The DP Alumni Association has announced the first wave of a great lineup of sessions taking place on Saturday, October 19 as part of the DP 135th Anniversary Reunion.
Political Journalism Today: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Moderator Peter Canellos ’84, Editor-at-Large at Politico, will moderate a panel discussion with a number of DP alumni who are on the front lines covering the White House, Congress and politics today. The panel includes:
Ashley Parker ’05, White House Reporter, The Washington Post
Rebecca Kaplan ’10, Capitol Hill Producer, CBS News
Catherine Lucey ’01, White House Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Matt Flegenheimer ’11, National Politics Reporter, The New York Times
Dick Stevenson ’81, Senior Editor, The New York Times
The Week That Changed the DP Forever In February 1962, a group of editors who had already broken the gender barrier by having the first women join the DP published a parody issue of the women’s newspaper, The Pennsylvania News and called for the downfall of the men’s student government. Administrators slapped the DP with a suspension, confiscated the next day’s newspaper and forced out the DP Editor-in-Chief — moves which prompted immediate howls of outrage, national attention, and a quick retreat by Penn. The outcome led to the end of the separate women’s newspaper and a guarantee from Penn of nearly-complete autonomy, free of funding by the student government (which paved the way, two decades later, for the DP’s complete independence as a non-profit corporation separate from Penn). Join us to hear from the editors of this seminal moment that forever changed the course of DP history.
Melvin Goldstein ’62
Dr. Michael Brown ’62
Susie Nagler Perloff ’65
Dan Rottenberg ’64, moderator
DP Hall of Fame: Honoring the Legacy Randall Lane ’90, Editor and Chief Content Officer of Forbes, will moderate a discussion with the inaugural inductees into the new DP Alumni Hall of Fame (additional information about the inductees can be found here):
Jean Chatzky ’86
Lee Levine ’76
Mike Silver ’75
Bob Frost ’60
Eric Jacobs ’80
The State of the DP: Present and Future “How’s the DP?” alumni ask, often in worried tones. Massive changes in readership and the advertising-supported journalism have impacted the DP as much as commercial newspapers around the country. While DP print editions come out less frequently than in the past, new departments for newsletters, web development, social media, audience analytics, video, product development and more are keeping the DP vital to the campus community and to the students who come to learn and gain experience. The DP in 2019 has a larger staff than ever in its history, and is prepared to continue evolving into a next-generation media organization. Come hear from the current student leadership, longtime professional staff leader, and alumni Board of Directors leader about how the DP works today and how it plans to succeed for generaitons to come.
Julia Schorr ’20, DP President
Sarah Fortinsky ’20, DP Executive Editor
Eric Jacobs ’80, DP General Manager
Chuck Cohen ’89, DP Board of Directors Lead Alumni Director
It’s the event that took 135 years to create. (Or at least 10 years, since the last one.) “It” is a celebration of The Daily Pennsylvanian, its students and its alumni to celebrate the newspaper’s 135th anniversary this fall.
DP Managing Editors spanning four decades at the DP’s 125th Anniversary in 2009
The DP Alumni Association is excited to invite alumni back to campus for the 135th Anniversary Reunion weekend. Make plans now to join us October 18-19, for the biggest DP party in history! You will not want to miss it.
Enjoy food, drink, and fun with friends old and new, hear from some of the DP’s accomplished alumni, and celebrate the DP’s rich history and bright future.
Part of the weekend’s events will feature the induction of the inaugural honorees into the new DP Alumni Hall of Fame.
Tickets are $135 per person, which includes a welcoming reception on Friday night, a formal dinner reception on Saturday night, and daytime Saturday programming which will feature DP alumni speaking on a number of different topics related to the history of the DP, journalism, business, politics, and more.
Beyond the cost of the event, the DP Board of Directors and the DPAA Board Board encourage alumni to support independent student journalism and the continuing world-class student experiences at the DP by making a donation to the DP Development Fund. Contributions from DP alumni are now a crucial pillar for our long-term sustainability.
If you’re traveling to Philadelphia for the reunion, lodging options abound. The closest hotel to the center of campus is the Hilton Inn at Penn (between 36th & 37th on Walnut). Three other hotels adjoining campus are the Sheraton University City (at 36th & Chestnut) and the Homewood Suites (on Walnut between 41st and 42nd), and The Study at University City (33rd & Chestnut). Of course, there are dozens of hotels just across the Schuylkill River in Center City Philadelphia.
If you have any questions about the event, you can email Taylor Culliver at culliver.taylor@gmail.com or call the DP at 215-422-4640 ext. 1.
The DP Alumni Association is proud to announce the inaugural members of the Daily Pennsylvanian Alumni Hall of Fame: Jean Chatzky ’86, Bob Frost ’60, Eric Jacobs ’80, Lee Levine ’76 andMichael Silver ’75. They will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame on October 19, 2019 during the DP’s 135th anniversary celebration. In addition, Ashley Parker ’05 will be honored as the first recipient of the DPAA Young Alumni Award.
The DPAA established the DP Hall of Fame to recognize alumni who have distinguished themselves professionally and/or in service to the DP. More than 40 worthy individuals were nominated by DP alumni, creating a challenging selection process for the DPAA Board. For its inaugural honorees, the Board selected Jean, Bob, Eric, Lee and Michael because they exemplified bothservice to the DP and professional accomplishment.
The DPAA created the Young Alumni award to honor alumni who have graduated within the last 15 years and have distinguished themselves professionally and/or through service to the DP. The DPAA Board here again faced a difficult choice among many well-qualified candidates. Ashley, who last year became a Pulitzer Prize winner, was the Board’s top choice to be the first recipient of this award.
