The King’s College Cancels Classes After Laying Off Faculty

The King’s College announced that it will not hold classes for the Fall 2023 semester and is pausing operations until further notice as of Monday, July 17.

As a result of ongoing financial turmoil and having its accreditation revoked, the college decided to temporarily close while in search of a “strategic alliance.” The college began publicly looking for a partner in Jan. 2023, and ended its former partnership with Primacorp in April. 

“The Board of Trustees has determined King's will not be offering classes for the fall 2023 semester,” the email read. “We emphasize that this is not a decision to close The King's College permanently. The Board of Trustees and senior administration will continue to navigate the College's next steps and contend for King's future over the coming months.”

“The decision to not hold classes this fall was very difficult, but with so many changes taking place it was also necessary,” Dr. Henry Bleattler, the new interim provost, said of the announcement. “We want only to offer the best education we can. By taking a break from classes the administration and board can focus on finding a long-term path forward, which has always been the goal.”

One of the potential partners from earlier this year, Alliance University (formerly Nyack College), also announced its closure after losing its accreditation. As a result of Alliance and King’s closures, there are currently no Protestant/evangelical Christian colleges operating in New York City.

College closures run rampant across America, especially among religious colleges. Christianity Today reported that at least 18 Christian colleges have closed since 2020. 

Several scholars and King’s faculty lamented the lack of Christian higher education in New York. 

“There are now zero Protestant Christian colleges in New York City… The  missional/church planting movement never believed in us,” Dr. Anthony Bradley said in a tweet on June 30. He continued in a thread, “It's not the money, it’s enrollment. Christian families, led by their pastors, no longer value Christian higher education because it’s not a church.” 

The King’s College has been open since 1938, Alliance University has been open since 1882 and Concordia College was open from 1881-2021. Despite the history of these colleges, they each struggled to meet the enrollment and fundraising quotas necessary to tackle the high cost of functioning in New York City, especially post-pandemic.

“Our brand is what sets us apart: our focus on excellence in and out of the classroom, a Christian classical liberal arts curriculum rooted in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and our New York City setting,” Bleattler said. “Our brand is really like that of no other Christian college. That is what our resilience is rooted in — and if we survive, it will be because of that. And the will of God, of course.”

King’s reportedly intended to appeal the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s decision, which would prohibit the college from accepting or recruiting any new students until the institute regains an accredited status according to section II.P of the Appeals from Adverse Actions Procedures. The appeal process allows the college to present “new intervening financial information only once” and the outcome of the appeal process “is final and binding on the institution.” 

MSCHE announced on July 27 that it “will consider the institution closed and no longer operational” and “this institutional closure terminates The King's College's appeal.” MSCHE requires that the college provide a substantive change request for closure by Aug. 11, and the commission will determine the final status of the college’s accreditation after that request is processed.

The board informed faculty and staff of the decision to cease operations in a meeting on Monday, July 17, a few hours before the email was sent out. Many faculty found other jobs in anticipation for the school’s closure, some made temporary plans and a few waited on King’s final answer.

“In this last, tough semester, I added a couple more roles, including development director (had the privilege of helping to raise $1.2M in 12 weeks from our generous parents, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends), and most recently, interim provost,” Dr. Kimberly Reeve said on LinkedIn. “It's sad to be ending with uncertainty over our future, but I know the legacy of King's lives on in each student, faculty and staff member, alum, and parent.” 

Reeve spearheaded a significant amount of the college’s financial planning and communication, largely  via emails and Community Updates, throughout the Spring 2023 semester. Reeve also recently announced she will be dean of the business program at St. Peter’s University in Jersey City, N.J. 

Some faculty continue to work for King’s in various capacities with the hope of saving the college. 

“I love The King’s College and aim to do everything I can to help the college succeed,” Bleattler said. “Working here has been my life’s calling.  When I retire, I want to do so knowing I gave The King’s College everything I had. I can tell you that the board is working overtime to implement a long-term solution. I know this sounds like a broken record, as we’ve been hearing this for the last six months, but they really are working diligently to save the college.”

Around 40 dedicated students remained committed to The King’s College in June, prior to the college’s hiatus announcement. The college assured students and their families that it will provide academic and financial aid advising resources for those students as they plan their fall semester.

“Transferring wasn’t something I wanted to do; it complicates all of my plans for my senior year and is a major upset. I’m not happy that I have to transfer but I can’t wait around for King’s to open again to get my degree,” said Aidan Kurth, who transferred to Fordham University. He noted that he made transfer plans in May, though he waited until after King’s announcement to officially commit to Fordham. 

King’s organized a teach-out program in anticipation for the potential closure, and many of those options are still available to King’s students. 

“I kind of expected it at this point because of the way things were going. Obviously, the college is supposed to have high hopes, but it would have been nice to hear about it sooner,” said Steven Nasar, a sophomore transferring to Touro University. “They did try to help us out with the transfer fair… I tried to transfer to Fordham, but the Fordham [school] they were transferring us to as an option was only a night school so I didn't end up using that. So they did help us, but to which schools they were helping us was a different story. You don’t really get exactly what you want, in that case.” 

