DePauw's Journalism Traditions to be Honored and Celebrated This Weekend
April 2, 2002
April 2, 2002, Greencastle, Ind. - Some of America's top journalists will return to their alma mater, DePauw University, this weekend to celebrate an important milestone for a newspaper that shaped their careers. The DePauw, Indiana's oldest college newspaper and the birthplace of the national journalism honorary fraternity now known as the Society of Professional Journalists, will mark its 150th anniversary. A two-day celebration, this Friday and Saturday, will bring a number of alumni of The DePauw back to campus, including John McWethy '69, senior national security correspondent for ABC News (seen in photo at right); David Greising '82, business columnist for the Chicago Tribune; and Robert Giles '55, curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, who will provide the 
keynote address for the anniversary celebration.
The program will begin at 5 p.m. Friday, when DePauw seniors Megan Hockley and Carmeleta Rouse make a presentation on the history of The DePauw in Watson Forum of the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media. A reception will follow at 5:30 p.m. in the Memorial Student Union Building, with a 6:30 p.m. dinner in the UB ballroom highlighted by Giles' keynote speech (the former editor and publisher of the Detroit News is pictured below left).
Saturday's scheduled events include an 8 a.m. breakfast at the Pulliam Center, followed by two panel discussions. The first, on the role of liberal arts in journalism, will take place from 9 to 10:30. A second discussion, entitled "The State of Journalism: Present and Future," will begin at 11 a.m. 
Both will be held in Thompson Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center. Panelists will include McWethy; Greising; James Barbieri '50, editor and co-owner of News-Banner Publications in Bluffton, Indiana; Meg Kissinger Boynton '79, general assignment reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Aaron Lucchetti '96, staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal; J. Scott MacGregor '95, writer for the Indianapolis Star; Mary Leonard Ramshaw '70, Washington correspondent for the Boston Globe; Jean Rudolph Scott '79, associate editor of Chicago Tribune Magazine; and Robert Steele '69, senior faculty and ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
DePauw University President Robert G. Bottoms will address a 12:30 luncheon at the Pulliam Center. The 150th anniversary celebration will conclude with former 
and current members of The DePauw reflecting upon their experiences in Watson Forum.
To mark this historic event, a commemorative edition of The DePauw, which will highlight the paper's rich history, will be distributed on April 5.
A completely independent, student-staffed and managed not-for-profit organization, The DePauw was founded in 1852 as Asbury Notes, reflecting the name of the University, then known as Indiana Asbury University. Once a daily paper, The DePauw is published most Tuesdays and Fridays of the school year. 
In 1935, students raised their own money to construct the Publications Building, located near Roy O. West Library. The building served as the paper's home until 1991, when The DePauw moved into space it leases at the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media.
The traditions of independence and excellence continue to this day. The DePauw was named Indiana's best non-daily college newspaper by the Indiana Collegiate Press Association in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. The DePauw's reporters, editors and photographers have received numerous awards from the Indiana Collegiate Press Association, Hoosier State Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists in recent years.
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