So many things happend, including a big political scoop

Wow, when I wrote the last post yesterday I did not know how much more that was to occur during the day. Everything isn’t here, but here are some of the events of yesterday, Thursday.


First, I can say I did my final exam in ENG120. This was not unexpected though, I just have not mentioned it. It was a test where one can only get Pass/No pass. I got 35 out of 40 correct answers = very good = the course is now completed. Really nice.



This is the kinda long, but if you like controversies and disclosure of politicians and authority figures, you will probably like it. Otherwise you may well skip down to the party section down below.


In November, there are elections in the U.S. for a lot of things, both local, statewise and national. One of the major local elections is to the Board of Trustees, the school board. This, we will of course write a lot about in the school newspaper, and the news editor has formed a team of four people who will work with this in the upcoming months, and I am part of the team! Yeah, really cool and an honor indeed. Yesterday, we were supposed to have our first meeting to go through some kind of strategy. But that did not happen.


When I came to the newsroom by 2.30pm  there was a lot going on for Kyle (news editor), Cody (opinion editor), James (editor in chief) and teacher Patricia and her assistant Palmer (Patricia and Palmer formally has nothing to do with the newspaper, but is only responsible for our grade school and the practical stuff there).

They had been told that several e-mails had been sent out on the school intranet to all employees about the candidates the authors believe that one should vote for in November. Those who had sent this was the Instructors' Association's executive board (who seemed to speak for all employees) and the dean of the entire School of Media Arts, the department to which we belong.

The problem is that this not allowed.

We talked to one of the responsible attorneys at the school, and she is sent over papers which clearly state that teachers and staff are not allowed to use school phones, e-mail system or other electronic ways of delivering political messages or requests on how to vote.

The dean of SOMA had also sent the same thing to all media in town, signed with his official title.

We all sat and began to call around and try to get hold of people. Do you think people wanted to talk to us? Of course not.

Doug Hersh, Dean of the School of Media Arts, one of the people involved in the scandal. Photo: James Sinclair


On top of this, the Board of Trustees would have its regular meeting. One of us always has to go there in any case, if they decide something interesting that th,e newspaper can write about. But since almost all of the people in this controversy would be present we thought we had to go all four of us.


The meeting itself was pretty boring. Nothing interesting was decided. And it took sooo long

Joe Dobbs, Kathryn Alexander and Desmond O'Neill during the meeting yesterday. They are the ones the e-mails says you should vote for. Photo taken by James during yesterday's meeting. (Btw, nice that the school's future is so young and vibrant ...)


But after the meeting, we had our big chance. Kyle ran after the dean, and the rest of us went over to the members of the board who were those who had support in some of the e-mails.

Talking to them was daunting. These are some of the biggest authorities, who have held office in about 20 years. They are lawyers and Ph.Ds and having an accusatory question is not easy. The man I spoke to seemed totally ignorant of what had happened, but that if it had happened would be illegal. The man who talked to Cody in contrast, knew about some of the e-mails.


From the dean came nothing. No comments. Almost a bit menacing said.


Then we went back to the neews room to write this. And it was not easy. There was a huge number of parts of this story (more than I have listed here). Then you have to get a good flow on this so that it feels good.

But it's also high profile men we are talking about here. They have large campaign team and lawyers behind them, so if something could be even a little bit doubtful, it could go pretty bad.

In addition, we wanted the story out before tomorrow (Friday) so that we would get this out before any other major media got wind of it.


We sat a long time. For a long, long time. Palmer arrived and brought food for us, and Patricia also came and gave us advice (she may not write or tell us how to write).


I think the story ended up being good, for being a sudden thing, with no actual quotes.


The story was published around midnight and this it is:


http://www.thechannelsonline.com/news/questionable-sbcc-trustee-endorsements-to-be-investigated-1.1645847


Follow-ups will come in the week. I can promise that we have not heard the last of this story. The once involved will probably soon contact The Channels ...


I had planned to go to Steve's birthday party. I came home around eleven in the evening, and Ola and Nima were home and studied. We decided to go over to Steven in anyway. It was very nice, because I have not seen Steven since the spring semester. I also met Lydia who was our neighbor and with the cheer team in the spring, and that I have not seen since spring.


Someone who I have not met in even a longer period of time is Brooke. She has lived in Oslo the last six months, and it was a pity I could not come and visit her this summer. The day before yesterday she came back to Santa Barbara for the fall and she had contacted me asking if we could meet soon. So I went downtown and we managed to take us into the VIP queue at Wildcat. Have not been there before, and neither had she.


So even though the partying started late, I got time for both birthday party, clubbing and dance floor.


Long days and long evening. And the weekend has only just begun. No studying either, so it looks promising indeed.


In addition, the Rangers won their pre-season game against the Devils with 4-3!

Rookie Derek Stepan did very good in his first game