Sam Donaldson

Donaldson named keynote speaker

By: Briana Hernandez

Posted: 9/6/07

San Jose State University's radio-television journalism department announced Tuesday that Sam Donaldson, former White House correspondent for ABC News, is delivering the key-note speech for the department's 50th year anniversary reunion on Oct. 12.

Jessica Drnek, president of SJSU's radio-television news directors association and organizer of the event, said that Professor Bob Rucker had a lot to do with getting Donaldson to come to campus.

"He's been campaigning for this reunion really hard," Drnek said. "It's really just exciting for our university. Sam Donaldson is a first class journalist. It's super exciting for our department because it really ups the level of our status."

Diane Demis, a junior journalism major, said she was not surprised to hear that Donaldson was coming to SJSU.

"No, not at all," Demis said. "I've heard several people speak of the journalism program here and I've heard it is one of the premier programs in the country. So, it doesn't seem surprising at all that (Donaldson) would want to come to Silicon Valley and give a speech."

Rob Soul, program director at KSJS, said he was also not surprised that SJSU attracted a famous speaker.

"Sam Donaldson is an icon of broadcast journalism, so it's great that he's coming to campus," Soul said. "I guess we've got a lot of, what you call, famous people to come through and participate in things here on campus. I'm not surprised, just privileged."

Will Thomas, an SJSU alumnus and weekend anchor at FOX 5 News in Washington D.C., worked with Donaldson during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and had a pivotal role in getting Donaldson on board.

"I worked side by side with (Donaldson) a few times, covering various things and got to know him," Thomas said. "I decided to reach out to him at Bob Rucker's request to see if he would be interested."

Thomas said Donaldson "was very open to doing it and pleased to be asked."

"I let him know how much it meant to me and that the university helped save my career and my life," Thomas said. "He made some arrangements in his schedule and said he could do it. Bob sort of took it over from that point."

Thomas said that the biggest concern was scheduling.

"He does a live radio show," Thomas said. "I think he's arranged it that he will go to the ABC station in San Francisco, KGO, and possibly do his show from there and then come into San Jose for the event."

Professor Rucker said that since Donaldson confirmed his attendance, there has been a "solid buzz" about the reunion.

"I was asked to do this project by the department director in January and the moment I put out the word to just a few alums, it was like, 'Oh yeah! Let's do it!'" Rucker said. "When we put the word out on Sam Donaldson, my phone has been ringing off the hook. Faculty have been calling me saying, 'You've got Sam Donaldson?' … 'What a score.' That's what I've been hearing."

Other than Donaldson's prestige, many factors led to his selection as key-note speaker, including budgeting and overall interest in the event from potential speakers.

"There were quite a few perspective speakers we were looking at, but we were really limited by their fees," Drnek said. "Mr. Donaldson has a relatively reasonable public speaking fee for the quality of celebrity that he is. Through a lot of hard work by Professor Rucker, we finally have it confirmed. So, it's really exciting."

Drnek said that SJSU alumni were considered for key-note speaker.

"We did look at that, but it didn't make sense for us," Drnek said. "We wanted to try to bring someone who would get our alumni really excited to come back and speak."

The Director's Association tried acquiring other notable key-note candidates to no avail.

"We were kicking around the idea of Maria Shriver," Drnek said. "But unfortunately, neither her office nor Governor Schwarzenegger's office would get back to us."

As far as what Donaldson will address in his speech, Drnek said, "His focus was always politics. He may touch on that. He may not. He started the first online news Webcast, which was a big pushing point for media convergence. So it would be really great if he talked about that."

The radio-television journalism reunion will be a 5-day event from Oct. 8-12 and will be entirely student-run.

"(Radio-television news directors association) is coordinating the whole thing," Drnek said. "It's really going to be a student-based event in terms of the work that is getting done."

Drnek said the week will hold a "slew" of events, including a meet and greet between students and alumni, and will end with Friday's key-note speech.

"That is when the building will be an open house," Drnek said. "We want to showcase the fact that San Jose State is all about media convergence."