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SPRING 2013
Page 2A
Do the
right thing
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journalism at the University of
Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn. Later,
he completed a Ph.D. in student press law at Southern Illinois, Carbondale, and headed
for eastern Pennsylvania
where his wife had a job offer.
He began his career at Temple in 1981 in the journalism
department where he served
for 13 years as a journalism
professor and was the chair of
the department for five years.
He also served as associate
dean of the graduate school
for four-and-a-half years.
During his teaching career,
Eveslage served on the Pa.
School Press Association
(PSPA) board of directors
for 17 years where he wrote
quarterly articles called “Legal
Pad” to provide students and
advisers the most current
legal views on student press
law. He also served on the
Journalism Education Association Scholastic Press Rights
Commission (JEASPRC)
for nearly 22 years and still
serves on the board of the
Student Press Law Center
(SPLC).
Though he has left the formal classroom, Eveslage still
has some advice for journalism teachers.
“Teachers are specialists
in their field, so take your job
seriously by continuing to
improve your teaching skills,”
he said. “Help students see
that the quality of their paper
must meet high standards.
Students have to tweak their
work to make sure it’s the best
writing quality. You have to
ratchet up your quality so you
can tell administrators ‘We’re
not going to make mistakes to
give you reason to censor.’ ”
He praised JEA and CSPA
for the work they have done
to help advisers and students
improve scholastic journalism
since the Hazelwood decision. He has seen the radical
impact of the Hazelwood decision over the past 25 years.
“Students avoid writ-
ing boldly, and they allow
themselves to be easily
intimidated. We are getting a
generation of sheep coming
to journalism,” said Eveslage,
who believes this to be the
direct fallout of Hazelwood.
Eveslage has also seen a
huge increase in the focus on
ethics.
“Advisers and students
should not just keep doing
what they do,” he said. “They
need to think about what is
right to do and then do the
right thing.”
“Tom’s [Legal Pad] columns
did what PSPA is still not
doing today, even though we
have the Internet and email:
the columns educated student
journalism advisers all across
the state, at every kind of secondary school without regard
for size, location or funding,”
said PSPA President Robert Hankes. “The columns
were a tremendous asset
to teachers who may have
been otherwise isolated from
current ideas about student
press law. Advisers who were
unable to attend conventions
or belong to national press
Adviser Update
Update photo by John Bowen
EDUCATOR —Tom Eveslage accepts the Scholastic Journalism Division
of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Journalism Educator of the Year Award in 2003 from then division head John
Hudnall.
associations could count on
Tom’s columns to keep them
in the loop. Each column was
like a free short lecture from
Temple’s journalism program
— what a deal.”
Hankes also shared that
Eveslage’s involvement in
student journalism is still in full
swing.
“I’ve always been
impressed by Tom’s readiness
to help student journalists in
any way he can. I remember him presenting at PSPA
conventions when I was just
learning about student journalism as a new adviser in the
1990s. Today, he’s still presenting at our conventions,
Continued on page 3A
HAZELWOOD — Tom Eveslage offers input during the Hazelwood symposium marking the 25th anniversary of the
U.S. Supreme Court decision. The two-day symposium was held at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill last
November. The conference attracted about 100 educators, students, attorneys, civic education proponents and others from the across the nation. Update photo by Randy Swikle
TRUSTEE — The Quill and Scroll Board of Trustees toured the new Philip D. Adler Journalism and Mass Communication Building at the University of Iowa in 2005. Tom Eveslage, Richard Johns