00:00 - The following program is sponsored in part by customers

00:04 - bank.

00:13 - Welcome to a very special episode of Journalists Roundtable.

00:16 - I'm Ellen Frantz.

00:18 - Our reporters today

00:19 - are all on the staff at university newspapers across Pennsylvania.

00:23 - Joining us today are Amber Medved, senior staff writer at the Pitt News

00:27 - at the University of Pittsburgh, and Kahlie Wray, managing editor with The Daily.

00:31 - Collegian at Penn State University.

00:33 - Welcome, everyone.

00:34 - So first we're going to start with, Amber.

00:38 - Higher education has been in the news

00:40 - a lot recently due to federal cuts on things such as research.

00:44 - How has the University of Pittsburgh been impacted?

00:47 - Yeah, there has been a lot of uncertainty

00:50 - surrounding, research funding,

00:54 - especially because Pitt relies a lot on research.

00:57 - We're a very heavy research school.

01:00 - So of course there's a lot of worry and,

01:04 - a move towards advocating for funding.

01:09 - I would say that while there has been some areas

01:12 - that have been impacted, especially in the Stem field,

01:16 - Pitt actually has made a few advancements with funding.

01:20 - So there's been a little back and forth while there have been worries,

01:25 - for federal funding.

01:28 - Some areas have seen an increase.

01:30 - So it really depends on the department or area.

01:37 - Kahlie, could you talk a little bit about,

01:39 - federal funding impacting Penn State?

01:43 - I can, last August

01:45 - 20th is a very big Stem school Stem wise.

01:49 - I remember last August,

01:50 - due to the federal funding, we lost about 40 research grants,

01:53 - all which were related to science and technology.

01:56 - So we took a very a pretty big hit in that area.

01:59 - We have something called a faculty Senate here

02:01 - that advocates for faculty and people who commit research.

02:04 - And they've been really trying to work towards getting Penn State

02:07 - to one sort of compact with, like, other Big Ten universities

02:10 - to sort of like fight back and to get this funding back and to find

02:13 - other ways to fund the research that was that lost the funding.

02:18 - I'm not really sure of what other fields at Penn State have been.

02:21 - The PAC have been impacted as much as Stem, though.

02:23 - Now, Kelly, while I have you, one of the Daily Collegians investigative

02:28 - reporters looked into Penn State's free speech ranking as Made by Fire,

02:32 - which stands for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expressions.

02:36 - What was the school's ranking?

02:39 - So our X our school ranking.

02:42 - So we looked at the rankings over the last five years and decided in 2021 to 2025.

02:47 - And essentially your story was about how it was a study decrease

02:49 - until last year where there was an upgrade.

02:52 - I don't want to miss call the current number, but we sort of I believe we ranked

02:56 - we rose like ten ranks, which was surprising to some people.

03:01 - So we sort of like looked into how why we suddenly increased up in the ranks

03:06 - so heavily.

03:07 - And we talked to people here at Penn State and other people about

03:10 - if they thought this ranking was correct, because Penn State is currently

03:13 - being sued by Uncensored America for not abiding by the First Amendment.

03:18 - So we spoke with them and their founder on how they felt about fire as ranking.

03:22 - We also spoke with student activists here on campus

03:24 - about how they felt about Penn State's free speech climate.

03:27 - And we looked at all of that, sort of like building on the fact that,

03:30 - well, in the beginning we were like, we were below.

03:33 - So this was this year

03:34 - was the first year where we made a score that made us compliant because Penn, fire

03:40 - has like red, yellow and green and we were always in the red.

03:44 - And then for the last year's ranking, we were suddenly in the yellow.

03:47 - So we kind of just looked at that and we asked people how they felt about that.

03:52 - What did the student activists say?

03:53 - Did they say that this was a good enough score,

03:55 - or that it could be better, or that they didn't agree with it?

03:58 - We had mixed reactions.

04:01 - So for the so we spoke with the two largest

04:04 - sort of student groups,

04:06 - the Penn State College Republicans, the Penn State College Democrats,

04:09 - the Penn State College Republicans said they agreed with the score, and they felt

04:12 - that Penn State had a very good free speech climate.

04:15 - The Penn State College Democrats did not really agree as well as uncensored.

04:20 - America also disagreed with Cyrus in the on ranking about for us

04:25 - for the last year, they felt that Penn State had displayed

04:29 - its scenarios in the last year where it impeded their free speech.

04:34 - So they thought that the ranking was not was incorrect.

04:38 - What were some of these scenarios that they felt impeded on their, free speech?

04:42 - So Penn State is, it's a it's funny

04:46 - in the sense that we're a large campus on a day to day basis.

