Publisher Alan S. Chartock is far more than the chief executive officer of The Legislative Gazette. He is its founder and as the newspaper approaches its first quarter century, he is its primary cheerleader and inspiration.

Initially, Chartock, who answers to professor or doctor or doc - or just plain Alan to friends - viewed it as an internship project that would provide political insights and journalistic training for the students at the State University at New Paltz, where he was a political science professor.

"I get my best ideas when I’m in the shower," he smiles, "and one morning I was thinking about how much my political science students were getting from legislative internships. Then I got to thinking about how at times there was a communication vacuum in the Legislature. That’s when I began thinking about a newspaper solely for and about state government."

Chartock took his idea to Dr. Gerald Benjamin, chair of the department, and to Dr. Arthur Cash, chair of the English Department which had a program for students interested in journalism. "They both liked the idea, so then I went to the administration," Chartock recalls. While he got encouragement, he didn’t get much money. "As I recall, it was a commitment to pay for printing the paper. Everything else we had to provide for ourselves."

When that first batch of students arrived in Albany in January of 1978, then Senate Minority Leader Manfred Ohrenstein found them temporary office space on the ninth floor of the Legislative Office Building. Within weeks the students had their first real office, an eight-foot-by-ten-foot office, with a window, within the offices of the State University Research Foundation on Lark Street.

But there was more. Some in the Legislature decided they hadn’t had a newspaper and they didn’t want one. The state comptroller warned the college that any printing bills for the yet-to-be-published newspaper would be carefully scrutinized. Then the students went on the attack - with the help of some sympathetic journalists. Students made members of the Legislative Correspondents Association aware of efforts to kill the journalism project before the first newspaper was published.

The journalists’ queries of the comptroller and some state lawmakers did the trick. And within weeks the first edition of The Legislative Gazette went to press.

"Those were trying times," recalls Chartock, "but the students really were committed. They even planned fundraisers the first few years so we could buy film and pay to have it developed. We literally didn’t have any money, but we did have a lot of friends eager to see the project succeed."

First the Research Foundation found office space for the fledgling program. Then the University at Albany provided office space at its downtown campus. Finally, the state Office of General Services came up with space in the Alfred E. Smith State Office Building, across the street from the Capitol.

Along the way, of course, Chartock had an idea that since the paper was well read, it ought to solicit advertising. "I know I was a little surprised at how well we did in getting advertising, but I was even more surprised by the reaction from our readers. It put a professional stamp on the project. People reasoned that if advertisers were willing to spend money, it must be good.

"In fact," says Chartock, "the internship has evolved so well that most readers aren’t even aware that it’s an internship project and our reporters are college students. That’s a tribute to our editors, Mason Smith who was editor the first year, and Glenn Doty, who had returned to college to complete his bachelor’s degree and served as news editor that first year. We convinced Glenn to stay on, and he got his master’s degree at New York University while overseeing the day-to-day operation."

Chartock, now a professor of political communication at the University at Albany, continues as publisher and as an adjunct professor of political science at New Paltz. He offers a weekly seminar on state government during the fall and spring semesters and continues to marvel at how much students learn about government and politics.

"Most come to Albany prepared to hate the political side, but mostly it’s because they realize they know so little about how government and politics work. They’re frightened at the outset but by the time the semester is over, they realize how much they’ve learned and they recognize how much they’ve matured. It’s what makes it all worthwhile."