Nasar resorted to his own resources when deciding on a school to transfer to rather than utilizing King’s resources, but he noted that many of his peers benefited from the teach-out plan. 

“I started applying to other schools right around spring break because at that point everyone was sure King’s was closing,” said Matthew Peterson, a sophomore transferring to Baruch College in New York. “I didn’t take any further steps after the applications had gone in until probably May because at the end there it seemed like there was some miraculous chance that King’s was going to make it. 

Once King’s announced its decision to pause operations, students like Peterson started moving forward with their backup plans.

“I moved forward with Baruch, where it appeared that I could get a decent education without breaking my back financially,” Peterson said. “I hadn’t fully let go of going to King’s, however, until they sent the final email saying they were closed this year.”

Some first-semester seniors participated in an accelerated degree-earning option over the summer, which ends on July 28 and remains unaffected by both the revoked accreditation and the college’s closure. These students also participated in the May 6 graduation ceremony.

Other seniors transferred, which in many cases means that they will lose some credits in the process. Most of the colleges in King’s teach-out program accept up to 60 transfer credits, with a few such as St. John’s University and Fordham University’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies accepting up to 90 credits. Some students noted that the schools they transferred to were flexible with the transfer credit policy because of the students’ situation.

“Since the end of last semester, I planned for and acted toward Fordham as my backup,” said Alice Milchik, a senior transferring to Fordham University. “I am so sad I probably won’t see all these people together again, and that I won’t ever experience a King’s graduation or certain classes or leadership roles that I was looking forward to. As for my new campus, I’m there for one year and plan to just graduate with good grades rather than involve myself as much as I did with King’s.”

Many students anticipated filling leadership roles in student organizations at King’s, and now must reevaluate their approach to campus involvement in a new environment.

“Since the initial announcement of financial struggles in January, I've been looking into options to transfer. The more they pushed back a statement, the less hopeful I was about returning in the fall,” said Shayley Burroughs, who was voted Student Body President for 2023-24. “The last few months have also been disheartening. The people of King’s are unlike any other, and it’s sad to think I won’t see most of them again. I plan to be as involved as possible in my next college community, but with only a year and a half left I’m not sure I’ll be able to be as involved as I was at King’s, which is also disappointing.” 

The Student Development team plans to preserve the House system by putting house artifacts in storage. “If and when King’s can reopen, these will be a vital part of continuing the legacy of King’s and building on the foundation of what has come before,” former Director of Student Development Joey Willis said in an email to house executive teams. Willis requested that each House nominate a “Custodian” who will keep some “essential house artifacts” and serve as “a point of contact for the newly placed House members at King’s should [it] restart” and “meet with the King’s 3.0 students to pass on traditions.”

There are still a few Catholic or conservative colleges in the New York City area, as well as many colleges with a liberal arts curriculum. King’s emphasized that it is not permanently closing, and there are still faculty and alumni working to revive the college. Despite this intention MSCHE is treating the college as closed, and many students expressed that their only option is to move on from King’s.

“To be honest, I feel very little emotion about the whole thing now,” said Peterson. “And I loved King’s. The most frustrating thing to me has been the inability to move forward because, for King’s, there was always a carrot dangled in front of us that maybe they were going to make it. In a community of idealists, few were willing to let it die without trying everything humanly possible — probably to their own detriment.”

This story was originally published at The Empire State Tribune.

Can New York City be Everyone’s Campus?

When touring colleges, The King’s College might have looked a little different from other colleges and universities. Instead of a campus built on a plot of land, King’s occupies three floors in a Lower Manhattan office building. If you were to look through some of the brochures, you would see the phrase, “New York City is your campus.” But is this really the case for all students?

King’s currently has one on-campus housing location in Downtown Brooklyn. The commute to school poses unique challenges and complicates daily functioning for students with disabilities looking to possibly attend King’s.

The most affordable and practical way for students to commute to school is, by far, the subway. No other mode of transportation in New York City is as comprehensive or cost-effective as the subway.

Still, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) public transportation system must take several strides to make the subway system more accessible. 

Why is the MTA in New York City so notoriously inaccessible? 

The MTA subway system is an artifact from a world before the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. While this law focused on protecting Americans with disabilities from discrimination in the workplace, it also mandated that public places be accessible to people with disabilities. 

The New York City Subway opened in October 1904, which means they were constructed long before the accessibility mandates. Most buildings in New York City were also built before the passing of the ADA, which further limits the accessibility of the city as a whole.

Currently, just 126 out of 472 stations are accessible. Thirty years since the passing of the ADA,  more than two-thirds of all subway stations remain inaccessible. 

City Point, the only on-campus housing location King’s offers, is described as “a fifteen-minute train ride from campus” on the King’s website. However, this is only true from the Hoyt Street station, which is currently inaccessible. 

“Most people use the Hoyt Street station, which is not accessible to me,” said Lauren Brooks, a Fall 2022 NYCJ Semester student who uses a wheelchair. “So, I either go to Jay Street-Metrotech, DeKalb Avenue or, if worse comes to worst, Atlantic Avenue, which is a 20-minute walk.”

