Sometimes you just stumble into a 40-year career

Ethics class hears how the Warren County sheriff failed the public

By Ken Tingley

There wasn’t much to my first story for my college newspaper.

Looking back, it’s kind of embarrassing.

I painstakingly went through the campus phone book and tallied up the most common - or popular - female name on campus. It was Deborah.

The story took me hours to research, but I didn’t do any interviews, never asked a “Deborah” what she thought about being so common or added any other context. The entire story was about seven column inches. At about 250 words, it was a filler.

Unbelievably, they gave me a byline.

It was my start.

Before my presentation to Rosemary Armao’s journalism class Monday, two editors from the campus newspaper addressed the class. They were looking for writers. They seemed a little desperate. It brought back a flood of memories from a similar meeting four decades earlier.

  The Eastern Progress at Eastern Kentucky University was looking for writers 44 years ago, too. The Progress was run entirely by student editors with just one faculty advisor. It sold enough ads to support itself and turned a little profit. I think the editors were paid $30 every two weeks. They were serious journalism students.

At the time I had been on campus just one semester and written my one silly story.  I was a journalism major in name, but not in practice. I had no idea what I was doing.

When the editors finished their pitch, they asked the prospective writers to report to the section of their choice - news, sports, features or organizations - depending on their interest.

I was such a crazed sports fan at the time, I sat back and waited to see how many other students were going to sports. I believed there would be so much competition for those jobs I would have to pay work my way up to get a sports job.

But when I looked up, I was surprised to see only one student visiting with the sports editor Bob Langford. I reported to sports.

I was given the lofty responsibility of covering the EKU swim team - the Eels - despite the fact I had never seen a swim meet or swam competitively. Once a week I would report to coach Dan Lichty - it is amazing I can still remember these names all these years later - and interviewed him about how the team did. Lichty was 10 years into a 32-year career at EKU. I don’t think I ever went to a swim meet.

What did become clear was that the Eels had a freshman long distance swimmer who was one of their best swimmers. As the season continued, the sports editor used me to do a feature story on the team.

I pitched the story on Chris Gray.

He was my first journalism interview. I overwrote the lead, but otherwise the story turned out pretty well. The sports editor loved it. Others on the staff complimented me on the story each week.

Near the end of the semester, the sports editor talked to me about being sports editor after he graduated. I got the job.

Over the next year, it was my fellow students who nurtured this shy Connecticut kid in those early days. They gave me advice and made me better. I loved every part of the job, but especially writing a column.

The 21-year-old Ken Tingley and his column for The Eastern Progress circa 1978-79.

When the two editors at the University of Albany were done with their pitch, I put in my two cents. I told them the skills they are learning at the school newspaper will help them no matter what career they pursue.

Maybe I should have gone further. Maybe I should have explained how lucky I felt to have found a career, a job that I loved, that I believed was making a difference in the world. That’s what I found all those years ago.

Not long after I started my job as college sports editor, one of my friends said he was worried about me. He didn’t see me much anymore. He wanted to know why I spent all my time working at the the newspaper. He didn’t seem to get it. I tried to explain that this was going to be my career, that this was what I was going to do for the rest of my life.

It was a good memory knowing what I wanted to do all those years ago.

Maybe that’s what I should have told the class.

Maybe that would have made an impact.

But I doubt it.

SUNY cuts

A journalism professor at SUNY Plattsburgh told me last week that the student enrollment had dropped to about 4,000 in recent years.

It is not the only SUNY school to see a steep drop in students.

SUNY Potsdam President Suzanne Smith announced Tuesday it will be cutting 14 degree programs and eliminating an unknown number of faculty and staff positions because of a projected $9 million deficit.

"We have failed to address the problem in any substantial way for far too long," Smith  said in an address to faculty. "Yes, I recognize that state support has not kept pace with our needs. And yes, I understand that we're facing increased costs in the coming years. But we must confront this stark reality. There will be no bailouts. This challenge is ours and ours alone to solve."

North Country Public Radio reported SUNY Potsdam’s enrollment has declined by 43% since 2010 while staff numbers have stayed the same. Enrollment is currently 2,500.

Among the 14 degree programs being considered for elimination are: art history (BA); arts management (BA); biochemistry (MS); chemistry (BA and BS); dance (BA); French (BA); music performance (MM); philosophy (BA); physics (BA); public health (BS and MS); Spanish (BA); and theater (BA).

Cemetery tour

The Chapman Museum is bringing back its cemetery tour on Saturday, Sept. 30.

Actors dressed in period dress will lead the tours around Pine View Cemetery in Queensbury at 10, 10:30 and 11 a.m. and costs $20 per person.

To register, call 518 793-2826 by Friday, Sept. 29.

Ethics class

During the Q & A with the University at Albany ethics class Monday, the professor, Rosemary Armao, asked me if there was any further information about the shooting in Glens Falls back in July.

You may remember there was a shooting not far from the Kensington Street School where two residents were shot and taken to the hospital.

Details were sparse with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office assuring residents there was no danger.

A day later, the Warren County Sheriff Jim LaFarr reported there would be no charges in the case.

"We have determined that there will be no criminal prosecution," LaFarr said in a text message to The Post-Star at the time. "Out of respect for the family and victims, we will not release anything further."

There was no other details.

Other news outlets determined the gunmen had committed suicide. That’s why there would be no charges.

What prompted the shooting, where the shooter got the gun and what was his relationship with the those wounded was never reported by LaFarr.

I said at the time that was not the responsibility of law enforcement to protect the family. Its responsibility was to the public.

While this may well have been a family dispute of some kind, the question of where the gun came from is something that needed to be answered.

Armao asked if there was any new information.

I told her there was not.

She just shook her head.

Friday night lights

Looking forward to Glens Falls’ football game under the lights on Friday.

Friday night lights is now the norm all around the region with Glens Falls and Queensbury both now sporting lights at their high school fields.