June 20, 2007
The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce Hosts the Nation’s Best and Brightest Young Journalists at the Second Annual Presidency and the Press: A Conference for High School Media

White House Insiders and First in the Nation Primary Reporters to Share Knowledge and Insight During Week of Events from Saturday, June 23 to Friday, June 29

Schedule for the Week

RINDGE, NH – More than 30 young journalists from across the country will spend a week in New Hampshire immersed in the dynamics of presidential politics beginning on Saturday, June 23. A host of state and national experts will participate in the second annual The Presidency and the Press: A Conference for High School Media sponsored by The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce College.

Some of the country’s most engaged youth will learn about presidential politics, the media’s role in election coverage and the relationship between candidates and the press. During a week of intense training and hands-on practice, student journalists will work alongside seasoned political reporters who have covered the First in the Nation Primary and past presidential elections as well as White House insiders and campaign strategists.

Participants include Marlin Fitzwater, press secretary to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush; former White House photographer David Valdez; William Douglas, White House correspondent for McClatchy newspapers such as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Miami Herald; and Curt Smith, former presidential speechwriter and presidential rhetoric scholar at the University of Rochester.

Veteran New Hampshire journalists who will share their knowledge and decades of experience covering the First in the Nation Primary include David Tirrell-Wysocki, broadcast editor and general assignment reporter for the Associated Press and Executive Director of the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communication; Scott Spradling, political reporter for WMUR-TV; Joseph McQuaid, publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader; James Pindell political reporter and blogger for the Boston Globe.

Republican strategist and advisor for the Romney for president campaign Tom Rath and New Hampshire director for the Obama for President campaign Mike Rodriguez will also participate. Judy Reardon, former staffer for Governor Jeanne Shaheen and political strategist for the Kerry campaign and Mike Dennehy, Republican strategist and John McCain’s national political director will also lend their expertise.

The program runs from Saturday, June 23 through Friday, June 29 at the Fitzwater Center on Franklin Pierce College’s Rindge campus and includes trips to the college’s Manchester campus, the State House, WMUR-TV and the Union Leader newsrooms.

The Presidency and the Press is designed to prepare and immerse young people in the 2008 presidential election. Throughout the week, students will conduct interviews, write stories and produce news packages – all involving state and national media and political representatives.
“An important part of our mission involves educating leaders of conscience in public communication,” said Dr. George J. Hagerty, president of Franklin Pierce College. “The young people participating in this conference represent the best and brightest of the next generation of journalists. The Presidency and the Press represents our commitment to engage candidates and the electorate in the robust and open debate that is essential to healthy a democracy.”

New Hampshire students from Barrington, Concord, Hooksett, Manchester, Merrimack, Milton, Rindge and Rochester will participate in the conference along with students from:

 Illinois
 Maryland
 Nebraska
 New Jersey
 New York
 North Carolina
 North Dakota
 Oklahoma
 Pennsylvania
 Vermont
 Virginia
 Washington and
 Wisconsin

“The goal of this conference is to thoroughly train and engage these students in the presidential election process so that when they return to their high schools, they will inform and motivate their peers to get involved and participate in the democratic process,” said Dr. Kristen Nevious, Director of the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication. “We expect this experience will spill over into their college years and beyond.”

Also participating will be eight students and a faculty member from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Franklin Pierce University
and Wartburg College have collaborated to take advantage of both states’ first-in-the-nation status. The two colleges are participating in student and faculty exchanges, a speaker series and joint programming related to 2008 presidential election.

Highlights of the week include a briefing Monday, June 25th on Primary Strategy from the Media and Campaign Perspectives with Joseph McQuaid from the Union Leader, Jeff Barlett, general manager of WMUR-TV, Mike Dennehy and Judy Reardon. That same day, students will also visit various Presidential campaign headquarters in Manchester. On Tuesday, June 26th, the students are scheduled to meet with Governor John Lynch on the Granite State’s role in presidential politics. Later that afternoon, Curt Smith speaks to the students on campaign rhetoric and how to decipher factual stories from fiction on the campaign trail. On Wednesday, June 27th, Marlin Fitzwater will speak to the group on the inside of the White House Briefing Room.

Other highlights during the week include a master class in photojournalism conducted by David Valdez and a session on political cartooning with Lori Fischer, curator of the New Hampshire Political Library.

To ensure that students receive a comprehensive view from the Granite State, Franklin Pierce University
is partnering with several key organizations for the conference. They include the Nackey S. Loeb School for Communications and the New Hampshire Political Library.

For a daily schedule of activities and a list of participants please go to www.franklinpierce.edu   or contact Brian Stuart, Director of Marketing and Communications at 603-899-4221 or stuartb@franklinpierce.edu


Franklin Pierce is a four-year, coeducational, nonsectarian college located in New Hampshire. The main campus in Rindge, New Hampshire is situated on over 1,000 wooded acres on the shore of Pearly Pond near the base of Mount Monadnock. Franklin Pierce College's curriculum is a blend of traditional liberal arts, pre-professional study, teacher preparation programs, and a nationally-recognized core curriculum, “The Individual and Community.” The College also operates six Graduate & Professional Studies centers in Concord, Keene, Lebanon, Manchester, Portsmouth and online. For more information, please visit www.franklinpierce.edu , or call (800) 437-0048.

Tentative Conference Schedule (subject to change):

Saturday, June 23

Newsroom

After settling into campus life, the students will go through the press credentialing process and be introduced to the conference staff, each other and newsroom life.

10:00 a.m.
Registration, check-in and credentialing at Cheshire Hall. Continues through 4 p.m.

