2012 November 20-January 24
In this Media Update, we summarize the dozens of news stories and editorials featuring Wagner College that were published between Nov. 20, 2011 and Jan. 26, 2012. Highlighted are stories about the Port Richmond Partnership, Seahawks men's basketball and the Carey Institute's resident expert on recall elections, Joshua Spivak. The hot links at the end of each summary paragraph allow you to download the stories and essays so that you can read them for yourself.
PORT RICHMOND PARTNERSHIP HIGHLIGHTED Dec 2 New York 1New York 1’s Aaron Dickens filed a story about Wagner College students gathered to educate Port Richmond High School students about health and civic leadership.
Watch the New York 1 story about the Port Richmond Partnership Dec 6 Staten Island AdvanceThe Staten Island Advance covered the second event in the PRHS health fair series, this one conducted in the Union Atrium.
Read the story about the health fair event in the Advance Dec 7 Staten Island AdvanceThe Advance ran a story on the 9th annual anti-bias summit at Port Richmond High School, which included a brief mention of Wagner College’s participation. Professors and students from LC-20 moderated a session on bias on the North Shore and the role of youth mentors.
Read the story about the 9th annual summit Jan 11 AdvanceAn Advance story chronicled the address given the previous day by Wagner College President Richard Guarasci at a White House event, laying out the innovative strategy behind the Port Richmond Partnership.
Read the story about President Guarasci address in the Advance BASKETBALL'S HOLIDAY RUN Dec 24The Seahawk men’s basketball team had an incredible run during the winter break, marked by extraordinary coverage in the local and national media:
Dec 24 Staten Island AdvanceCormac Gordon of the Staten Island Advance documented Wagner’s stunning 5-point win the night before over the #15 Pitt Panthers.
Read the story about the Pitt game in the Advance Dec 28 Staten Island AdvanceA few days later, Gordon recorded another Seahawk milestone: the Pitt win had landed Wagner a vote in the weekly Associated Press Top 25 poll. “It’s the first time in anyone’s memory that a Wagner team was voted in the Top 25 by any poll anywhere, never mind the AP poll,” Gordon wrote.
Read the story about the poll in the advance Dec 28 New York Times & Wall Street JournalBoth the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times ran stories on the soaring Seahawks. In the Times: “On Staten Island, a Team Resurfaces as Relevant.” And in the Journal: “Running Drills With a College Legend,” about assistant coach Bobby Hurley.
Read the stories in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal Dec 31Capping off this amazing run was the near-miraculous winning basket heaved by Kenny Ortiz from behind the basket as the buzzer sounded to end the championship game in the Cable Car Classic tournament. News stories in the Advance and the San Francisco Chronicle document the details — but there’s nothing like watching the game video itself, which has garnered 1,374,143 hits on YouTube.
Read and Watch the stories about the game JOSHUA SPIVAK, RECALLS EXPERT Nov 20Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at Wagner College’s Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform, has become established as perhaps the nation’s foremost expert on recall elections. He is much in demand as an expert source for news stories on recall elections and an author of op-ed essays for local, regional, national and — most recently — international publications. His op-eds usually serve to place a particular local recall drive in historic context.
Nov 20 WTVC TVWTVC TV, the Chattanooga, Tenn. ABC affiliate, aired a story on the Chattanooga mayoral recall drive, which cited contextual data provided by Spivak.
Watch the story on WTVC TV Nov 23 Nooga.comNooga.com, a local news website in Chattanooga, Tenn., ran an op-ed by Spivak musing on the legal problems posed by the imprecise language of the city charter’s recall provision.
Read the essay on Nooga.com Dec 2 NPRCorey Dade of NPR’s “It’s All Politics” drew upon Spivak as a source for this story, “Why Recall Elections Are So Difficult to Pull Off.”
Read the story featuring Joshua Spivak on NPR Dec 10 The Contra Costa Times and the Oakland TribuneThe Contra Costa Times and the Oakland Tribune, two of Northern California’s Bay Area dailies, ran Spivak’s op-ed on the drive to recall Oakland Mayor Jean Quan.
