Enthusiastic. Motivational. A stickler for accuracy. An institution in the Media Arts Department at Pierce College.

Journalism professor Rob O’Neil is one of those people who talks fast, moves fast and is “always running around at the front of the classroom,” said former student Stacy Long, a public relations professional.

So it came as no surprise to those who know O’Neil that he was recognized Saturday evening at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges state conference with a lifetime achievement award from the California Journalism Education Coalition.

The California Journalism Education Coalition honors outstanding journalism educators in the state at the high school, community college and university levels, according to www.caljec.org. Selections are made both for long-term service and for performance in the previous year.

“He was such an excited teacher, always enthusiastic in presenting the subject matter,” said Janna Braun, a former student who is now an associate professor of journalism at San Diego Mesa College. “He gave me my first job teaching. I certainly wouldn’t be in the position I am today without him.”

O’Neil has taught journalism and cinema at Pierce College since 1987. He taught at Los Angeles Valley College from 1980 to 1987. Prior to that, he was the public information officer for the Los Angeles Community College District and taught part-time. He has also worked as a reporter for UPI and the Los Angeles Times Valley Edition.

At Pierce, O’Neil serves as an adviser to The Roundup and www.therounduponline.net, the award-winning student newspaper publications.

This role has allowed O’Neil to help mentor beginning journalists. Long, a former Roundup editor-in-chief, She remembers him pulling her aside in a mass communications course and telling her she needed to take Journalism 101, the introduction to reporting and writing course. She fired back that she was a political science major.

“’No, no, no,’ Rob said. ‘You’re a writer,’” Long said.

Long is now the owner of Stacy K Music Media, where she works as an independent music publicist.

Jill Connelly, the chair of the Media Arts Department, said O’Neil’s students are working all over the country at newspapers, magazines and Websites. He’s always quick to help journalism teachers at other schools, too, she said.

One of O’Neil’s former students is now a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times. Catherine Saillant took a summer school journalism course with O’Neil in the mid-1980s at Valley College. She hadn’t seen O’Neil since she was in his class, but bumped into him while she was volunteering at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges conference in downtown Los Angeles over the April 8 to 10 weekend event.

“He was very much a stickler for the basics of journalism, especially for accuracy,” said Saillant, who has been at the L.A. Times for 15 years.

She recalls the daunting “GFE,” which stands for Gross Factual Error. Spelling a name or place wrong caused a student to fail that assignment, she said.

“Because of his instilling in me the importance of accuracy, I always read the story before I submit it to the first line of editors,” Saillant said.

The Gross Factual Error grading scale is still implemented in Pierce’s journalism classes. Gil Riego Jr., a recent editor-in-chief of the Roundup, said he still remembers his first GFE. And the one after that. And the one after that. No matter what though, Riego Jr. said O’Neil always maintains his off-beat sense of humor and his dedication to motivating students.

“If it had not been for Rob, I would have been in a totally different profession,” Long said. “He was so inspirational. “

www.therounduponline.net