5 Years Later: DCAA going strong, thanks to you

There's so much to celebrate at the end of these five years that I hardly know where to start.

The idea of a Daily Cardinal Alumni Association isn't a new one. People have tried for years to get an idea like this off the ground, most notably at the Cardinal's centennial when the Cardinal staff recognized the need for their alumni to stay in touch.

But the students have to focus, justly, on putting out the paper every day. If an alumni association was ever going to be successful, it would have to be because the alumni wanted it enough to keep it going.

You do, and you have.

The devotion Cardinalistas feel for their paper is remarkable; whenever I'm going on and on about the Cardinal to my co-workers, journalists themselves, they always say with surprise and not a little envy, "Gosh, you really loved your school paper."

I do. And so does Rusty Restuccia, a former Cardinal reporter whose brief service at the paper inspired him to donate more than $5,000 for our efforts thus far.

So does Jeff Greenfield, whose financial contributions paid for the Cardinal's new printer and design computer, among other things.

So does Marilyn Shuman, who on the spur of the moment and with little (actually, no) guidance from the DCAA headquarters that is my kitchen, formed the Winner's Circle Scholarship fund and raised all the money for it herself. More than $8,000, just by the strength of her love for the paper.

So does Adam Kolton, who got a fax from a friend and on the strength of that booked a plane ticket to Madison for our first gathering. I was terrified before that party, which turned the cold foyer of Grainger Hall into a raucous celebration. I was worried no one would come. I underestimated all of you. We had so many people at that first dinner that we ran out of chairs.

So does Jim Norton, who, unbeknownst even to us, paid the Daily Cardinal's entry fee into the prestigious Society of Professional Journalist Awards. The Cardinal, which won state and later national honors in that contest, couldn't afford to send its fine work to be judged among the best in the country. Jim, hearing about this, remedied the situation instantly.

Every time the Cardinal needed help, in the form of a phone call, a job contact, a pep talk, even a couch to sleep on, it was Cardinal alumni they turned to, and Cardinal alumni who responded.

This is what the Cardinal staff has dreamed of since I was a student nearly a decade ago, and probably of long before that.

It can be lonely in that office, as you all know. You have no full-time faculty advisor to catch your mistakes before you suffer the consequences. That independence has taught us well, but it can be frightening, too. There's nobody to back you up.

Well, there's somebody now, 1,200 somebodies, in the form of all of you.

In the form of Bill Kurtz, who calls me every spring asking when the next Cardinal alumni reunion will be. In the form of the late Robert Taylor, whose three decades on the Daily Cardinal board were marked with almost constant conflict; scarcely did a year go by, he said, when he wasn't being villified by one side or the other. But when he received his invitations to the parties, he didn't hestitate to come out and shake the hands of the students he once fought so hard: Cardinal blood is thicker than any water.

Everyone who's attended our reunions has with their applause rewarded those Cardinal alumni whose work, both at the Cardinal and subsequent to it, was extraordinary and in many cases overlooked. The reunions aren't just a chance to party (though Cardinalistas will take any chance to do that); they're a way to say thank you to people like Bill Swislow, whose passionate leadership during a 1976 staff strike inspired his fellow alumni to declare him, with none of the irony or cynicism common to journalists, their hero.

Most of all, you've used the DCAA for its most important purpose: to communicate. Not long after we all began this effort I received a letter from a Cardinal alumnus I'd given up hope of ever contacting: Richard F. Davis. Mr. Davis was editor in chief for one day in 1933. Fired for being Jewish, he led a strike himself that roiled the campus, then gracefully resigned when an all-student election went against him.

Mr. Davis and I corresponded for several months, and he told me he still -- still, after sixty years -- dreamed of the paper.

That's what you've done in the past five years. I cannot thank you enough.

DCAA Board Members: Who we are and how to get in touch with us

The DCAA was established in 1998 by a group of alumni, who despite serving in different areas of the paper during vastly different eras had one goal in mind: strengthen the relationship between the paper and its distinguished graduates.

Though we all worked at the Cardinal at different times, we all share a common history and a common language -- that of the backshop and the layout room, the Plaza and the Crystal Corner, deadlines and press passes. The Cardinal is at its heart a common conversation between generations, and we want to make sure as much of that conversation takes place as possible.

To that end, we'd like to tell you a little about ourselves, and invite you to contact us with any questions you might have.

President: Anthony T. Sansone is a web developer for ACNielsen, the premier market research company in the nation.

He served as Cardinal graphics editor '91, general manager '95-'97, board vice-president '96-'97.

He can be reached at asansone@dailycardinal.net

Vice President: Richard Leonard lives in Milwaukee with his wife Barbara, whom he met at The Daily Cardinal. Retired editor of the Milwaukee Journal, he served as Cardinal Managing Editor 41-42; Editor 46-47. Currently he is the Nieman Chair Emeritus of Marquette University. He was inducted into the Daily Cardinal Hall of Fame in 2000.

He can be reached at bkleonard@mixcom.com

Secretary: Jean Sue Johnson Libkind lives in Philadelphia and is the retired Managing Director of Worldwide Books in Ithaca. She and her husband, Bob, a former Conrail P.R. executive, are practicing culture vultures.

She was previously Director of Publishing Operations for the Jewish Publication Society before starting her own rights agency, The Bookschlepper. Her training was at the university presses of Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania in production and marketing.

Jean Sue was Monday night editor 1964-65 and Managing Editor, 1965-66 and is the secretary of DCAA. She can be reached at jeansue@bookschlepper.com

Director: Tom Griffin Tom Griffin has been editor of Columns, the University of Washington alumni magazine, since it was founded 14 years ago. He is also the author of the book The University of Washington Experience, published last fall by Documentary Media. Prior to joining Columns, Griffin was the editor of University Week, the faculty/staff newspaper at the University of Washington. He was a reporter for the Madison Press Connection and an English teacher in Paris.

He was a reporter and movie critic for the Cardinal in 1975-77.He can be reached at griffinte@comcast.net

Director: Allen Swerdlowe is a practicing architect in New York City. He has worked in the areas of residential, historic preservation, and urban design. His practice includes a strong emphasis on community affairs and has worked on the planning for the new World Trade Center project as well as Brooklyn Bridge Park.

He holds master degrees in both Fine Arts and Architecture, the former from the Art Institute of Chicago, the latter from Columbia University. He has taught at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and in the graduate programs at Pratt Institute and Columbia University. His work has won numerous awards and has been published widely.

He has also written a documentary televised on the Discovery Channel and is in the process of completing of treatment for a film to be released theatrically. The film is based on real events and takes a father and son back into WW2 and the development of the atomic bomb and its impact on their family.

He was Day/Night Editor, 67-68, and Associate Editor, 69.

Director: Allison Sansone also met her spouse at The Daily Cardinal. A newspaper reporter at The Daily Southtown, the third largest daily in the Chicago market, she covers religion and race relations, volunteers at an animal shelter and is working on a book about the Cardinal's history.

She was Editor in Chief in 1994 and Arts Editor in 1995-96. She can be reached at ahantschel@dailycardinal.net.

New name, same mission