ADA presented subway stations with a unique challenge when forced to transition to accessibility. Most stations are under busy streets, so reconstruction is constrained by the location of the tracks. But what do subway stations need to be considered accessible? 

The vast majority of stations are only accessible through stairs from the street level, the mezzanine, and finally, the platform. Stairs are not an option for someone who uses a wheelchair, crutches or a walker. Adding elevators for subway stations is difficult because construction is restricted by underground infrastructure, space available on street level, and space available within the station. Additionally, people with disabilities need escalators to make traveling from the station to the platform more accessible. 

The MTA must also address the gap between the platform and the train to improve accessibility. For someone using a walker or a wheelchair, this gap is hard to avoid when boarding and exiting the train. These gaps can often be too wide, too high or too low for someone to safely travel from the train to the platform or vice versa.

“If you were in the middle, the front or the back, we still need to work on being able to get a wheelchair or walker in safely,” said Christopher Greif, Executive Member of the New York City Transit Riders Council, in an interview. “We need to know what stations have this problem.”

Brooks echoes the problem of the gap between the subway car and the platform. 

“I was coming home one night, and because of the gap, my front wheels got stuck, and my friends had to push my chair up onto the subway,” said Brooks.

Aside from public transit, Brooks also faces the inaccessibility of New York City as a whole. 

“New York, in general, is terrible with accessibility,” said Brooks. “But nowhere is great. I'm from the LA area, so I'm not coming from greatness either. Broken or cracked sidewalks that pushed me onto the street, that's the norm here. I didn't expect a utopia. I would be silly to.”

On her TikTok account, Brooks documents the inaccessibility of establishments in New York City. One post, which showed a coffee shop entrance only accessible by a step, amassed 820,700 views.

For future students, there is hope. In June 2022, the MTA pledged to make 95% of stations accessible by 2055, 

Under the terms of the agreement, the MTA will add elevators or ramps to create a stair-free path of travel at 95 percent of the currently inaccessible subway stations by 2055. 

Andy Byford, who served on the New York City Transit Council from 2017 to 2021, was instrumental in the recent strides of modernization in the subway. He spearheaded the “Fast Forward” program, which along with signal improvements, aims to make 50 more stations accessible.

“Since Andy Byford was the president of MTA, there has been more accessibility,” said Grief. “More elevators, more ramps, bigger signages. They’re working hard to make sure public transportation is the safe way to travel.”

From Oct. 2019 to Jan. 2022, the Jay St. Metrotech station was used as an “accessibility lab” for new features intended to make navigating the subway easier for those with cognitive, visual or motor impairments. These include “tactile guideways,” colorful way-finding stripes on station floors and stairs, Braille signage and interactive subway maps. 

Officials are also testing five free apps to assist people with disabilities, such as NaviLens, which provides sign information in audio for visually impaired people. This new technology is a great first step in laying the groundwork for a more accessible future of public transportation in New York City.

“I would like to see them do more,” said Grief. “There are areas that need to be a little clearer and colors that need to be a little brighter. The screen that they have there is a start. I have to thank Andy Byford again because he started focusing on accessibility with knowledge.”

For prospective students at King’s with a disability, there is still work to be done to make the transportation system in New York City accessible for everyone to use. 

While King’s is not presently able to be everyone’s campus, at least comfortably, the groundwork is being laid for a more accessible future.

Drew Richardson is a contributor to the Empire State Tribune. He is a senior majoring in Journalism, Culture and Society and Business Management. He serves as the Production Intern at CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” show. This article originally ran at the EST this spring.

TKC Alumni Feature: Meet Michael Sheetz, The Space Reporter Who Also Surfs

On a recent Friday afternoon, Michael Sheetz hopped on a video call as he sat in the backyard of a modest French house. 

Calling from France, specifically Chinon in the Loire valley, to New York means he is six hours ahead and is enjoying the early evening with relatives. He had just finished covering a two-week-long space conference in France, and he and his wife decided to visit family there before heading back to the States. Though extremely busy, he made an effort to join the call. 

Potted plants and vine branches fill the backyard. Clouds cover the sky, but they don’t cast a feeling of gloom. Sheetz, wearing a simple gray shirt and a silver watch, brushed back his dark brown hair and clinched his scruffy jaw as he proceeded to answer question after question about his life back in America. 

As a California kid, Sheetz dreamed of places like New York City, Paris and outer space. Now a space reporter for global business news leader CNBC, his job encapsulates all those things. 

Growing up in Orange County, Calif., Sheetz had a normal childhood filled with baseball, surfing the Pacific and debate competitions. At a young age, Sheetz  subscribed to The Wall Street Journal and slowly became a news junky. He felt like he never fully appreciated his comfortable lifestyle in California until he moved across the country for college. 

Receiving the Founders Award, a full-ride scholarship to The King’s College, Sheetz moved to New York City in the fall of 2013, majoring in Politics, Philosophy and Economics with a minor in Journalism. 

“If there is any place I’m going to get exposure to what being a journalist looks like and being around other journalists, that's where I’m gonna have to be,” he said. 

