As The Chanticleer continues to be the work of six students, we are now guided by John Harvey, the student media coordinator for the newspaper.
In the position of student media coordinator, Harvey will implement a candidate program and workshops to get journalism students involved with The Chanticleer. He will be a resource to educate members of the student-run organization on the basic foundations of journalism, which he has done countless times with hundreds of college students in the past.
This main goal he wishes to accomplish was emphasized after his first impression of the student newspaper.
“The Chanticleer is really small,” Harvey said. “We have a way where we can go. The hard part is to get people to believe, you know, and sort of change how they think about what they’re doing.”
One of his proudest achievements, he said, was receiving the National Adviser of the Year Award from the College Media Association in 2018.
Harvey’s role differs from the recently removed The Chanticleer faculty adviser position from previous years because he is a part-time staff member. Nonetheless, he is certainly qualified to serve as the guiding hand with his expertise garnered since 1974.
After studying at Waynesburg University, he began his career as a reporter for the Observer-Reporter in Washington, Pennsylvania. During his reporting career, one of his favorite topics he covered was the Brother’s Keeper cult in Connecticut.
He later became the editor of The Centre Democrat in Bellefonte. Serving as editor in multiple positions until 1989 led him to take up multiple advising roles from 1998 to today.
For 12 years, Harvey was the adviser for The Pennsylvania State University’s student newspaper, The Daily Collegian. When he started, he said the newspaper had about 30 members. By the time he left, there were 200.
From there, he landed the role of being the student media director at Georgia Southern University for three years. For six, he performed a similar duty at East Carolina University. He oversaw the newspaper, magazines and radio. At his previous universities, Harvey was also an adjunct professor at times.
With The Chanticleer, Harvey hopes to see similar results as he did with Penn State to grow the newspaper and solidify it to be a relevant, legitimate news source for the community.
“Let’s get it done,” he said.