Noon
Lunch with the conference staff

1:00 p.m.
Tour of the Fitzwater Center

2:00 p.m.
Opening Session
with Dr. Kristen Nevious, Director of the Fitzwater Center

2:30 p.m.
Master Class: Photojournalism
with David Valdez, photojournalist and former White House photographer

5:00 p.m
Five at the Fitz, a live webcast from “The Presidency and The Press”

5:45 p.m
Welcome Dinner with Opening Keynote Address by William Douglas

7:00 p.m.
Newsroom: Evening Edition
Decisions must be made. Will you spend the week producing The Fitzwater E-Briefings, the conference’s online news publication with podcasting, blogging and videocasting? Or will you focus on Five at the Fitz, the daily five-minute live webcast and “The Presidency and The Press: 2007,” the hour-long wrap-up of the week’s events?

Once you make your selection, Dr. Nevious and the conference news staff will divide the group into news bureaus, review with you the week’s news budget, make the week’s assignments and post deadlines. Then it is time to get to work!

10:00 p.m.
Newsroom Deadline

11:00 p.m.
Lights Out

12:00 a.m.
The Fitzwater E-Briefings goes online

Sunday, June 24

The Newsroom
This is the day to fine-tune our skills and develop into an articulate and insightful news gathering team.

6:00 a.m.
News Room: Early Edition

7:15 a.m.
Press Gaggle, in the Press Club

8:00 a.m.
Professional Development Workshops: Broadcast Production, Podcasting or On-line
Reporting

11:00 a.m.
Master Class: The Interview
with William Douglas, White House Correspondent

Noon
Lunch in the Press Club

1:00 p.m.
Professional Development Workshops, continued

3:30 p.m.
Master Class: Researching the Interview
John Drake, Boston Globe Staff Writer

5:00 p.m.
Five at the Fitz, a live webcast

5:30 p.m.
Dinner and a Movie, at the Press Club: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
With Joe Buchanan, Conference High School Teacher

7:30 p.m.
Newsroom: Evening Edition

10:00 p.m.
Newsroom Deadline

11:00 p.m.
Lights Out

12:00 p.m.
The Fitzwater E-Briefings goes online

Monday, June 25

Frontline Reports: The Road to the White House
Today we hit the road and head to Manchester, where the Nackey Scripps Loeb School of Communications has planned our first visits with Granite State media and political figures.

6:00 a.m.
News Room: Early Edition

7:00 a.m.
Board Press Bus at Peterson Hall parking lot

7:15 a.m.
Press Gaggle, on the Road

8:45 a.m.
Tour of the New Hampshire Union Leader, with Teresa Robinson,
and WMUR-TV, with Jeff Bartlett, president and general manager

11:15 a.m.
On the Road to the White House: Lunch at the Merrimack Diner

12:15 p.m.
Road Trip: Franklin Pierce College—Manchester Campus

12:30 p.m.
Briefing: Primary Strategy from the Media and Campaign Perspectives
Joseph McQuaid, publisher, New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News
Jeff Bartlett, general manager, WMUR-TV.
Mike Dennehy, McCain campaign and Republican strategist.
Judy Reardon, Kerry campaign and Democratic strategist.

2:00 p.m.
Side Bar: The Long-shot Candidates: Hoping for a Miracle
David Tirrell-Wysocki, Associated Press reporter, executive director, Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications.

3:00 p.m.
On the Campaign Trail: Drop by the Presidential Campaign Headquarters
In the city’s restored millyards

5:00 p.m.
Five at the Fitz, a live webcast

5:30 p.m.
Return to Franklin Pierce College

6:30 p.m.
Dinner at the Press Club

7:30 p.m.
Newsroom: Evening Edition

10:00 p.m.
Newsroom Deadline

11:00 p.m.
Lights Out

12:00 p.m.
The Fitzwater E-Briefings goes online

Tuesday, June 26

Road Trip: The Granite State’s Role in Presidential Politics
Today’s host is again the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications, and we now head to Concord, the state capital and home of our program’s other strategic partner, the New Hampshire Political Library.

6:00 a.m.
News Room: Early Edition

7:00 a.m.
Board Press Bus at Peterson Hall parking lot

7:15 a.m.
Press Gaggle, on the Road

9:00 a.m.
Tour of the New Hampshire State House

10:00 a.m.
Briefing: Why New Hampshire?
The Honorable John Lynch, Governor
William Gardner, Secretary of State
Michael Chaney, N.H. Political Library Director

11:15
Tour: New Hampshire Political Library
Michael Chaney, N.H. Political Library Director

Noon
Lunch at the State House Cafeteria

1:15 p.m.
Briefing: On the Campaign Trail
at the Tuck Library
James Pindell, political reporter, Boston Globe
Scott Spradling, political reporter, WMUR-TV
Tom Rath, Romney for President campaign, GOP strategist
Matt Rodriguez, Obama for President campaign, N.H. director

2:30 p.m.
Briefing: Campaign Rhetoric
Curt Smith, presidential speechwriter and professor, University of Rochester

3:30 p.m.
Newsroom: Afternoon Edition

5:00 p.m.
Five at the Fitz, a live webcast

5:30 p.m.
Night Out at the Quarry Dogs baseball game

10:00 p.m.
Newsroom Deadline

11:00 p.m.
Lights Out

12:00 p.m.
The Fitzwater E-Briefings goes online

Wednesday, June 27

Issues, Politicians & The Polls

6:00 a.m.
News Room: Early Edition

7:30 a.m.
Press Gaggle, in the Press Club

8:00 a.m.
News Room: Morning Edition

10:00 a.m.
Briefing: The Issues of the 2008 Presidential Election
Professor Robin Marra, Franklin Pierce College
Professor Fred Waldstein, Wartburg College, Iowa
And the First in the Nation Scholars

