"spotlight" on campus
TRANSCRIPT
10 Investigative Story Ideas for College Journalists
1. Salaries
• Public university salary data is public record• Find the highest paid professors• Compare salaries of male and female faculty• Reveal salaries (and other compensation) of
key campus officials – university president, provost, athletics director, coaches, big-name faculty
The University of California released last year’s payroll data Wednesday, illuminating both salary increases and a continued earning gap between male and female faculty salaries.
2. College Scorecard
In 2016, the Obama administration released the College Scorecard database -- a comprehensive look at student population, college performance and “outcome” data.
https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/
http://bit.ly/2dUIH1C/
3. Lawsuits
• Look at lawsuits that have been filed against your school in recent years
• Look for individual suits and trends – multiple suits for wrongful termination or sexual harassment, for example
• Keep in mind all lawsuits are public so you can even access suits against private universities
4. Health Department Inspections
• All restaurants – in your community and on your campus – get regular inspections by the local health department and the results are public.
• Check scores for all cafeterias and restaurants on campus (and maybe popular off-campus restaurants).
• Document violations!
5. Budgets
• Get a copy of your school’s most recent budget and one from five years ago and compare.
• What’s changed? What’s gone up disproportionately?
• Compare different units – the school of business versus the school of communications, for example.
• Examine how student fees are used
6. Alcoholic Beverage Control
• Check ABC records for all on-campus and off-campus bars and pubs.
• Which are being cited for serving alcohol to underage drinkers?
• Report your findings!
7. Health professional licenses
• If you’ve got a medical school, nursing school, dental school, acupuncture or chiropractic school, check licenses of all faculty with the appropriate state licensing agency.
• Report on any professionals who have lost their licenses.
8. Counseling and Psychological Services
• Find out how many CAPS professionals serve your campus
• Check waiting times for an appointment• How many visits are students allowed to
have?• Compare data with other schools in your state
university system or in your state
The Daily Northwestern, Northwestern University
9. College Athletics
• Investigate what your school spends on athletics and where the money comes from
• Compare athletics director salary to key university personnel and top professors
• Investigate NCAA violations
10. Enrollment changes
• Look at enrollment figures for the past 10 years.
• See how major shifts – enrollment increases or decreases, shifts in majors, more or fewer students living on -- affect conditions on campus.
• Look at housing, class size, difficulty getting required classes, etc.
Other Tips for Investigative Reporting
• Ask: “What’s not working?”
Other Tips for Investigative Reporting
Develop an investigative mindset :• Question authority• Don’t take “no” for an answer• Always ask why?
Other Tips for Investigative Reporting
• Look for documents that can back up human sources.
• Think about what agency might keep records or statistics
Other Tips for Investigative Reporting
“Put notes into a Google spreadsheet so that information can be sorted and shared. You can link to documents and photos and audio and video on a spreadsheet. Nothing gets lost.”
-- Marcy BurstinerHumboldt State University
Other Tips for Investigative Reporting
• Collaborate with other student media outlets in your university system or in your state and compare campuses
Other Tips for Investigative Reporting
• Persevere! • Investigative reporting is hard, sometimes
fruitless work. • Hang in there!