Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
November 21, 2024

Magazine

FILE PHOTO News-Letter editors pose for a holiday photo in 2015.

Why student journalism still matters

By BEN SCHWARTZ | May 17, 2021

Okay, I’ll admit it — like many college students, I was partially in it for the free food.  When I was a News & Features Editor at The News-Letter, Wednesday evenings were brutal — a long, mad dash to put the paper to bed before sunrise. The Gatehouse’s heavy door was a portal to a place past exhaustion, where a manic giddiness usually set in while my editor friends and I stared blankly at an InDesign page that refused to lay itself out. 

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES  Members of the Student Labor Action Committee read in front of MSE Library circa 2000, around the time Valdez joined The News-Letter.

A conversation with Jessica Valdez, Copy Editor '04

By REBECCA MURATORE | May 17, 2021

Jessica Valdez attended Hopkins from 2001 to 2005. During her freshman year, she was a writer for The News-Letter. She became a News Editor her sophomore year and was Copy Editor her junior year. After receiving her PhD in English from Hopkins in 2012, she taught in the writing program at New York University Shanghai for one year. She has since been a professor of English literature at the University of Hong Kong for seven years.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES  Students practice music in an AMR I dorm in 1952, when Rose attended Hopkins.

A conversation with Richard Rose, Features writer '53

By MANAVI MONGIA | May 17, 2021

Professor Richard Rose began his education at Hopkins in September 1951 and graduated in June 1953. In his two years as a student, he wrote news stories and features for The News-Letter. He currently lives in England and boasts 4,000 books in his library at home.

COURTESY OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL COLLECTION Members of the lacrosse team celebrate after winning 1980 NCAA Championship, which occurred during Kruzansky's time with the sports section.

A conversation with Charles Kruzansky, Managing Editor '81

By CYNTHIA HU | May 17, 2021

Charles Kruzansky was a Managing Editor, Baltimore sports reporter and a restaurant reviewer for The News-Letter from 1980 to 1982. Kruzansky was very busy with local Maryland and national political campaigns and was a Political Science major. He went on to business school at Columbia University and then went to work for the New York State (NYS) Legislature on their Ways and Means Committee. After five years of learning all about NYS government, he went to work for Cornell University as a lobbyist. 

FILE PHOTO Students gather in Brody Learning Commons to film a Harlem Shake video in 2013, when Kupferberg attended Hopkins.

A conversation with Benjamin Kupferberg, News Editor '13

By CYNTHIA HU | May 17, 2021

Benjamin Kupferberg graduated from Hopkins in 2015 and from SAIS in 2016. He worked for The News-Letter all four years he was an undergraduate, from 2012-2015. He started by breaking coverage on Professor Steve Hanke’s uncovering of hyperinflation in Iran, which gave The News-Letter national attention. He was then a News Editor and worked alongside Evan Brooker and Nash Jenkins, “some of the finest men to ever grace the Gatehouse.”

CLIFF / CC BY 2.0 Szeto compares the media industry in 2007 to being on the Titanic.

A conversation with Michael Szeto, Associate Online Editor '10

May 17, 2021

Michael Szeto was part of The News-Letter from 2007 to 2010, during which he was Associate Online Editor. He received a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law and currently serves as university counsel in Stanford University’s Office of the General Counsel.

COURTESY OF MATTHEW DUJNIC  Cushing was on staff at The News-Letter when the News and Features sections merged.

A conversation with Marie Cushing, Editor-in-Chief '10

By AMELIA ISAACS | May 17, 2021

Marie Cushing attended Hopkins from 2006 to 2010 and worked on The News-Letter as the inaugural Layout Editor, Your News-Letter Editor (now Leisure), News & Features Editor and Editor-in-Chief. After graduating from Hopkins she taught for a decade in Memphis and now serves as a research specialist in education for the University of Virginia.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES  Students study late into the night at the Library in 1976, overlapping with Garland’s tenure as editor-in-chief.

A conversation with Eric Garland, Editor-in-Chief '77

By KATY WILNER | May 17, 2021

Eric Garland was a writer and editor for The News-Letter during his sophomore year and Editor-in-Chief as a junior. He graduated in 1978 and joined the City Paper startup. He went on to work on a number of magazines, and since 2009 has been a partner in Blue Heron Research Partners, a journalistic-driven due diligence firm for hedge funds and private equity firms.

COURTESY OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL COLLECTION Students study in Milton S. Eisenhower Library in 1976, when Zelinksy attended Hopkins.