Noon
Lunch, in the Press Club

1:00 p.m.
Briefing: Interest Groups and the Presidential Campaign

2:00 p.m.
Break

2:15 p.m.
Briefing: The Campaign and The Polls with Marlin Fitzwater

3:00 p.m.
Break

3:30 p.m.
Briefing: The Public Opinion Poll
R. Kelly Myers, Senior Fitzwater Fellow

5:00 p.m.
Five at the Fitz, a live webcast

5:30 p.m.
Dinner at the Press Club
Side Bar: Inside the White House Briefing Room
with Marlin Fitzwater

6:30 p.m.
Newsroom: Evening Edition

10:00 p.m.
Newsroom Deadline

11:00 p.m.
Lights Out

12:00 a.m.
The Fitzwater E-Briefings goes online


Thursday, June 28

The 2008 Presidential Election: The Players
The candidates have been invited to drop by, and in the Granite State, in the middle of primary season, that means you just need to be prepared for the unexpected.

6:00 a.m.
News Room: Early Edition

7:00 a.m.
Board Press Bus at Peterson Hall parking lot

7:15 a.m.
Press Gaggle, on the Road to Franklin Pierce University
Manchester Campus

8:30 a.m.
Briefing: The First Amendment and the Student Media
with Warren Watson, Director, J-Ideas, Ball State University

10:00 a.m.
The Spin Room

Noon
Luncheon: Political Cartooning
with Lori Fischer, N.H. Political Library, Curator

1:00 p.m.
The Spin Room

3:00 p.m.
Awards Ceremony and Reception
with Marlin Fitzwater

4:00 p.m.
Newsroom: Afternoon Edition

5:00 p.m.
Five at the Fitz, a live webcast

5:30 p.m.
Return to Franklin Pierce College

7:00 p.m.
The Presidential Ball

9:00 p.m.
Newsroom: Evening Edition

10:00 p.m.
Newsroom Deadline


11:00 p.m.
Lights Out

12:00 a.m.
The Fitzwater E-Briefings goes online

Friday, June 29

The Presidency and You
Robust debate is essential to a healthy democracy. This debate does not just happen. It requires dedicated commitment, and we hope that this week has demonstrated that you can make this commitment and make a difference in our nation.

6:00 a.m.
News Room: Early Edition

7:30 a.m.
Press Gaggle, in the Press Club

8:30 a.m.
Newsroom: Morning Edition

10:30 a.m.
“The Presidency and The Press: 2007”
A live webcast round-up of the week’s events

Noon
Wrap Party

1:00 p.m.
Check-out
 

June 3. 2007
Student media cover presidential debates

A team of students from Franklin Pierce and the college’s Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication will work alongside some of the nation’s top journalists to cover the New Hampshire presidential debates this week.

Steve Dodrill, Eric Jackman, Justin Martell and Graduate Assistant Frank Blais will report from the Democratic Debate on Sunday, June 3, and from the Republican Debate on Tuesday, June 5. They will conduct candidate interviews and behind-the-scenes coverage as the nation and world watch to see who could be the front runner in the NH Presidential Primary.

"This is going to be a great opportunity to get our name out there and to use the skills that we have learned in political reporting," said Steven Dodrill, a junior from Hanson, MA and a Fitzwater Connections Fellow. "My staff and I will produce vodcasts, slideshows, podcasts and articles. And we are working on having a live blog to be published at www.piercearrownews.com  - all to help our viewers, readers, and listeners better understand the candidates' views and to engage them in the political process."

The team is prepared to ask the presidential candidates about issues that are most important to young Americans with a goal of learning more about them and their campaign.

The debates will be shown live nationally and throughout New Hampshire on television and streaming internet video by the major networks. The Pierce Media Group will work from the filing center at the Sullivan Arena in Manchester. Student reporters will post to Pierce Arrow News Online following the debates, and material will be forwarded to Franklin Pierce’s online news site The Exchange.

WMUR-TV of New Hampshire, CNN Worldwide, and the New Hampshire Union Leader will host the debates in partnership with St. Anselm College. Credentialed media will convene in Manchester for the debates which are expected to draw a large audience. CNN's Wolf Blitzer will moderate the debates with questions coming from WMUR's Scott Spradling and the Union Leader's Tom Fahey. WMUR's Jennifer Vaughn will moderate questions from the audience.

“We hope that this will help us to be known on a national or international scale as the proxy between voters and the candidates, ultimately connecting those candidates with the voters,” Dodrill said. “It means so much to every student, journalist, photographer, camera operator, and podcaster to be involved with the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication, the Fitzwater Connections program, and the Presidential Election process. It is the experience of a lifetime.”

The Fitzwater Connection program was created to “connect” voters of the Granite State, the Monadnock Region and the Franklin Pierce Community with the candidates.

May 17, 2007
Franklin Pierce to offer nursing program

Franklin Pierce University
is proud to launch a new Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing program for Fall 2007, designed for practicing nurses. This new program offers a meaningful course of study that will enhance nursing careers, prepare practicing nurses to assume new professional roles, develop leadership skills, and enable nurses with associate’s degrees to continue their studies in a graduate program.

Courses will begin in September, 2007 at the Concord and Portsmouth campuses. However, students can begin the program by enrolling in general education courses at any time and at any of the College’s Graduate and Professional Studies campuses in Portsmouth, Concord, Lebanon, Keene and Manchester, as well as on-line.

“Starting with Franklin Pierce’s required general education courses is a good way to begin the program,” said Judith A. Evans, EdD, RN, the College’s director of nursing programs.

