Charles Apple

The football coach at Texas A&M-Commerce said he was proud of his team for hoarding copies of the school’s student newspaper last week, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Coach Guy Morriss is quoted as saying:

I’m proud of my players for doing that. This was the best team building exercise we have ever done.

A student gazes longingly into an empty student newspaper
rack last Thursday. Photo from the East Texan web site.
—

The East Texan of Texas A&M-Commerce reported that Lt. Jason BoneBryan Vaughn and assistant chief of the University Police Department interviewed coach Morriss on Friday, the day after the papers disappeared.

Bone asked Morriss if he had seen the most recent issue of the paper. Morriss replied with negative comments regarding The East Texan.

“I don’t read that crap,” he said.

Bone said he then showed Morriss the top headline on the front page of the edition, which read, “Football players arrested in drug bust.” To this Morriss responded he did not pay any attention to that crap. Morriss then asked for clarification on how taking a free paper was considered theft.

Attorney Advocate for the Student Press Law Center Adam Goldstein said the actions taken by members of the football team are illegal.

Find the East Texan’s story about the missing papers here. Go here to read the original story about the drug bust.

Michigan State visual journalism professor Karl Gude will have surgery today on a knee he injured Tuesday.

Karl posted at Facebook overnight:

Fell on some steps at MSU today and totally blew out my knee! Ripped tendons, dislocated knee cap. Ambulance ride.

That’s him, strapped to the gurney and about to be loaded into the ambulance. He uploaded the photo to Twitter late Tuesday.

It’s a ruptured tendon, Karl’s wife, Dorsey, writes on Facebook. Karl says he’s in no pain, but Dorsey writes that’s because of the drugs.

Among the other things Karl has posted:

• Dorsey took a huge interest in the good-looking surgeon who’ll work on Karl’s knee today.
• They woke him up at 1:15 a.m. this morning to draw blood.
• His 70-year-old roommate watches Fox News and Bill O’Reilly nonstop. So Karl is using earplugs.

Surgery is scheduled for this afternoon.

One of the better infographics brains on the planet, Karl has served as graphics director for United Press International, the New York Daily News, the National sports daily, the Associated Press and Newsweek. Find examples of Karl’s work here.

The Collegiate Times — Virginia Tech’s student newspaper — has been told by the school’s Student Affairs commission that it could have its funding cut.

All because it allows anonymous comments on its web site. Seriously.

Tonia Moxley of the Roanoke Times reports today:

The Collegiate Times was notified in writing this week by the Commission on Student Affairs that it may be in violation of the university’s “Principles of Community” for allowing anonymous online comments to be posted to its Web site.

In a letter to Kelly Wolff, general manager of the Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech, dated Feb. 8, commission chairwoman Michelle McLeese laid out a proposal that, if approved, would cut university funding to the paper, which is owned by EMCVT, a legally independent entity.

Despite its independence, the newspaper receives free office space and $70,000 annually from the university, Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Spencer said.

The commission would further seek to ban student organizations from using university funds to buy ads in the CT, the letter stated.

The Collegiate Times did incredibly good work during the huge shooting incident there three years ago. Go here for my story about the events that week.

In fact, a photographer for the Collegiate Times, Shaozhuo Cui, was shooting pictures in front of the the main administration building next to Norris Hall — the classroom building where most of the killings happened when campus police suddenly realized he matched the profile that had been reported of the shooter. They arrested him in full sight of the other photographers, including Alan Kim of the Roanoke Times:

He wasn’t released until hours later.

Former Editor & Publisher reporter Joe Strupp writes:

I suggested three years ago that the paper be considered for a Pulitzer Prize for its work,which was honored when its editor was invited to the White House Correspondents Dinner that year. This cutback in funding would be the ultimate irony and the ultimate shame.

Find the Roanoke Times story here.

Find the Collegiate Times‘ web site here.

In an apologetic opinion piece Sunday, the student-run Independent Florida Alligator in Gainesville states:

Before we talk about anything else in this editorial, we would like to say one thing: We still have a lot to figure out.

After all, we are students.

The issue: Texting donations to Haiti. The cartoon — which apparently ran last Thursday — shows a couple texting their donation while having sex. It’s a little too not safe for work to embed (Heh!) here, but check it out here — if you’re not using company bandwidth.

The editorial says:

When deciding to run that cartoon, we in no way wanted to make light of the situation that happened in Haiti.

…We were simply trying to show how people have come together to help the Haitians in their time of need, as we do when we publish stories about the relief efforts of students — only with the cartoon, we were giving it a humorous spin. We understand that Haitians are dealing with a horrible tragedy, and we would never want to treat the situation insensitively. But despite the heartbreak, we see beauty in the way the world is coming together to help Haitians. Our cartoon was simply an acknowledgment of the fact that people are joining together to get behind a cause.

In addition, the paper ran another cartoon Sunday to help underscore how unintentional this error had been:

Heh. Not bad.

This cartoon, too, also ran Thursday and also dealt with Haiti donations. The subject: Pop musician Lady GaGa:

Find the Sunday editorial here.

Normally, the Independent Florida Alligator posts its editorial cartoons here. This one, however, is posted with sex-oriented columns and cartoons in the paper’s features section.

We found this today via Jim Romenesko’s blog.

Kyle Ellis has been hired as a features designer for the New York Post, he announced late last week.

Kyle graduated last spring from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. He spent the last three years as a designer and artist for the Ball State Daily News, where he built pages and centerpieces and wrote an occasional column. He interned in 2008 with the Courier and Press in Evansville and then this past year with the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

I’ll be working mostly in features with the understanding that I’ll be helping out in news as needed.

Obviously, I’m incredibly excited. I feel like I’ve won the lottery to land a features design position with such a storied paper… especially as my first gig out of school. I can’t wait to get started!

Kyle starts his new job Feb. 1. He’s never even been to New York, he says. He’s welcoming any advice folks can give him on housing options.

Find his portfolio here.