ABC News teams up with UF

November 18, 2008

When John Green, ABC News’ executive producer for special programming and development, called to see if we’d be interested in a student-run bureau, we needed little time to decide. Realizing it was the right thing at the right time, we said yes, right away.

This fall semester, we became one of five ABC News On Campus sites around the country, joining Syracuse University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Texas at Austin and Arizona State University.

Working out of a reconfigured Weimer Hall office, our students have hit the ground running, covering an eclectic array of stories for ABC, including the young voter effect on the presidential elections, a student water-balloon fight to raise awareness for breast cancer and campus regulations on smoking.

The four telecommunication students (Robert Bradfield, Marilia Brocchetto, Miles Doran, Patrick Fleming) and one journalism senior (Dominick Tao), who work under the supervision of News Director Mark Leeps, produce mostly multi-media stories for http://abcnews.go.com/oncampus.

Bradfield serves as bureau chief, working 20 hours a week. Each of his staff members spends 15 hours a week on the job. Together, they make up a formidable team that’s ready to tackle any news or feature story, in any format. They pitch ideas on weekday mornings, take on assignments and keep a close watch on any developments in Florida that may be of interest to their viewers.

Recently, I visited Green and his colleagues at ABC in New York City. I applaud them for coming up with this mutually beneficial, timely idea – and for implementing it in such a wonderful way. We’re grateful for that call, and we keep answering it, in real time.

John Wright
Dean, College of Journalism
and Communications