Dr. Evans has practiced in a variety of nursing roles, including clinical practice, staff development, hospital administration and nursing academics. She most recently worked with the New Hampshire Nursing Workforce Center to propose solutions to the current and future nursing shortage. She was honored by the New Hampshire Nursing Association as the 2005 Nurse of the Year

“In the new BSN program, a student’s program of study will be individually designed based on his or her previous education experiences,” Dr. Evans said. “I recommend that students make an appointment to meet with me or another faculty member prior to beginning their general education or nursing courses so that we can review their transcripts and discuss their specific education plans.”

Program Highlights:

• Program is designed for busy nurses who juggle many commitments, including family, work, and personal time

• Courses are offered in 8-week terms

• Nursing courses may be completed in as few as 7 terms (less than 15 months)

• Field experiences are arranged individually for each student in collaboration with a faculty member

• Nursing courses may be taken while students are completing general education courses

• Supporting courses completed with a grade of C- or better in a student’s Associate Degree program are transferred into the FP
baccalaureate program

• Nursing credits earned in a student’s Associate Degree program with a grade of C- or better are transferred into FP
without any testing

• Challenge exam options are available in lieu of selected support courses

• Some courses are available on-line or in “hybrid” format (part on-line, part class)

Course Information:

A total of 120 credits must be earned in order to qualify for graduation. Those credits include

• General education requirements (such as English, History, Sciences, etc.). These are courses that are required for all Franklin Pierce students. Students must take at least 4 of the courses at FPC, and they may transfer in some of these credits from another college if they earned a grade of C- or higher (for example, the English course that a student completed as part of his or her Associate Degree Nursing program may be transferred into FP
as College Writing I).

• Supporting courses for nursing (such as Anatomy & Physiology, Microbiology, Chemistry, Sociology, Psychology, etc.). Students may transfer these courses into FP
if they received a grade of C- or higher when they took them in their Associate Degree Nursing program, or they may earn credit for some courses by successfully completing challenge exams. They may decide to take them at one of the community college campuses before they apply to enter the program at FPC.

• Nursing credits earned in your Associate Degree Program. Nursing course credits are transferred into the baccalaureate program at FP
as long the student earned a grade of C- or higher. The student must be a licensed nurse in order to transfer these courses into the baccalaureate nursing program FPC.

• Upper division nursing courses. These are the baccalaureate nursing courses students will take at FPC. The course topics include evidence based practice, community health, health promotion, leadership, health assessment and clinical decision making, and health policy. There are 7 required baccalaureate nursing courses (27 credits).

For more information, please call 603-228-2874

April 17, 2007
Initiative brings national media leaders to Franklin Pierce College
Editors of Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Boston Globe
to discuss media, ethics and corporate responsibility
 

PAUL E. STEIGER Managing Editor The Wall Street Journal

MARTIN BARON Editor The Boston Globe

CAROL LOOMIS Editor-at-Large Fortune magazine

MYRON KANDEL Founding Financial Editor CNN

CONCORD, NH (April 11, 2007) — The Initiative for Corporate Responsibility and Investor Protection will sponsor a program on April 20 at Franklin Pierce University
titled, “Media, Ethics and Corporate Responsibility” featuring Martin Baron, editor of The Boston Globe, Carol Loomis, editor-at-large of Fortune magazine, and Paul Steiger, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. Myron Kandel, who previously served 25 years as the founding financial editor and economic commentator on CNN is president of the Initiative and will serve as the program’s moderator. The event is open to the public at no charge and will take place in Pierce Hall at 4:00 p.m. with a reception following.

The Initiative is a non partisan organization established by the New Hampshire Bureau of Securities Regulation. Its mission is to promote the highest nationwide standards of corporate responsibility and investor protection. Embracing Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’s notion that “sunlight is the best disinfectant,” The Initiative is bringing prominent leaders in government, business, academe, the law, and the media to New Hampshire’s college and university campuses for an on-going series of high-profile public forums.

“Franklin Pierce is proud to be a convener and host for this critical discussion,” said Dr. George J. Hagerty, president of Franklin Pierce College. “The core of our mission involves helping students become leaders of conscience. We share the commitment of the Initiative for Corporate Responsibility to advance the public discussion on corporate integrity. I join fellow members of the Franklin Pierce community in looking forward to learning from a distinguished panel of journalists at the April 20 forum.”

Franklin Pierce is a four-year, co-educational, nonsectarian college with its main campus in Rindge, NH. The curriculum includes traditional liberal arts academics, pre-professional study, teacher preparation programs and a nationally-recognized core curriculum, The Individual and Community. Franklin Pierce has on-line degree programs, plus five Graduate & Professional Studies Centers in Concord, Keene, Lebanon, Manchester and Portsmouth. Learn more at www.franklinpierce.edu .

To register for the event, or learn more about The Initiative’s programs and activities, visit www.theinitiative.net .

Editors and reporters: Photos of the panel participants are available by calling Kimberly Schuman at 603-277-5364 or Brian Stuart at 603-899-4221. Members of the press intending to cover the event are encouraged to RSVP to 603-227-5364.

-END-

April 12, 2007
Franklin Pierce Cites C-SPAN’s Steve Scully for Fitzwater Honors

MANCHESTER NH ] C-SPAN’s Senior Executive Producer and Political Editor, Steve Scully, will receive the 2007 Marlin Fitzwater Award for Leadership in Public Communication from Franklin Pierce University
on Friday, April 13, in 7 p.m. ceremonies at the college’s Manchester campus.

Scully will receive the Award in the 4th annual presentation to honor an individual who has made significant contributions to public discourse in the spirit of a healthy democracy. The award reflects the mission and philosophy of the Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce, namely that robust debate and informed participation are necessary for effective government.

