Two sides of the student journalism coin

Rays of light, encroaching darkness. And that’s the last week in journalism education, not the lunar eclipse.

Journalism students at Columbia University, home of the Pulitzer Prizes and a bastion of journalism education, heard a warning from an adjunct legal expert as well as their dean, Jelani Cobb, in the wake of the recent arrest and threatened deportation of protestor Mahmoud Khalil. The adjunct urged international students to use extreme caution when publishing comments or original reporting. The New York Times reported that Cobb went further when a Palestinian student objected.  “Nobody can protect you,” he said. (Cobb elaborated in a later statement and objected to the Times’ framing.)

It’s officially feeling dystopian around here. Using polygraphs to find leakers? A green card-holding student protestor being potentially deported?

Then, a light in the dark in the form of … a college basketball coach?

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