Another April Fools Controversy: Cornell Employee Steals, Hides Copies of Cornell Daily Sun Spoof Section

A Cornell University employee recently stole the spoof section from every copy of a Cornell Daily Sun issue available for pick-up within a prominent campus building.  The staffer’s aim was apparently “to prevent parents and prospective students visiting for Cornell Days [a special program for recently-admitted students] from reading them.”

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As a trusted source tells me:

“The Sun, like many other college papers, typically produces a joke issue on April 1.  However, this year, a former Cornell University president died over the weekend, so the editors decided to postpone the joke issue until April 20.  April 20 happened to coincide with Cornell Days, a series of events put on by the university’s admissions department to host newly admitted students on campus. The joke issue featured satirical articles about serious issues on campus, and someone in Cornell’s administrative building removed the joke pages from every copy of the Sun in at least one administrative building where all admissions student tours run through.”

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A screenshot of the front page of the recent Cornell Daily Sun spoof section.

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In an editorial published late last week, the Sun‘s editorial board declared the censorious theft “an affront to our editorial independence.”

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A portion of it contends:

“Perhaps our content may have offended the sensibilities of parents bringing their high schoolers to campus for the first time, but the removal of the cover should not have been allowed to occur.  The decision is telling, and it indicates that Cornell is more concerned with constructing the image that it presents to prospective students than it is with giving them the honest account of life at Cornell that they deserve. . . . This decision, however small, cannot be allowed to set a precedent.  If the university removed this spoof cover, the next step would be to remove copies of the Sun that paint the university in a negative light.”

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‘Student Journalism Still Alive and Well’: Spot the Error?

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Bridgewater State Student Paper Names Rape Victim, Faces ‘Angry Backlash’, Shutdown Threats, Fired Adviser

The Comment at Bridgewater State University is facing “an angry backlash“ from its readers and overseers for naming a rape victim in an article published earlier this month.  A related backlash is aimed at BSU’s president for allegedly threatening to “shut down the paper” and cutting off access to all school officials unless the article or the victim’s name is removed online.  The paper’s faculty adviser has also been fired.

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The controversial piece is a straightforward recounting of a student’s past sexual assault, a story she shared with 200 participants at a campus “Take Back the Night” rally.  It identifies the student by first and last name and provides additional details about her alleged attacker and the timing and location of the assault, all of which she stated publicly at the rally or was uncovered through a basic web search.

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Vigorous debate has ensued, focused on a single question: Is it OK to publish a sexual assault victim’s name without consent if the victim identifies herself and tells her story at a public event, knowing press may be covering it?

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Comment editors say yes, and thus far have declined requests to apologize or take down the article or the student’s name from its website: “The Comment doesn’t publish the names of sex crime victims without their consent.  But there is implied consent when someone speaks in a public forum, and . . . the whole meaning of the rally was to encourage victims of sexual assault to speak up and not live in shame.  Any information included in the article that [the student named in the piece] did not share at the rally was easily found by searching her name and looking at her publicly-accessible social media profiles.  This isn’t an invasion of privacy. It’s simple fact checking and good journalism.”

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Others say no, including BSU administrators, the assault victim named in the piece, “organizers of the ‘Take Back The Night’ rally . . . [and] a slew of frat boys, sorority girls, and student government members.  As one student said at a BSU SGA meeting: “This is ethically and morally unacceptable and it needs to be changed.  I do understand and respect the freedom of press, but a victim’s right of privacy and safety needs to be foremost and be protected.”

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A separate student, in a Comment letter to the editor: “I was greatly disturbed by the article. . . . [The student named in the piece] is my friend and [sorority] sister.  She is a courageous, smart, beautiful, and inspiring person.  If you knew her you would never call her a victim.  She is in no way a victim.  She is a survivor.  Also, I don’t believe you had any right to publish a photo, her story, or her name without her permission.  I understand your intentions, but they were poorly executed.  I really feel an apology should be issued to her and the entire campus.”

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The student sexual assault victim: “I hoped to share my story and the empowering message that you can overcome it.  I was aware it was a public event, but I didn’t think anyone would take my story and publicize it.  I understand the freedom of speech and freedom of press, but there is a line that you shouldn’t cross.”

