Long-time adviser retires after 35 years
Turns page on new chapter
Rikki Saldivar
Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: News
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"When I went to college, I majored in journalism and English, journalism had always been my passion," Walker said, "but I never intended to teach," she finishes with a giggle. "My father said, since you're going to college, maybe you should get your teaching certificate just in case you ever want to teach. My father never asked very much of me, so when he asked me for something, I went ahead and did it."
"The thing that amazes me and astounds me about Ms. Walker is that she treats the newspaper and the journalism program with the utmost professionalism," Ava Good, long-time colleague and speech professor, said. "She expects, from her students, that they are professional. She demands that they do things the way that they do thing in the industry. She's teaching them the skills that if they went out and joined a newspaper staff out in the community, they would know the correct procedures to follow."
Walker was hired in 1977 at the North campus for a one-year temporary contract, due to the then journalism teacher leaving to finish his doctorate. When he returned, he went on to teach English, leaving Walker as the journalism adviser.
After working on the North Star, the publication for the North campus, for 13 years, Thomas H. Sewell, former chancellor of the college, asked her to create one program and newspaper that would reach the student body on all three campuses.
"In the spring of 1990, Dr. Sewell approached me and wanted to have one centralized journalism program and one centralized newspaper that served the entire district," Walker said. "He asked me to come to this campus (Central) and take that responsibility. What we did to try to appease everyone is shut all three newspapers down, allow the student body on each of the three campuses to vote on the name of the publication. The newspaper staff really worked to incorporate coverage of all three campuses, which we still try to do. The staff redesigned the paper so it would not be a copy of any of the three papers we had, or keep any of the three names. We had a real public relations job to do, in addition to putting out the newspaper because individuals were upset with the decision that the chancellor made."
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