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Maureen Croteau

University of Connecticut’s Journalism Department Chairwoman Maureen Croteau is the first woman to lead an academic department in UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and is its longest-serving department head. Last year, the department celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and Croteau has been its leader for the past 34 years.

Croteau arrived in Storrs after more than a decade working as a newspaper reporter and editor in Hartford and Providence. When she accepted the position in 1983, the department had three faculty members and a roomful of manual Underwood typewriters on old oaken desks. In 1985, she set up the department’s first computer lab, one of the first on campus. The department now has eight full-time faculty members, including two Pulitzer Prize winners, serving more than 200 undergraduate majors and pre-majors. Under her direction, the department has become the only nationally accredited journalism program in New England.

Since 1991, Croteau has been a director at The Day, where Publisher Gary Ferrugia calls her, “the conscience of the company in all matters regarding journalism.”

She is a UConn alumna and a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is co-author of two books, and was the 2014 New England Journalism Educator of the Year, chosen by the New England Newspaper and Press Association.

CTSPJ Board of Directors 2017-2018

2017-2018 Officers:

Michael Savino
President

Jordan Otero
Vice President for Programming

Viktoria Sundqvist
Vice President for Communications

Bruno Matarazzo Jr.
Treasurer

Cara Rosner
Secretary

Paul Singley
Immediate Past President

2016-17 Board of Directors:

• Darren Sweeney
• Pete Paguaga
• Leslie Hutchison
• Elizabeth Glagowski
• Andrew Ragali
• Ajhani Ayres
• Jodie Mozdzer Gil

2017 Theodore Driscoll Award for Investigative Reporting finalists

Here are the finalists for the 2017 Theodore Driscoll Award for Investigative Reporting Award. The winner will be announced at the Connecticut Journalism Hall of Fame at its annual dinner on May 25. More information on the dinner here. And you can buy tickets here.

Desperate choices: Giving up custody for care; Connecticut Health I-Team; Lisa Chedekel, Tony Bacewicz

Inside the money game; Connecticut Post; Ken Dixon, Angela Carella, Neil Vigdor

Missing at sea; Hartford Courant; Dave Altimari, David Owens

New pieces to art puzzle; Hartford Courant; Edmund H. Mahony

Left stranded; Hartford Courant; Josh Kovner

Commissioners with benefits; NBC 30; Jonathan Wardle, Len Besthoff

2017 Stephen A. Collins Public Service Award finalists

Here are the finalists for the 2017 Stephen A. Collins Public Service Award. The winner will be announced at the Connecticut Journalism Hall of Fame at its annual dinner on May 25. More information on the dinner here. And you can buy tickets here.

Deadly day care; Connecticut Post; Bill Cummings 

Connecticut’s opioid crisis; Hartford Courant; Maura Casey (one in a series of editorials)

Left stranded; Hartford Magazine; Josh Kovner

Derbygate; Norwich Bulletin; Ryan Blessing

Increasing transparency amid rising gun violence; Record-Journal; Lauren Sievert, Andrew Ragali, Bryan Lipiner, Molly  Callahan, Jesse Buchanan, Leigh Tauss, Eric Cotton, Jeffery Kurz, Richie Rathsack (one in a series of stories)

Troubled schools on trial; The Connecticut Mirror; Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

Connecticut SPJ 2017 Scholarship Call for Entries

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO APRIL 12, 2017!

The Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists Foundation Inc. presents the Bob Eddy Scholarship Program To Foster Journalism Careers.

The 2017 Scholarship program is now open! The deadline to apply has been extended to April 12, 2017. 

This year we will honor five journalism students with awards totalling $6,500.

To apply for a scholarship, students must start their junior, senior year in the fall 2017 and be enrolled at an accredited university in Connecticut or be a Connecticut resident enrolled in an accredited university in any state or country.

Apply today.

CTSPJ statement on New Haven reporter’s arrest

Statement from Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists President Mike Savino following an incident this month involving a New Haven Independent reporter and New Haven police.

“We are greatly disappointed in the decision by the New Haven police department to arrest a working journalist.

We recognize that police have legitimate concerns when setting a perimeter around a scene and urge journalists to respect those boundaries, but an arrest is extreme when less draconian remedies would have sufficed. Additionally, we are concerned by officers’ attempts to seize the memory card from a reporter’s camera, especially in light of New Haven Police Department’s historical failure to recognize the public’s First Amendment Right to record police.

The Connecticut General Assembly even felt compelled to pass legislation reaffirming this right in response to actions by New Haven police, among other agencies. Allowing the press and general public to freely monitor the government that serves on their behalf are an essential part of democracy.”