While at King’s, Sheetz took a few journalism classes and was encouraged by professors to explore the realm of business journalism. 

“Michael is a smart, talented, articulate guy who was an enthusiastic part of the King’s community and journalism program,” a journalism professor at King’s, Paul Glader, said. “He dedicated himself to journalism and business reporting and is seeing great results.” 

During college, he took up three different internships at CNBC – working in breaking news for CNBC.com, on the TV assignment desk and the production team on the show “Mad Money with Jim Cramer.” He described working there as drinking from a fire hose of daily information.

Since he lived in the city, Sheetz took a bus to Englewood Cliffs, N.J., to his job at CNBC throughout college. 

Along with those internships, he served as editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, the Empire State Tribune, and worked there all four years of college. 

After graduating in 2017, Sheetz worked full-time for CNBC.com's markets team. He stayed due to the supportive culture of the company. 

As he began to gain more experience in journalism and reporting, he started to pull a few threads that would begin to unravel his future career opportunities. 

“Instead of trying to follow along with what everyone else was doing, I wanted to find something that no one was covering, that my editors were interested in, and something that I could really own,” Sheetz said. “I loved the idea that companies are made up of individuals and everyone from the janitor up to the CEO all make decisions that are personal to them through their own knowledge and experiences.” 

Sheetz always assumed that he would head back to the west coast to write for a newspaper after putting in his four years of college but realized his new passion would best thrive in the world’s financial capital. 

“Being in New York, you’re surrounded by Wall Street and all these big financial institutions. I loved the idea of trying to tell a little bit of the people’s stories behind all that money,” he said. 

Still looking for that specific thing Sheetz could call his own, he asked his editor if he could cover SpaceX launches that were happening over the weekend. He quickly realized that this $470 billion industry was not getting enough coverage. 

“[There is this] substantial existing industry where new companies created in the last 20 years are changing the game, some of them backed by billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and no one here is writing about it,” Sheetz said. 

He continued to pitch space stories to his editors and started covering the beat full-time. 

Though space is a broad topic, Sheetz focuses explicitly on the business and investing side. 

“It is a growing and changing beat. And today, I can hardly write about everything that is happening; there are so many companies newly public,” Sheetz said. 

Now, having over 170,000 followers on Twitter and launching a weekly newsletter, Investing in Space, Sheetz has pulled in an audience interested in space news. Though he has attended a fair share of rocket launches and space conferences, since working on the space beat full-time, Sheetz worked from home during the pandemic before returning to the office this fall.

For him, a typical day of work looks like sifting through hundreds of emails. He might watch a rocket launch webcast or tune into a press conference from NASA while writing articles.

“[Until recently], my entire existence of being a full-time space writer has been from a work-home environment,” Sheetz said.

Since he works as the news cycle requires, he has the flexibility to go back to his California roots.

Sheetz drives to Rockaway Beach in Queens a couple of times weekly to surf. But the news doesn’t stop just for him. At dawn, he packs up his surfing gear and also his laptop. After a couple of hours of catching some Atlantic ocean waves, he’ll head home or to the office – always ready for a call in case news breaks on his way.

The first paycheck he got at CNBC, he used to buy a fish surfboard. He now owns four; two fish surfboards and two shortboards. As the saying goes, you can take the boy out of California, but you can’t take California out of the boy. 

“I found a passion for using my free time to disconnect and stay offline and use that as an opportunity to recharge,” he added.

Sheetz and his wife, Joy, also a King’s alumna, have maintained a tight-knit group of college friends they often see on the weekends. 

“I have a great community of King’s alum that I’m close with; we have really stuck together in the Brooklyn area since then,” Sheetz said. 

“Michael has always shown up. Whether in high school to win national championships or to volunteer at church, he’s done so with excellence and a smile on his face,” Iain Coston, a friend of Sheetz, said. “Seeing him excel and shine at CNBC, lead new initiatives, and get hugs from Shaq is no surprise to me.” 

Now that the pandemic has subsided, Sheetz has returned to the office on a hybrid schedule, though he has enjoyed working from home.

Since international travel has loosened restrictions, CNBC deployed Sheetz to cover two exclusive space conferences in the South of France, World Satellite Business Week and the International Astronautical Congress (IAC).

Though Sheetz does not often travel for work, he could not miss the opportunity that two space conferences would be happening in the same city back to back. Sheetz moderated panels, interviewed many attendees and covered both conferences. 

But being a beat reporter is not always so glamorous. It's tough. Journalists are always in a competitive environment, wondering who will get the first exclusive or intel on the latest news. You have to be constantly on. 

“Overcoming the guilt of missing a story. Getting beat on a scoop or someone else getting an exclusive that I wanted,” Sheetz said. “I’m not omniscient. I can’t control the news; it doesn’t all flow through me. Which is what it feels like it should be.” 

Among many of his accomplishments, Sheetz started something at CNBC that no one else had attempted to take on full time.

