VECTOR ANALYSIS

The incoming dean at CUNY’s new journalism graduate school, Stephen Shepard, gave the keynote address at a student conference titled “Get the Story: Journalism, Media, and the Big City,” on Friday. The conference was chaired by the university’s director for press relations, Michael Arena.

The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism is scheduled to open in September 2006, with about 50 students in the inaugural class. Mr. Shepard said he may personally interview the final candidates for those 50 spots. The school, which will be located in the old New York Herald Tribune building on West 41st Street near Eighth Avenue, will be the only public university in the northeast to offer a master’s degree in journalism.

Mr. Shepard is a former editor in chief of Business-Week. But the Bronx High School of Science graduate gained his early journalism experience at City College, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1961 in mechanical engineering. He edited the CCNY engineering magazine, Vector. At the conference, he was presented with a framed cover of Vector, dated January 1961, with a cover price of 25 cents. The issue tantalized potential readers with three stories: “The Eyes and Ears of a Missile,” “How to Obtain a Summer Job,” and “Synchro Devices.”

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TWEED TALK

A group of New Yorkers came to the National Arts Club hunting, like Diogenes, for an honest man. They found him in William Marcy “Boss” Tweed (1823-78).

You read right: Even after Tweed served time in prison, escaped to Spain – and was sent to prison again- his reputation was as solid. If he made a promise, he kept it. He was the go-to guy in New York in the aftermath of the Civil War. He and his Tammany Hall cohorts stole about $45 million (equivalent to almost a billion dollars today) to follow through on various deals.

That is the contradiction of the man, said Kenneth D. Ackerman, author of “Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York” (Carroll & Graf). Mr. Ackerman has also written about the stock-market crash of 1869 and the murder of James Garfield. Late 19th-century American history resounded with aftershocks from the Civil War. Is it coincidence that during this period the American Renaissance in literature flourished, with Hawthorne and Melville turning out new books? Probably not, Mr. Ackerman’s editor, Philip Turner, told the Knickerbocker.

The Knickerbocker asked what achievements led to Tweed’s election in New York. The answer: It happened at a time when the party mattered more than the individual candidate.

Lawyer Samuel Tilden (whose townhouses comprise the National Arts Club, where the book party was held) helped cause Tweed’s downfall.

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LIBRARY EDUCATOR

Library Journal has named James Walther, who serves as director of training and development at the New York Public Library Branch Libraries, as one of 2005’s “Outstanding Librarians.”

The magazine featured 51 men and women from 25 states, Washington, D.C., and Canada as the profession’s leading “movers and shakers.” Commenting on the 2005 award winners, Library Journal’s editor, Francine Fialkoff, said, “They are the people who are shaping the future of libraries.”

Mr. Walther, who is also a visiting associate professor at Pratt Institute School of Library and Information Science, received a master’s in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and earned his Ph.D. at George Washington University.

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FUTURE LANDMARK?

The president of the New York Jets, Jay Cross, spoke on the proposed New York Sports and Convention Center at the City Law breakfast series on Friday at New York Law School. Professor Ross Sandler, who is the director of the Center for New York City Law, introduced the event.

Among those in attendance was the president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Jeremy Travis, who told the Knickerbocker about a new “John Jay Book & Author Series” that begins on Wednesday. At the first program, Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn will speak about their book “102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers” (Times Books). Also seen on Friday were a former dean of New York University Law School, Norman Redlich, and Landmarks Preservation Commission’s chairman, Robert Tierney.

Referring to the proposed stadium, Mr. Sandler at one point turned to Mr. Tierney, seated in the audience, and asked, “Do you have jurisdiction over this facility?” To audience amusement, Mr. Tierney shot back, “Not yet.”