From community colleges to universities: Investigating higher ed (Sponsored by Lumina Foundation)

• Event: 2012 IRE Conference
• Speakers: TBA
• Date/Time: Saturday, June 16 at 9:40 a.m.
• Location: Boylston
• Audio file: Only members can listen to conference audio

Gale Holland will tell how the Los Angeles Times used public records, confidential sources and computer-assisted reporting to expose shoddy construction, reckless spending and pay-to-play contracting in a $5.7 billion community college construction program. Erica Perez will talk about
documents and databases you can use to help hold colleges and universities accountable. Suzanne McBride will discuss how students working for ChicagoTalks uncovered irregularities in a century-old, state-funded legislative scholarship program and problems with the way Illinois schools have implemented a campus security law.

Related Tipsheets

• From community colleges to universities: Investigating higher ed with the help of students
  McBride's Powerpoint is chock full of great tips and story ideas on how you can cover your local higher education institution with the help of journalism students.

• Investigating Higher Education
  Use this tipsheet from award winning reporter, Perez, when you need to cover the higher education beat. She gives great resources for where to look and story ideas for the data you receive.

• Investigating Higher Education--Powerpoint
  Perez's Powerpoint presentation offers great examples of resources used and graphics on how to display your findings including personnel investigations, memos, SEC docs and more. Perez was part of the IRE award winning team for "On Shaky Ground".