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Meanwhile, the administration’s official response: “There’s absolutely no question in the university’s mind that the paper has the right to print what it wants.  But when there are questions of the validity of facts and when there are questions of the rights to privacy, that deserves a conversation.”

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Comment editor-in-chief Mary Polleys is alleging that the university president also demanded the article be taken down from the website and unleashed numerous threats during a closed-door meeting.

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The paper’s adviser Dave Copeland was then fired in a meeting held right after the tête-à-tête with Polleys.  Copeland’s termination appears to stem directly from the controversy over this piece and other unrelated Comment content, although it was accomplished through the enactment of a random new school policy.

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Student Press Law Center executive director Frank LoMonte, in a letter to BSU’s president: “To be clear, if the board of trustees enacts a regulation with the purpose and effect of disqualifying Mr. Copeland form his adviser position, it is an inevitability that Bridgewater State University, its trustees, and you personally will be sued for violating the First Amendment and that you will lose.  It would be self-destructive and pointless to pursue such a course.”

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Related

Bridgewater State Student Punched in Campus Parking Lot for Writing Opinion Piece Supporting Gay Marriage

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USA TODAY: Student Press Feeling ‘Financial Pinch’; J-Schools in ‘Adapt-or-Die Mode’

As I noted in a post late last month, student newspapers are struggling financially.  The decade-long plights of the professional press have at last weaved their way into the land of collegemediatopia.  If not quite a time of reckoning for some campus papers, we have definitely entered a prolonged period of profound change– cutbacks, weary sighs, and hopefully some spirited reinventions.

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USA TODAY is the latest outlet to weigh in with a “student press times are tough” rundown, declaring the current state a week ago as a “financial pinch.”  It is a feeling a number of high- and low-profile campus pubs have been experiencing lately.

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According to the USAT piece (hat tip to College Media Review editor Robert Bergland), “Most of the conditions causing hard times for newspapers in the private sector– declining print advertising revenue and difficulties making the Web a moneymaker– are also affecting student newspapers at colleges and universities throughout the country.  Add to the mix the budget-cutting realities that colleges and universities now face, and many journalism schools have entered adapt-or-die mode.”

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My Take: The brief report’s round-up of student newspaper suffering is on-point– if a bit late to this particular pity party.  But I’m not sold on the notion put forward that j-schools are in “adapt-or-die mode”  Like many disciplines within higher ed. right now, journalism schools and programs are adapting, sure.  But I haven’t come across reports of j-schools facing life-or-death administrative struggles, outside funding declines or dramatic losses in undergraduate or graduate enrollment.

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Some programs are being thrashed or shuttered in California (one example included in the lede of the USAT article), but that has been part of the larger cost-cutting at public colleges and universities statewide– not a direct attack on journalism education specifically.

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Related

Time to Wake Up: Independent Student Newspapers are Struggling Financially

Daily Californian Loses Fight for Student Funding Help– on a Technicality

UCONN’s Daily Campus in ‘Dire Straits’ Financially; Editor Writes SOS Letter to Students

Daily Illini is Up $150,000; For the First Time, Students Will Help Fund the Paper

California Community College Newspaper Gets the Boot Due to Budget Cuts

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Appalachian State Student Newspaper Angers Readers with ‘Belligerent Apology’

The Appalachian, the student newspaper at North Carolina’s Appalachian State University, earned criticism late last week– after taking some of its own readers to task.

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On Wednesday, due to an apparent miscommunication with a source, the paper mistakenly tweeted that a popular local Mexican restaurant was closing.  Editors quickly corrected the error, but not before the Appalachian “received more feedback and engagement than we ever have.”

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Instead of penning the typical mea culpa editorial however, the paper published a piece “scolding readers for being a little bit too concerned about their quesadillas and margaritas.”  A PR Daily post declared it “a shining example of what not to do– particularly in the world of social media.”  The paper’s managing editor said top staff “stand by the spirit of our editorial, but the tone in which it was delivered was far from ideal.”

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As a portion noted, “We’re always happy to admit an oversight in our reporting process, and we’ll use the incident as a learning opportunity. Social media reporting is brand-new. There are still plenty of mistakes and lessons in our future. . . . All of a sudden, people cared– and it was all about a Mexican restaurant.  Sorry burrito lovers, in a list of the most important issues covered this year, the potential closing of [the restaurant] wouldn’t even make the top 10.  We have never seen students engage with our content the way they did today. And frankly, we think there are things that deserve your attention more.”

