Harper College hires Daily Herald editor for paper

There's a new leader for the student newspaper at Harper College, which has been without a sponsor since May.

Kent McDill, a sports copy editor at the Daily Herald, will now lead the paper, which is expected to be published again early next month.

"It's a great opportunity for me and for the students," said McDill, who was a sports reporter for almost 20 years before moving to the desk this year. "My first job is to get a newspaper out."

The Harbinger, a student-run paper, hasn't published since May, when adviser Debra Schwartz resigned to take a full-time job at a Wisconsin community college. Under her, four editions of the paper were put out.

Before that, the bi-weekly paper that's been around since 1967 was led for six years by Dann Gire, the Daily Herald movie critic. In summer 2006, his contract was not renewed.

Gire and some students who worked with him refused to sign new guidelines, which they saw as unconstitutional and restricting what they could report. That refusal, Gire says, is why his contract was not renewed.

Harper spokesman Phil Burdick says Gire was let go because of poor quality of the paper, and that the college would never dictate what's written in the paper.

"While we might not like what the students write about, it's their newspaper, and they are protected under the First Amendment," he said. "We are pleased that the paper is back on campus."

McDill says he isn't aware of the paper's past controversies.

"All I know is that they need someone to organize and get things started, he said. "I accepted that opportunity."

McDill was hired Oct. 11 and will be paid $6,000 for the year. He also gets a $1,500 stipend for travel and professional development.

During his reporting career at the Daily Herald, he covered the Chicago Bulls during the Michael Jordan era and traveled with the team on a daily basis. He was the only beat writer in Chicago to cover all six Bulls championship teams.

He co-wrote a book, "Bill Wennington's Tales from the Bulls Hardwood," with Wennington, a former Bull.