The award is named for Marlin Fitzwater, former press secretary to presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Fitzwater is a Franklin Pierce trustee and serves on the Fitzwater Center advisory board. He will make the formal presentation to Scully.

WMUR-TV9 news anchor Tom Griffith is this year’s Master of Ceremonies. High school journalism teachers from across New Hampshire have been invited to join the families and supporters of award recipients at the event.

Scully will join a group of Fitzwater Award recipients who represent constructive contributions to national journalism and policymaking. They are: 2006 recipient Kenneth Walsh, U.S. News and World Report's White House correspondent for more than 20 years; 2005 recipient Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and 2004 honoree Victoria Clark, Deputy Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.

In addition to the presentation of the Fitzwater Award for Leadership, Fitzwater Medallions will be awarded to:

• Franklin Pierce Alumnus David Schutzman ’83 of Greenwich, CT
• Franklin Pierce graduating senior Trent Spiner of New York, NY
• Franklin Pierce graduating senior Matthew Leite of Lowell, MA
• High school journalism teacher Nancie Stone of the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, NH

The Fitzwater Leadership Award honoree, Steve Scully, is President of the White House Correspondents’ Association and has managed C-SPAN’s campaign programming since 1990. In addition, he leads a team of field producers for White House and Supreme Court coverage and international programming. Scully hosts Washington Journal, a daily 3-hour morning public affairs program on C-SPAN. He also hosts and/or produces BOOK-TV’s “In Depth,” “Road to the White House” and “American Profile.”

Since January 2003, Scully has taught media, politics and public policy issues via cable fiber line between his Washington DC base and the University of Denver, Pace University in New York City and George Mason University in Fairfax VA. This is the only college level course of its kind in the country, linking students to leaders in politics, journalism and business from the nation’s capital. NBC’s Brian Williams, Senator Hillary Clinton, former Senator Bob Dole and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have been guests for Scully’s on-line academic program.

Scully’s professional honors include being listed among cable television’s 100 “heavy hitters” and as one of the media’s most influential movers and shakers in political programming. His on-air work has been recognized with the cable industry’s highest honor, the Golden Ace Award. In 2004, his political coverage for C-Span received a special Emmy for its “2004 Vote” program.

Scully has a B.A. from American University and a Master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. Scully was born in Erie PA, the 14th child in a family of 16. Scully, his wife and three children live in Fairfax VA.

David Schutzman, Franklin Pierce Class of 1983, is the chief marketing officer for the strategy and operations management firm, Archstone Consulting in Stamford CT. Schutzman’s 20 years in public relations and marketing include assignments with Deloitte Consulting and Cap Gemini/Ernst & Young. As a Franklin Pierce undergraduate, Schutzman received the President’s Service Award as the senior displaying unparalleled excellence in academics, community involvement and service to the college. His extracurricular involvement included intramural sports, business club vice president, Jaycees, WFPR radio, baseball captain and cross country. In 1994, Schutzman was inducted into the Franklin Pierce Athletic Hall of Fame. He is a past supporter of the Connecticut Special Olympics. Schutzman and his wife, Cindy, a 1981 Franklin Pierce alumna, and their two children are Greenwich, CT residents.

Trent Spiner, a Franklin Pierce senior, is editor-in-chief of Pierce Arrow, the campus paper. As student media coordinator for “The Primary Connection” this spring, he has created a network of high school and college media outlets to maximize their effective coverage of the 2008 New Hampshire Primary Election. He is a certified firefighter for the Rindge, NH fire department and a nationally registered Emergency Medical Technician. Spiner has completed internships with the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript of Peterborough NH and with the Edison Group in New York.

Matthew Leite, also a Franklin Pierce senior, designed his own academic major – sports broadcasting. At Franklin Pierce, Leite has been active as athlete, team manager, and sports broadcaster. He was on the air doing play-by-play for the Franklin Pierce Ravens teams in the NCAA Division II Final Four competition for both soccer and baseball. Leite has served as a volunteer in the college alumni relations department.

Nancie Stone has been the journalism instructor for Pinkerton Academy since 2001. Previously, Stone had 14 years of professional journalism experience at the Concord Monitor where she covered regional and city news. Her newsroom management experience includes positions as assistant city editor and business and features editor. As part-time faculty at the University of New Hampshire and New Hampshire Technical College, she taught publication composition. Stone has a bachelor’s degree in English literature and master’s degrees in teaching and in writing from the University of New Hampshire. In 2003, Stone completed the ASNE High School Journalism Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
Franklin Pierce College’s Manchester Campus is located in the city’s historic Jefferson Mill at 670 North Commercial Street.

April 3, 2007
Pippin Singin’ & Dancin’ at Franklin Pierce

[ Rindge NH ] The Broadway musical, Pippin, will have a 5-day run in the Franklin Pierce Warehouse Theatre – Wednesday through Saturday, April 11- 14. The first four performances, Wednesday through Saturday, are at 7:30 p.m. The final show, a Sunday matinee, will be at 1 p.m. Adult admission is $5. Students with ID – $2. For information or reservations, call 603.899.4150.

Pippin is the story of a young prince, the son of Charlemagne, who longed to discover the secret of true happiness and fulfillment. He sought it in the glories of the battlefield, the temptations of the flesh and the intrigues of political power.

This hip, tongue-in-cheek, anachronistic fairy tale which captivated Broadway audiences in the 1970’s, continues to appeal to the young at heart everywhere today. “Pippin” has a score of ballads, patter songs, and traditional Broadway musical choruses.

The production features a strong ensemble cast of seventeen Franklin Pierce students, a pit band of students and faculty, student and faculty designers and faculty directors.

The original Broadway production, directed by Bob Fosse, had a 5-year run (1972-77) of nearly two thousand performances with Jill Clayburgh, Ben Vereen and John Rubenstein in the title role.

