A story about how the school has handled the trespasser situation (including reports of each incident, the town hall meeting, safety issues, etc.)
A story about one of the recent theater productions at BSC and what goes into that
A story about the impact of learning over zoom during the peak of covid that March in BSC.
A story about the prices of food and other items at the BSC bookstore, c-store and other places compared to outside stores
A story about the 2014 Birmingham Snowpocalypse, how it impacted people and how the city of Birmingham responded
A story about how Bertha the cat sadly passed away and how it happened + the funeral
A story centered around interviewing Daniel Coleman concerning the recent safety issues on campus
A story about the required lecture and arts credits here at BSC and how they are usually very hard to achieve
A story talking about the pollution and clean up efforts at the Cahaba River and how global warming has affected the river itself
A story covering the black history month annual gala
Heather, I know you are still working on at least one story about safety issues/trespasser/campus security/your Daniel Coleman interview. As far as whatever story you want to complete for April 21, I'll urge you to *follow your curiosity*. I could make a good argument for you continuing your deep dive into campus security issues — and I'm still convinced Chief Harris will make himself available for an interview. But if you want to switch gears and do something different, here are my preferences for your next story:
1) Did you attend that cat funeral? The idea of a widely attended cat funeral is AMAZING to me. That really speaks to Bertha as a character — a BSC celebrity, I guess? I think the story of Bertha's funeral would make a great lede (opening) into a larger story about the campus cats, including the FB page, the major cat feeding spots, the people who are really into the cats. You could even structure the story as an obituary for Bertha! That would allow you to add a lot of details about all the campus cats.
Pollution in the Cahaba is a huge story, but here's a possible angle, with a BSC focus: Talk to Roald Hazelhoff about any historic or current efforts of BSC students on the Cahaba. Are any UES classes centered around the Cahaba? Why does the Cahaba matter? Another timely aspect is that it's almost time for the Cahaba lilies to bloom. They are unique flowers and vivid description of them can provide a beautiful way in.
A few of your classmates also pitched stories about arts and lecture credits and the Gala, so you can look at my responses to those pitches. When several people pitch the same idea, you can all see that it's a good idea. These are stories that lots of people are thinking about, so a lot of people can be helpful in making suggestions about angles.
1) Did you attend that cat funeral? The idea of a widely attended cat funeral is AMAZING to me. That really speaks to Bertha as a character — a BSC celebrity, I guess? I think the story of Bertha's funeral would make a great lede (opening) into a larger story about the campus cats, including the FB page, the major cat feeding spots, the people who are really into the cats. You could even structure the story as an obituary for Bertha! That would allow you to add a lot of details about all the campus cats.
Pollution in the Cahaba is a huge story, but here's a possible angle, with a BSC focus: Talk to Roald Hazelhoff about any historic or current efforts of BSC students on the Cahaba. Are any UES classes centered around the Cahaba? Why does the Cahaba matter? Another timely aspect is that it's almost time for the Cahaba lilies to bloom. They are unique flowers and vivid description of them can provide a beautiful way in.
A few of your classmates also pitched stories about arts and lecture credits and the Gala, so you can look at my responses to those pitches. When several people pitch the same idea, you can all see that it's a good idea. These are stories that lots of people are thinking about, so a lot of people can be helpful in making suggestions about angles.
I was thinking about a different angle myself that I hadn't thought of when I wrote these. I'm kind of interested in writing a story about the libraries here in Birmingham and how they were affected by covid-19.