By Shara Holt

Taking a sabbatical is a common practice for professors. However, what about a newspaper reporter taking a sabbatical from the newsroom in order to teach college? That's exactly what has been happening for some Salt Lake Tribune employees.

The program is the brainchild of Jay Shelledy, former Salt Lake Tribune editor. He said the deal works like this: the Tribune sends one experienced reporter each semester to teach two classes for the Utah State University Journalism & Communication Department (JCOM). It is a three-year arrangement, and the Tribune pays the reporters' regular salary, benefits and travel expenses while they are working as instructors. The reporters continue to work at the newspaper one day a week to stay connected to the newsroom.

Ted Pease, department head of the JCOM Department at USU said the agreement is a great deal. In fact, it is valued as a $100,000 in-kind donation.

"It's a hefty commitment," Pease said.

The idea started in 2002 at a JCOM Advisory Board meeting. Pease explained to the committee the status of the department. He was working with a limited budget but wanted to increase student-teacher ratios.

"Ted Pease had an excellent program in place there on a criminally limited budget." Shelledy explained. Shelledy said he had been thinking about creating a program similar to this for his reporters.

Shelledy saw the deal as a win-win situation.

"It would serve USU's most critical need and give newsroom veterans a chance to clear their brains while passing along practical experience and knowledge of their craft to the next crop of journalists," he said.

According to Shelledy, the managing editor, the assistant managing editors and he made the decision about who would be a visiting professional. He said they all agreed to refrain from "ruling out" key staffers from the program.

"We didn't want to redline the best people," Shelledy said. "These top personnel were precisely who needed to be imparting wisdom to their eventual replacements."

The first Tribune reporter to come on board to the program was News Editor David Noyce. He's worked at the Tribune for nearly 20 years. He taught two classes in the fall semester of 2003. He said he was able to use many of his newsroom experiences in his classroom, especially when the class discussed ethical issues.

"We talked about covering city council meetings . . . and the importance of seeking the truth and telling readers what actually happened even if it could be critical of city leaders," Noyce said. "I had a student ask me, 'But, if you write what really happened, won't the city leaders be mad at you?' I responded, 'I sure hope so.'"

Sophomore Tyler Riggs took one of Noyce's classes. He said that while he doesn't want to take away from the quality of the other JCOM teachers, taking a class from an editor of a major newspaper was a very unique experience that he would like to do again.

"[Noyce] was able to come right out of the newsroom and give us current real life examples," Riggs said.

The experience also gave Riggs the opportunity to network with people at the Tribune. He now occasionally helps Noyce by writing stories or gathering quotes about the Logan area.

Junior Emilie Holmes was also in Noyce's class. She said what she liked about the opportunity to learn from a reporter was that he used real world examples every day. He also brought guest speakers from the Tribune several times, she said.

This semester Kristen Moulton, Northern Utah reporter for the Tribune, was selected to teach classes this semester. She said she has had a little experience with teaching because she taught at a community college in Arizona before. Moulton said when Shelledy asked for volunteers she put her name in for consideration almost immediately.

"This semester has been great because until you step back and think about what it is you do for a living, it's easy to forget why you got into it in the first place," Moulton said. "It's rejuvenated me and renewed my commitment to be a better journalist."

Shelledy pointed out that one of the benefits of the program was having the visiting professionals return to the newsroom as "energized journalists."

The program appears to be unique in the nation, Pease said. The department already has several professionals teaching as adjuncts, but their paycheck comes from the department, not a sponsor like the Tribune.

Other universities invite professional to teach, but it usually lasts only a day or maybe a week.

For example, New Mexico State University received an $8,000 grant last semester to pay for two professionals from the Albuquerque Journal to help conduct classes and hold seminars, according to an NMSU newspaper article. The grant came from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and allowed the professionals to visit for a week each.

Central Missouri State University invites public relations professionals to come into their classrooms for one day each year. According to event organizer Suzanne Heck, one of the program's goals is to showcase department majors to outside professionals.

The Los Angeles Times partners with high schools to provide professionals as mentors to the students in the classroom. According to their Web site, Lydia Ramos, the journalism advisor at Banning and a former journalist, said having professionals in the classroom was inspirational for the students.

Whitney Ryser, sophomore at USU and student in Moulton's beginning newswriting class, said taking classes for a whole semester from a professional is good because, "she's really credible and she knows exactly what an editor wants because she has to report to one for her regular job."

The program has definitely been a success so far, Pease said. It may be too early to make definitive conclusions, he said, but all indicators are positive.

Shelledy said, "My basic philosophy is that if the newspaper profession does not assist in the nurturing of the next generation of journalists, it has only itself to blame about the quality and quantity of the recruits."

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