ABC News’ Stephanpoulos Headlines Media Conference

ABC News anchorman and former Clinton White House staffer George Stephanpoulos will be having breakfast in the new Campus Center while headlining an April 7 conference put together by the Center on Media and Society.

Stephanopoulos will give the keynote address “How The Media Influence Public Policy.”

Panels make up the rest of the day, with UMass Boston pollster Lou DiNatale releasing a special poll on the Massachusetts voter and attitudes on the media. Afterwards, DiNatale will discuss the results with Harvard professor Thomas Patterson and McCormack Graduate School Dean Edmund Beard, among others.

For more on the Center on Media and Society, log on to www.mccormack.umb.edu/cms/. Its founding director is Ellen Hume, former White House correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.

UMass Amherst Student Government Hails Wilson

The student government at UMass Amherst praised the trustees’ appointment of acting President Jack M. Wilson to the permanent position, reported the Daily Collegian, the campus’ student newspaper.

“I’m pretty happy with Jack Wilson,” SGA President Dave Carr told the Collegian. “He’s more down to earth than Billy Bulger was. I’m lucky he did not stick Whitey on me.”

“We have high expectations and he’s been successful in the past,” said Hannah Fatemi, Amherst’s student trustee who had just arrived from the meeting in Boston. “Now that he’s officially in this position, we think he’s just going to soar.”

All five of the student trustees were in attendance, though only those from Boston and Dartmouth had voting rights. The voting rights rotate among the five campuses every year.

CORRECTION: Writing News Briefs Like It’s 1999

Or 2003.

In this space last week, News Briefs misquoted a professor’s comments in an online forum on the university’s strategic plan last year, accidentally making it out to look like he was commenting on the current plan.

The comments were made on March 21, 2003, not 2004.

The Mass Media regrets the error and gives thanks to Associate Provost (and forum moderator) Peter Langer for the e-mail noting it.

Any and all corrections are encouraged. Information can be sent to [email protected], or called in at 617-287-7990.