On Sept. 16, a CTV camera crew arrived on campus to interview Environmental and Resources Sciences chair Chris Metcalfe. The station wanted a comment from an "expert" about phthalate plasticizers, chemicals present in some plastic toys and considered health-threatening to a child who chewed or sucked the toys, according to a Greenpeace report. The station couldn't get a comment from Health Canada and wanted an informed opinion and, quips Metcalfe, someone within easy driving distance of Toronto.

        Trent's name usually tags along after a faculty member who's been quoted in newspapers, magazines, on radio and television. It's usually good publicity for the professor and for Trent. Last year, Canadian Press clipped about 1,600 stories mentioning Trent University. Coverage is heaviest in Peterborough, but can scatter nationwide as it has in wire stories about the faculty strike, about former Trent president John Stubbs's handling of a sexual harassment case at Simon Fraser University, about Michael Berrill's timely book, The Plundered Seas.

        The Communications Department has compiled and uses an electronic guide, listing faculty specialties, to connect reporters and Trent's experts. But the department is not always the go- between. Berrill's publisher, for instance, orchestrated the publicity for his book.

        For years, Communications has also subscribed to the Canadian Press clipping service which harvests and sends Communications newspaper and magazine articles mentioning Trent. This summer, the department also began subscribing to a radio and television monitoring service. This affords an even bigger view of Trent in the world. Without it, we wouldn't necessarily have known that Canadian Studies professor Christl Verduyn talked about the legacy of Margaret Laurence on CBC Radio's This Morning or that environmental studies professor and ozone expert Wayne Evans disagreed with a United Nations report that says Canada's environment is at significant risk due to global warming.

        The serendipity of some Trent invocations is evident in a piece printed Aug. 6 in the Globe and Mail. In a petty robbery in Dawson City, thieves stole coins, gambling chips and a copy of René Descartes's Discourse on Method and The Meditations from the counter of Maximilian's Gold Rush Emporium. It belonged to Jason Kiss, who "heads to Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., to study social sciences and philosophy."

        Before sending clipping originals to Bata Library archives for safe keeping, Communications photocopies the clippings and broadcast listings, files them and often redirects copies by fax to those quoted, mentioned or possibly interested in the contents.