Longtime journalist and Connecticut SPJ board member dies

Longtime Connecticut journalist Debra “Debbie” Ann Estock, 61, of Fairfield, died Tuesday, Nov. 29.

Estock worked for many years as an editor at The Cooperator, a publication that serves the co-op and condo community on articles on management, finance and maintenance.

Estock was a longtime member and board member of the Connecticut SPJ, serving as chairwoman of the scholarship committee for nine years, starting in 2000.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Emery’s Church, 838 Kings Highway, Fairfield. Burial will be at Mt. Grove Cemetery.

Visiting hours will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Lesko & Polke Funeral Home, 1209 Post Road, Fairfield Center.

CTSPJ programming: Reporting On Elections

• NBC Connecticut political reporter Max Reiss
• CT News Junkie Editor Christine Stuart
• Representatives from the Connecticut State Election Enforcement Commission and the Office of State Ethics

New England First Amendment Coalition seeking journalism fellows for October institute

The New England First Amendment Coalition is selecting 25 reporters, editors and news producers to attend its three-day investigative journalism institute in October.

Applications are due August 31.

The institute is free and is open to any journalist working in the region. The institute runs from Oct. 16 to 18 in Dedham, Mass.

Those chosen to attend the institute will learn from some of the country’s elite reporters, editors and media attorneys, according to the first amendment coalition in a news release. Speakers at the institute include investigative journalism journalists and freedom of information experts. Bill Keller, former executive editor of The New York Times and current editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project, will be the keynote speaker.

The following confirmed speakers are:
Robert A. Bertsche | Prince Lobel Tye, LLP
Dieter Bradbury | Portland Press Herald
Peter Caruso | Caruso & Caruso, LLP
Michael Donoghue | Vermont Press Association
Vincent Duffy | Michigan Radio
Rick Gagliuso | Gagliuso and Gagliuso, PA
Matt Kauffman | Hartford Courant
Jenifer McKim | New England Center for Investigative Reporting
Colleen Murphy | Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission
Mike Rezendes | The Boston Globe
Jeremy Singer-Vine | BuzzFeed News
James Smith | Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information
Gregory V. Sullivan | Malloy & Sullivan
Don Van Natta | ESPN
Todd Wallack | The Boston Globe
Program topics include state public records and open meeting laws, effective sourcing, database analysis and how to respond to FOI request denials. Sessions include:
Tales from the Trenches | Panelists will share their practical experience in investigative work through painstaking interviewing and use of freedom of information laws to unearth corruption and bring truth to light.
Common Pitfalls | Panelists will discuss how to accessing documents through FOI requests and how to respond to denials.
Tips for Staying Out of Legal Trouble | A team of media attorneys will explain common issues of concern in defamation and privacy law.
State FOI Law | The specifics of each state’s public records and open meeting laws will be discussed and cases will be reviewed in break-out sessions with knowledgeable attorneys and journalists from each state.
The Confrontational Interview & Transition to Audio or Video | Veteran journalists will discuss how to prepare for difficult interviews and provide strategies on how to engage viewers and listeners.
Writing Workshop and Narrative Flow | Fellows will learn narrative writing techniques and how to improve their storytelling.
Hunch to Headline | Fellows will learn the steps necessary to follow up on a lead using publicly available databases and how to turn that information into a compelling story.
Effective Sourcing | Panelists will discuss how to best develop sources and relationships, and how to evaluate information.
Sponsors and supporters of this year’s institute include The Providence Journal Charitable Legacy Fund, the Robertson Foundation, The Boston Globe, the New England Newspaper & Press Association and the Academy of New England Journalists.

Meet Viktoria Sundqvist

Viktoria Sundqvist is the director of journalism outreach for Hearst Connecticut Media. She works out of the New Haven Register office in New Haven.

She has worked as assistant managing editor at the New Haven Register, executive producer, breaking news editor, managing editor of central Connecticut with oversight of The Register Citizen and The Middletown Press newsrooms, investigations editor at The Middletown Press and The Register Citizen, editor of The Middletown Press and Sunday/Features editor at The Register Citizen. 

She recently helped publish an in-depth nationwide investigation on Boys & Girls Clubs and sexual abuse and has investigated Connecticut police departments and their responsiveness to open records laws. 

Viktoria has a master’s degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University, where she also earned her undergraduate degree in communications and was the editor of the school’s weekly student-run newspaper, The Chronicle.

A native of Sweden, she came to the U.S. as an au pair in 1998, having already studied mass media in high school at a vocational technical-type program where she earned hands-on experience in writing newspaper articles, requesting public documents, producing talk-radio shows, film editing, photography and graphic design. She became a U.S. citizen in 2019.