Katie Littlefield Appointed Editor-in-Chief of The Commuter for 2020-21

LBCC student Katie Littlefield will be the next editor-in-chief of The Commuter, the college's award-winning student newspaper.

Katie Littlefield

Littlefield was appointed Wednesday by the college's Student Publications Committee, which is comprised of LBCC students, faculty and staff. She succeeds McKenna Christmas, who took over as editor-in-chief spring term, leading The Commuter during the college's unprecedented lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Littlefield, entering her second year at LBCC, has had a regular byline in the paper attached to her work as a reporter, photographer and editor.

During her interview with the publications committee, she emphasized her desire to reach out to other parts of the campus, encouraging a wider variety of students and staff to contribute to the weekly newspaper, the LBCommuter website, and its social media platforms.

"LBCC has so many amazing students with great talents that I want to showcase to our whole school," she wrote in her application for editor-in-chief. "I believe that one of the greatest responsibilities The Commuter has is student involvement and appreciation. This has been done very well over the years and I got to witness it first hand while working as managing editor for two terms. I’d like to amplify the voices of LBCC and showcase the hidden talents at this community college."

The responsibilities of The Commuter's editor-in-chief include appointing and managing the newspaper's staff; coordinating the work of the staff, including assigning and editing stories and photos; leading staff meetings and other newspaper activities; and representing the newspaper in the college community.

For more information about getting involved in The Commuter, Littlefield can be contacted at katherine.littlefield.5238@mail.linnbenton.edu or via the newspaper's email at commuter@linnbenton.edu.

For more information about journalism at LBCC, contact The Commuter's faculty adviser, Rob Priewe, at priewer@linnbenton.edu. To see more work by students in LBCC's journalism program, see their blogs at robpriewe.blogspot.com. 

# # #

Commuter Shares First Issue of Spring Term 2020

Check out the first digital issue of the term from the terrific team of Journalism students of The Commuter newspaper at Linn-Benton Community College.

Bravo!

Here's the link. And be sure to check out LBCommuter.com.

# # #

A New Term, and a New Routine at LBCC

My students' grades had been posted and Spring Break had begun ... sort of.

Instead of sitting on the grass beyond the outfield fence of Hohokam Park in Mesa, Arizona, I was sitting in my living room in Oregon. Instead of watching the Chicago Cubs play the Oakland A's in a major league baseball spring training game, I wondered what else in my life was about to change
because of the coronavirus.

Nearly two weeks later, the answer is ... a lot!

I didn't travel to Arizona for spring baseball, and right now there's no telling whether baseball -- or any other routine activity -- will return to "normal" anytime soon. I've barely left my house but for some exercise (running and walking), one trip to the grocery store and two stops for take-out pizza.

The bulk of my past week has been devoted to converting all of my typical face-to-face classes at Linn-Benton Community College into online-only experiences for my journalism and marketing students. And I'm working with the school newspaper staff of The Commuter to map out a strategy for shifting the attention of the weekly newspaper to its website and social media.

I'm becoming a Zoom video master and realizing all I took for granted in the luxury of working with students on campus each day.

I'm learning a variety of new skills and getting even more organized than I thought I was before.

Most of all, I'm looking forward to the start of Spring Term, a new routine, and the work that I love at LBCC.

Play ball!

# # #