04:49 - We have speakers who come and they draw large crowds because of whatever

04:52 - method you're trying to span.

04:53 - But Penn State has specific rules about what these speakers,

04:57 - how these speakers operate.

04:58 - So, for example, the main one is that they cannot amplify sound.

05:03 - And you also have to rent the certain area by a certain time.

05:07 - So last year Riley gains on activists was to come to our school.

05:12 - But she was she

05:14 - I don't want to say she was denied because that would be the incorrect language.

05:18 - But essentially what the what the Democrats

05:21 - said America was saying that she was not allowed to come to the space.

05:24 - But the Penn State

05:26 - is saying that that didn't happen because she didn't book the space in time.

05:29 - And we've also had scenarios where people have used

05:32 - the microphones and speakers, which is incorrect.

05:34 - So they've been removed from the space.

05:36 - So in that sense, we had some people saying, okay,

05:38 - that's impeding our First Amendment, but other people were saying, well, that's

05:41 - just the rule here.

05:43 - And the way

05:43 - the college Republicans were saying that Penn State has been very helpful

05:46 - when it comes to helping them host the quote unquote controversial speakers.

05:51 - Like, for example, Penn State was, Penn State to help the administration

05:54 - really helped them host their memorial for Charlie Kirk last semester.

05:58 - So they were like, no, Penn State helps us a lot.

06:02 - So there were like there was mixed

06:06 - reactions.

06:06 - And there was also the fact that, in 2024,

06:10 - Penn State had removed the Daily Collegian news stand for a few days.

06:15 - So that also affected people's opinions on whether or not Penn State

06:18 - had a good free speech comment.

06:20 - Now, Amber, Pitt did not go through this ranking by fire, but what have you heard

06:24 - from students regarding the status of free speech on Pitt's campus?

06:30 - I'm not sure exactly what

06:31 - ranking system we were using, but we also dropped in free ranking

06:36 - or free speech rankings and through interviews, again

06:40 - with both Pitt College Democrats and college Republicans, we were kind of

06:44 - seeing the same issue of students feeling like they were feeling censored.

06:50 - Both sides politically, actually, some more socially in classes

06:55 - through professors, or classmates,

06:59 - especially regarding issues of Israel and Palestine.

07:02 - And college Democrats

07:05 - also felt censored again with issues of Palestine

07:08 - because we have had protests on campus,

07:11 - especially in the last few years, that have kind of

07:16 - been censored in some ways, or there has been talk of there

07:20 - being censorship surrounding protests.

07:27 - And especially regarding

07:30 - identities, for Jewish students

07:34 - interviewing Jewish students, especially on campus,

07:37 - they feel like they've been censored.

07:40 - So I would say that there has been kind of

07:44 - an air on campus of a decrease in free speech.

07:49 - Now, Amber, in December, you wrote how the Pitt Educational Policies.

07:54 - Committee debated on if the university should ban cell phones in classrooms.

07:59 - Why did they want to do that?

08:01 - I has especially been a huge issue in our schools,

08:05 - especially because Pittsburgh is a very large AI hub.

08:10 - There's been a lot of debates not around only

08:12 - AI usage, but also data centers in the area.

08:15 - And so in the classroom, we have seen a lot of struggles with

08:20 - AI and how professors are grappling with that fact.

08:24 - And while the committee didn't reach a decision on banning cell phones,

08:29 - a lot of the people that I interviewed, professors, students have shown

08:33 - kind of an understanding that we do need technology in classrooms.

08:38 - And that's kind of the general consensus

08:41 - that technology may be necessary in classrooms.

08:44 - But there has to be an adjustment.

08:47 - So the Senate is still kind of figuring out

08:52 - what to put in, like syllabi regarding AI and whether that should be

08:56 - a university wide policy or more up to the discretion of professors.

09:01 - So that's kind of still in the works.

09:05 - There have been many events on campus

09:08 - where we have speakers come in and debate the pros and cons of using AI

09:13 - and how it can be ethically or unethically used.

09:17 - So that's still in the process, but it's been a very large conversation on campus.

09:24 - Can you give some examples for those who are watching, who may not be familiar

09:27 - on how students can have been using AI, that may not,

09:31 - the professors may not be okay with.

09:34 - ChatGPT.

09:35 - Here is a big one, generative

09:38 - AI in general that's been the main,

09:42 - usage of AI that has been considered

09:46 - unethical by both students and professors based on interviews.

09:50 - However, there have been some AI usages introduced, such as Claude

09:54 - that was recently introduced on Pitt's campus

09:57 - as a university supported usage of AI, and there have been

10:05 - different reactions from professors and students based on that.