“[My greatest accomplishment has been] building a beat from scratch. I didn’t invent space reporting, but no one was doing it full-time at CNBC,” Sheetz said. “That has been insanely satisfying. Having something that I built up, all the way to having a personal brand in space, to having CNBC be known for its space reporting.”

This article has been republished courtesy of The Empire State Tribune, the independent student newspaper at The King’s College in New York.

Prof. Clemente Lisi to release new book on the history of the FIFA World Cup ahead of Qatar 2022

A new book on the history of soccer’s World Cup, written by The King’s College journalism professor and veteran journalist Clemente Lisi, will be released on Oct. 12.

The publication of the book, “The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planet’s Biggest Sporting Event,” comes ahead of the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar. The quadrennial championship — the first time that it will take place in the Middle East — kicks off on Nov. 20 when the host nation takes on Ecuador.

“The World Cup is the biggest sporting event on the planet in terms of both eyeballs and passion,” Lisi said. “This book details the history of the event, the emotion it evokes and offers up a preview of the upcoming tournament.”

Every four years, the world’s best national soccer teams compete for the FIFA World Cup. Billions of people tune in from around the world to experience the remarkable events unfolding live, both on and off the field. From Diego Maradona’s first goal against England at the 1986 World Cup to Nelson Mandela’s surprise appearance at the 2010 final in South Africa, these unforgettable moments have helped to create a global phenomenon.

In “The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planet's Biggest Sporting Event,” Lisi chronicles the 92-year-old tournament from 1930 to today. He provides vivid accounts of games, details the innovations that impacted the sport across the decades and offers biographical sketches of all-time greats such as Pele, Maradona and Lionel Messi. In addition, Lisi includes needed, objective coverage of off-field controversies such as the FIFA corruption case, making this book an impartial history of the tournament.

Featuring stunning color photography, interviews and behind-the-scenes stories from the author’s many years covering the game and attending the last three World Cups, the book is the definitive history of this global event.

The book’s official launch will take place at The King’s College in New York City on Nov. 2. Details for that event will be made public later this fall.

“The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planet's Biggest Sporting Event” is published by Rowman and Littlefield. It is available now for preorder at Rowman.com, Barnes & Nobles, Target, Amazon and wherever books are sold.

Media who want to request a review copy can do so here.

Editorial Reviews for “The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planet’s Biggest Sporting Event”:

“Read this book! A masterful, must-read guide full of important well-researched information for those of us who want more history and context to better enjoy and understand the World Cup.”

— Steven G. Mandis, author of “The Real Madrid Way and What Happened to the USMNT”

“Clemente Lisi's new book, The FIFA World Cup, serves as a wonderful walk down memory lane for fans of the beautiful game's biggest event. Lisi fell in love with the World Cup watching the '82 tournament at his grandmother's apartment in Italy. I fell in love with the World Cup that same summer watching the epic Germany-France semifinal shootout with my grandparents in Germany. Millions of us have similar stories to tell. Lisi's passion for the World Cup comes shining through in his well-researched, entertaining book, perfect for both die-hards and casual fans alike.”

— Andy Clayton, Deputy Sports Editor, New York Daily News

“Clemente Lisi's lifelong passion for soccer shines through on every page. The book is a great resource for novice and expert readers alike. The World Cup is the rare sports event that even non-fans can unite around and with this book he has found the back of the net.”

— Dan Good, author, “Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever”

“The World Cup is unique and, with every succeeding tournament, the task of encompassing its goals and own goals, heroes and villains, magic and muddles becomes ever more of a challenge. Lisi has met that daunting test full-on and with an enthusiasm and love of the game which breathes through every page to render this a worthy addition to the genre.”

— Keir Radnedge, best-selling sports author, long-time columnist and former editor of World Soccer magazine

Paige Hagy elected King's SPJ chapter president for the 2022-23 academic year

Paige Hagy, outgoing editor-in-chief of the Empire State Tribune, has been elected president of the student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists at The King’s College for the 2022-23 academic year. Hagy replaces current president Sofia Valdes.  

In addition to her new position, Hagy will be interning this summer at American Banker through the Dow Jones News Fund.

Chapter members also elected Valdes the chapter’s vice president and Melinda Huspen as secretary. Both students have also worked for the EST, the award-winning independent student newspaper at King’s. 

In addition to electing a new executive team, the chapter co-sponsored a series of events with MPJI this year. The chapter helped co-sponsor and promote “Alumni Night” in the fall and spring semesters, where King’s and NYCJ alums discuss what it was like to work in the news media during the pandemic.  

The highlight of the year was a talk on April 13 by publisher Walter E. Hussman Jr., which served as MPJI’s eight annual lecture and co-sponsored by the chapter. 

The campus SPJ chapter was founded by students in 2018. Past chapter presidents have been Anastassia Gliadkovskaya (2018-19), Jillian Cheney (2019-20) and Gabriela Kressley (2020-21).  

The Society of Professional Journalists is the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior.

SPJ, founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry through the daily work of its members. The organization works to educate current and future journalists through professional development and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of press and speech through its advocacy efforts.

For more information on how to become a member, please visit www.spj.org or fill out the application form here.

