“Rick has been a tremendous talent whose teaching is an inspiration to his students and colleagues as he mentors a new generation of great journalists,” says Christopher Callahan, dean of the Cronkite School. Long before Arizona’s controversial immigration law was officially passed this year, Rodriguez’s students were pursuing stories examining border issues.

 “Too much of the public thinks immigration is simply a matter of legal versus illegal,” Rodriguez says. “It isn’t. It’s about undocumented parents whose U.S.-born children are citizens and how the kids wind up in foster care if the parents are deported. It’s about ranchers whose property is vulnerable to people coming onto it (after crossing the border). Some students are immersing themselves covering the nuances of (visa) programs on the border, like whether crime victims can get visas.” 

Student ambition and energy were evident on a recent Saturday night when several phoned Rodriguez to say they “got an opportunity to go out with Border Patrol immediately.”

Ironically, cutbacks at U.S. newspapers have created opportunities for ASU students. The Cronkite News Service, managed by ASU faculty, allows professional news organizations free use of daily news and enterprise stories written by advanced students. And for several summers, students have participated in the News21 initiative, funded by the Carnegie-Knight grants, in which they pursue in-depth projects that appear on the Internet but also get published in newspapers thanks to industry contacts among Rodriguez and other faculty. Rodriguez is particularly pleased whenever his students scoop national reporters covering immigration topics.

 “They’re pushing the reporters who parachute into Arizona. They’re interested in the national perspective and not at all intimidated by competition.”