10:08 - Not everyone is supportive of it, but the university is kind of leaning

10:13 - towards a more quote unquote ethical AI approach

10:18 - now, Kahlie, the Daily Collegian reached a at a,

10:22 - released an editorial about how the university should embrace AI usage.

10:27 - Why did they think that?

10:29 - So we were having a conversation, like amongst ourselves

10:32 - editorial board about like the, the increase in AI usage.

10:37 - And on the on one hand, we were like, well,

10:40 - it sort of like impedes our ability to think and to learn.

10:43 - But the other hand,

10:44 - we just sort of like came to the consensus that I was not going to go away.

10:48 - And we felt that the university owed it

10:50 - to us and the students to show us how to use it ethically,

10:54 - because from our conversations with our peers

10:57 - and seeing what our peers doing, people are sort of

10:59 - using AI in secret and they're using it in very unethical ways.

11:03 - And we were we were sort of like calling on the university to teach people

11:06 - how to use AI as a tool and not use it to do your work,

11:10 - but how to use it in aid of your work and how to be ethical about that usage.

11:14 - Knowing when to say that, hey, we use it.

11:16 - I use touch editor,

11:18 - I use Claude for this is how I use it to essentially like show your work.

11:22 - And that's why we did that.

11:24 - What are Penn State's current policies regarding?

11:26 - I do they have any in place?

11:28 - It depends on the professor.

11:31 - So we have some professors

11:33 - that are like absolutely new AI, and you have all the professors

11:35 - who are like, if you use AI side it in your work side it it depends.

11:39 - In the AI realm, Penn State has recently introduced

11:43 - not a full degree, but sort of like an AI certificate that you can get.

11:48 - So that's what

11:49 - they've sort of done since the rise of generative AI.

11:52 - And just I enjoyed.

11:54 - Now back to you, Amber.

11:56 - At the end of January, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced it was closing.

12:00 - What led to this?

12:05 - There's been kind of a larger

12:07 - movement of traditional media and it's decline

12:11 - in Pennsylvania with the closure of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

12:15 - That's kind of the biggest example in Pittsburgh, especially,

12:19 - and kind of larger media outlets getting less

12:24 - funding or less support from the public,

12:27 - less trust from the public.

12:32 - So journalists

12:33 - such as some of you at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have kind of banded together

12:38 - to create paper, which is kind of a grassroots movement

12:42 - to support, maybe some voices in Pittsburgh

12:48 - that haven't been heard by the Post-Gazette.

12:52 - They've said, kind of supporting more minority voices,

12:57 - especially,

12:59 - when I talked to them,

13:00 - they talked about supporting black voices, and kind of helping to

13:05 - maybe correct some of the

13:07 - maybe harmful history of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

13:11 - and kind of moving towards a more inclusive media space.

13:17 - Now, along with the closure,

13:19 - the Pittsburgh City Paper was relaunched in March between the founding of paper,

13:24 - which stands for the Pittsburgh Alliance for People Empowered Reporting

13:28 - and also the relaunching of the Pittsburgh City Paper.

13:31 - What does that say about the need for journalism in the city?

13:35 - I think it says that people

13:38 - want ethical, open

13:41 - journalism and although in the past we may have seen

13:47 - like less funding or less trust,

13:50 - people are moving towards this want for community based

13:55 - journalism and media that highlights the stories of a diverse group of people.

14:02 - Now you work on a college newspaper where many

14:06 - of your colleagues on this paper may want to get into journalism.

14:10 - As a career.

14:11 - How are they feeling watching these big publications like the Post-Gazette close.

14:17 - I know some people on our,

14:20 - staff kind of have ties to the Post-Gazette,

14:23 - so seeing the Post-Gazette

14:27 - announce its closure was a little disheartening.

14:30 - And it's worrying for students

14:32 - who want to go into journalism and media and communications.

14:36 - But we're trying to find ways

14:39 - to go into journalism

14:42 - and kind of adjust approaches because we can't really control everything.

14:49 - So we want to see how we can still, create ethical journalism

14:55 - and still talk to people and get people's stories out.

14:59 - Kaylee, why is it important for you to have a free

15:02 - press that's easily accessible to all people?

15:07 - I think for for me

15:10 - especially, I, I so I'm from Jamaica, so small country.

15:14 - So we really only have

15:15 - two large news organizations and they can only cover so much.

15:19 - So I think when I came to the US, I started coming to journalism

15:23 - and I sort of saw all these outlets and all these wide ranges of, like these,

15:28 - all these people reporting facts, opinions and what the entails of journalism.

