Straumanis brings current news experience to classroom
by Helen Clarke
Andris Straumanis, a man who didn’t think about studying journalism until his senior year in high school and chose not to major in history because he didn’t see himself as a teacher, has been welcomed as UW-River Falls’ newest journalism professor.
Straumanis was born in New York and went on to live in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Illinois and Minnesota. He said that having a professor as a father caused the family to move around the United States as he taught at different universities.
After graduating from a southern Illinois high school in 1975, Straumanis went on to attend Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1977, finishing two years early after earning credit for passing several general education proficiency exams and attending two summer sessions.
Straumanis then landed a job as a reporter for a newspaper in northern Illinois. Shortly after, he realized that he “had gone through college so fast” and wanted more education.
He decided to attend the University of Minnesota in pursuit of a master’s degree in American studies in the early 1980s, and is currently working on his dissertation for a doctorate in mass communication.
After graduate school, Straumanis spent one and a half years as a reporter and photographer for the Monticello Times in Monticello, Minn. He then found a position as editor of the Elk River Star News in Elk River, Minn. where he spent four years.
Straumanis strayed from general news and when he took a job at the Minnesota Real Estate Journal, working for three years as a reporter, section editor and, eventually, editor.
He went on to spend eight years as senior editor in the communications office of the University of Minnesota, taking control of the editing and design aspects of several different publications.
In 1998, Straumanis’ career turned toward teaching, when he landed a one-year appointment as lecturer for UW-Eau Claire’s department of Communication and Journalism.
“I love learning and want to learn all the time,” he said. “I thought teaching would be a fun change of pace that would allow me to contribute something in a different way.”
After a rough first semester of teaching, Straumanis said he thought the field may not be for him.
“You end up thinking – why did I get into this?” he said.
But by the end of the second semester, he felt differently and was rehired on another contract when positions opened up. For seven years, Straumanis “taught anything they wanted me to teach” including introductory courses for mass communications and news writing as well as visual communications, public affairs reporting, advanced reporting, magazine editing and design, women in mass media, and news editing and design for the World Wide Web.
He also worked as a faculty intern for the Star Tribune and online editor faculty intern for Minnesota Public Radio during his time at UW-Eau Claire.
In 2005, Straumanis’ contract with the institution expired and he said that family concerns made him realize that he didn’t want to continue commuting from his home in the Twin Cities to Eau Claire.
“It was serendipity that I saw the position here,” he said. “This campus is closer to one of the nation’s largest broadcast markets and home to two of the best dailies. That was appealing to me both as an instructor and a consumer.”
As a journalism professor for UW-River Falls, Straumanis said his ideal students will leave the University as well-educated journalists who know the essentials of good journalism.
“Because this is a university where we value liberal arts, I want them to be smart journalists who know the history of the field and how it fits into the bigger picture,” he said. “They will be much better journalists with that background.”
He said that his own experience of feeling like he didn’t know enough about fields such as cultural geography and history plays a role in the expectations he has of students.
“In discovering myself and where I came from, I was a better journalist,” Straumanis said. “We shouldn’t just be writing stories, but fully understanding them as well.”
Halfway into the first semester, his UW-RF students already seem to have figured him out.
“He expects a lot from us and pushes us as students to work hard,” said Keighla Schmidt, a student in Straumanis’ Editing for Print Media and Advanced Reporting classes. “He leaves no room for error in his assignments – a reality we’re going to have to prepare for.”
The decision to combine both theory and practice in his teachings will enhance students’ knowledge of journalism, he said.
“There are fewer jobs out there for journalists and people often question if it is a field worth getting into,” he said. “The answer is always ‘yes,’ but they have to be that much better because of it.”
In his personal life, Straumanis said he spends time remodeling (although he said he has always been bad at carpentry), has an eclectic music collection, enjoys reading, good cooking, foreign films and bicycling.
“There are so many places I want to get to and get back to,” he said of his passion for travel.
Straumanis is second-generation Latvian, and he has spent time teaching and doing research in the country. He said he visits at least once a year and plans to return in January to study Latvian media.
Straumanis also has a 20-year-old daughter, Kaija, who is a junior at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a school that he said is known for having a good writing program. An English major with a minor in German, Straumanis said she is interested in becoming a translator. She is currently living in Germany through a study abroad program.