People of OU: Accomplished multicultural storyteller, educator Della Cassia

TORI COKER

Content Editor

From Meadow Brook Road to Sesame Street, from the newsroom to the classroom, Della Cassia’s passion for storytelling and advocacy for multicultural perspectives has driven her through a storied career in media.

Cassia’s trademark sense of curiosity emerged as somewhat a product of necessity as a teenaged immigrant from war-torn Lebanon.

“I compare it to being almost deaf and blind, when you start out,” Cassia said. “I was 16 years old, walking the halls of Southfield High School, not speaking a word of English, not understanding the culture, not knowing how to navigate an American school.

“Can you imagine yourself as a junior having to go through something like that? Junior year is the most decisive year of your high school career. So starting there was really tough for me to adjust, to understand what the culture was like and how to adapt.”

Cassia’s early dreams of becoming a foreign correspondent motivated her to pursue journalism fresh out of high school. She enrolled in Oakland University’s “excellent” journalism program in 1991, at a time when campus felt a lot smaller — before the advent of the Human Health and Engineering buildings. Amused, she recalls a class teaching students to use Google.

Though working during the day and taking classes exclusively at night meant opportunities to establish herself in the world of journalism were limited, Cassia credits OU faculty with amplifying her appreciation and desire to get involved in the field.

“What I loved about OU was the connection I made with all the teachers — small classes, more oneon-one interactions, a lot of support,” Cassia said. “[...] It’s more than a college. It’s a community.”

Cassia cites local journalism greats and OU faculty legends Jane BriggsBunting and Neal Shine as two key mentors who shaped her as an aspiring journalist.

“Those wonderful professors at OU just made me love journalism even more. Even though they warned me every single class about how tough the industry is,” she said, laughing, “it just was a great experience I’ll never forget, and every time I come to OU for one thing or another, I always wish I could take more classes here.”

Cassia spent several years working for Farmington-based community publications and Metro Parent magazine, an opportunity which allowed her to flex her knack for storytelling on multiple fronts.

“I was able to tell those stories and really get involved in various communities, reporting on education,

City Council, crime, writing feature stories, writing obituaries — you name it, I wrote it, and it just was an amazing experience,” she said.

In an effort to be more present while beginning her family, Cassia eventually moved on from journalism to work in the nonprofit sector as a public relations professional. Her seven years at the Engineering Society of Detroit saw her leading the award-winning Technology Century Magazine, interviewing giants in the STEM fields.

Cassia was then recruited to PBS affiliate Detroit Public Television for a three year stint as Director of Communication, promoting national shows like Sesame Street and Downton Abbey, interviewing celebrities like Jane Seymour and working with television greats like Norman Lear and Dr. Henry Louis Gates.

Since 2017, Cassia has been translating her real-life experience into in-class lessons, teaching high school students at the Michigan Virtual Charter Academy (MVCA) and college students at Oakland Community College.

(Continue on our website)

Veteran CNN correspondent describes challenges of covering China during Klein Center lecture

JOE ZERILLI Campus Editor

The Klein Center for Culture and Globalization welcomed Mike Chinoy to Oakland University on March 31 to discuss his experience covering U.S.-China relations, the history of journalism within China and to promote his new book “Assignment China.”

Chinoy is currently a non-resident senior fellow at the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. His experience spans 40 years, including 24 spent at CNN, serving as their first Beijing bureau chief and senior Asia correspondent.

Klein Center Director Chiaoning Su introduced Chinoy and gave those in attendance background for the importance of the event and the book itself.

“In the field of journalism, we often say that it is the journalists who write the first draft of history,” Su said. “This book really elaborates on that draft by providing fascinating insight into the challenges of recording China over the past several decades.”

The first part of the event focused on Chinoy’s experiences on the job and the ever-changing relationship of journalists between the U.S. and China. He highlighted multiple journalists who have made an impact, such as Joseph Kahn, Fox Butterfield, Melinda Liu and Richard Bernstein.

Going through history, Chinoy summarized the peaks and valleys of journalists’ ability to get into China. He cited the Beijing-held 2008 Summer Olympics as ushering in the country’s most open era and the reign of Mao Zedong its most restricted — and indicated things may be headed back in that latter direction.

“Xi Jinping has really dramatically tightened the controls — he’s reimposed much stronger ideological criteria on everything,” Chinoy said. “But now, this is kind of hunkering down, closing the doors, and the diplomatic goal is not to be part of the international system, but to reshape the international system.”

“Assignment China” is preceded by a documentary-style film series of the same name, available to view on the USC U.S.-China Institute’s channel.

Chinoy concluded the Klein Center event by taking questions from the audience on ways to counter propaganda, whether there is scrutiny on what information can be taken out of China and how the people of China are able to access truthful information.

After the event, The Post was able to sit down with Chinoy to discuss current events and issues — such as the ongoing debate surrounding the movement to ban TikTok. Chinoy said a ban may be tricky for legal reasons, but he is unsure about the solution.

“There is no question that if the Chinese security services want to target a specific person, they have the ability to lean on TikTok’s parent company, which does not have the ability to push back,” Chinoy said. “The potential for abuse by the Chinese authorities is real, but I don’t think it’s everywhere, or not everybody has to be afraid all the time.”

Chinoy discussed the consequences of the Chinese Communist Party rewriting history, whether it be doctoring photos or refusing to acknowledge historical events. This is where he said he feels his new book is an important step, as it provides accounts from eyewitnesses to all of this history.

An extra layer of this is the dissonance between generations who recall events officials attempt to strike from the record and those raised in the era of the propaganda doing all the striking. He provided an example of a Chinese student whose parents were present for the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in 1989, though she had no idea it ever happened until hearing about it while visiting the U.S.

“It doesn’t mean the history didn’t happen, it just means people don’t know about it,” Chinoy said. “I’m a journalist turned historian, and so I believe very strongly in documenting history — letting the people who were there tell their story.”

As for aspiring journalists looking to continue the coverage of China, Chinoy said it is getting tough, and journalists must find new methods to put the pieces of the puzzle together. (Contiune on our website)