Franklin Pierce undergraduate students will participate in survey design, data collection, analysis and media relations with the guidance of R. Kelly Myers, a Senior Fellow at the college’s Fitzwater Center for Communication and a principal of RKM Research in Portsmouth NH. This is the third presidential polling project for Franklin Pierce and the fifth for Myers.

Poll results are utilized by the media and drive student media press conferences with presidential candidates and the televised Tuesday Briefing sessions at the Fitzwater Center. Franklin Pierce Provost Michael Bell notes that the polling project gives “… our students the opportunity to test their classroom learning under the professional scrutiny of one of the best analysts in the business. This linkage of reflective knowledge and the real world is the core of the liberal arts education we provide.”

Myers will teach a political polling course in the summer and fall of 2007. The class is a component of the Engaging Students: First in the Nation Project − a cooperative effort by Franklin Pierce and Wartburg College in Iowa − exploring the 2008 presidential campaign processes, trends and issues.

“Leveraging my experience to provide meaningful learning opportunities for Franklin Pierce students will be a pleasure,” says Myers. “And I look forward to providing insight on the impact of the primary election through WBZ-TV.”

Franklin Pierce is a four-year, co-educational, nonsectarian college with its main campus in Rindge NH near the base of Mount Monadnock. The curriculum includes traditional liberal arts academics, pre-professional study, teacher preparation programs and a nationally-recognized core curriculum, The Individual and Community. Franklin Pierce has vigorous on-line degree programs plus five Graduate & Professional Studies Centers in Concord, Keene, Lebanon, Manchester and Portsmouth.

For more information on Franklin Pierce, please visit www.franklinpierce.edu or call 800.437.0048.
More details on the First in the Nation project are available at www.firstinthenationproject.org
 

February 26, 2007
Politics Will Never be the Same
Author, panel to discuss how an engaged and skeptical citizenry has changed the rules of democracy

New Hampshire’s level of political engagement to be compared with national awareness in light of challenges to state’s First-in-the-Nation primary

[RINDGE NH] The evolution of democracy and the effect of citizen engagement on politics is the topic of a noon lecture by author Matt Leighninger on Wednesday, February 28, 12:30 pm, at Franklin Pierce University
in Rindge.

Following Leighninger’s noon presentation, a comparison of political engagement nationally with the political involvement of New Hampshire citizens will be the subject of a panel discussion from 4 to 5:30 pm. Leighninger will be joined on the panel by New Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP) Managing Director Mica Stark and NHIOP Director of Research Dr. Dean Spiliotes. NHIOP recently completed two separate statewide surveys of civic knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of New Hampshire residents, including youth (ages 13-17) and adults.

The discussion will be moderated by Joni Doherty, Director of the New England Center for Civic Life at Franklin Pierce.

Leighninger is the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, a Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy organization that works to promote and institutionalize deliberative democracy at all levels of governance in the United States and around the world.

In his new book, “The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule is Giving Way to Shared Governance—and Why Politics Will Never be the Same,” Leighninger describes the rise of democratic governance. He argues that citizens are better educated, more involved, and more skeptical than in the past. To address persistent challenges such as education, crimes prevention, and race relations, communities are finding new ways for people and public servants to work together.

Both events ─ open to the public with no admission charge ─ will be held in Pierce Hall, located in the Campus Center on the Franklin Pierce campus in Rindge.

Leighninger’s appearance is sponsored by the New England Center for Civic Life at Franklin Pierce and the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, Saint Anselm College.

Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich brings his presidential campaign to Franklin Pierce on Tuesday, February 20. The Congressman will be a Tuesday Briefing guest at 11 a.m. in the Patterson Television Studio at the Fitzwater Center for Communication on the Rindge campus.

In his Tuesday Briefing presentation, Kucinich is expected to detail his priorities should he be sworn in as president in 2009. Kucinich has proposed universal health coverage, which he calls “Medicare for All.”

The Public is invited to attend the presentation and participate in the Question & Answer session which follows the prepared speech.

Prior to Kucinich’s visit to campus, members of the Franklin Pierce student media will conduct a phone interview with presidential candidate and Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA). The interview will be broadcast live at 9 a.m. Tuesday on WFPC-LP 105.3 FM. Members of the public can e-mail questions to fitzcast@franklinpierce.edu
prior to the interview.

“We hope this is just the first in a long series of conversations between Franklin Pierce and presidential candidates,” said Dr. Kristen Nevious, director of the college’s Fitzwater Center.

In addition to hosting the Tuesday Briefing series and radio forum, Franklin Pierce is collaborating with Wartburg College in Iowa for the First in the Nation Project, which will provide a common platform for candidates to address audiences in New Hampshire and Iowa. The project will also allow students and faculty at both institutions to study the presidential campaign from the perspective of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary and Iowa’s lead-off caucus.

The inaugural presentation for the First in the Nation collaborative will take place on Sunday, February 18 at 1:30 p.m., when Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) addresses an audience at Wartburg College. Senator Biden’s speech will be webcast live to the Patterson Television Studio at Franklin Pierce.

Franklin Pierce students will participate in the Question & Answer session with Senator Biden via the Internet.

(Rindge NH) Students, alumni and faculty share the stage for A Winter Dance Concert at Franklin Pierce next week, February 14 – 17, 2007. The Wednesday, Thursday and Friday performances are at 8 pm. The Saturday matinee is at 2 pm. All four programs will be presented in the Warehouse Theatre (the “black box” stage) on the Rindge campus of Franklin Pierce.

Professor Wendy Dwyer is drawing on her 19 years of Franklin Pierce dance graduates to supplement 20 current undergraduate dancers for the annual February performance. With faculty also on the program, there are three generations coming together for A Winter Dance Concert 2007.

