![\"h_butoday_17-1023-COM-013\"](\"\/federal\/files\/2017\/01\/h_butoday_17-1023-COM-013.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBU News Service editors Rob Carter and Sarah Toy are coordinating student coverage of Donald Trump\u2019s presidential inauguration. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi.<\/em><\/p>\n Most of the nation will watch Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration tomorrow from the comfort of their own homes. It will be more frenzied for journalists Sarah Toy and Rob Carter. While it\u2019s possible that\u00a0upwards of a\u00a0million people <\/a>may be at the ceremony to celebrate, or protest, the 45th president, Toy\u2019s and Carter\u2019s fingers will be flying across their keyboards, editing reams of news copy and multimedia from a team of tail-busting Terriers for posting ASAP.<\/p>\n Toy (COM\u201917) and Carter (COM\u201917) will be headquartered at the DuPont Circle office of BU\u2019s Washington, D.C., Journalism Program<\/a> as a half dozen fellow student journalists from Boston and three or four from the Washington program file stories, video, photos, and social media coverage for the Boston University News Service<\/a> (BUNS), which since election night 2012 has immersed College of Communication students in covering real-world news.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have student reporters at the swearing-in ceremony and stationed along the parade route. We\u2019ll also have people covering protests around town, including the much-anticipated Women\u2019s March<\/a>,\u201d says Toy. \u201cThere will also be students reporting from Boston, so we\u2019ll have a local angle as well.\u201d The Women\u2019s March on Saturday is expected to draw hundreds of thousands advocating on behalf of women\u2019s rights. Millions more will be marching in almost every state and around the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s swearing-in will cap a year and half of grueling campaign reporting by BUNS.<\/p>\n \u201cWe pride ourselves in providing opportunities for our students to do journalism,\u201d says BUNS advisor Michelle Johnson<\/a>, a COM associate professor of the practice of journalism, who has accompanied the students to Washington. \u201cIn covering the election these past 15 months, our students have had a chance to produce stories at campaign events and interview voters and delegates at the conventions last summer. And we were in New York City on election night. It\u2019s been quite a ride.\u201d<\/p>\n Washington program director Walter Monta\u00f1o says that about 15 BU students covered Barack Obama\u2019s second inauguration four years ago. This time, \u201cgiven the bizarre nature of this election,\u201d starting with a president-elect who has raised many questions about his policies, \u201cany manner of content goes\u201d for coverage, Monta\u00f1o says. Possible stories will include \u201cwomen who support and who dislike Trump, millennials on both sides of the aisle, veterans, government bureaucrats, \u2018foreigners,\u2019 African Americans, other journalists, blue collar types, the homeless, and Latinos\/Hispanics.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe event will be momentous in every way,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n The BUNS coverage will span the inaugural preliminaries today, tomorrow\u2019s events, and Saturday\u2019s march. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to give readers a full picture of the weekend,\u201d Carter says. \u201cThat means coverage of the swearing-in ceremony, obviously, but a lot more happens than just that. We\u2019ll have our team at protests, along the parade route, and hopefully in some of the inaugural balls throughout the city.\u201d<\/p>\n BU is sending its students well prepped, professionally and personally. \u201cWe were given a fairly detailed memo compiled by journalism faculty on how to stay safe, which everyone is required to read,\u201d according to Toy. BUNS has also been busy contacting credentialing officials for the sundry inaugural events \u201cto keep surprises to a minimum,\u201d Carter says.<\/p>\n As daunting as a presidential inauguration is, Toy says, \u201cit\u2019s a huge opportunity for us students to get on-the-ground experience that we wouldn\u2019t get otherwise. There\u2019s no simulated classroom exercise that can replace this sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a reason to study in a major East Coast city and this is a perfect example,\u201d adds Carter, a self-dubbed NPR junkie who aspires to work in public radio. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be covering the same story as every major news outlet in the country. It\u2019s fantastic experience that we will be able to point to when future employers ask whether we are ready to report on a major story.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/em>To view BU News Service\u2019s inauguration coverage click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n