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In a recent post, Jim Romenesko wondered whether it was “THE MOST BELLIGERENT NEWSPAPER APOLOGY EVER?”  Two examples of the 69 mostly-critical comments posted beneath it:

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Student Photo of Bear Falling from a Tree in Colorado Crashes CU Independent Site, May Trigger Lawsuit

First, the bear was tranquilized.  Then it fell.  Then it went viral.  Now it may be the center of a lawsuit.  Welcome to collegemediatopia in 2012.

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This past Thursday, Andrew Duann, a student photographer for The CU Independent, snapped an instantly-iconic shot of a brown bear falling from a tree near a University of Colorado Boulder residence hall village.  The bear had been tranquilized by local wildlife officials and was subsequently taken into custody for its own– and others’– protection.

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The photo almost immediately zoomed across the mainstream and outer reaches of the interwebs.  As Denver’s Westword confirms, “[W]ithin four hours or so [of its posting], it had become a Facebook and Twitter smash, as well as winding up on Gawker, Reddit, Yahoo and more traditional news platforms such as CBS4, 7News, Fox 31, the Boulder Daily Camera and the Denver Post. . . . The surge of traffic eventually crashed the Independent‘s site.”

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And now for one post-viral twist: In the wake of the photo’s web success and its republishing by other news outlets, Duann is looking into legal action against his own paper.  As Poynter’s Andrew Beaujon reports, Duann is “upset that the paper’s advisor, Gil Asakawa, allowed publications around the world to reproduce the photo, asking most outlets only for it to be credited to Duann and the CU Independent.”

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Duann considers the bear shot his copyrighted property, even though he is on the paper’s staff and apparently supplied it willingly for the story it accompanied. Reporters and photographers are not paid at the Independent, and Duann told Beaujon he had not signed a contract outlining his specific rights in cases like this.

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So the larger question broached here: For campus papers relying on student volunteers or lacking formal contracts (i.e. many campus papers), who is considered the owner of published content– the student creators or the papers?

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Asakawa says that in this situation the paper owns the copyright, but top staff “had already decided that money they got for the photo would go to Duann.”

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The bear is OK, by the way.

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Update: SPLC’s take on the ownership question

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Story Idea: How Easy is it to Steal Bikes on Your Campus?

In a reporting experiment of sorts late last month, a student at Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier University brazenly “stole” a bicycle in public, in broad daylight, in four locations including WLU’s campus.

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The purpose, in part, reporter-thief Alanna Fairey shared in The Cord student newspaper, was to answer this question: “What would you do if you saw someone stealing a bike by the use of bolt cutters?  In a big open space with plenty of people, you’d assume someone would stop them; but as The Cord discovered on Mar. 26, that’s not exactly the case.  I am not the kind of person that would even steal a chocolate bar, let alone a bicycle. However, as an experiment, I went to several different locations in Waterloo to ‘steal’ a friend’s bike, just to see if others would try and stop me.  And the results were shocking.”

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The staged report reminds me of a similar faux bike theft attempt featured in mid-March in The New York Times.  In both cases, the most common bystander reactions were purposeful ignorance or lighthearted curiosity, nothing more.  (See Kitty Genovese murder.)

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As Fairey writes, “After my bike stealing adventures, I can conclude that it is relatively easy to steal a bike in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. People will stare and possibly ask questions, but no one confronted me aggressively or threatened to report me to the police.”

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Student Newspaper Headline Involving Gamecocks: Playful or Sexually Offensive?

A front-page headline in The Patriot at Francis Marion University celebrating the FMU baseball team’s upset win over the South Carolina Gamecocks recently earned the attention of the wider web.

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The full header… “Patriots Beat Cocks: Team christens new stadium with win over Division I champions.”  What do you think– innocently exuberant or knowingly sexual?

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Deadspin’s take on it: “College Newspaper Captures Euphoria Of Historic Upset With Headline Alluding To Masturbation.”  SportsGrid: “Headline Of The Day Could Be About A Baseball Game, Could Be About A Masturbation Party.”

