NARRATOR：

Listen to a conversation between a student and the faculty adviser of the campus newspaper.

MALE STUDENT：

Hi, I talked to someone on the phone a couple weeks ago… [Upspeak]Anna, I think it was?

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

I’m Anna, the faculty adviser.

MALE STUDENT：

Oh, great. I’m Peter Murphy. You probably don’t remember me, but…

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

[interrupting]No, no, I remember you. You were interested in working for the paper….

MALE STUDENT：

Yeah, as a reporter.

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

That’s right. Uh, you’re taking a journalism class, and you’ve done some reporting before, in high school, right…?

MALE STUDENT：

[interrupting]Wow! You have a good memory.

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

Well, we haven’t had many students applying lately. So… so, anyway, you still want to do some reporting for us?

MALE STUDENT：

Yeah, if you have room for me on the staff.

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

Well, we always need more reporters. But you know we don’t pay anything, right?

MALE STUDENT：

Yeah, I know, but I, uh, I’d like the experience; it would look good on my resume…

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

Absolutely. Let’s see… I think I told you that we ask prospective reporters to turn in some outlines for possible articles.

MALE STUDENT：

Yeah, I sent them in about a week ago, but I haven’t heard anything back yet, so… so I thought I’d stop by and see… but I guess you haven’t looked at them yet.

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

Oh, Max—the news editor—he looks at all the submissions…

MALE STUDENT：

Oh, so he hasn’t made any decision about me yet?

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

Well, I just got here a few minutes ago…. I haven’t been in for a couple of days.

Uh, just give me a second to check my e-mail… Ah, here’s a message from Max… Let’s see… [pause]

Well, it seems you’ve really impressed him. He says it’d be wonderful if you could join our staff.

MALE STUDENT：

Oh, great! When can I start?

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

Well… You turned in an outline on something to do with the physics department?

MALE STUDENT：

Yeah, they’re trying to come up with ways to get more students to take their introductory courses.

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

Right… [reading the e-mail]…Well, apparently, nobody else is covering that story… so he wants you to follow up on it.

MALE STUDENT：

OK. Uh, what about the other outline I sent in? About the proposed increase in tuition fees?

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

Oh, it looks like we’ve got that covered.

MALE STUDENT：

So I’m starting with an article about the physics department. I guess I’d better get to work.

Do you have any advice on how I should cover the story?

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

Well, Max’ll want to talk to you, but I’m sure he’ll tell you to find out things like why the physics department’s worried about enrollment.

Has the number of students been getting smaller in recent years? By how much?

What kinds of plans are they considering to address this problem?

MALE STUDENT：

Right. Some of those issues are already in what I proposed.

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

And you’ll want to do some interviews… you know, what do the professors think of the plans? What do the students think? You get the idea, but…

MALE STUDENT：

But wait till I talk to Max before proceeding.

FEMALE FACULTY ADVISOR：

Right. He’ll cover everything you need to know to be a reporter for us.

Can you come back this afternoon? He’ll be here until five o’clock.