from staff
Dave Roman’s newspaper career has led him to the University of North Florida.
Another political season is passing without “The Roman Report” in The Florida Times-Union. He was the last reporter whose only beat was covering politics and his frequent column carried the ins and outs of campaigns.
Today, Roman is the director of marketing and publications at UNF, his second stop since leaving the T-U after the 2000 elections.
After the Times-Union decided to discontinue the “Report,” Roman’s career path led him to work as a public division chief for the city for seven more years and then to UNF.
His 20-plus-years of experience as a reporter on the beat allows him to manage publications under his responsibility to come up with projects that serve the university community and improve the communication processes inside and outside campus.
Roman supervises a staff of seven full-time employees and, when the flow of work increases, he guides the initial steps of part-time student workers. He also oversees the Journal, Inside UNF (an online newsletter guided to employees on campus,) and other products either in print or online.
With an extensive career as a writer, he has covered different kinds of stories.
Roman covered sports for one year (1978) in Virginia.
“We had two full-time reporters and one freelancer and we covered all the home games of the Washington Bullets (pro basketball) and Washington Capitals (pro hockey) in addition to high school games and some college games that year,” said Roman.
He had a preference for covering sports.
“Our bread and butter was high school, but the publisher let us cover the other stuff as long as we didn’t charge overtime,” said Roman.
He also did some investigative reporting.
“In Virginia, I wrote about shoddy builders,” said Roman, adding that the stories led to a state investigation that sent an inspector to jail for accepting bribes.
Locally, Roman joined efforts with a T-U editor, Mark Middlebrook, and the outcome would lead them to a link between campaign contributions and professional services contracts in Mayor Jake Godbold’s administration. That produced a federal investigation.
For presidential campaigns, Roman covered presidential candidate Michael Dukakis and managed spending a little time with some important politicians at the time.
“I got to spend a little bit of time on the plane with Gary Hart and Jessie Jackson,” said Roman.
He covered the 1996 Republican and Democratic national conventions as well but did not go on the road with the candidates.
“When elections come around,” said Roman. “I sometimes miss the action. It is fun to watch it from the sidelines.”
Roman recognizes that every little thing he has learned in his career has helped him to become a better communicator.
“I think that every experience you have in life helps you along the way,” said Roman.
Lessons he learned from different career perspectives have helped him with the different facets and aspects of his job.
“Being a better editor helps me being a better manager,” said Roman.
With that in mind, Roman implemented a hands-on project on campus. Photography students had an opportunity to work while they were studying and it was under his supervision that they started developing their skills as professional photographers.
“I thought it was beneficial to the students,” said Roman. “And I thought it was beneficial to the university.”
With a few photographers at hand, Roman’s project prioritized the students’ academic life and still gave the department the opportunity to have students taking pictures where and when he needed them.
“It was solid practice work as professionals,” said Roman.
Mario Peralta was one of the students that took advantage of the program on campus. Peralta has been working for the department as a vendor but started as photographer-student in February 2007.
“The best part of the job was to exercise my creativity to do it,” said Peralta.
The job helped him advance his editorial techniques in photography. As a result, the project was key to guide his initial steps as a photographer, he said.
Roman knows the importance of experience to achieve excellence not only in the field of communication but in any other given field.
“Experiences in life make something good come out of them,” said Roman, whose hands-on philosophy has helped students tread their paths in their careers with a little more experience.
Looking back at it now, Roman understands that the communication industry has changed.
“It became too shallow,” said Roman.
So did the reality around newspapers, he said.
“The government gets away with things because newspapers don’t seem to be as aggressive as they were before,” said Roman.
In a fast-paced society, he notices that people do not have time to read newspapers anymore.
“Newspapers are suffering,” said Roman.
Roman browses newspapers on a daily basis to keep informed and look for what is interesting. His favorite newspaper is The New York Times, which he reads to be abreast of national and international politics.
His future plan is to keep working.
“I like what I am, I like what I am doing and I enjoy doing that,” said Roman.