15:32 - The thing I think it's important that we have a free press because it helps

15:35 - people make decisions and how to how to, like, operate in their daily life.

15:40 - So like I will say, like for Penn State and worth,

15:44 - our student paper, and obviously our large audience is students

15:47 - and it's important

15:48 - that we are in by by the university because we help students make decision

15:51 - and know what's happening in their community.

15:53 - So, for example, when the board of trustees decides

15:56 - to raise tuition or lower tuition, we like and we let students know about that,

16:00 - and when they decide to do other things that may not be favorable in students

16:04 - eyes, it's us who tell students so they can sort of try to make a.

16:08 - This is different by talking to university, protesting

16:12 - and how we decide to make a difference.

16:13 - So I think it's very important for a pre-press

16:15 - because we don't know how to operate in this world without a pre-press,

16:18 - because then we won't know what's going on.

16:21 - On the topic of the Penn State Board of Trustees,

16:24 - the university released its budget for the 202728 fiscal year.

16:29 - What details stood out to you?

16:32 - So what I thought, what's that to me specifically?

16:35 - Probably because of my comm major, is that the Bellisario Communications.

16:38 - College received, raise and so did some other,

16:42 - like liberal arts college

16:43 - or like the liberal arts college received a raise at which that to me,

16:46 - because I just feel as though we're sort of like going into an era where liberal

16:51 - arts degrees and communication degrees are slowly being devalued.

16:54 - So I thought it was interesting that those colleges received,

16:57 - an increase in funding that was interested in and, obviously

17:02 - one of like the most contentious things, sort of like around the Penn State

17:05 - community at large is the fact that the Commonwealth campuses will be closing.

17:09 - And so we were sort of looking at how

17:11 - that made changes in the budget and where where different allocations were.

17:16 - Yeah, there

17:17 - is six Commonwealth satellite campuses closing.

17:20 - How did those, how does that impact the budget for this upcoming year?

17:26 - So in so right now, according to the board of trustees,

17:30 - the seven Commonwealth campuses will close in the spring of 2027

17:35 - for budget reasons.

17:37 - They said there was like low enrollment they could like, though

17:41 - they couldn't afford it.

17:41 - They were like making money off those campus, those seven campuses

17:45 - I didn't really personally see or nor did me or my peers put that to me,

17:48 - like points in this budget where it seemed as if that impacted the budget.

17:54 - And I think it's because the University Park is sort of unique in the sense

17:58 - it is a part of, like the wider Penn State like, range campus,

18:02 - but it does stand out in the sense that it is the largest one

18:05 - and it has the most students,

18:06 - and they sort of like operates as its own thing in some sense.

18:11 - Now, due to,

18:12 - budget cuts from the federal government

18:15 - for public broadcasting, state colleges, local PBS

18:19 - affiliate PSU was set to close until way, way out of Philadelphia.

18:25 - Let's take took it over.

18:26 - What impact do those funds have not being included

18:29 - in the school's budget?

18:34 - I'm not sure what the.

18:35 - I will say that WSU is sort of like the only station that a lot of people

18:39 - in this area of Pennsylvania, have access to.

18:42 - So that was sort of, very disheartening

18:44 - when we first heard that it was going to be

18:47 - they were going to cut the budget.

18:48 - Even when I did to attend,

18:51 - they declined to fund that transition.

18:54 - So they had to use like Go Fund Me and other ways to fund that.

18:58 - So that was also

18:59 - that was also telling about like the board of trustees priorities.

19:02 - In that sense,

19:04 - we are

19:04 - unsure where the new funding, where the funding that would have been

19:07 - going to pursue is going now, or I should say, I am unsure.

19:11 - Is there is any of this budget

19:14 - going to affect student tuition?

19:18 - We're not sure.

19:19 - I mean, we would they still have it in the upcoming Board of Trustees meetings.

19:23 - We'll hear more about whether tuition will increase or decrease.

19:29 - I really I can't guess to what they'll do.

19:33 - Amber, you are an education major,

19:36 - and you write a lot about education, especially in the city of Pittsburgh.

19:39 - How, what is the state of k-through-12 education in Pittsburgh

19:43 - looking like these days?

19:47 - I'd say there's

19:47 - a lot of fear and again, uncertainty surrounding education,

19:52 - especially in the higher education space at Pitt.

19:56 - In the School of Education, there's a lot of worry going into the field,

20:01 - with larger kind of national administrations.

20:06 - But there's also been a lot of support,

20:11 - within people going into education and kind of camaraderie

20:16 - of kind of knowing that we want to do this for a good purpose.