Below are brief profiles of this year’s five award winners:
Bob Frost ’60 is one of the most highly devoted alumni in service of the DP and DPAA. He served on the DPAA Board for three-year terms at four different times between 1992 and 2017, and was DPAA president from 2004-2006. He created the DPAA’s Page One Award to recognize the importance that quality news reporting and writing has on a newspaper’s image and reputation. The award, recognizing the best news story of the year, has been issued annually since 2003. Bob was a reporter and City Editor at the DP, and after graduation became a New York Times reporter. He later changed careers and became an investment manager and consultant, creating and running several companies, as well as working for UBS in later years.
Jean Chatzky ’86 was one of the inaugural alumni members to serve on the DP Board of Directors when it was created in 2013. She created the January DP Bootcamp designed to improve the readiness of new editors and reporters at the start of each student Board term. At the DP, Jean was a Features Editor. She was a business reporter for Working Woman magazine, went to cooking school, worked as a researcher on Wall Street, and returned to journalism as a fact-checker at Forbes. Jean became a reporter for SmartMoney, which led to her being tapped to be the financial editor on the NBC Today Show (a position she still holds 24 years later) and a writer at Money magazine. She has appeared on Oprah, The View, Live with Regis and Kelly; has written for Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, AARP and Parents magazines, has authored numerous books on personal finance, and is a frequent public speaker. Three years ago, Jean created HerMoney, a digital media company focused on personal finance specifically for women.
Michael Silver ’75 was the first president of the DPAA when it was formed in 1984. He returned to the DPAA Board for a second time 20 years later, and then was one of the inaugural alumni members to serve on the DP Board of Directors. Mike was a reporter and Managing Editor at the DP who began his professional career as a Florida newspaper reporter and then television producer. After getting his MBA at Stanford in 1985, he worked in a variety of positions as a strategist and key operational manager for Tribune Company, then one of America’s largest media companies. Mike championed the company’s pre-IPO investment in AOL (a $10 million bet that ultimately became valued at $1 billion) and directed editorial, analytical and technical operations supporting newspaper and TV station web sites across the country. Mike’s work in championing digital publishing on an industrywide basis earned him the New Media Pioneer award from the Newspaper Association of America.
Lee Levine ’76 served on the DPAA Board shortly after its formation, but his major contribution to the DP was serving as its legal counsel for more than two decades. He educated generations of DP editors and reporters about libel and first amendment law, and helped the DP out of every threatened legal action and lawsuit it faced — with an undefeated record! At the DP, Lee was a reporter, Managing Editor and then 34th Street Editor during the magazine’s early years. After graduating Yale Law School in 1979, he began his legal career working on media law cases, and became one of the most respected media law attorneys in the country. He argued several cases before the US Supreme Court, as well as courts in more than 20 states, most federal courts of appeal, and 10 state supreme courts. Lee has represented most of the major newspapers, magazines and broadcast networks over the past 30 years. A legal publication which ranks lawyers around the country described Lee as “the greatest First Amendment attorney in the United States,” while another publication describes him as “the dean of First Amendment Law.”
Eric Jacobs ’80 has been unable to find a job since shortly after his undergraduate years at Penn — because he has held one at the DP continuously for what will total a remarkable 40 years when he retires in summer 2020. As a student, Eric was a DP news reporter, City Editor and Co-Managing Editor. Combining his academics in computer science with his passion for the newspapers, he led a group of students planning the DP’s ahead-of-its-time first computer system — and got the DP to hire him for a short-term job in 1980 overseeing the computer installation and integration. That short stint as Office Manager blossomed into being hired to be the DP’s first General Manager in 1981. In the four decades that followed, he’s been an advisor to student leaders, an architect of office renovations, a driver of sales growth, a finance and budget guru, an IT technician, a national expert on college student media, a builder of the DP Alumni Association, and wearer of too many more hats to mention.
Ashley Parker ’05 is a White House Reporter at The Washington Post. She was a member of the Post team which, along with the New York Times, won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2018 for coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and its connections to the Trump campaign and administration. At the DP, Ashley was an Assignments Editor and 34th Street Features Editor. Upon graduation, she worked as a research assistant to influential columnist Maureen Dowd at The New York Times, and advanced to become a political reporter for the Times in Washington, where she covered the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns and Congress. After 11 years at the Times, she moved to the Post in 2017.
Six years ago: DP alumni at the DPAA Boston 2013 summer happy hour
For the first time in several years, the DPAA has organized summer alumni happy hours in six cities this year. These are informal get-togethers: no speakers, cash bar, and simply a nice opportunity to meet fellow alumni and catch up with old friends. If you live or work in or near New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago or San Francisco, please try to drop in on your local event later this month.
Six years ago: DP alumni at the 2013 Boston happy hour
Please RSVP here to help us gauge attendance, though last-minute drop-ins are more than welcome. Bring your friends, spouses, fellow college journalism alumni and current students. Thanks to each city host for making the events possible!
San Francisco Monday, July 22 5:30-7:30pm Perry’s Embarcadero, 155 Steuart St. Hosts: Cliff Leventhal ’51 and Harry Berezin ’05
Washington, D.C. Tuesday, July 23 7-9pm The Front Page, 1333 New Hampshire Ave NW Host: Dan Spinelli ’18
Boston Wednesday, July 24 6-8pm Globe Bar & Cafe, 384 Boylston St. Host: Jim Schaffer ’73
Philadelphia Thursday, July 25 6:30-8:30 pm Harper’s Garden, 31 S. 18th St. Host: Jeff Hurok ’94
Chicago Thursday, July 25 6:30-8:30pm (Postponed) City Winery at the Chicago Riverwalk, 11 W. Riverwalk South Host: Ryan Jones ’07
New York City Thursday, July 25 6:30-8:30pm The Garret East, 206 Avenue A Host: Jennifer Sun ’14