Professor Dwyer is pleased about the intergenerational event. “The alumni of our Theatre and Dance curriculum have a very special regard for Franklin Pierce. That they will interrupt their lives and career schedules to come back for this event says a lot! It is a wonderful treat for our present students to have the alumni return and share their expertise and experiences. I’m very excited about this year’s concert!”
A reception honoring dance alumni is part of the Friday performance. Attendees at the 6 pm reception in Peterson Hall’s Alumni Lounge will be guests at the 8 pm concert.
Click here for thoughtful answers by Professor Dwyer to questions like
• Why would someone planning a dance career want a Franklin Pierce degree?
• Can you tell when a Liberal Arts education is missing from a choreographer’s work?
• Why do you want dance students to have a theatre background?
• Why does a new dance student coming to Franklin Pierce often need re-training?

January 30, 2007
Franklin Pierce student drama for teens gives adults “shock and awe!”
Reality Check – the Franklin Pierce student peer-to-peer intervention team – is showcasing its program of skits in a public performance on the campus in Rindge, New Hampshire, February 21, 2007. The showcase will sample the skit menu available to schools, churches and community groups.
Open to the public … free admission. “Parents, please bring your teens … teens, please bring your parents.”

Reality Check skits address the pervasive, unrelenting peer-pressure issues which teenagers and pre-teens face everyday – at school, at home, on the playground, with friends, from the media “… every day in every which way.”

Reality Check programs examine substance use, HIV/AIDS, dating, bullying, internet use, sexual behavior and more, every nuance from a teenagers point of view. Following each performance, teens in attendance confirm that the material presented is a credible, relevant and appropriate representation of their day-to-day reality.

Reality Check gets validation immediately from a Q&A exchange with the audience. Teens volunteer, enthusiastically, that they’ve just witnessed the dramatic expression of the real-world truth they must deal with every hour, every day. Adults in the audience usually express shock and awe. The grown-ups now realize – for the first time in most cases – the hard, cruel reality their children face. An hour earlier, prior to the performance, the adults had “no clue,” as they readily acknowledge post-performance.

Reality Check members write about what they know – from first-hand experience or what they have witnessed – to recreate the emotional reality of a teen’s interactions with peers. Each dramatized situation is carefully crafted and nuanced – spelling out the consequences of an action or choice – to help a youth make an informed decision when confronted with a moral dilemma. The members also communicate reassurance to their teen audiences: first, that there are ways and means, strategies and techniques, which teens can use to help themselves and second, that there are adults who will support them.

Adults, who are not familiar with the teen scene, usually have difficulty believing that “… our kids, especially the good ones, could find themselves faced with these harsh dilemmas.” The grim fact is, even when a teen is not directly involved in one of these situations, he or she invariably knows someone who is. Watching the facial expressions and body language of audience members, the teens and the adults, is a revelation for doubters and deny-ers.

Reality Check members are Franklin Pierce students from a variety of academic interests, cultural backgrounds, ethnic groups, economic and social classes. They represent the diverse Franklin Pierce student community comprising 1700 young men and women from 30 of the United States and 26 countries. The members have just recently survived their own teen years and now express, even re-live, their own tough experience. The members do it now on stage, for therapy, in empathy, to make a difference.

Reality Check is showcasing it’s peer-to-peer program to provide adults with an opportunity to audition and review the material in a live performance and to talk with members of the group. The showcase performance is in the Franklin Pierce Campus Center on February 21, 2007 from 7-8:30 pm.

Reality Check presentations – as well as this audition showcase on February 21 – are free of charge. There is no fee, no cost nor any other consideration to the school, church or community group for hosting the 45-minute performances – a community service of Franklin Pierce and its students. For more information, please contact Marabeth Farmer, Assistant Director of Community Service for Franklin Pierce – 603.899.4166 … e-mail her at farmermm@franklinpierce.edu
.

View a video performance as presented at an orientation session for new Franklin Pierce students in January 2007.

2006-07 Reality Check members –

Reality Check – a key element of the Franklin Pierce core curriculum, “Individual & Community,” nationally recognized for academic innovation – is one of a score of Community Service programs offered by Franklin Pierce students, including:
• Computer tutoring for seniors – free, one-on-one coaching on Saturday mornings at the Franklin Pierce Library on the campus in Rindge NH
• Telephone Tales – FP students read to boys and girls in the area via telephone connection
• Boynton Buddies – one-on-one mentoring for Boynton (New Ipswich NH) Middle School students
• Fast Friends – dog rescue (racing greyhounds) in Keene NH
• Kitty Rescue – cat rehab and adoption service in Jaffrey
• Keene Community Kitchen
• Monadnock Adult Care Center – social services for seniors, Peterborough NH
• Head Start – assisting pre-school teachers in Jaffrey NH
• S.K.I.P. – “school kids in Peterborough NH,” after school program
• Caps for Kids – students, staff & faculty of Franklin Pierce make/ knit caps & scarves to benefit AIDS orphans via World Church Service
• Horse Power – Temple NH-based therapeutic riding program for challenged and abused children
• Haunted House – with Rindge NH recreation department
• Sock & Book Tree – holiday gifts for children in Rindge NH

January 23, 2007
Alumna, TCM marketeer speaks at Tuesday Briefing

Video

“Tuesday Briefings” – the Fitzwater Center’s televised lecture forum for visiting political leaders, cultural commentators, news analysts and other public figures – brings a successful alumna back to the Franklin Pierce campus on February 6, 2007.

Network television marketing manager and 1994 Franklin Pierce graduate, Genevieve McGillicuddy, will take an informed and critical look at the entertainment industry in her presentation – “Women in Media: Challenges, Changes and the Road Ahead.”