20:21 - And although there are, a lot of fears,

20:24 - especially with kind of ice,

20:29 - and with more diverse student populations, teachers have kind of been

20:36 - creating

20:37 - plans as to how to address fears and education,

20:40 - how to address underfunding, and how to move forward in a way

20:44 - that is equitable and supportive of students.

20:48 - Can you talk a little bit about what some of those plans are?

20:53 - There a lot of I know in Pittsburgh

20:55 - public Schools in that district, teachers have kind of created plans as to

20:59 - what to do if, like an Ice officer approached, a school.

21:04 - And I know a few weeks ago there was kind of a scare

21:08 - that there was an ice officer, out of Pittsburgh Public School.

21:12 - And that fear fund was founded to be, untrue.

21:15 - There was never a nice officer at the school, but there was community

21:19 - fear.

21:19 - And that showed, really larger fears,

21:24 - for our students and how to

21:28 - support their needs, in such

21:31 - a fearful political environment.

21:35 - But teachers will especially,

21:37 - posts like signage in their classrooms of rights for students,

21:42 - and they'll have meetings about what to do.

21:45 - Whether or not they should let officers

21:48 - in their classrooms or not.

21:51 - Whether or not that's allowed.

21:53 - And that's kind of been a conversation at the university, too.

21:56 - A lot of professors are,

22:00 - worried about what to do if Ice officers were to come on

22:03 - campus and all those, we haven't really seen that happen yet.

22:07 - We have seen a lot of plans that are being made

22:11 - of how to kind of stop

22:14 - that movement.

22:17 - Kaylee, you wrote a lot about Thorne, which is,

22:20 - Penn State's big annual fundraiser.

22:22 - Can you explain a little bit of background about what

22:24 - thorn is for people who are watching, who may not know?

22:28 - Yes. So Thorne

22:29 - is Penn State's annual 48 dance and marathon,

22:33 - I should say, and it's in support of ending childhood cancer.

22:37 - So essentially we this year we had around 700 dancers.

22:40 - So 700, people sort of prepare up until the weekend in February, where they

22:46 - then stand in the brighter and center on the floor for 48 hours straight

22:51 - to support, to support, childhood cancer research to end.

22:54 - And then and we I believe it was 17 over $17 million that was raised.

23:00 - They increase every year.

23:02 - It's been going on for years.

23:04 - At first started down in the white building,

23:06 - which is another place on campus and it has just like slowly expanded.

23:09 - And I know other schools,

23:10 - other universities have started to do something similar, like I know.

23:13 - Blue and Nova has Nova Dance, and it's just it's a very important cause.

23:16 - The Penn State community, it's sort of like the highlight of the spring semester.

23:22 - I would say it's very important.

23:23 - It takes a long time to prepare for Thorne.

23:26 - They start well.

23:27 - They've already started fundraising for next dollar already,

23:30 - so it seems like a year of preparation and there are a lot of moving parts

23:34 - now before we run out of time.

23:35 - What are some issues that are important to college students

23:38 - that you are hearing about on campus and reporting on?

23:40 - Amber, do you want to start first?

23:44 - I think going back to the issue of Ice,

23:47 - that's been one of the main concerns around campus.

23:50 - With professors and people on staff

23:54 - and in higher education, but also with students.

23:57 - We're worried about people in our communities.

24:00 - Students,

24:02 - especially international students.

24:05 - That's one of the biggest fears.

24:07 - And another one, another issue that's been a big concern

24:11 - among students is, again, I it's a huge conversation.

24:14 - Many students on campus use I.

24:16 - But we're also contending with how to use it ethically,

24:20 - and how to contend with that.

24:24 - And Kaylee, what have you been hearing on Penn State's campus?

24:26 - Some concerns that students have.

24:28 - I think the biggest concern right now

24:31 - is whether or not Penn State will comply with certain federal orders.

24:35 - And obviously, we have people on both sides of the aisle with that.

24:38 - And then we also have people who are worried about, ice and aggression

24:42 - officers.

24:42 - They we haven't had any reports of them being on campus, but we have had them near

24:47 - the surrounding area. So people are worried about that.

24:49 - And people are also worried about whether or not Penn State

24:52 - is properly preparing them for the job market and concerns such as those.

24:56 - All right, that'll be it for today.

24:58 - Our guests today have been Kahlie Wray, managing editor with the Daily Collegian

25:03 - at Penn State University, and Amber Medved, senior

25:06 - staff writer with The Pitt News at the University of Pittsburgh.

25:09 - Thank you both for joining us.

25:12 - That's it for

25:13 - this special edition of Journalists Roundtable.

25:16 - I'm Ellen Frantz. Thanks for watching.