By Lindsay Britt and Danielle Verrilli
Carrboro Commons Co-Editor and Photo Editor

During the UNC journalism students’ first exchange visit to NCCU on Sept. 19, Earl Phillips, Northeast Central Durham Executive Director, discusses the history of Northeast Central Durham with both sets of students.
Photo by Jock Lauterer

They are separated by less than 15 miles, yet it seems they have only just met. The recent alliance between the journalism programs at North Carolina Central University and UNC-Chapel Hill has brought together students who share the mission of bringing a community newspaper to Northeast Central Durham.

Jock Lauterer, lecturer and director of the Carolina Community Media Project at UNC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, went to Durham with the Faculty Engaged Scholars Program last spring to study how marginalized communities respond to social justice issues.

That visit to Durham was the seed of the exchange program, Lauterer said. From there, Lauterer contacted Bruce dePyssler, associate professor in the department of English and mass communications and faculty advisor for NCCU’s newspaper Campus Echo, who has been key in the program’s efforts.

“Everybody’s cooperating and everybody wants it to happen,” dePyssler said. “Jock and I are both really enthusiastic about it.”

Lauterer said, “The ultimate goal of course is a creation of a newspaper of Northeast Central Durham. Before that could even happen, the two journalism classes of NCCU and our class representing the School needed to collaborate, and even before we could do anything productive, we had to get to know each other.”

Lauterer’s community journalism class (JOMC 459) and a group of NCCU’s journalism students have made trips to both campuses this semester to meet and brainstorm with one another.

“When we went over to NCCU, we Carolina students, who are 90 percent white, all sat in a little clump, and when they came here they sat on one side of the class,” Lauterer said. “There really hasn’t been a nice sort of salad bowl mixing yet, if you will.”

Ultimately, the yin and the yang of the sister universities is an accomplishment, according to Lauterer.

“That relationship is social capital,” Lauterer said. “Six months ago, we wouldn’t have recognized each other if we passed each other on the street.”

Students in Lauterer’s community journalism class also see great benefits from working with NCCU.

Dioni Wise, a senior multimedia journalism and Spanish double major from Kinston, said the cooperation will bridge a gap between the two universities’ journalism programs.

“The college students could learn so much from each other because they come from different backgrounds but all strive to become sound journalists and help the kids in Northeast Central Durham,” said Wise, who writes for Lauterer’s online class newspaper, the Carrboro Commons.

Caroline McMillan, a senior journalism major and English minor from Charlotte, agreed. “Journalistically speaking, it is more powerful to join programs when we are all in the same area to accomplish something,” said McMillan, co-editor of the Carrboro Commons. “We are not that familiar with that community (Northeast Central Durham), and they (NCCU students) are in the heart of it. There is a lot that we can’t do without them.”

Lauterer said the goal is to create a biweekly community newspaper for Northeast Central Durham staffed by the youth of the community, meaning mostly high school kids.

Wise added that the newspaper will benefit the Northeast Central Durham community by providing a positive outlet of expression for teens.

“Now they could help improve their community one story at a time,” Wise said.

Lauterer believes “it’s just a matter of time,” before the classes will accomplish the goal.

Lisa Paulin, assistant professor in the department of English and mass communications at NCCU, said she would love to see the newspaper take off.

“There is just so much potential,” Paulin said. “It’s always good when people are able to tell their own story that could have an impact. But, I think it is going to be a long process.”

Geoffrey Cooper, a NCCU senior from Rocky Mount and editor-in-chief of Campus Echo, is grateful to be a part of the project.

“It gives me a chance to learn more about the kids here and the city itself,” Cooper said. “In the end, I think it is all going to play out very well, and I’m delighted to see the outcome.”