Orion adviser starts planning for retirement
Posted on December 1, 2017 at 12:00 PM
Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, Mark Plenke sits in his office with his door open for students to stop in for journalism guidance, a quick conversation and course help.
His office is decorated with memories of past students’ graduations and photos.
Three black and white shots of young Plenke sit on the cabinet above his desk, one of which features him at a desk with a full head of curly hair, wearing a Budweiser T-shirt and big goggle glasses.
Starting August 2018, Plenke will begin a new routine in his final year at Chico State: Helping train his replacement. Plenke's substantial advance notice allows the J&PR faculty and college dean to choose his successor, provides a smooth transition for the students and offers the new hire a valuable resource for learning to advise The Orion.
With Plenke's departure, Chico State’s J&PR department will be saying goodbye to a strong advocate of the First Amendment and a seasoned adviser to The Orion.
With more than 20 years of teaching experience and an extensive background in news writing and editing, Plenke will be retiring.
A Wisconsin native raised in Minnesota, Plenke said news writing was an interest he picked up in college at Southwest Minnesota State. He was a political science major during a time of major current events, such as the Vietnam War and the tail-end of the civil rights movement.
What led him to a journalism career was editing his college newspaper and the feeling that he could make a difference in his community.
“I was interested in current issues, so the school newspaper seemed like a good place to explore that,” he said. “It started as just something to get involved with on campus. Then I realized that I really enjoyed writing, reporting and helping inform my campus.”
Plenke’s journalism career took unexpected turns, landing him in newsrooms in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota.
Years later, he went to graduate school at the University of Minnesota because his favorite part of journalism was helping younger writers with their reporting.
Plenke is grateful that he was to be able to have two fulfilling careers. After his reporting and editing career, his teaching career started at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Later, he taught and advised the student newspaper at Normandale and Anoka-Ramsey community colleges.
“I’ve been a newspaper adviser for as long as I’ve been a teacher and it has been a really important part of my job,” Plenke said.
“I had great experiences as a student journalist and realized that it really paved the way for my career.”
He said he chose to work for the Chico State J&PR program six years ago because it was a successful program that produced graduates who went everywhere and did great work.
He was also drawn by The Orion student newspaper, which had a national award-winning reputation and produced excellent journalism.
When Plenke took the job, he discovered the newspaper was about $77,000 in debt.
Part of his job was to reverse this debt.
The only revenue source the newspaper had before he took the job was advertising. He worked to cut expenses and requested funds from a special fee that supports instructionally related activities on campus..
Six years later, the debt is now below $40,000.
Aside from managing the debt, Plenke said it was clear the department and students wanted The Orion to advance digitally.
He has encouraged students to use online tools and other digital technology to keep up with changes in the news industry. He hopes these skills will earn them positions at newspapers, television stations and more.
“It’s goofy to me to take a successful newspaper and make a bunch of changes just to make changes,” Plenke said. “What I try to do is to keep the best of what The Orion had for years, but help it into the 21st century.”
After Plenke joined The Orion, the weekly critique of the newspaper became much more digitally focused, said Chico State J&PR alum Ben Mullin (News and English, 2014).
“We were urged to spend more time on The Orion's digital presence and we were encouraged to convince our classmates to download The Orion's smartphone app,” he said.
Plenke motivated him to improve, Mullin said, crediting Plenke as one of the reasons why he has earned successful roles in journalism at the Poynter Institute and now at The Wall Street Journal.
“The first time I took Mr. Plenke’s public affairs reporting course, I failed it,” he said. “Mr. Plenke didn't make the class easy—he demanded professional quality work. The next time I took the class, I was determined to pass. If he'd let me skate by the first time, I probably wouldn't be working at The Wall Street Journal today.”
Plenke did not just provide helpful guidance and mentorship. He also instilled confidence for alum Katrina Cameron (News and PR, 2014) to become a leader.
She was editor-in-chief for The Orion and the editorial director for Tehama Group Communications. Today she’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who works for a PR agency in San Francisco.
“The most valuable lesson Plenke ever taught me was the importance of copy editing,” Cameron said. “Now I’m everyone’s go-to copy editor because of this valuable skill.”
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By Vianney Hernandez & Bianca Quilantan