A F O N D FA R E W E L LFriends and former co-workers give a hats-off to Rob Howard for his nearly 10 years of service to The Daily Orange. Page 4

M A K I N G N E W SD.O. alumni report, photograph and illustrate from around the world. Page 3

R E F L E C T I O N SDaily Orange staffers from the 1930s recount the stories they’ll always remember. Page 2

s p r i n g 2 0 1 1 a l u m n i n e w s l e t t e r | t h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t u d e n t n e w s p a p e r o f s y r a c u s e , n . y .

s p r i ng 2 0 1 1 1a l u m n i @ d a i l y o r a n g e . c o m

B raving a near-blizzard, my

managing editor Kathleen

Ronayne and I made the trek

from the East neighborhood to

the Newhouse complex early one

Saturday morning. Typically, we

wouldn’t be up that early. But as we

hiked through the quickly piling

snow, we knew the trip would be

worth it.

That Saturday morning kicked

off the bulk of a weekend celebrat-

ing The Daily Orange’s 40th anni-

versary of independence. We were

honored when we discovered

we’d be the management team in

charge of commemorating the

anniversary. But that excitement

quickly became nervousness —

we knew we’d need to pull it off

well.But at the end of the day,

after the room had cleared out

and we were left on our own, we

realized the day had been a suc-

cess. And boy, did that feel good.

As my time as editor in chief

winds down, I know the 40th anni-

versary celebration will stand out

most in my mind. Meeting alumni

who were in the same position

as me years ago is inspiring and

gratifying. If that doesn’t show me

why I work at The Daily Orange, I

don’t know what will.

The weekend began with a

casual meet-and-greet at 744

Ostrom for staff members to meet

alumni. Saturday was the bulk

of the celebration, with a daylong

series of speakers and discussions

held at Newhouse. The morning

began with stories about the 1971

independence, the 1991 financial

independence and finally, today’s

D.O. We also separated into

smaller groups to talk about more

specific topics — from sports

enterprise beat writing to finding

feature stories to covering issues

visually. The weekend ended

with a small goodbye brunch on

Sunday morning.

To commemorate the 40th

anniversary for the rest of cam-

pus, we published a small section

in that Thursday’s edition (to read

the content, visit dailyorange.

com/alumni). Kathleen and I

would like to thank everyone who

attended. It was more than any-

thing we could have imagined.

But that was not the only

K AT I E M c I N E R N E Y

such a chief

From the editor’s desk: Anniversary weekend successful, staffers receive awards for work

NEW FEATURES FOR ALUMNIFeeling nostalgic for your D.O. days?

See what your friends have been up to at alumni.daily-orange.com and make or update your own profile. Then check back in the next few months as we make improvements. Suggestions for the new site? Let us know by sending an email to alumni@dailyorange.com.

An easy way to contribute

Giving a gift is now as easy as making an online pur-chase: www.dailyorange.com/donate.

Stay up-to-date

Visit dailyorange.com/alumni for alumni newsletter archives and other content produced especially for our valued alumni until our alumni site is finished.

Alumni, we need your help!The newly relaunched Alumni Association is looking for volunteers to help with various projects.

Fundraising: Extra manpower is needed to run a fundrais-ing campaign. Contact Frank Surette at fsurette@aol.com or 703-736-1660.

Event/reunion planning: Help plan the next alumni weekend in Syracuse. We’d also like to organize regional meetups. Email alumni@dailyorange.com.

Newsletters: Article pitches and writing volunteers are always welcome. Contact Brittney Davies at brittney.davies3@gmail.com.

Mentoring: We’re looking for journalism vets to read over student work and provide feed-back, and advertising pros to help our business students. Email alumni@dailyorange.com.

SEE MCINERNEYPAGE 2

bright spot of this gray Syracuse winter.

Three former staff members were selected

for Region 1 Mark of Excellence awards by

the Society of Professional Journalists. Molly

Snee (art director, spring-fall 2010) earned

a first-place award for editorial cartooning

and will continue on to the national competi-

tion. Andrew Burton (special projects editor,

spring 2010) took home a second-place award

for feature photography from work at his

summer internship at The Oregonian. Jared

Diamond (sports editor, fall 2009) earned third

place in the sports writing category for a story

about the culture of lacrosse on Native Ameri-

can reservations near SU.

Staff members have accepted internships

at several reputable news outlets: The Center

for Responsive Politics, The Buffalo News,

The Denver Post, Alloy, The Cleveland Plain-

Dealer and Newsday, among others. Most staff

members are waiting to hear back. But if last

year is any indication, The D.O. will again see

its editors employed by some of the top publica-

tions across the country.

Kathleen and I will be stepping down from

our positions next semester to take on differ-

ent roles. Although we’re sad this year has

passed so quickly, we can only hope we set a

sturdy platform for our newest staff members.

