Happy 50th anniversary to Morrisville State College journalism, the little program that can

I joined a few other folks at the end of July and went back to my roots. The journalism program at Morrisville State College turned 50 years old this year, and fortunately, retired professor Brian McDowell fought hard to celebrate the occasion. And he wasn’t even around at the start. No, that was a department…

A big World Series for father-and-son Mets fans

The other kid from Long Island came up to Morrisville a year later than I did, but we hit it off pretty quickly that late August of 1978. Jimmy Johnson was a journalism major at the little two-year college in the State University of New York system tucked into the Cherry Valley of Central New…

Shift Happens to the Best of Us

They threw a big party for one of my former teachers down in North Carolina in July. “Big Jer” is what those of us who are part of the cult of journalism that connects those who set foot upon the campus of the little college in Morrisville, N.Y., with the pursuit of the that honored…

The end of an era for the little program that could

Brian McDowell took the podium at his final year-end Journalism Convocation at the State University of New York at Morrisville last week. The professor looked somewhat happy to be able to pack away his books and belongings and go back home to spend more time with his wife. And he looked somewhat sad in the…

You taught your students well, and we still appreciate it

Neal and Carol Bandlow laughed when I brought up how a car full of us Morrisville Agricultural and Technical College journalism students would pull into their driveway just a couple miles east of the campus and think nothing about knocking on the door and being welcomed in. That was back in what I consider my…