. Pam Doyle is an associate professor of telecommunication and film at UA, where she specializes in teaching broadcast news.

Andy Duncan, a former high-school yearbook editor, is director of the Alabama Scholastic Press Association and assistant director of student media at The University of Alabama. His fiction collection “Beluthahatchie and Other Stories” won a World Fantasy Award.

Steve Hallman represents J&S Printing in Birmingham, which prints five million newspaper issues a year for high schools and colleges nationwide.

Hamid Haqq, a senior telecommunications and film major, lettered in football at UA.

Gary Harris is sports director of WVUA-TV in Tuscaloosa. His many broadcast awards include being named Best Sports Anchor by the Associated Press in 2000 and 2001.

Paul Isom is director of student media at UA.

Sophia Kartsonis is a poet, essayist and fiction writer with publications in Another Chicago Magazine, Denver Quarterly, Mississippi Review and New Orleans Review.

Michael Martone, a UA English professor, has recently published the non-fiction collection, “The Flatness and Other Landscapes,” and a fictitious travel guide, “The Blue Guide to Indiana.” He co-edited “Scribner’s Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction.”

Joel Mask is associate director of student media at UA.

Felicia Mason is executive director of the Alabama Press Association, based in Birmingham.

Sheri Monfee represents Herff Jones Yearbooks in Montgomery.

Ander Monson is editor of the online magazine DIAGRAM and the online anthology Climate Controlled and is managing editor of the literary website Web Del Sol. His fiction and poetry have appeared in The Florida Review and the New Orleans Review, and he has taught English classes for years in both Iowa and Alabama.

Dan Murphy is assistant director of marketing in the UA athletics department, where he serves as art director. A former photo director and managing editor of UA’s student newspaper, the Crimson White, he landed his first photography job, at the Peekskill (N.Y.) Herald, at age 15. His photographs have appeared in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Mobile Register, Huntsville Times, Tuscaloosa News and Anniston Star.

Michael Palmer is a staff photographer at the Tuscaloosa News. His photo of a distraught neighbor, Mike Harris, carrying an injured child, 6-year-old Whitney Crowder, from tornado wreckage in December 2000 was reproduced nationwide.

Marc Petersen is the station manager of WVUA (90.7 FM), UA’s student radio station.

Laura Schaub of Norman, Okla., director of the Oklahoma Interscholastic Press Association and associate professor of journalism at the University of Oklahoma, taught high school journalism for 22 years in Sand Springs, Okla. Her books include “Scholastic Yearbook Fundamentals” and “Magazine Fundamentals,” both published by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Terry Siggers is production and technology manager of the Office of Student Media at UA.

Kip Tyner hosts “Great Day Tuscaloosa” on Comcast Channel 20 and is a member of the Tuscaloosa City Council.

The per-person registration fee is $40 for ASPA member publications and $50 for non-member publications. Registration is at 9 a.m. Friday, March 7, at the Ferguson Theater. The registration fee includes a karaoke and pizza party Friday night and a continental breakfast Saturday.

For registration information, contact the ASPA office at 205/348-9298, aduncan@sa.ua.edu.