Learn more about Janke's hometown of Black River Falls

See a map Janke's hometown of Black River Falls

Article's controvery sparks interest in journalism

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While many college students think of politics on a national scale, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire student Jill Janke keeps her focus local.

The senior print journalism and history double major goes home to vote in local elections and keeps informed of what is going on in her hometown of Black River Falls, Wis.

When speaking about local politics, Janke’s eyes widen and she begins to speak at a faster pace. Her roommate, senior Mallory McKinney, says this stems from a love for Black River Falls.    

“She is more interested in local politics than national just because she has a great passion for her hometown,” McKinney said.

During Jill’s junior year at Black River Falls High School, she enrolled in Julie Tiedens' Writing 1 class.  Tiedens felt that Janke’s writing stood out. “She was earnest and felt that she could do something to make her community better--and that came out in her writing,” Tiedens said.

One way in which Janke attempted to make her community better was an article she wrote about the condition of her school’s band room.  In the article, Janke referred to the need for expanded space to meet the demands of the growing city population.  More importantly, however, was her reference to the dangerous decibel levels in the room.  Janke took a decibel reader into the band room while the band was practicing.  Janke found that the decibels were at a level that could cause pain and even possible hearing loss. She also learned that Axel Dressler, who had been band director for 32 years, had documented hearing loss.

Her mother was pleased with her daughter’s in-depth reporting.  “I was very proud of the article. It’s always good to see a student taking a stand and voicing their opinion. I think it shows a lot of maturity on her part. To formulate an opinion against people that she views as authority figures was very impressive to me,” Linda Janke said.

However, not everyone was as proud about Janke voicing her opinion. She drew criticism from the school board who didn’t want her writing articles detrimental to the school.  The criticism was hard on Janke.

“It was frustrating because I see a need to report these stories, but it’s tough because people don’t understand. There are things that our community needs, but they vote down the referendums because they don’t want to raise their taxes. It’s frustrating because they are voting based on their pocket book rather than taking a look at the issue, at what our town needs,” Janke said.

Although Janke felt frustrated, the article, and its backlash, made her want to become a journalist. She says she sees the importance of reporting things that affect people.

Janke’s interest in local public affairs began at home. Linda Janke was the union president of the United Education Association for the school district of Alma Center- Humbird-Merrillan, and. There she negotiated teacher contracts, sat in on school board meetings, and was active in the school district.

Jill’s father, Gene Janke, is an avid reader of newspapers, sometimes reading three different newspapers in the same day. In addition, he made sure his children watched the news to keep aware of what was happening in the world around them.

“Dad would sometimes make wise cracks about how we should have the news on at six, even if everyone wanted to watch ‘Friends,’” Janke said.

With their six children, Gene and Linda Janke tried to instill the need to see the world without biases.

“We taught them that you have to look at both sides, people usually have a reason for thinking that way. We stressed that they have to keep and open-mind,” Linda Janke said.   

Janke said that her parents were very influential in why she holds certain beliefs. She said that they were always trying to keep her and her siblings up on local and current events.

Janke will graduate in May, 2008. She plans to attend graduate school for sports management.