Speakers, Scholarships and Ice Cream – It’s J-Days

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Walter J. Lemke department of journalism is celebrating its annual J-Days week April 8-12. Along with scholarship awards and the Roy Reed Lecture Series, Lemke seniors will be honored at ice cream social and local reporters will take part in a business journalism seminar.

Gene Foreman – who has spent half a century as a journalist – will be the speaker for the Roy Reed Lecture Series, presented April 10. The public is invited to hear the speech at the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House at 7 p.m.

Students receiving scholarships will be recognized at a reception earlier in the day at the Alumni House. Parents and scholarship donors, as well as students and the public, are invited to the reception at 3-4:30 p.m. The Lemke Scholarship program is one of the oldest on campus.

The Lemke Seniors Ice Cream Social, sponsored by the Lemke Alumni Society, will be staged behind Kimpel Hall from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 9. There will be gift bags for the seniors, including coupons for Fayetteville restaurants and door prizes for those who attend.

The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is presenting its business journalism seminar on Friday, April 12. The all-day seminar, co-sponsored by the journalism department is free to regional professionals and students who have registered.

The second annual Lemke online auction to support the student travel fund was completed in late March. “Woo Bid Sooie” raised $3,000 with items such as two tickets to watch a football game from Chancellor Gearhart’s skybox, a personal tour of Crystal Bridges with Sandy Edwards, and footballs signed by new Razorback coach Bret Bielema. 

During the week, alumni and other professionals will visit classrooms to talk to students.

The Roy Reed Lecture Series was created to honor Roy Reed, a renowned writer and reporter for the Arkansas Gazette and the New York Times. Reed taught journalism for 16 years at the University of Arkansas where he stressed not only the importance of telling stories accurately but of telling them well, with special consideration for language.

Foreman retired in 1998 after 25 years managing newsroom operations at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Previously he was the managing editor of the Pine Bluff Commercial and the Arkansas Democrat in Little Rock. He also served as a reporter and assigning editor at the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock, a copy editor at the New York Times, and the senior editor in charge of news and copy desks at Newsday. He was president of the Associated Press Managing Editors in 1990 and was a board member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors from 1995 to 1998.

After his retirement from  the Inquirer, he joined the Pennsylvania State University faculty, teaching news editing and journalism ethics for 17 semesters. He ended his full-time teaching career in December 2006 but continues as a visiting professor, directing a conference of distinguished writers who make presentations to the students.

 In 2009, Wiley-Blackwell published his textbook on journalism ethics, The Ethical Journalist: Making Responsible Decisions in the Pursuit of News.

For updates, news and reminders about all J-Days events, go to Facebook and Twitter at Lemke Journalism Days and UofAJDays, or the website, jdays.uark.edu.