University of Idaho professors remember little of Palin

[depakid]

John McCain's running-mate pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was born in the small northern Idaho city of Sandpoint in 1964 and graduated from the University of Idaho in 1987.

...Shortly after Palin's birth, her parents moved that year to Skagway, Alaska, where her father taught school. She apparently didn't return to Idaho until her college years, and her time in the state seems to have largely faded from residents' memory.

Kenton Bird, director of the University of Idaho's School of Journalism and Mass Media, said she didn't write for the independent college newspaper, The Argonaut, and didn't do any work for the university television station KIUI while she was there.

Most of her journalism professors have retired or died, he said. Bird worked at the local newspaper, The Moscow-Pullman Daily News (then called The Idahonian), during Palin's time at the University of Idaho and he doesn't remember her ever freelancing or interning for the paper.

Two of her past journalism professors don't remember her, either.

"I wish I could say that I knew something about her, but I just don't," said Roy Atwood, the former director of the journalism program and the faculty member who signed her application for graduation. Atwood was teaching large classes at the time, so Palin would have been one of roughly 120 students in his class.

Don Coombs also taught Palin while she was at the University of Idaho, but he doesn't remember her, either.

The University of Idaho was her longest stop as she worked toward a college degree. She started at Hawaii Pacific College in 1982, said Bird, and transferred to North Idaho College for the 1983-1984 school year. She transferred again to the University of Idaho in fall of 1984, and spent her final semester working as an intern for the NBC affiliate KTUU in Anchorage.

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/university_of_idaho_professors.html