Anne and Roger Return to Ithaca

Former editor in chief Anne Walters Custer ’05 and husband Roger Custer ’04 came to town Wednesday night and stopped by the Ithacan office to meet the current crew. In addition to meeting students, Anne also got to meet some of the journalism faculty who have come on board since she graduated. Roger was here to spend time with politics professor Marty Brownstein before his retirement at the end of the semester. Anne is a reporter and editor with Deutsche Presse-Agentur in Washington, D.C., and Roger is a conference director with Young America's Foundation.

Treasures from Overseas

Our own Adam Ellick ’99 was featured in a "Talk of the Town" piece in the April 19 issue of The New Yorker magazine. "Show-and-Tell" described a "Tchotchke Night" meeting of the Overseas Press Club of America, during which members shared items they've brought back from war zones. Ellick, who is a New York Times reporter, brought a "burka bottle cover" from Afghanistan: "a miniature green burka, about the size of a fifth of vodka." Another correspondent countered that what Ellick had was not a bottle cover at all, but a burka for a Barbie.

Design Across a Decade

Former Ithacan design editor (and later managing editor) Melissa Bluey ’00 (left) stopped in the office Saturday to sit down with current design editor Michelle Barrie ’10 to discuss magazine work and careers. Missy is assistant art director at The Atlantic magazine. She and her husband, former Ithacan editor in chief Rob Bluey ’01, were in town along with 1-year-old baby Ben so Rob could attend the college Alumni Association Board of Directors meeting.

Ithaca College in the Times

Check out this article from yesterday's New York Times, "At Upstate Campus, Saving Energy is Part of Dorm Life," which quotes Ithacan sustainability blogger Becky Webster, among others. Apparently we're "a campus known for its embrace of all things sustainable."

Libby Sile ’11 Named Ithacan Editor in Chief

The Ithaca College Board of Student Publications has selected Libby Sile ’11 to serve as the 2010–11 editor in chief of The Ithacan. The board met Tuesday night and conducted the candidate interview with Sile, who is currently studying in Dublin, via Skype.

Sile, a Park Scholar, is a junior with a double major in journalism and politics. She has worked as an Ithacan reporter, assistant news editor, news editor and opinion editor. In addition, she has interned at the Hartford (Conn.) Courant and the Ithaca Journal, and has been awarded a prestigious American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) internship for summer 2010. She was recently named a winner of the 2010 Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition.

Ithacan Named Best in the Northeast

The Society of Professional Journalists has named The Ithacan the Best Non-Daily Newspaper in the Northeast region for 2009.

The paper received the First Place Mark of Excellence Award on April 10 at the SPJ's Region 1 spring conference at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in New York. It now goes on to compete against the winners in the other 11 SPJ regions for the national Mark of Excellence award, which will be announced at SPJ's national conference October 3–5 in Las Vegas.

This is the third year in a row The Ithacan has been named best in the Northeast by SPJ; two years ago the paper was ranked number two in the country.

In addition, the following students received awards for work published in The Ithacan in 2009:

Allison Wassink ”09: Second place, sports photography

Andy Swift ’09: Third place, feature story

Allison Usavage ’11: Third place, photo illustration

Shown in photo (from left): Ithacan Editor in Chief Lindsey Hollenbaugh ’10 and Ithaca College SPJ Chapter President Jackie Palochko ’11 with the award certificate.

Behind the Scenes with Vanessa at the Times

Vanessa Schneider ’07 made her New York Times video debut in today's segment of "Times Cast," the Times Web site's feature offering an look inside the newsroom and some of the stories being covered. Vanessa is a Social Media News Assistant at the Times. She comes in around minute 4:50, discussing reader reaction to a leaked video showing an American helicopter firing on Iraqi civilians.