Plastered across the newsroom of the Campus Echo, the North Carolina Central University (NCCU) student newspaper, are a collection of laminated, yellowing editions of the paper, dozens of student journalism award plaques, and photos of former Echo staff on campus, at cookouts, and on team road trips. A sign at the top of the door reads “The Denita M. Smith Newsroom,” dedicated in honor of a former student who was tragically shot and killed.
During the school year, the Campus Echo, housed inside the Farrison-Newton Communications Building, is home base for aspiring writers, photographers, and video editors. Each student is charged with narrating life at NCCU, in Durham, and at times, in the rest of the world—and leading the charge for the past 26 years has been NCCU professor and student adviser Bruce dePyssler.
A well-traveled “military brat” with a background in anthropology and a host of odd jobs, dePyssler has an innate ability to adopt new skills and meet people where they are. In the classroom, he was no drill sergeant. With his shaggy hair and glasses hanging around his neck, dePyssler would float through the classroom cool, calm, and collected, offering pearls of wisdom without overbearing…