Franklin College Statehouse Bureau Receives Grant from the Indianapolis Foundation

Release date: September 10, 2012

A new grant is helping support the Franklin College Statehouse Bureau as it enters into its eighth year of serving students, news organizations and communities by providing coverage of the legislative process at the Indiana Statehouse.

The Indianapolis Foundation, a Central Indiana Community Foundation affiliate, has awarded Franklin College's student-driven Statehouse Bureau with a $20,000 grant.

"The college is extremely grateful to The Indianapolis Foundation for its significant support," said Jay Moseley, Franklin College president. "The Statehouse Bureau teaches our journalism students how to meet the responsibility of informing their communities about the key political, social and cultural issue that impact their lives. The Foundation's support allows continued growth in the program and in our students' reporting skills."

The Franklin College Statehouse Bureau, located in the Emmis Communications building on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis, began in 2006 as a month-long intensive political reporting class for six of the college's journalism students, reaching a readership of roughly 75,000 people during one month each year. It has grown into a major year-round enterprise, now led by managing editor Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, and involving as many as 20 students.

The Franklin College Statehouse Bureau has entered into agreements to provide stories with The Indianapolis Star, The Louisville Courier-Journal, The Evansville Courier & Press, The Bloomington Herald-Times and other news organizations. The bureau also launched www.TheStatehouseFile.com, a subscription website that provides individuals with Indiana public policy and political news.

"The Franklin College Statehouse Bureau is doing vital work for central Indiana," said Brian Payne, President and CEO, Central Indiana Community Foundation and The Indianapolis Foundation. "Besides providing real and meaningful experiences for developing journalists, the Statehouse Bureau is reporting timely information about the issues, events and elected officials that are affecting the community in which we live. This kind of important civic information is becoming harder and harder to come by. The Indianapolis Foundation welcomes the opportunity to support Franklin College and this invaluable program."

John Krull, Franklin College Pulliam School of Journalism Director, serves as executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com.

"The Indianapolis Foundation and the other affiliates in the Central Indiana Community Foundation family have done amazing work in transforming Central Indiana and the lives of the people who live here," said Krull. "We are both thrilled and honored that Franklin College and TheStatehouseFile.com, our student-driven news website, now are part of those vital efforts."

Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) is a $610 million public foundation transforming the lives of Central Indiana residents in three ways: consulting donors, family foundations and their professional advisors on charitable giving; awarding grants to effective not-for-profit organizations; and providing leadership to address community needs and seize opportunities. CICF was established in 1997 as a partnership between The Indianapolis Foundation, serving Marion County since 1916, and Legacy Fund, serving Hamilton County since 1991. For more information about CICF, call (317) 634-2423 or visit www.cicf.org.

Founded in 1834, Franklin College is a residential four-year undergraduate liberal arts institution with a scenic, wooded campus located 20 minutes south of downtown Indianapolis. The college prepares men and women for significant careers through the liberal arts, offering its approximately 1,000 students 30 majors, 35 minors and nine pre-professional programs. In 1842, the college began admitting women, becoming the first coeducational institution in Indiana and the seventh in the nation. Franklin College maintains a voluntary association with the American Baptist Churches USA. For more information, visit www.franklincollege.edu.

For more information, contact the Franklin College Communications Office at (317) 738-8185.