Editor: Keith Davis Writers: Alex Dippold, Jennifer Bates Lockley, Dave Maley Publisher: Office of Public Information Volume 22, No. 4  October 4, 1999

Columnist Clarence Page to Be Park Distinguished Visitor Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and television commentator Clarence Page will spend several days on campus this month as part of the Park Distinguished Visitors Series in the Roy H. Park School of Communications. Page will give a free public lecture, "Bridge to a New Media Century," on Tuesday, October 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Emerson Suites, Phillips Hall. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session and a reception. A native of Ohio, Page began his journalism career at the age of 17 as a freelance writer and photographer for the Middletown Journal and Cincinnati Enquirer. After earning a journalism degree from Ohio University in 1969, he joined the Chicago Tribune as a reporter and assistant city editor. In 1972 he contributed to a Tribune special series on vote fraud, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Page won the 1976 Edward Scott Beck Award for overseas reporting on the changing politics of southern Africa, and his investigative series "The Black Tax" was awarded the 1980 Illinois UPI award for community service. In 1980 Page turned his attention to television, serving as community affairs director, reporter, and planning editor at WBBM-TV in Chicago. He returned to the Tribune in 1984 as a columnist, and in 1987 his column went into national syndication. That same year he was presented the American Civil Liberties Union James P. McGuire Award for his columns on constitutional rights; two years later he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Page’s column is now syndicated in about 150 papers by Tribune Media Services. His first book, Showing My Color: Impolite Essays on Race and Identity, was named to the American Library Association’s list of notable books for 1997. Page is a regular news analyst on ABC’s This Week, a contributor of essays to NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and a panelist on Black Entertainment Television’s Lead Story. He occasionally serves as an invited panelist on The McLaughlin Group and as a commentator on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. He has written for Chicago magazine, Washington Monthly, the New Republic, the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, and Emerge. During his four-day stay on campus, Page will be speaking in journalism and politics courses, giving master classes, and meeting informally with faculty and students, including members of the Ithaca College chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, staff of student media outlets, and participants in the Ithaca Opportunity Program. This is the fourth year of the Park Distinguished Visitors series; previous participants were CNN political and media analyst Jeff Greenfield, ABC News correspondent Bob Brown, and best-selling author and political satirist P. J. O’Rourke. The series is made possible through a grant from the Park Foundation.

Created by Andrejs Ozolins. Updated 2 Nov 1999