Three hours before the beginning of the spring semester on Jan. 11, 2010 Lisa Sandberg, a former print journalist with a master’s degree in Journalism, learned that she would be teaching a class at St. Edward’s University.

On Jan. 8, she was told that Marilyn Schultz from the Humanities Department was in the hospital. They needed her to help out with teaching Schultz’s classes.

Unfortunately, Schultz died on Jan. 10. Therefore, Sandberg had to start teaching Media Standards and Practices the next day and for the duration of the semester.

At first, Sandberg was worried when she began teaching Schultz’s classes. She knew that Schultz was a loved professor who had an impact in the lives of students and faculty alike.

“I feel fine,” she said. “But I was a little worried whether they would embrace me or resent me.”

Sandberg hopes students understand that she does not seek to replace Schultz.

Sandberg said she does not feel like students have resented her. With the help of her boyfriend, a professor of 20 years at the University of Texas in Austin, she has managed to handle these first two months of class.

Sandberg was born in California and raised in New York City. She graduated from Hunter College, and received a master’s degree in Journalism from New York University. Since, she has worked as a print journalist for the New York Post, Daily News, San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle.

Most recently she has begun working for the NPR station here in Austin (KUT), freelancing as a radio reporter.

“I love [the radio], it’s great,” she said. “It’s a new way to tell stories.”

Sandberg said the many changes newspapers have undergone in the past few years have led people to believe that newspapers may not be around much longer.

From her experience in journalism, both print and over the airwaves, Sandberg said she has come to see the future of print media as dim.

“I’ll be surprised if we still have print in 10 years,” she said.

Sandberg was working as a reporter when print newspapers began making large cuts, and she said she remembered how shocked she was when it happened. She was laid off from her position as a senior reporter in the Hearst Austin Bureau of the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News.

“My layoff was part of deep cuts both newspapers were making,” Sandberg said. “That month, the Express-News cut one-third of its editorial staff, or 75 people. The Chronicle followed that month with dozens more. The bureau where I worked went from six people to three.”

Following the layoff, Sandberg enrolled at Southern Methodist University in Plano and earned a certificate to practice divorce mediation, though she never went into the field.

“It dawned on me somewhere between the beginning and the end of the program that I could end up spending my career helping people divvy up pots and pans,” she said.

Sandberg said that while mediation might work as a short-term career, it wouldn’t be satisfying in the long run. That is when she made the decision to go into public radio.

Sandberg brings these life experiences and her unique perspective with her to St. Edward’s.

“There is obviously a future for journalism, although, it’s a very different landscape,” she said.

Sandberg believes that to have a future in journalism, students will have to learn to handle ongoing changes in the field, and learn journalism skills other than writing. She hopes students can take away valuable information from her classes.

 

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This story is the first in a short series focusing on interesting adjunct faculty at St. Edward’s University.