UJW shuttered by budget cuts

UPDATE: President Robert Zeigler has saved the workshop insofar as San Antonio College's support is concerned; it will happen again, as long as the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund says go ahead.

After 26 years of changing lives and opening doors for high school students, the Urban Journal- ism Workshop at San Antonio College, sponsored by the San Antonio Express-News and the Dow Jones News Fund, is closing its own door this year.

The workshop has fallen victim to budget cuts in higher education, but the president of San An- tonio College, where the workshop is conducted, would like to see the program continued.

"We are willing to look at any suggestions, any options, any ways that we might be able to do it differently," President Robert Zeigler said. "I want to save it if we possibly could."

San Antonio College journalism Instructor Irene Abrego has been director of the workshop since 1995 and has been a part of it since 1987. She said the college is no longer willing to support its administration.

"The processes that have been instituted in the last year have made everything take longer, involve more steps, lack any kind of efficiency, and are frankly confusing," Abrego said.

Zeigler said he is willing to evaluate the pro- gram and budget to discover if the workshop can be saved.

"We are going to do our very best," Zeigler said. "It's a tight budget and there's a lot of good programs we need to evaluate."

In 1990, Naka Nathaniel attended the workshop and after college graduation went on to work for The New York Times from 1995 to 2008.

"It gave me the opportunity to try a lot of different things in a small amount of time and that became the hallmark of my career as a journalist," Nathaniel said.

"It's disappointing that the workshop isn't going to be around for future generations to use as launching pads," Nathaniel said. "There are so many great students that have gone through the workshop."

Javier Aldape is vice-president of niche products for the E.W. Scripps Co., a media group with newspapers and TV stations around the country. He attended the workshop in 1986 and is "deeply saddened to learn that the workshop is ending."

"It deprives San Antonio students of a proven, effective journalism training program," Aldape said.

The Dow Jones News Fund, a major financial contributor to 24 high school journalism work- shops across the nation, provided the seed grant for UJW@SAC.

"The San Antonio College workshop is one of the finest workshops we've had the pleasure of supporting," said News Fund Deputy Director Linda Shockley. "The staff, the directors, have been top notch and very committed to journal- ism and working with high school students."

Abrego said, "My 25 years with UJW@SAC represents exactly half my life. It's made me a better teacher and a better student, a better leader and a better team player. It's taught me fortitude, patience and stewardship."

Beyond those benefits, she appreciates the people the workshop has brought into her life.

"Through the workshop, I have had the opportunity to work with professionals across the state, the good fortune to have mentored out- standing young people and the pleasure of working with a group of outstanding journalists dedicated to education," she said. "I can't imagine a better way to have spent my life."

She appreciates the chance to "pass on my passion for free exchange of information."

Since its start, the Urban Journalism Workshop has helped launch successful journalists' careers.

"We've had several veterans from the workshop get hired here at the San Antonio Express- News," said Dino Chiecchi, director of newsroom