425 Final Pitch

For my final project I will be doing a feature following up on The Daily Evergreen's story regarding ASWSU tripling its legislative production after having just 14 bills passed the previous year. I plan to interview the incoming ASWSU, as well as blend in opinion from university administrators and former ASWSU leaders.

The public records request would inquire about the funding totals for ASWSU, and making those request for subsequent years to compare and contrast to see if ASWSU is improving from a leadership perspective or not (and the benefits and costs of being on ASWSU).

WSU Student Running For Congress Behind Millennial Involvement, Activism

Divided on several crucial social and political issues, the Pew Research Center reported half of the Millennial generation does not align with a specific political party. Instead, a growing number of Americans born between 1980-2000 view themselves as political independents as the younger generation searches for answers to the ever-changing social landscape.

Matthew Sunderland, a 25-year-old Washington State University undergraduate returning for his second bachelor’s degree and attempting to run for congress in 2018, believes the answers will come with an increased involvement from the Millennial generation.

Sunderland is running against Ben Stuckart for the Democratic nomination, with the winner in the primary going head-to-head against Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R).

“It is vital,” Sunderland said, when asked of the importance of college students being active in politics. “In the Fifth Congressional District, we have over 60,000 enrolled students. That is an insane amount of people, but our representatives, and often the candidates, will have poor outreach or outright ignore our needs and voices.”

Sunderland recently joined the National Guard after serving as a reservist in the Army. He has never run for any student government or student body position, like ASWSU, but said he felt a calling to be a political activist instead.

From the classroom stemmed his interest in politics with Sunderland getting his first bachelor’s in pre-law political science. He already had enough of the prerequisites to declare for his physics degree, which is is currently pursuing, with the combination formulating his passion for politics.

“I’m not stopping,” Sunderland said with a chuckle. “I took Physics for Scientists and Engineers and really liked it. And so I went on to work in a solar cell research lab to really get into it, and take Modern Physics from which I still have nightmares about Schrodinger equations.”

Keeping with the theme of empowering students and the Millennial generation, Sunderland appointed another fellow WSU undergrad to be his campaign manager.

Gavin Pielow, president of the WSU Young Democrats group on campus, agrees with Sunderland’s notion of giving a voice to those who have before gone unheard.

“Student involvement in politics is paramount,” Pielow said. “First off, the best, easiest, and most potent way students can address social issues is holding our representatives accountable by showing up to vote. Secondly, fostering a dialogue to lens the perspective among students will promote ideas to be shared, challenged and engaged with.”

The Cougar political pair have focused their message to reach a mixed audience of both older and younger voters in the district. However, with over 20,000 undergraduates around them walking the campus daily, Pielow said the campaign will aid current and future Cougars including an impact on college debt and community involvement.  

“Our campaign will bring about a representative for the 5^th,” Pielow said. “That's working to help current and future Cougs by alleviating the burden of college debt and restoring our economy. Hopefully the Sutherland for Congress campaign inspires future Cougs to roll up their sleeves, fight for what they believe in, and go hands-on with civic engagement with their community.”

Sources:

Matthew Sunderland: 253-282-3000

Gavin Pielow: 541-990-0197

Murrow Symposium: Get to Know The People You Cover

Four sports journalists with varying ties to Washington State University spent roughly an hour Wednesday after educating students on the significance of being observant when reporting in the field.

The panel featured three former Edward R. Murrow College of Communication alumni Joel Knip, sports producer for KING-TV in Seattle; Dana Haynes, formerly a news anchor for KHQ-TV in Spokane; and Ben Wineman who graduated in 2016 and now works as a sports anchor for KTMF-TV in Missoula, Montana.

Knip shared a personal story involving former Cougars quarterback Ryan Leaf helping him find the financial aid office while Knip was recovering from a knee injury. The anecdote paired with a real life journalism tip from Seattle Times college sports reporter Stefanie Loh, giving students the ideal playbook to journalism before heading into the profession.

“One of best stories I wrote was a guy at every football practice,” Loh said, reflecting on her 2013 story on San Diego State offensive lineman Nico Siragusa and his father, seeking a second kidney transplant.

“[He was] waiting for a kidney, had kidney failure, and the family went through a whole ordeal just to allow him to go to practice,” Loh continued. “Nico went to SDSU to be close to his dad. You don’t get that story unless you get that random dude.”

While the panel acknowledged that stories like Siragusa are important, having young journalists begin their career in a small market and forced to find stories that aren’t so obvious, but that still are just as crucial.

Haynes suggested recent journalism graduates should “do a 360 and look all the way around so you don’t miss the story,” adding that a story about someone who is always on the sidelines but maybe without a role or obvious reason is the richer story, not the final score.