Grayson Rivers

Recent Posts

  • IC introduces social impact communications minor

    IC introduces social impact communications minor

    The social impact communications minor is now open for enrollment. The minor builds on existing strategic communications courses, combining them with lessons on social responsibility, public relations, campaign-building and interdisciplinary study. The minor has been in development for over two years within the Roy H. Park School of Communications.

    Students would be required to take Presentation and Graphic Design, Public Relations: Theory and Practice and Social Impact Communications, three courses already offered by the college and typically taken by advertising, public relations, and marketing communications students. A capstone course called Social Impact Communications Lab is also required, but will run in future semesters once enrollment into the minor increases.

    These courses will help students who plan to work in public relations understand the social issues affecting their audiences and the most appropriate ways of addressing them, whether they are working for a corporation, a nonprofit or the public sector.

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  • Activists continue protests following Friday victory against Citizens Bank

    Activists continue protests following Friday victory against Citizens Bank

    WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — Protesters gathered in front of the Citizens Bank at 15 S Main Street Saturday morning to oppose the bank’s financing of CoreCivic and The GEO Group, two large prison companies operating for-profit ICE detention centers.

    The demonstrations organized by the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition come after the bank’s Friday announcement that it plans to exit its current lending relationships with CoreCivic and The GEO Group, a victory activists credit to months of protesting by groups across the northeast.  

    “If Citizens doesn’t fund them, that’s a people’s victory,” said activist Amy, who preferred to remain mononymous. “But we know that ICE has millions and millions of dollars. It’s very clear the government is going to fund them however much they want.”

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  • How Homelessness Happens

    How Homelessness Happens

    The historically Black Southside neighborhood in Ithaca, New York has endured decades of gentrification and rising taxes, contributing to the pipeline into homelessness

    The first few weeks of spring, much like the winter months that came before, had been frigid, interposed with brief bouts of sunshine and lazy spells of rain.

    Sitting on a bench outside the Southside Community Center in Ithaca, New York, I watched parents begin picking up their children from the center’s free afterschool program, happy to chat on one of the first warm April days.

    I was there to meet Ira McKinley, a dining hall employee at the nearby Ithaca College and a long-time independent filmmaker. He has also been homeless for over two decades.

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  • Tompkins County Sheriff Faces Skepticism for Role in Legislative Session 

    Tompkins County Sheriff Faces Skepticism for Role in Legislative Session 

    The following was written as part of a larger special issue in which multiple authors published reporting on Flock Safety cameras.

    Immigration enforcement. Abortion restrictions. Gun violence. In the vote to renew Tompkins’ AI surveillance camera contracts, these were the issues that divided the county legislature. None doubted the validity of these issues, but the 14 chamber members were forced to choose between what mattered more: their mistrust of the contracted company Flock or the continued use of its cameras aiming to reduce gun violence.  

    Lorien Tyne was the Ithaca Times reporter assigned to cover the proceedings. For months, she watched concerned legislators and Ithaca residents go back and forth with Flock spokespeople and local law enforcement agencies. 

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