Spring ‘22 NYCJ students learn what it takes to make it in New York, studying and interning in the city as the pandemic eases

Students taking part in the NYC Semester in Journalism program have spent the past two months covering important local and national news stories as the world slowly emerges from COVID-19. 

This semester’s students followed in the footsteps of past NYCJ classes by participating in the unique semester-long, off-campus study program operated by the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute at The King’s College in NYC.

After two years when internships were remote, many are now hybrid while classes at King’s are back in person. 

“I would absolutely recommend NYCJ to anybody who thinks journalism may be a career they pursue seriously,” said Banks Halvorson, who hails from Covenant College in Georgia and is currently interning at the Brooklyn Paper.

“The experience of working with newspapers in the media capital of America is priceless, and the classes you take and people you meet are incredible. I was excited about this program, but it has blown all my expectations out of the water.”  

Students taking part in the 14th NYCJ cohort that chose to make New York their home this semester. The students are enrolled in classes, including History of Journalism and New York City with Prof. Clemente Lisi and Entrepreneurial Journalism with Prof. Paul Glader. Under Glader’s guidance, the students work 20 hours per week in a New York newsroom, earning six academic credits and pursuing bylines.

Paige Taylor, a student from Abilene Christian University in Texas, is currently an intern at Bold TV. She said her internship and courses — in addition to living in New York City — has made this semester a unique experience.  

“Living and working in New York is much more fast paced than I anticipated,” she added, “but I adapted very quickly and have actually grown to love the hustle and bustle.” 

Esther Wickham, a King’s student who is taking part in NYCJ this spring, said her internship at amNewYork and living in the city has given her a chance to gain valuable experience needed for her to get a job once she graduates. 

“I would definitely recommend the program! It grants you the opportunity that the current college you attend can't give you,” she said. “Living in New York City during your college years while pursuing a career in journalism with highly skilled and talented professors that have been in the journalism field for decades is a dream many have.” 

Camila da Silva, a student who attends the Sao Paulo-based Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Brazil, is spending the semester as an intern with Religion Unplugged. She said her favorite class was History of Journalism, a course that looks at coverage of various events in U.S. history, including the 9/11 attacks, and the beliefs, values and character that goes with working in a New York newsroom.

“It brings together what we can learn from the past and perspectives for building modern journalism,” she said. 

Both Taylor and Wickham are taking Religion Reporting this semester, giving students yet another chance to get bylines since the advanced reporting class works closely with ReligionUnplugged.com. The non-profit religion news website, which has offices at TKC, is part of The Media Project. 

“We have gone really in depth on reporting and getting outside of our comfort zone when it comes to reporting on topics we are not very familiar with,” Taylor said. “I have learned so much about reporting.” 

The New York City Semester program partners with more than 41 universities and colleges across the U.S. and the world. Students can apply to join the program for a future semester by clicking here. 

Politico Editor Peter Canellos Explores The Moral Formation Of An American Hero For Equality

This article was originally published on Religion Unplugged on January 21, 2022.

John Marshall Harlan. Photo via Mathew Brady or Levin Handy — Brady-Handy Photograph Collection (Library of Congress).

(REVIEW) When former President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed John Marshall Harlan to the Supreme Court in 1877, anti-slavery Republicans mistrusted him, calling him “the sycophantic friend and suppliant tool” of White supremacists. Harlan had been born into a slaveholding family in 1833, and he was the lone Southerner on the court. 

To the surprise of his critics, Justice Harlan turned out to be the sole defender of civil rights in a series of Supreme Court cases that sharply limited the scope of the civil rights of Black Americans. Today, we read Harlan’s dissents as authoritative interpretations of the Constitution, and we repudiate the racist logic of many of the decisions of Harlan’s judicial contemporaries. How did Harlan get so much right at a time when his colleagues were getting so much wrong? 

At an online book talk organized by the King’s College in New York, Politico editor Peter Canellos said that his interest in the life of John Marshall Harlan was a “search for the roots of wisdom in the law.” 

“What makes Harlan wise in the estimation of history?” Canellos asked. “What made his colleagues unwise?” 

Peter Canellos

Canellos has a law degree from Columbia University, and he covered the nominations of Samuel Alito and John Roberts to the Supreme Court for The Boston Globe. His legal and journalistic training have equipped him to write “The Great Dissenter,” an engaging, popular and accessible book on Harlan and his jurisprudence. 

Canellos said that Harlan’s distinctive value system lay behind the differences between Harlan and his colleagues on the court. Harlan was a deeply religious man who served as an elder in the Presbyterian church, and he brought to his work a conviction that he was tasked with doing God’s will on Earth. He was not afraid to stand as a lone dissenter in cases to which he perceived his colleagues to be morally blind. In a letter to Harlan, Frederick Douglass wrote, “One man with God is a majority.”

A second source of Harlan’s moral courage was his commitment to the ideals of the Founding Fathers. American democracy was a great experiment in a world full of monarchs and authoritarians. He felt the wisdom of the Founding Fathers akin to a secular religion. He believed that a court that lived up to the spirit of America’s founding documents would ensure that all people who lived under the American flag were treated equally before the law. 

