A columnist for The Washington Post will be on campus this Wednesday to speak at the 14th annual Ann Devroy Memorial Forum.
The Devroy Forum has been held every year since 1998 to honor the memory of Ann Devroy, a 1970 journalism graduate from UW–Eau Claire and former writer for The Washington Post. After her untimely death in 1997 at the age of 49, her friends, family and colleagues wanted to make sure her legacy would live on forever, according to the Forum’s website.
“Those who knew her best decided the best way to honor her memory was to give young journalists a chance to follow in her footsteps,” the site said.
Chair of the Devroy Committee Jan Larson said she has been to all but one of the past Forums.
“They’ve all been inspiring, and I’m always pleased to attend one of the Forums,” Larson said.
The Forum will be held at 8 p.m. in Schofield Hall, mostly because it was about the only time that was available, Larson said. She added that it will also be live-streamed from Schofield to Hibbard 101 if there ends up not being enough seats.
Junior broadcast journalism major James Kust said he attended last year’s Forum and it was a great experience.
“It’s a really neat opportunity, especially for a school the size of Eau Claire, to people to get such big journalistic names,” Kust said. “It’s really a great opportunity for not only the journalism students here, but students in general at Eau Claire to be able to listen to those people and get some valuable insight.”
Past speakers have included Bob Woodward, famous for his investigative reporting during the Watergate scandal, who was on campus in 2007.
This year’s speaker is E.J. Dionne Jr., who writes a twice-weekly political column for The Post.
Larson said she is very satisfied to be able to bring the columnist to the Eau Claire campus.
“We are very pleased to have Mr. Dionne as our speaker and he is a gift. He is a wonderful gift,” she said. “The reason he is speaking is because he did know Ann personally and wanted to honor her memory.”
Dionne said knowing Ann was a huge reason he wanted to be a part of the Forum, and that he had been unable to come in the past due to scheduling conflicts.
Dionne added that he grew up in a smaller town that is comparable to Eau Claire, and he liked that the Forum was being held at a smaller university.
“Because of where I grew up, I know how important places like yours are, so the fact that it was at Eau Claire made me all the more want to do it,” Dionne said. “I think that universities like yours are really important to the country.
Although he describes himself as political and opinionated, Dionne said politics would not be a main topic of his speech. He said he doesn’t feel like the Forum is the right place to express those opinions and said that he will focus on journalism. The title of his speech is “Can the New and Old Media Live Happily Together: Why Ann Would Prosper in this New World.”
Dionne said unlike many traditional journalists, he does not think new media is a bad thing, just that it needs be utilized properly.
“I’m going to sort of lay out an optimistic view and a pessimistic view about what I think needs to happen to get us to the optimistic view for journalists,” he said.
Dionne did point out that there will be a question and answer session after he speaks, and that he would be willing to answer political questions then if they come up.
As part of the Forum, an Eau Claire journalism student is awarded a three-week internship at The Washington Post, along with a scholarship and an internship at a Wisconsin daily newspaper.
Like Larson and Dionne, Kust said he was also looking forward to finding out who the recipient of the Devroy Fellowship is.
“That’s an amazing opportunity; it’s not something you can just apply for,” Kust said. “I think it’s great that we have that legacy left by Ann Devroy and a student can take advantage of that and have a career building opportunity.”
