VA Tech project: some helpful websites

I've been looking up a few websites for our VA Tech project. Here is what I have come up with:

http://www.vtreviewpanel.org/report/index.html
^ "The Virginia Tech Review Panel Report" This has many pages and is in pdf format. My mom found this this past year when she was working on the Cleveland school shooting case. She said it might be helpful

http://www.newsweek.com/id/32153
^ A newsweek article "How To Tell If Your School Is Safe"

http://www.montclair.edu/videos/CampusSafetyNews.pdf
^ Another long pdf format. "VT shooting puts spotlight on campus security"

http://www.alerts.vt.edu/safety_and_security.php
^ Some safety things VA Tech does. Could give us some tips on how to check if our campus is safe

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/08/02/summit.ART_ART_08-02-07_B3_2G7GO2H.html
^ A Columbus Dispatch article I found "VA Tech tragedy spurs safety summit"

Donating money to an issue your covering

I'm currently working an article about the Chicago Mission Team luncheon. As I was entering the Benes room (where the event was being held), I was asked if I wanted to buy a ticket so that I could have some pizza OR if I just wanted to donate money for their cause. Although I would have liked to donate a couple of dollars, I knew that goes against Journalism ethics. I cannot ethically endorse a cause that I am writing about. Even though this is only a college paper and it wouldn't have been the end of the world had I donated a couple dollars, I decided to stick to my guns and not donate money. It might have come off a little coldhearted, but oh well. I think I did the right thing.

Is interviewing a fellow journalism classmate unethical?

I was doing an article about Sisters United and The Onyx and I wondered if there would be an ethical issue with interviewing Shade Fakunle, the head of The Onyx. In past journalism classes we had talked about how it's kind of sketchy territory interviewing someone in our journalism class. However, Shade was the source of the information that I needed for my story. I wasn't sure what to do so I asked Professor Hinchey.

Here is his reply:

Here's my take: You, the reporter, are trying to get facts about The Onyx. You are not a member of The Onyx. You are not a member of Sisters United. Yes, Shade, is in your class. I don't know how well you know Shade. But even if you know her from 350 as only a classmate, I think it would be ethically OK to interview Shade about The Onyx in her role as someone who is involved in The Onyx. I would talk to her in a neutral setting, say Ham-Will? Does that make sense? Plan B would be find someone else in The Onyx, maybe someone that Shade could suggest as a resource. It would be one thing if you were BOTH on The Onyx, and you were interviewing Shade.


That really helped me a lot. I realized that it is kind of inevitable that I will run across someone who has been in one of my classes. As long as I keep it professional it should be alright.