A third source of Harlan’s morality was his personal experience. He grew up in a family steeped in reverence for the law. He was the son of a prominent Kentucky lawyer and politician, and his father groomed him early in life to follow in his footsteps. John had a probable Black half-brother, Robert Harlan, whom his father brought up as a member of the family. In the face of Promethean odds, Robert thrived as a businessman, entrepreneur, politician and philanthropist. John’s relationship with Robert inoculated John from internalizing prevailing cultural concepts of Black inferiority. 

The Great Dissenter

Peter Canelloss, “The Great Dissenter,” Simon and Schuster, 2021.

In the civil rights cases of 1883, Harlan broke with his colleagues when the court ruled that the 14th Amendment applied only to the actions of state governments. In his dissenting opinion, Harlan argued that business owners who perform public functions should be subject to Congress’ power to enforce the 14th Amendment.

Harlan wrote his dissenting opinion using the inkwell with which former Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) — a case that Harlan considered to be America’s original judicial sin. It appalled Harlan that the same court that upheld Congress’ power to force private individuals to turn over runaway slaves in Dred Scot would now deny Congress’ power to prevent racial discrimination against freed men and women in places of public accommodation.  

In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), eight Supreme Court justices set up the legal structure for Jim Crow by upholding a Louisiana law that mandated separate railroad cars for Black customers. In his dissent, Harlan wrote, “In the eyes of the law, there is no superior, dominant ruling class of citizens in this country. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color blind and does not know or tolerate classes among its citizens.”  

Peter Canelloss, “The Great Dissenter,” Simon and Schuster, 2021.

In 1906, Harlan intervened in the case of Ed Johnson, a Black man from Kentucky who was convicted of raping a White woman at night in a cemetery even though the victim testified that she wasn’t sure her assailant was Black. Harlan ordered a stay of Johnson’s execution.

A White mob responded to Harlan’s ruling by descending on Chattanooga’s jail and dragging Johnson from his cell. The mob murdered Johnson and pinned a note to his dead body, saying, “To Chief Harlan, Here is your Negro.” Harlan convinced his fellow justices to try for contempt local court officials in Chattanooga who failed to protect Johnson. This resulted in the first and only time in history that the Supreme Court functioned as a criminal trial court. 

At the height of the Gilded Age, Harlan continued his dissents. He defended legislative efforts to break up corporate monopolies, institute an income tax and protect children and other exploited workers. Harlan’s colleagues on the court were corporate lawyers whose commitment to economic freedom precluded government intervention to protect labor rights. 

In the 1901 cases on the status of U.S. territories acquired in the Spanish-American War, Harlan sought to extend full legal protections to people of newly acquired territories in Hawaii, the Philippines and Puerto Rico. He warned that the court must not treat people who live under the American flag as “subjects” or “dependent peoples” lest it “engraft on our republican institutions a colonial system … abhorrent to the principles that underlie and pervade our Constitution.” 

In Berea v. Kentucky (1908), Harlan issued one of his most anguished dissents. An abolitionist preacher had founded Berea College in 1855 to educate Black and White men and women side-by-side, in a state of biblical unity. In 1904, the Kentucky legislature passed a bill to prohibit Black and White students from attending the same institution, public or private. Berea College challenged the law, arguing that it violated its property rights and constitutional liberties. 

The Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s prohibition as a reasonable application of the state’s police powers, citing the state’s interest in preventing racial commingling. Harlan’s dissent rang with righteous indignation. “The capacity to impart instruction to others is given by the Almighty for beneficent purposes, and its use may not be forbidden or interfered with by government,” Harlan wrote. “The right to impart instruction ... is beyond question part of one’s liberty as guaranteed … by the Constitution of the United States.”

Robert Harlan

Robert Harlan was probably the most important influence of John’s views on racial equality. Robert was 16 years older than John. In John’s eyes, Robert loomed as a fearless man of action. Robert’s refined cultural interests and entrepreneurial successes shaped John’s perceptions of what Black Americans could achieve in an atmosphere of freedom. 

Because he was African American, Robert was prevented from pursuing a formal education. Instead, he had to navigate from a young age the rough and tumble rituals of frontier life. At various times in his life, Robert succeeded as a horse racing impresario, a gold rush entrepreneur, a financier of Black businesses, a world traveler and an elected member of the Ohio House of Representatives. 

Robert opened a store in San Francisco during the California gold rush, and he returned to Kentucky with a fortune, which he invested in businesses in the free state of Ohio. Robert helped finance the first public school for Black children sanctioned by the Cincinnati school board. He also held the lease on the Duma House, a hotel that was the “beating heart of the Cincinnati Black community, honeycombed with hiding places for runaway slaves.” When John Harlan was nominated to the Supreme Court, Robert helped galvanize Republican support for his appointment. 