A conversation with Yuri “George” Zelinsky, News Editor '77

By CLAIRE GOUDREAU | May 17, 2021

Yuri Zelinksy (better known as “George” by his News-Letter peers) attended Hopkins from 1973 to 1977, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Social and Behavioral Sciences. During his time at the University, he worked as a staff writer and News Editor for The News-Letter. Today he works in Washington, D.C. as a lawyer.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES Einolf’s “Blue Jays Sink Red Ten” covered a Hopkins win over Cornell in men’s lacrosse.  

Delaware Dave yaks recalling Jays lax

By DAVE EINOLF | May 17, 2021

I walked into the Gatehouse during orientation of what was my sophomore year in 1978 and immediately fell in love. I was a Hopkins legacy but a transfer, having spent a year in an experimental high-school-to-college program at the University of Delaware. I had a desire to write. I had been an editor at my high school paper at Wesley College where the Delaware program was housed, and I had even been a sports stringer for Dover Post, a local paper founded only a few years before.

FILE PHOTO Crenson's most memorable experience at The News-Letter was when he wrote a story that exposed Hopkins for owning run-down houses in Baltimore

Ancient Escapades and the importance of feature-style writing

By MATTHEW CRENSON | May 17, 2021

Not long after the middle of the last century, I became an undergraduate at Hopkins. I had received a rigorous but rather unexciting preparation at Baltimore City College, after which Hopkins felt like an awakening. The courses, of course, provided much of the stimulation, but there was an extracurricular electricity too. It became evident one morning in my freshman year as I walked across the Upper Quadrangle. I looked up and saw that someone had decorated the Gilman Hall clock with a beautifully executed Mickey Mouse face.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES  Fingerhood describes watching lacrosse as “a real pain in the ass” in April 1982.

Dribbling irreverence into the Sports section

By MIKE FINGERHOOD | May 17, 2021

My fondest memories of college are related to my time at The News-Letter. I had been an editor of my high school paper in Brooklyn, N.Y. that was released only six times per year. I already knew that I wanted to continue to write for my college paper, and then when I decided to go to Hopkins, the excitement grew, as I had been an avid reader of Russell Baker in the New York Times, and I knew of his Hopkins days.

COURTESY OF ANDREW GRAY Gray (standing, fourth from right) and Bill Dwyer (far left) attend an alumni hockey game in 2018, having started the club in the ‘80s.

How a quest for imaginary hockey players led me to The News-Letter

By ANDREW GRAY | May 17, 2021

I cannot remember a time in my life without newspapers. My parents always had them in the house, and my sisters and I would try to find the hidden Nina’s in Al Hirschfeld’s inimitable drawings. My first job, or at least my first real job where I did not work for my parents, was at Frate’s News Store in my hometown. I had to get there at 5 a.m. every Sunday to assemble the New York Times; back then, the paper was shipped in sections to be collated by kids like me at each store. This was three hours of intense shuffling, hands covered in ink, $5 in my pocket and a new pack of gum for the bike ride home.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES  Jones stands with fellow graduates and their girlfriends at Commencement 1953.

Remembering The News-Letter seven decades ago

By ROSS JONES | May 17, 2021

My recollections of The News-Letter reach back more than 70 years to when I joined the staff as a reporter in the fall of 1949, my freshman year at Hopkins. I had been editor of my high school newspaper and had worked a couple of summers as a copy boy at the Courier-Post, a newspaper in Camden, N.J. So I was anxious to work for The News-Letter. 

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES  The Gatehouse was designed in an Italianate style.

The Gatehouse: From 1875 to today

By ARIELLA SHUA | May 17, 2021

Bluish-gray stone walls. Yellow accents around arched windows. A slippery, rundown wooden bridge leads to a front door with white paint peeling off it. And mounted over the door, a plaque which reads “News Letter Office.”

BERNARD GAGNON/CC BY-SA 3.0 Goodman attended and covered the Lacrosse final four and national championship games at Gillette Stadium in 2008.

Sports, spilled cereal and Jim Valvano: A reflection on my three years at The News-Letter

By ERIC GOODMAN | May 17, 2021

Hello. I’m Eric Goodman — Hopkins Class of 2011. I worked on The News-Letter from 2007-2010, the first year as a Sports section staff writer and the last two years as a Sports Editor. Since graduating from Hopkins, I have worked in consulting in D.C. and New York, got an MBA at New York University and now work and live in Seattle with my wife who also went to Hopkins (Class of 2013). 

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