Cash, a member of the College of Communication Advisory Council, made periodic visits to the classroom to discuss the semester-long project . Students in the class traveled to Clute, Freeport and other Brazoria communities both individually and in groups to work on their stories. Reese said he would like to see the project serve as a model for instruction in the future. Cash, now publisher and editor of The Baytown Sun , will work with Lasorsa and the class again in the Spring 2000 semester on a similar project for her new paper. The course, J381, Topic 5, is designed for graduate students in the Department's professional master's track.
Students learn advanced reporting and editing techniques, including computer-assisted reporting.
Without the computer-assisted reporting techniques, some of the work would have been very difficult or even impossible to accomplish. Lasorsa, associate chairman of the department, said the department's new undergraduate curriculum will allow students more freedom to take courses that will build upon their specialized skills and interests, such as computer-assisted reporting. Other Texas publishers and editors interested in this or other cooperative projects with the Journalism Department are encouraged to contact Reese or Lasorsa.