For freshmen in college, most students are unsure of what they want to do with their lives, especially when choosing a major.
Yet, students fortunate enough to find the journalism department during this process have met Professor Gerry Solomon, who is referred to by journalism minors as “the man.”
After students enter Solomon’s office, they will leave feeling confident about their future in journalism and college. To top it all off, students feel like they gained a friend.
After all, Solomon makes students feel capable of doing anything. He supports and treats them like real journalists.
Solomon graduated from Queens College with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He later received his master’s degree at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
After graduating, he began his journalism career as a reporter with The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times in Kentucky. Since then, his career blossomed.
He produced news shows such as “Anderson Cooper 360” and “Meet the Press.” Solomon help put the late Tim Russert on “Meet the Press.” He was also a managing editor of ABC’s “Good Morning America” as well as the first executive producer of “Religious & Ethics Newsweekly,” a PBS/13WNET program.
He began teaching full time in 2004 and became the head of the journalism department at Queens College in 2008.
Solomon is also an adviser on our board. He helped our editors during the best and worst of times. He offered advice and suggested changes moving forward even with the change in staff every few years. Without that, we’re not sure where we would be today.
For most journalism minors, there are fond memories with Solomon. We will always remember laughing along with him as we watched the bloopers of our news segment for his Broadcast Journalism class together or when he brought in pizzas for everyone when we screened them for the first time.
Thank you, Professor Solomon, for all that you have done. You have guided us, taught us so much about journalism and about ourselves as writers. We are sad to see you go, but we wish you best of luck on your next adventure.
You truly are the man.