As always, please reach out with any com-

ments, questions or concerns. Feedback from

alumni is not only helpful, but it’s also heart-

warming to hear from others who care about

The D.O. as much as we do.

Katie McInerney is the editor in chief of The Daily Orange. She previously held the position

of presentation director from fall 2009 to spring 2010. Contact her at editor@dailyorange.com.

2 s p r i ng 2 0 1 1 a l u m n i @ d a i l y o r a n g e . c o m

By Beckie StrumEDITORIAL EDITOR

I n the thick of the Great Depression,

Franklin Delano Roosevelt kicked off his

1936 re-election campaign from today’s

Armory Square in downtown Syracuse.

Virginia Wartman, an undergraduate stu-

dent at the time, remembers covering the

Democratic State Convention as one of the

most memorable and exciting moments as a

D.O. reporter. “My days at The Daily Orange

were a good time. The Democratic Convention

was held in Syracuse and I got to cover it,” she

said. “Of course it was not always that exciting.

I remember Syracuse held a bakers conven-

tion. I was so annoyed — all they talked about

was what do they do about stale bread.”

The fall of 1936 was also a time of change on

campus. The university had named William

P. Graham the new chancellor that summer,

after Charles Wesley Flint’s 14 years of leader-

ship. The now-iconic Maxwell School of Citi-

zenship and Public Affairs and a number of

other buildings — ones now relegated to SU’s

history — went up that year.

Having celebrated her 100th birthday last June,

Wartman said she remembers little from her SU

days, but with a few details, strung together a very

different country, university and newspaper.

Throughout the ’30s, The D.O.’s masthead

included a special group of women’s editors,

she said. She worked alongside about five other

women, and the job excused them from the 9

p.m. women’s curfew, which wasn’t fully lifted

until decades later.

“We were second-class citizens in the ’30s,

so of course there were curfews,” Wartman

recalled. “We had to be in at 9 o’clock — on

special occasions we could stay out to 11. But if

we worked at the paper, we got to stay out to at

least 1 a.m. It was one of the perks.”

Even though SU owned the paper, much of its

funding came from advertising, recalled Win-

ifred Skversky (’36), a former ad representative.

A host of department stores and locally owned

shops — Flah’s, H.J. Howe, Inc., and Edwards

Store for Men, all located on South Salina Street

— filled the paper, Skversky said. Many of the

businesses, excluding Varsity, were wiped out

during the city’s economic decline.

From their offices in the long-ago demol-

ished Yates Castle, D.O. staffers worked long

and hard hours, Wartman said.

Dorothy Hamburger (’39) remembers type-

writers, radios and cameras being the only

technology in the newsroom. “Certainly there

were no computers,” she said with a laugh. “It

seems when people talk about computers, each

time I say, ‘My gosh, how did we survive without

them?’ as we were doing any of the activities we

had to do. But we were always capable of doing

everything, somehow.”

The university required students to pass a

typing course, Wartman said.

“I remember an editor, Drew Middleton, who

later became a very famous journalist for the AP,”

she said with a laugh. “I remember we sat side by

side, trying to pass that freshman typing class.”

Wartman said she spent hours typing

articles, but her commitment to the paper

sometimes got in the way of academics — a

symptom that persists for D.O. staffers today.

Beckie Strum (‘12) is the editorial edi-tor at The Daily Orange. She can be reached

at opinion@dailyorange.com.

MCINERNEYF R O M P A G E 1

The goodold days

Alumni recall perks of working for The D.O. in the ‘30s: Covering FDR, strong ad sales and an excuse for the women’s curfew

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Ludewig 1952Mr. Larry Kramer 1972Mr. Robert S. Benchley 1974Mr. Robert Tischenkel 1974Mr. Patrick McCue 1985Mr. Stephen Cohen 1999Mr. Michael Swartz and Ms. Elyse Andrews 2006Mr. Michael D. Becker 2006Mr. Timothy Gorman 2007Mr. Matt Gelb 2009The Toby and Nataly Ritter Family Foundation

DONORLISTThank you for supporting independent student journalism. Your donation is appreciated.

RECENT

s p r i ng 2 0 1 1 3a l u m n i @ d a i l y o r a n g e . c o m

Alumni in JapanChico Harlan (’04), The Washington Post’s

East Asia correspondent, found himself in

the thick of Japan’s national disaster when

the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck.

In an email recounting his experiences a few

weeks ago, Harlan wrote, “In the last week I’ve

gotten a better sense for the destruction, as

I’ve spent a few days in some areas/towns that

were completely wiped off the map. Totally

annihilated… As a journalist in Japan, life is

exhausting (often) and thrilling (sometimes)

and plenty intimidating, too, when you think

about the weeks and months ahead.” Follow

his work at washingtonpost.com and his expe-

riences on Twitter @chicoharlan.

