Uncharted Waters

Monday marked the first day of taking an advanced sports reporting class with Howard Schlossberg. This is not the first time I have taken Howard for a class; I took sports reporting with him last semester. No matter what the class is, Howard's passion for his craft and love for his students is prevalent in everything he tries to convey. His personality never allows for a "dull" moment.

However, the dynamics of advanced sports reporting on day one alone are much different than they were in last semester's sports reporting class. To begin with, Howard actually showed up on the first day this time around. The more tangible difference is the fact that there is a second professor in advanced sports reporting helping Howard. That did not exist in the previous sports reporting class.

Yet the biggest difference, the difference that truly sets the two classes apart, is the combining of a multi-media class with advanced sports reporting (which didn't occur in last semester's class). That means, gasp, print journalism students being paired up with broadcast journalism students. Just like advanced sports reporting, multi-media also has two teachers.

There is no doubt that an air of uncertainty and confusion was palpable once both classes were put together in the same room. That feeling wasn't just among the students, but also among the instructors. Never before at Columbia College had a print journalism and a broadcast journalism class been put together.

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Only time will tell how successful this experiment is. Here's hoping that it works.