By LINDSEY WOJCIK

Editor in Chief

Name: John Stoll

Department: Journalism

Extras: An OU alumnus, Stoll also works as Staff Reporter for the Wall Street Journal covering the auto industry.

1. What classes do you teach?

Introduction to Newswriting

2. Who in your field inspires you to teach?

Former host of NBC’s Meet the Press, Tim Russert, who died unexpectedly last year. Longtime Detroit Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal, Paul Ingrassia and PBS’s Charlie Rose.

3. What is on your reading list?

I read The New York Times, Detroit Free Press and the Wall Street Journal on a daily basis. I also read the New Yorker magazine. I’m trying to get through two books right now, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (which I started last summer) and Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline.

4. Could you describe what you do at OU in one sentence?

I teach students face up to the pressure of being a news reporter.

5. What is your favorite OU sport to watch live?

I try to never miss men’s basketball games when the Grizz are playing at home (it’s more fun to watch Coach Greg Kampe go ballistic on the sidelines than it is actually watching the games).

6. It’s lunchtime and you’re hungry. Have you packed your own, are you going to the OC or ordering out?

Typically, I grab lunch with a source that I know can help me on a story.

7. How is your office looking? In other words, if I were a student that had an appointment, would I be able to see you around the piles of papers?

Typically, student’s would have to put up with several piles of newspapers and printouts, at least one semi-full coffee mug, hundreds of reporters notebooks stacked in the corner, two tape players, two Blackberrys, infinite stacks of business cards and mini cassette tapes, a Greg Kampe bobblehead, golf-course scorecards, a putter and golf balls, an iPod and pictures of my son Jack, dog Greta and wife Kimberly. Oh yeah, and a calculator.

8. When is bedtime?

Good question. I don’t really have one, but typically before midnight is ideal. I guess bedtime is whenever I finally put the blackberry away or get sick of grading papers.

9. Where is the most interesting place that your studies or job have taken you?

Urumqi,  in 1995. It’s a city situated in Northwest China, in the Xinjiang province. Urumqi is an enclave for a minority group known as the Uygurs, and I went there to study their culture and learn Chinese. If you want to know more, take Dr. Richard Stamps’ Intro to China.

10. What do you hope that students know before they take your class?

I have high standards for attendance and attention to detail, but I also look to make the class as engaging as possible. Whether it’s analyzing an interview with Jay-Z, writing stories about dead people or trying to win the in-class bracket “pool” for the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament, I think students will find plenty to inspire them in my journalism classes. Also, I like to help my students get published, and that is something not a lot of people can say they’ve done.