Andrew Burton (‘10) spent nine days travel-

ing in Japan to shoot photographs for USA

Today. His work appeared on the front page,

and he produced a video explaining some of his

photographs for the newspaper’s website. He

chronicled his trip through words and photos

on his personal blog, www.andrewburtonpho-

to.com/blog (scroll down for Japan coverage).

Follow him on Twitter @HABurton.

Alumna on Pulitzer-winning teamPaloma Esquivel (G ‘06), a former staff writer,

was part of a Los Angeles Times team recognized

with a 2011 Pulitzer Prize. Led by Ruben Vives

and Jeff Gottlieb, the reporters won top honors

in the public service category for exposing cor-

ruption in Bell, Calif. At The D.O., Esquivel wrote

about the role tenure played in faculty response

to the HillTV shutdown and the struggles of the

Onondaga Nation, among other topics.

Company named after a D.O. comicRyan Dunlavey’s (’93) nice-guy reputation

inspired the name of his D.O. comic strip. “It’s

like these were done by your evil twin,” the

then-art director said of Dunlavey’s “mean-

spirited” comics. And that was that. “Evil

Twin” became the title of the strip that ran

during his tenure as a D.O. illustrator.

It’s now the name of the comic book publish-

ing company Dunlavey launched in 2005 with

fellow SU alumnus Fred Van Lente, whom he

met in the campus club Comics Plus.

Evil Twin Comics’ first hit, the “Action

Philosophers!” series, light-heartedly summa-

rizes the lives and thoughts of prolific thinkers

such as Plato, Nietzsche and Thomas Jeffer-

son. It’s now sold as a comic anthology of the

history of philosophy.

The duo continued their nonfiction track with

“Comic Book Comics,” about the comic book

industry. No. 5, “The All-Lawsuit Edition,” was

published in March, and the last issue, which

covers graphic novels, Japanese comics and the

future of the industry, is slated for a June release.

—Compiled by Brittney Davies (’10)

and Kathleen Ronayne (’12)

N E W S M A K E R S

1998Kristen (Bergman) Morales (Lifestyle Editor) left her posi-tion as senior design editor at The Times in Gainesville, Ga., to pursue freelance writing and graphic design. Her recent projects include newspaper redesigns, InDesign training sessions and designing books, logos and brochures. She is married to Ed Morales, has a daughter, Sofia, 3, and lives in Athens, Ga.

2006Elyse Andrews (Managing Editor) and Mike Swartz (Pre-sentation Director) are getting married in August 2011 in New Hampshire. They currently live in Boston, where Elyse is an editor at Cabot Heritage Cor-poration and Mike owns a Web design and development firm, Upstatement. They met and fell in love at The Daily Orange.Jessica Hegger (Ad Represen-tative) was recently promoted after four years of moving up the chain at a Denver ad agency.

2009Heather Mayer (Copy Editor) was promoted from project manager to junior copywriter at grey healthcare group, a phar-maceutical advertising agency in New York City. She is also a freelance reporter for Carroll Gardens Patch, a hyperlocal news site for the Brooklyn neighborhood. She continues her love for copy editing as chief copy editor for The Juice Online, a Web-based publica-tion for Syracuse University athletics.

2010Brittney Davies (Copy Editor) joined the oodles of other D.O. alumni at The Star-Ledger. It’s almost like being on the 744 porch again, minus the floor slant.

A L U M N I U P DAT E S

Releasing a book soon? Win an award? Finish a degree?

Let us know! Submit your alumni

update to us at alumni@dailyorange.com.

In memoriamMore than two decades later, those who worked with Denise Cramsey (’90) at The D.O.

remember her work ethic and passion.

“She loved The Daily Orange and was my News Editor in 1989/90,” Bruce Carroll, the

paper’s editor in chief in 1990, wrote in an email. “I’m not sure there was a harder worker that

I’ve ever met in my life than Denise.”

Cramsey died in November of a brain aneurism. She was 41 and had recently executive

produced NBC’s “School Pride.”

After graduating from Syracuse in 1990, she became a producer at Medstar Television,

then Banyan Productions. She was an executive producer for TLC’s “Trading Spaces” and

ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” for which she was also showrunner.

Among other shows, she also worked on TLC’s “A Baby Story” and “A Wedding Story”

and ABC’s “True Beauty.” She received two Emmy Awards for “Extreme Makeover: Home

Edition,” and was nominated four other times.