Read the essay in The Contra Costa Times and the Oakland Tribune Dec 17 The Topeka Capital JournalThe Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal drew upon Spivak as an expert source for a news story on the effort to recall the Shawnee County treasurer.
Read the story in the Topeka Capital-Journal Dec 24 The DailyThe Daily, Rupert Murdoch’s online daily national news website, ran Spivak’s op-ed, “Do Better or Get Out,” which said that, historically, presidential re-election bids that did not improve upon their original Electoral College ballot count were defeated.
Read the essay in the Daily Dec 27 Los Angeles TimesIn an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times, Spivak contended that the expansion of communications technology was the primary factor behind the increase in the number of recall drives.
Read the op-ed essay in the Los Angeles Times Jan 5 The DailyFollowing the Iowa caucuses, Spivak’s op-ed in The Daily said that the New Hampshire primaries played a much more important role in choosing presidential candidates.
Read Joshua Spivak's essay in the Daily Jan 5 USA TodaySpivak was cited as an expert source in a USA Today story on the drive to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
Read the USA Today story Jan 17 WTMJOn the day signatures were turned in for the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall drive, WTMJ talk radio in Milwaukee interviewed Spivak on the percentage of signatures that would likely be declared invalid.
Listen to the WTMJ interview Jan 17As petition signatures were counted in the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall drive, several news outlets called upon Spivak for expert commentary, including the Associated Press, the Wisconsin Reporter and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Read the source citations featuring Joshua Spivak Jan 19 CNN InternationalCNN International ran Spivak’s op-ed essay, “Why Are Negative Political Ads Good for Us?” on its website.
Read the essay on CNN International Jan 23 City & StateCity & State, a news website on the politics of New York City and State, ran Spivak’s op-ed discouraging the creation of a 63rd state senate seat in the redistricting process currently underway.
Read the essay in City & State Jan 24 Politics.co.ukIn a leap across The Pond, Spivak wrote an op-ed for politics.co.uk, the self-styled “leading independent political website in Britain,” bringing U.S. historical perspective to bear on a new proposal to institute a recall mechanism in the United Kingdom.
Read the essay in politics.co.uk MORE WAGNER IN THE NEWS Dec 3 Staten Island AdvanceA story in the Staten Island Advance previewed that afternoon’s dedication of the Margaret and Henry Murphy Sports Memorabilia Collection, on permanent exhibit in the Spiro Sports Center.
Read the story about the dedication in the Advance Dec 6 Staten Island AdvanceAdvance arts editor Michael J. Fressola reviewed a joint holiday choral performance by the Wagner College Choir and the Richmond Choral Society. Two earlier previews of the concert are also included in this link.
Read the story about the performance in the Advance Dec 18 AdvanceIn the wake of a collegiate cheating scandal in New Jersey, Advance reporter Frank Donnelly prepared a story on the academic honesty policies and incidences of cheating at the three Staten Island colleges. Professor Horst Onken, chairman of Wagner’s Academic Honesty Committee, explained our very comprehensive policies to Donnelly.
Read the story about academic honesty Dec 19 AdvanceAn Advance story marked the conclusion of the more-than-year-long celebration of the 350th anniversary of the European settlement of Staten Island, which had been led by co-chairwoman Lori Weintrob, who chairs the History Department at Wagner. Also active in the committee was Carin Guarasci of the Education Department.
Read the story about the 350th anniversary of Staten Island Jan 1 AdvanceThe New Year’s Day edition of the Advance featured an “A, B, C” of the previous year’s art scene on Staten Island. In the “W” position? Guess who!
Read the story about the Art Scene on Staten Island Jan 12 Bloomfield LifeWagner College history professor Rita Reynolds’ op-ed essay on the status of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream for America was distributed by the Wagner College News Service to its nearly 450 weekly newspaper partners located in communities throughout the northeastern United States. One of those papers, Bloomfield (N.J.) Life, drew upon Dr. Reynolds’ essay in crafting its own King Day editorial.
Read the story in Bloomfield life Jan 16And here is Dr. Reynolds’ King Day essay itself, “Still Just a Dream? After nearly half a century, the goals articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous speech are not yet fully realized in American life.”
Read the story about the Martin Luther King Jr. Day essay