With his large house, fashionable clothing and biracial heritage, Robert became a representative of America’s aristocrats of color. When traveling, Robert and his influential Black friends — such as Frederick Douglass, Louisiana Governor P.B.S. Pinchback and Howard Law School founder John Mercer Langston — would stay in one another’s homes and host lavish dinners. Robert raised his children in a world of cosmopolitan sophistication, community service, political activism and appreciation for the arts. As John was resisting the legal threats to Black rights on the high court, Robert was fighting in the Ohio legislature to protect Black Americans’ access to inns, restaurants and public transportation. The New York World stated that Robert’s influence in Black America rivaled that of Douglass. 

During his lifetime, John Harlan was dismissed by many White Americans as an eccentric outlier. However, Black Americans responded enthusiastically to the justice whom they considered to be their sole ally on the Supreme Court. When Harlan died in 1911, Black congregations around the country organized spontaneous memorial services. The massive Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington hosted a multi-faith service in which Harlan’s Plessy dissent was read aloud.

“When the spirit of John Marshall Harlan left its temple of clay last Saturday morning, a great light went out,” proclaimed the Washington Bee. “An entire race, today, is weeping because ... a friend has been taken from us. ... Now that he has gone, we cannot help but tramble, and fear that no one after him may dissent against decisions against our race.”

In the 1950s, the NAACP found in Harlan’s Plessy dissent the legal basis to overturn segregation. Constance Baker Motley, who clerked for Thurgood Marshall, recalled, “Marshall would read aloud passages from Harlan’s amazing dissent. I don’t believe we ever filed a brief in which a portion of that opinion was not quoted.”

When Justice Marshall died in 1993, Judge Motley wrote, “Marshall admired the courage of Harlan more than any justice who has ever sat on the Supreme Court. Even Chief Justice Warren’s forthright and moving decision for the court in (Brown v. Board of Education) did not affect Marshall in the same way. Earl Warren was writing for a unanimous Supreme Court. Harlan was a solitary and lonely figure writing for posterity.”

Robert Carle is a professor at the King’s College in Manhattan. Dr. Carle has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The American Interest, Religion Unplugged, Newsday, Society, Human Rights Review, Academic Questions, and Reason. Some of the material in this essay was published in The Public Discourse on July 13, 2021.

The McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute welcomes the NYCJ class of Fall 2021

NEW YORK — The 13th class of the NYC Semester in Journalism arrived in late August from across the United States and one from Brazil. The class of 13 students represent nine colleges and universities. 

The students will participate in a unique semester-long, off-campus study program operated by the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute at The King’s College in New York. They will spend the semester living in student housing at King’s, where they will engage in a journalism-intensive semester, including taking classes such as Entrepreneurial Journalism with Prof. Paul Glader, a former reporter at The Wall Street Journal and founder of VettNews.com.   

Under the guidance of both Glader and Prof. Clemente Lisi, a former editor at the New York Post, students will earn six academic credits pursuing at least one byline or video credit per week for their portfolios. 

The New York City Semester program partners with 41 colleges and universities across the nation and globe. Apply to become a partner school by contacting Paul Glader at pglader@tkc.edu. Apply to join us as a student for a future semester by clicking here. 

Here is a roster of the NYCJ Fall 2021 class: 

Leocciano Callao 

A native of The Philippines, Leocciano hails from Providence Christian College in Pasadena, Calif. He is interning at the Brooklyn Paper this semester.   
 

Anna Carlson

Anna attends Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. She previously worked for The Point Weekly, Point Loma’s student media outlet. She is interning at Newsweek.  

Julia Findley 

A digital communication and design manager, Findey is a student at William Jessup University in Rocklin, Calif. She is interning at Bold TV.  

Alyssa Flores 

Alyssa also attends William Jessup, studying marketing and communications. She is interning at Bold TV.    

Haeven Gibbons 

A journalism major and Spanish minor, Gibbons is a student at Texas Christian University in Dallas. She previously interned at The Media Project, which is based at King’s, and is currently an intern at amNewYork.  

Ashley Grams

Ashley is a broadcast journalism major at Biola University outside Los Angeles. She is interning at NBC New York.



Nyckole Holguin 

Nyckole is a student at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, studying broadcast journalism. She is interning at amNewYork.  

Alyse Messmer 

Alyse is a student at Cal Baptist University located near Los Angeles. She is interning at Newsweek.   

Katelyn Quisenberry

A student who attends Biola University outside Los Angeles, Katelyn is interning at Bold TV.   

Sofia Kioko Saleem Khan 

Sofia hails from Brazil and attends Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Sao Paulo. She is interning at Religion Unplugged, an Award-winning non-profit news website. 
 

Rebecca Schwind

Rebecca is a student at Biola University outside Los Angeles and has experience at The Chimes, the school’s student-run newspaper. She is interning at Newsweek.  

Jada Williamson 

Jada is a student at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn. She is interning at the Brooklyn Paper.  

Kayla Wong

Kayla attends Point Loma Nazarene University. She is interning at the Queens Courier. 

The McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute is a home of journalism-related programs and majors at The King’s College in NYC. In addition to its academic programs, it hosts events and provides resources to its students, alums, friends and donors. The institute is named in the honor of the legendary reporter at The New York Times who was an exemplar of standards, ethics and style in the craft of journalism and was a kind friend and mentor to those of us who knew him.