A photograph I took during the Columbia University protests was published in The Wall Street Journal, in an article titled “Inside Columbia’s Tumultuous Protests, as Told by Student Radio Journalists” by Alyssa Choiniere.
The image shows WKCR journalists Georgia Dillane and Sarah Barlyn napping on campus between reporting shifts — a quiet moment amid weeks of relentless coverage. The photo was credited as LEON ZHOU in the Journal.
The Story
The WSJ piece profiled WKCR, Columbia’s decades-old student radio station, and the 19-person team that pivoted from broadcasting jazz and classical music to delivering round-the-clock protest coverage. After the first encampment went up on April 17 and the mass arrests the following day, the station’s news team grew from five reporters to nearly twenty.
When protesters occupied Hamilton Hall on April 30 and the administration locked down campus, WKCR’s student journalists were among the only reporters left inside. They broadcast live as NYPD officers in riot gear entered through the gates, their stream drawing more than 20,000 simultaneous listeners before crashing the station’s website. Listeners switched to the FM signal and an Instagram live stream to keep following along.
Station manager Ted Schmiedeler stayed awake for over 40 hours straight. Reporters wrote emergency phone numbers on each other’s arms in case of arrest. They carried N95 masks hoping to protect against tear gas. At the end of the night, after all reporters made it back safely, the team sang “Happy Birthday” to Casey Lamb, the station’s business manager, who had just turned 20.
The Columbia Journalism School also credited my work on their page documenting student journalism during the protests, captioned “Student journalists reporting outside Hamilton Hall. Photo by LEON ZHOU.”
The Pulitzer Prize Board later commended Columbia’s student journalists, stating they “worked to document a major national news event under difficult conditions.”