We began planning a student trip to Arizona, where we hoped to report on the issues that would shape the 2022 midterm elections, a full year earlier, in spring 2021, and one year into the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, both the City University of New York and, indeed, much of the world, were under strict travel restrictions. In 2020, we had had to cancel our trip to the El Paso-Juarez border two weeks before we were set to travel, and our students had to complete their reporting projects via Zoom.
Indeed, this political reporting class follows two others—the first focused on the midterm elections in Maine’s 2nd congressional district and the border project—both of which won awards for excellence in student reporting. They, in turn, grew out of travel-reporting projects that began with three trips to Cuba—the first in 2015, just weeks after President Barack Obama initiated his détente with Cuba.
These immersive reporting experiences have proven to be transformational for many of our students who have gone on to paid internships at the New York Review of Books, Vice, Forbes and Down Jones, among others and graduate studies.
These political-reporting classes begin with two months of intensive reading, research and reporting on our destination, including briefings by political and demographic experts. For our focus on Arizona, we familiarized ourselves with the role of the Native American and Latino votes in delivering not only a slim, but crucial, victory for Joe Biden in the 2020 elections, but also in sending Mark Kelly to the Senate. We read up on the megadrought that grips the Southwest and the crucial role of water, and water conservation, in Arizona. We studied the ramifications of the state’s rapid growth, and policy issues that raises for everything from housing to natural resources. And we explored the continuing culture wars that are playing out in the Arizona state legislature, and its impact on schools and school boards.
During this midterm season, with vaccines available, we were hopeful, and determined, to resurrect the travel-portion of our class and head to Arizona to do on-the-ground reporting. While planning for these classes typically takes a full year of research and planning, we needed to work within the university’s strict travel rules—a task we couldn’t have done without the wholehearted support of the Baruch College dean of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences and her staff, as well as the provost.
So, we begin our acknowledgements with a heartfelt appreciation for Provost Linda Essig and Dean Jessica Lang who approved a scouting trip to Arizona long before it was clear that our students would actually be able to travel this spring. They, and their staffs, also helped clear numerous bureaucratic hurdles as we planned for a trip we weren’t sure could actually happen. It wasn’t until February, just two months before our planned trip, that we received formal approval to take our students to Arizona, which began a scramble to book planes, buses, hotels, restaurants and more. A special thank you to Boo Choi and Amanda Becker, in the dean’s office, as well as Irina Laskin, in the Office of Finance and Administration, for helping us navigate complicated university financial rules without which we couldn’t have put together this last-minute trip.
We must also thank our colleagues in the Journalism Department for their unfailing support of this project, and most especially, Glenda Hydler, the department’s administrator who has helped us in ways large and small.
And a particularly warm thank you to our friend, Paula Berggren, Baruch College professor emeritus, who helped enrich the trip by funding visits to the Desert Botanical Garden and the Heard Museum.
We would also like to thank Victoria Merlino and Jonathan Sperling who participated in the class reporting trip for Maine midterms and who have since created a scholarship fund for Baruch journalism students.
Many of the people who helped make this project possible, some of whom we quote in these stories, we first met during a scouting trip that the two of us made to the Phoenix area in January. We want to begin by thanking members of the Native American community who shared their work, expertise and contacts with our students, including:
- Traci L. Morris, Executive Director, American Indian Policy Institute, Arizona State University
- J. John, Policy Analyst, American Indian Policy Institute, Arizona State University
- Torey Dolan, J.D., Indian Legal Clinic Native Vote Fellow, Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law – Indian Legal Program
- Rosetta Walker, community advocate
- Mark Trahant, Editor at Large, Indian Country Today
- Jaynie Parrish, Executive Director, Navajo County Democrats
- Angela Salazar-Willeford, Office of Congressional & Legislative Affairs, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- Martin Harvier, President of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- Gary Bohnee, Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- Sommer Lopez, President of Young River People’s Council
The Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University was enormously helpful in helping us to understand key policy issues that are influencing voters and midterm elections, including housing, growth and the megadrought. We would especially like to thank:
- Sarah Porter, Director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy
- Alison Cook-Davis, Associate Director for Research, the Morrison Institute
- Steve Kilar, Communications Director for the Morrison Institute
- Liza Kurtz, Research analyst, the Morrison Institute
- Ashlee Tziganuk, Research analyst, the Morrison Institute
We also are grateful to David Walby, Water Reclamation Services Director for the City of Scottsdale, who gave us a tour of Scottsdale’s Reclamation Treatment Plant and helped us better understand the drought and water challenges facing the region.
For their help in explaining the education and culture-war challenges faced by Arizona schools, we want to give an especially warm thank you to Dawn Penich-Thacker of Save Our Schools Arizona and Charles Siler, co-founder Agave Strategy. They introduced us to the following School Board members who were especially generous with their time; warm thanks to all of them:
- Ylenia Aguilar, Osborn Elementary School District
- Michelle Fahy, Kyrene School District
- Sarah James, Tempe Unified High School District
- Lindsay Love, Chandler Unified School District
- Redeem Robinson, Balsz Elementary School District
The City of Chandler welcomed us with a detailed presentation of the town’s plan for growth. A special thank you to Matthew Burdick, Chandler’s director of communication and public affairs, and the city officials and community members who participated, including :
- Jenni Sanchezfer, Arizona Community Affairs Manager, Intel Corporation
- Sharyn Younger, Broker-Owner, Copper Summit Real Estate
- Derek Horn, Development Services Director, City of Chandler
- Kevin Mayo, Planning Administrator, City of Chandler
- Niki Tapia, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Program Manager, City of Chandler
- Micah Miranda, Economic Development Director, City of Chandler
- Leah Powell, Neighborhood Resources Director, City of Chandler
- John Knudson, Public Works and Utilities Director, City of Chandler
- Ryan Peters, Strategic Initiatives Director, City of Chandler
We also would like to thank the Chandler Museum for welcoming our students to its exhibit about the city’s Dust Bowl history. A special thanks to Tiffani Egnor, the museum’s programs and operations manager, and Jody Crago, the museum administrator.
The Maryvale YMCA welcomed us and fed us, and introduced us to the young men who are participating in the organization’s civic-engagement efforts. A warm thank you to Brenda Guerrero, staff coordinator of the Maryvale Y’s Community Action Team, for her help and hospitality.
Thank you to professors Eileen Diaz McConnell and Lisa Magaña of the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University for sharing their demographic expertise.
Thank you also to Charlie Fisher, executive director Arizona Democratic Party
Before leaving for Arizona, several experts helped prepare our students for the trip to Arizona. We’d especially like to thank:
- Michael Lewan, political consultant, The Livingston Group
- Jim Kolbe, former Congressman (AZ-R)
- Frank Donnelly, Geographic Information Systems and Data Librarian, Brown University
- Don Waisanen, professor at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public Policy
- Hadar Sachs, Democratic political donor advisor
- Steven Romalewski, Director, CUNY Mapping Service, Center for Urban Research at The Graduate Center / CUNY
- Bobby Cuza, political reporter for NY1
- Jennifer Bond
- Felecia Rotellini
Lastly, we thank our students, who rose to the occasion and made this a rewarding reporting trip for all.
Profs. Andrea Gabor and Vera Haller, Baruch College Department of Journalism