Special thanks to:• Brittney Davies for organizing and editing the alumni newsletter• Kathleen Ronayne for editing and fact-checking alumni newsletter content• The Daily Orange Board of Directors• David Dwiggins (‘98) for overseeing the alumni website over the years• The Daily Orange Alumni AssociationQuestions? Comments? Feedback? Contact alumni@dailyorange.com or editor@dailyorange.com.Stay in touch! Facebook.com/dailyorangenews (profile)Facebook.com/thedailyorange (news)@dailyorange@DOSports

4 s p r i ng 2 0 1 1

Circulation: 175,000 or moreGame storyAndy McCullough (‘09), The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.)Greg Bishop (‘02), The New York TimesJeff Passan (‘02), Yahoo! SportsBreaking newsJackie Friedman (‘08), The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.)

Circulation: 30,000 to 75,000Game storyPete Iorizzo (‘04), Times Union (Albany)Feature writingTyler Dunne (‘10), Fayetteville (N.C.) ObserverTyler now works for The Buffalo (N.Y.) NewsExplanatory writingTyler Dunne, Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer

Circulation: Under 30,000Game storyChris Carlson (‘04), The Berkshire (Mass.) EagleChris now works for The Virginian-Pilot.

a l u m n i @ d a i l y o r a n g e . c o m

R ob Howard is a Daily Orange institu-

tion. He started as a sports writer,

worked his way through almost every

department, then rose to editor and eventu-

ally long-serving alumni board member. On

January 15, a group of alumni gathered in

Washington, D.C., for Rob’s wedding to his

high school sweetheart, Chrissy. The weekend

showcased Rob’s singular skill to bring us all

together, and we partied like it was a guide

night. Here are some of our memories of Rob

through the years:

Howard, Rob: A champion of journalistic

integrity who rose to power thanks to his

sharp wit, charismatic demeanor and a

general lack of viable competition. During the

rowdy aughties, he spearheaded a campaign to

reform Syracuse University’s corrupt Student

Association. Although no changes were actu-

ally made as a result, tens of students read the

barrage of articles with moderate interest. He

enjoys long conversations and short pants.

Eric “Snowflake” Grzymkowski

From f***ing with copy to dealing with the

consequences of printing the word f*** in 120-

point font, Rob did it all. Whether it was ask-

ing people for their input on sensitive stories

or coordinating spot-news coverage, he never

lost sight of the fact that The D.O. is a place to

hang out with your friends.

Ryan Gainor

When I came to The D.O. I was a D student

with some Photoshop skill, and Rob was a

huge inspiration to me as I learned to be

an adult. When we started our company,

Rob taught me how to build a business and

shmooze clients like a pro. Now that he’s

graduated to marriage, I think we can all

learn something from how Rob’s particular

brand of adulthood plays out.

Mike Swartz

Rob always said “College is a Sham” and

then, as if to prove it, he managed to complete

it in 2.5 years. Turns out life wasn’t any less

shammy — he breezed through building (and

selling) a Web start-up; helped start a success-

ful Web design firm (before bolting); married

his high school sweetheart and then took off

(fled) to South America ... just like the Nazis.

Jared Novack

Pup food did Rob in

But now he is pin thin

Half the man he used to be

Still the same ol’ Rob to me

Elyse Andrews

Tito and I, as a management team, decided

to hire Rob at The D.O. while… inebriated. Rob

did an amazing job. Considering some of the

a**holes we hired sober, we probably should

have done that more often.

Justin Young

[Tito Bottitta could not be reached for com-

ment — Ed.]

Sophomore year, Rob restored my faith in

journalism. Now, seven years later, as he’s

working on other ventures, I’m still writing. I

am forever grateful for that. And, even if they

don’t realize it, so too are the people of Dallas.

For without me, there would be no one review-

ing all these CDs from crappy local bands.

And, OK, some decent ones, too.

Pete Freedman

I’ll never forget the first time I met Rob.

We were both covering a field hockey game

for The D.O. We decided that I would write the

game story and Rob would write the sidebar.

Thank God, I thought, because I didn’t really

understand what a sidebar was. Neither,

apparently, did Rob. He wrote his sidebar,

which never ran, on the rules of field hockey.

That man went on to become one of the finest

editors in chief I ever had the honor to serve

under.

Scott Lieber

Rob ran The D.O.

As if it were a cruise ship

‘Oh, God, we’re sinking!’

Michael Becker

It’s about time we fawned over Rob Howard (‘05), who retired from the Board of Directors after nearly a decade of service to the paper. (He’s

currently kicking back in South America, living the newlywed life.)

D.O. Heart Rob

Special thanks to Mike Swartz for compiling the following:

D.O. alumni APSE winners of 2011The Associated Press Sports Editors ranked the work of these writers in the top 10 for the following categories. For more results and to see final placings, see http://apsportseditors.org/.

While we tried to ensure all D.O. alumni recognized by the APSE were included in this list, it is possible that names are missing here. If that’s the case, please email alumni@dailyorange.com.

Dave Levinthal (‘00) and Tiffany Lankes (‘03) filled Rob’s seat on the Board of Directors. We’re happy

to have them aboard.