McGillicuddy – marketing manager for Turner Classic Movies (the “TCM” cable television channel) – was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and raised in New Hampshire, graduating from Nashua High School.

McGillicuddy says her English major at Franklin Pierce has been “very useful … in editing and writing material …” for her marketing, branding, publishing, and promotional projects for TCM, ranging from home video promotions to developing TCM Archives’ licensed products (calendars, stationary, books, etc.) , to producing screening events. Among the myriad movie-related projects she’s worked on for TCM are two recent books – Leading Ladies and Leading Men, paying tribute to the “50 most unforgettable actresses and actors of the studio era.” McGillicuddy’s mission is “…to promote TCM
as the authority on classic movies.”

After her liberal arts grounding at Franklin Pierce, McGillicuddy added to her credentials with a master’s degree in film history and theory from Emory University. She has served on the board of trustees for Women in Film and Estrofest Productions, both organizations focused on supporting women artists working in the media.

McGillicuddy’s future, she says, is likely to be in independent film production, possibly working in the documentary genre and, at the same time, using “… my knowledge of film history and programming (to spread) the message … that great films are out there.”

Travel is the McGillicuddy avocation, with recent trips to Eastern Europe, Turkey and China.

The public is invited to attend the weekly “Tuesday Briefings” series at 11 am in the Patterson Television Studio of the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication on the Franklin Pierce campus, Rindge NH. White House correspondent Ann Compton and presidential speechwriter Curt Smith are two of the recent presenters on “Tuesday Briefings.” The forums are also available online via live webcast. The link for each program is posted on the day of the presentation at www.franklinpierce.edu . All “Tuesday Briefings” podcasts are archived at the Franklin Pierce website.

The Franklin Pierce University
singers put on a show that is part pop, part musical theatre and part classical music − designed by Associate Professor of Music Paul Scharfenberger to please an audience more familiar with grandly-produced, big-budget entertainment via the movies, MTV and live concerts.

Lachrimae’s performance at the Mariposa Museum was the first of four shows on the ensemble’s holiday concert schedule. The group performs at the Federated Church of Marlboro on December 8 at 7:30 p.m. and at the First Congregational Church of Rindge on December 10 at 7 p.m. Lachrimae’s season finale will be in Franklin Pierce’s Cheney Hall on December 11 at 8 p.m.

Lachrimae − formerly the Franklin Pierce University
Renaissance Ensemble − is a 14-member a capella choir with four instrumentalists, all undergraduate volunteers from the 1,700-member student population at Franklin Pierce College. Sophomore soprano Pam Halfacre is among the minority of music majors in Lachrimae. The majority of Lachrimae’s members are athletes, English and biology majors, mass communication specialists or from the College’s other three dozen academic disciplines. Many of the Lachrimae participants come back to the group’s roster every year after initially learning of the group from advertising, the audition announcements included in freshman welcome packets, by peer word-of-mouth or from teacher referral.

Scharfenberger, Lachrimae’s founder-director, performance artist and trombonist, has been leading the group for 27 years. Clearly tuned in to a new generation’s ways and means of communicating, Scharfenberger is deliberate in his calculation of the music education and entertainment components for the Lachrimae shows.

His purpose for Lachrimae is above-all educational but his means is entertainment, starting with the group’s name. “Lachrimae is short and snappy,” notes Scharfenberger [ Lachrimae translated from its Latin roots means “tears” and was the title of a popular melody in the 16th century. ]

Scharfenberger claims no theatre training but acknowledges that he has been performing since childhood and playing in the trombone section of pit orchestras for college and professional musicals. His ancestors apparently passed down both musical talent and wise instincts for communicating via performance, he said. Hence, the witty repartee and verbal set pieces involving the whole Lachrimae cast throughout the program.

“We call it scripted spontaneity,” said Scharfenberger. There’s a broad menu of Medieval and Renaissance music from German, France, Spain and England and the ethnic variety is excuse enough for much of the banter between songs. Period costuming is a supporting touch for the entertainment, a casual and relaxed but brisk-paced presentation by the Lachrimae cast, he said.

In his opening remarks, emcee Michael Kohutich clues in the audience on the fun to come, setting the stage for conductor Scharfenberger who sets an upbeat tempo while alternately “tromboning,” drumming, dancing and prancing − and keeps his singers smiling throughout the show. Said Scharfenberger, “We’re here to have a good time and to bring the audience along for the fun while we share the beautiful music we’ve inherited from this time period … we are being true (in both presentation and musicianship) to those men and women from so long ago who produced these works of beauty!”

The 2006 cast of Lachrimae includes
• Ashly Blazewicz − alto, Junior music major
• Greta Frost − alto, Senior environmental science major
• Pamela Halfacre − soprano, Sophomore music major
• Christina Levesque − soprano, Sophomore
• Kimberly Ruth − recorder player, Sophomore history major
• Angela Barone − alto, Senior music technology major (field hockey)
• Michael Kohutich − tenor & recorder, Junior music major
• Mathew Miller − bass, recorder & drums, Junior music major
• Katherine Surgen − soprano, Junior biology major (crew & softball)
• Alexandra “Ali” Sozio − soprano, Junior music major
• Rose Vargas − soprano, Sophomore English major
• Lisa Lombardo − alto, Freshman theatre-dance major
• Mary Jelonek − recorder, Sophomore biology major
• Christopher Lawton − bass, Freshman English major

Scharfenberger is Co-Coordinator of the Franklin Pierce University
Music Department and a music history specialist. He also teaches Fundamentals of Music, Popular Musical Culture, Music in Our world and Reason & Romanticism.
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