BVU Tabs Pulitzer Prize Winner as 2022 Commencement Speaker
Storm Lake Times Editor/Publisher Art Cullen to cover BVU Commencement from the other side of his notebook on May 7.
Art Cullen, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, will serve as keynote speaker for Buena Vista University’s 2022 Commencement exercises in Storm Lake on Saturday, May 7.
Cullen, who serves as Editor/Publisher of The Storm Lake Times, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing. He and his family were featured in the documentary “Storm Lake,” which was released in 2021 and garnered critical acclaim across the nation. The production aired nationally on PBS in November.
“Buena Vista University is delighted to have Art Cullen serve as our Commencement speaker this spring,” says BVU President Brian Lenzmeier. “Art and his brother, John, and their families have been incredibly supportive of BVU and the community of Storm Lake for decades. They’ve reported on the developments related to our University, they’ve hired our graduates, hosted interns in our digital media program and other majors, and have served as experts in their field, sounding boards and advisors for our students and faculty.”
Cullen, who was raised in Storm Lake, grew up watching the Beavers compete in football, basketball, and baseball. He laughs while recalling afternoons spent shagging foul balls and homeruns at Beaver baseball games. “We returned foul balls to the concession stand in exchange for a piece of candy,” he says. “We were allowed to keep the homeruns.”
“[Art] recognizes the importance of having a free marketplace of ideas, and of participating in that marketplace in a thoughtful manner, always with the intent of challenging us to do better for ourselves, for one another, and for our community.”
Dr. Brian Lenzmeier, President
For years, he’s been joined by The Times’ newshound, Peach, while strolling across or near campus each Sunday morning, one of the rituals he’s enjoyed since returning to his home neighborhood mere blocks from the lake.
A graduate of St. Mary’s High School in Storm Lake, Cullen majored in journalism at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. His career took him to newspapers in Algona, Ames, and Mason City. In 1984, while covering the Farm Crisis as Editor at the Algona Upper Des Moines newspaper, he and his staff earned the Champion Tuck Award, one of the nation’s premiere honors in business and economics reporting.
In 1990, he and his wife, Dolores, and their two children, relocated to Storm Lake to join John and Mary Cullen in producing The Times. The couple welcomed the birth of twins in 1992. One of the twins, son Tom, now serves as a reporter at The Times, and produced dozens of news stories that served as the foundation for Art Cullen’s series of 10 editorials that netted him the vaunted Pulitzer Prize over competitors from the Houston Chronicle and the Washington Post.
In 2018, Cullen authored his first book: “Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper.”
In addition to his work at The Times, Cullen’s columns and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, and more. He’s been a frequent guest on CNN and MSNBC, often during the Iowa Caucuses and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, he helped establish the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation.
“I admire Art because he is outspoken, plainspoken, and never afraid to challenge authority or conventional wisdom,” Lenzmeier says. “Not everyone agrees with him. There are occasions when I don’t. But Art is a model for an engaged citizen in our democracy. He recognizes the importance of having a free marketplace of ideas, and of participating in that marketplace in a thoughtful manner, always with the intent of challenging us to do better for ourselves, for one another, and for our community.”
“I’m honored to be asked by President Lenzmeier to share my thoughts with the graduates and their families,” Cullen says. “I have great respect for BVU and its people because of the cultural opportunities presented to our community as well as what the steady flow of students from Iowa and throughout of the world means to the growth of Storm Lake, which is, undoubtedly, the most interesting city of its size in the U.S.”
In addition to reporting on a variety of BVU happenings through the years, whether it was a column about a basketball game, covering numerous heads of state who served as American Heritage Lecture Series Laureates, or detailing the entrepreneurial successes of past leaders such as President Keith G. Briscoe, Cullen now has a different task. He’ll witness Commencement from the other side of the editor’s notebook.
“For many years, I’ve had a place in Siebens Fieldhouse, capturing quotes and highlights of the keynote address as hundreds of graduates embark on their careers,” he says. “I’m grateful for this opportunity. Pray I have something quotable for the Class of 2022!”