NewYorkTimes.Com

Is it just me or does he look kind of embarrassed to be holding a Pulitzer?

This Saturday at 2pm, journalist Danny Hakim will speak in Emerson, courtesy of Saratoga Reads. Hakim is the New York Times Albany Bureau chief, and was a member of the team that won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal. Personally, I think it’s bullshit that the person who wrote this Post headline didn’t win, but whatever.

I bet this guy has some crazy shit to say about the New York State Legislature, and he probably knows a funny story or two about Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Saturday, March 31 @ 2pm in Emerson Auditorium
Free and open to the public

Last spring, to the dismay of English majors everywhere, the New York Times instituted a paywall limiting access to online content. The move seemed overdue, the stock prices of the New York Times Company have fallen steadily since 2004. The move appears to be working.

If you want to learn about the future of print media or if you’re interested in the company that sends stacks of papers to campus each day, make sure to get down to the Film Forum. On Thursday night there will be a panel featuring Barbara Lombardo (Managing Editor of the Saratogain), Rex Smith (Editor of  the Times Union) and Jeff Goodell (local writer).

Check out the trailer
Thursday @ 7:30
Friday @ 7:30
Sunday @ 7:00

American colleges seem to be equated with “safety schools” among the Indian upper- and middle-classes. Still, many are drawn to the “intellectual freedom of an American liberal arts education.” In prestigious Indian universities, humanities are generally dismissed, while “economics, commerce, engineering and medicine have a certain cachet.” There is a complete lack of mobility within one’s major beyond 11th grade, and the actual admissions examination leaves many students “traumatized.”  I didn’t particularly enjoy my college process, but “traumatizing” is not the first word that comes to mind. “Pain-in-the-ass,” maybe.

The article also includes the best quote ever:

“If somebody majors in English here, it’s like, ‘O.K., she’ll get married,’ ” said Ms. Sachdeva.

Oh, if only it were so easy here! What I would do to have some handsome, strapping pre-med sweep me off my useless, new historicist feet.

College is not the only thing people struggle to pay for or question paying for. Why does The New York Times charge for news? Shouldn’t everyone have access to the best possible coverage of world events? How could it hurt The Times if more people read their expert coverage?

But of course someone has to pay or there won’t be expert coverage. And someone has to pay or there won’t be the excellent teaching and mentoring we need — or the development of knowledge and ideas so fundamental to providing education.

Real talk! Although Skidmore tuition tends to verge on astronomical, it seems clear that cutting costs to the point that Perry proposes would drastically decrease the quality of a college education. Plus, I’m not sure Rick Perry is the best suited person to fix the myriad problems in American academia.

Read the whole discussion here.

Doesn't this remind you of Goosebumps?

Some very impressive things are being said about Steven Millhauser’s “We Others,” the latest offering from the prolific writer and Skidmore professor. Both Jonathan Lethem (in the New York Times) and Michael Dirda (in the Washington Post) have written celebratory reviews of the short story collection, which includes works both old and new and seems like a decent introduction for those unfamiliar with the author’s bibliography.

In 1997, Millhauser’s novel Martin Dressler won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which—in the words of our vice president—is a big fucking deal. He is regularly featured in The New Yorker and his widely acclaimed short story, ”Eisenheim the Illusionist,” was later adapted into the 2006 film The Prestige The Illusionist.

So if you see Millhauser around campus and you’re looking for an excuse to talk to him and maybe cultivate a Finding Forrester-like relationship, bringing up his new book is the perfect opener. I still haven’t worked up the courage to tell Steve Stern how much I enjoyed The Frozen Rabbi (I really did, Professor Stern!).

Today The New York Times announced its plan to place its content behind a paywall and exploded my mind with journalism thoughts. Starting March 28th non-subscribers will need to fork over 15 dollars a month for the digital edition of the gray lady.

I have a lot to say about this and you should stop me on the street if you want to talk about it, because the NYTs really is walking a thin line here. The long anticipated policy change attempts—and we will need to wait and see how successfully—to grant enough access to non-subscribers so that NYTimes.com remains a relevant part of the conversation while also ending their free ride, and picking the right price point for that is unprecedented, tricky and dangerous.

Here at Skidmore we benefit from the New York Times in College readership program, which means the school pays a staggeringly low 10 grand a year for all the ‘free’ copies of the Times you see lying around Case Center. The New York Times in College program also helped bring Sam Sifton to campus last month and provides academic aids and online resources to teachers and stuff. So exactly what the new paywall means for us remains unclear.

Eileen M. Murphy, the Time’s vice president for corporate communications, says that colleges like Skidmore that participate in the NYTs in College readership programs will get discounted access to the Times web site, but exactly how big that discount will be is still unknown. Inquires via twitter and calls to the NYTs corporate offices went unanswered.

Personally, I  wouldn’t mind paying a little extra each month to get the Times online and on my phone. But then again, I hope they hire me one day and kind of need whatever business model they choose to work. Also, everyone knows that we’re just going to snag our parents’ subscription info like we do with the NewYorker.com. LOL WESTCHESTER WHERE YOU ATTTTT?

Sifton replaced former NYTs Chief Restaurant Critic Frank Bruni in October 2009 and has been a wonderful reviewer for The Times since. At one point in my life my dream job was to do what he does so I’m excited.

Sam Sifton’s Diner’s Journal Blog
Sam Sifton on twitter

The New York Time’s Arts Review takes a brief sojourn out of the five boroughs this week to see the ‘Jewel Thief’ exhibit at our very own Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. The show, curated by the Tang’s associate director Ian Berry and sculptor Jessica Stockholder, runs through Feb. 27th and seems to have thoroughly impressed the grey lady, who says:

Such shows, whatever flaws they may have in execution, make art history, past and present, bigger and richer. They bring more guests — some still strangers — to the table. And they assure that art in its many forms is productively refreshed and promoted. <via NYTimes.com>

If you’re in town I suggest you make your way over to the Tang as soon as you can before our quaint campus is invaded by stroller pushing, fleece wearing, organic egg eating Times subscribers. Really, It is only a matter of hours before their Subarus clog perimeter road.