Alum’s career spans from WKCR to NPR

It may be reassuring for Columbia students to know that even one of the school’s most successful alumni—Robert Siegel, CC ’68, senior host of NPR’s “All Things Considered”—was just like them during his college years.

“I was confused about what I wanted to do with my life,” Siegel said. Clearly, this indecision did not hurt his career path in the long run—he will be awarded the 2010 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism today at the Columbia School of Journalism , which recognizes a reporter who is highly respected for his or her caliber of work. Still, Siegel’s uncertainty while in school led him to spend a hefty chunk of time engaging in something very familiar to Columbia’s students—deciding what he did not want to do (be a doctor, as he discovered). And, like many current students, Siegel also neglected the Core.

“I spent much of my 20s and early 30s reading through books I had never finished and, in some cases, barely opened,” Siegel said.

During his first two years at Columbia, Siegel commuted from downtown, and WKCR, the school’s student-run radio station, became his main link to campus. Though Siegel said that initially his time at WKCR was just “a flight from responsibility,” he had an epiphany of sorts while providing crucial news updates on the station about the infamous student protests of 1968.

“Covering the ’68 protests was the most exciting, life-changing event for me at Columbia,” Siegel said.

Thinking back on that time, Siegel recalled the surprising violence on the part of the NYPD Tactical Patrol Force and the fear of humiliation that forced the vice president of the University, David Truman, to walk through the tunnels to reach a WKCR panel discussion. He also clearly remembers being told by the administration to shut down the FM station, which reported on the protests to the entire city.

“What I discovered that spring was that on the radio, reporting the news, I was performing a useful service to people … and taking a pass on being a participant. I liked that role immensely and decided to try to make a livelihood out of it,” Siegel said.

And it was only the beginning. At the end of 1976, Siegel joined the fledgling NPR, which was only in its sixth year of existence at that point. There, he produced a number of award-winning stories, covering topics such as the peace movements in East and West Germany and the criminal justice system in Alabama. According to Siegel, the reporting job that affected him the most was his experience in Poland in 1981, where abstract concepts such as Communism and the Cold War suddenly became real to him.

“Shelves in the stores were literally bare. People lined up for hours, ankle-deep in slush, to try to find necessities. Poland taught me that the measure of the intensity of a political conflict is not necessarily the number of deaths inflicted,” Siegel said.

Since his start in the ’70s, Siegel has remained at NPR, progressing from associate producer to senior editor in the London bureau to his current post. Over time, he developed the skills that make him one of the most esteemed interviewers in media.

Siegel’s commitment to his long-time employer is clear, considering the words of wisdom he has for young journalists. “You might end up working for years at a place you have not heard of because it doesn’t exist yet. If you’re lucky, it will be as good a home as NPR has been for me,” he said.