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This reminds me of “‘Cocks Blocked,” the two-word bolded headline that dominated the front page of an early January 2011 FS View & Florida Flambeau.  On a literal level, the hed referred to the Florida State University football team’s victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks.  But the term also of course alludes to an interference preventing someone from engaging in sexual activity.  (Yes, it apparently even has a Wikipedia entry.)

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Ohio State President Gordon Gee Tells Lantern: Sports Illustrated & Sporting News are ‘Bad Journalism’

Gordon Gee, the infamously outspoken and bow-tied president of Ohio State University, has once again stirred controversy.  In a new interview with The Lantern, Gee dismissed a Sports Illustrated investigation of old football coach Jim Tressel and a Sporting News report on new coach Urban Meyer.

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In Gee’s words: “Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, a lot of them I don’t read.  It’s bad journalism.  And, so, why buy them?”  The Sporting News piece “reported on an ‘out-of-control’ culture left behind by . . . Meyer when he departed the University of Florida’s program in January 2011.”  The SI piece dissected the trouble during Tressel’s tenure ultimately leading to his resignation.

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The most quotable comeback, from the main writer of the SI piece: “[Gee] knows more about bow ties than he does about journalism.“

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Related

Florida Student Columnist to Gator Fans: Don’t Be Mad at Urban Meyer for Taking Ohio State Job

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Vermont Cynic Staffers Investigate Newspaper Theft, After Campus Security Declines

Student staffers at The Vermont Cynic at the University of Vermont are investigating an apparent mass theft of a recent issue.  According to Chris Evans, UVM’s assistant director of student media, thieves “cleared out every newspaper in the student center and library, the two highest-traffic readership areas on campus.”

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As Evans shared earlier this week, “The issue that disappeared covered a number of campus crimes. Editors said they suspect that whoever took the papers didn’t appreciate the coverage, which ranged from the reporting of three drunk students arrested to a story about a would-be tennis player who used a stun-gun on his fellow students.”

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Campus security officers at UVM have declined to look into the thefts themselves, declaring the newspaper free for all.  (Sigh.)

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Cynic editor-in-chief Brent Summers: “An issue of the Cynic costs well over $1,000 to print.  We believe this is a clear infringement to the freedom of the press and a great harm has been caused to our readers. We’ve had readers stop by our office wondering where their campus news is, and at this point we don’t know what to tell them.”

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Related

The Vermont Cynic’s Presidential Scoop: Student Paper Confirms UVM’s New Leader with 3 Knocks on a Door

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OK State Student Newspaper Boasts 177 Paid Subscribers; Paywall a Success?

The Daily O’Collegian at Oklahoma State University is enjoying marginal success with its paywall a bit more than a year into the experiment.  At the start of spring semester 2011, the paper became the first U.S. student media outlet to charge a subset of readers for its content online, requiring a $10 yearly subscription fee for individuals outside the campus area who wanted to read more than three articles per month.

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In an excellent new piece on PBS MediaShift, Alexa Capeloto provides a progress report on the O’Colly’s efforts, confirming the paper now has 177 paid subscribers.  The numbers beat the expectations of the paper’s GM, even prompting him to slightly raise the annual subscription fee to $15.

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As Capeloto writes, “There wasn’t any national news on the OSU campus that might have lured a burst of new paid subscribers. They came slow and steady, never exceeding three per day. Looking ahead, [the GM] has budgeted $3,000 to $4,000 in revenue from online subscribers for the next fiscal year– again, a mere drop in the outlet’s $700,000 budget, but a drop nonetheless.”

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I am quoted toward the close of the report as a voice of caution, if not dissent, regarding any future expansion of similar paywall schemes throughout the student press.  The gist of what I told Capeloto during a phone chat late last week:

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As a huge fan of innovation and experimentation within college media, I enthusiastically applaud the O’Colly for being a paywall pioneer.  Given that the financial outlooks for many student outlets have soured in recent semesters, any attempt within reason to generate revenue must be seen as a positive.  But do I think the mass adoption of paywalls by student press outlets nationwide is a good thing at this moment?  No, I do not.

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The O’Colly is a top-tier publication, boasting daily content online and a huge alumni and supporter base worldwide interested in checking out what’s happening at OK State.  In Occupy Wall Street terms, the O’Colly is among student media’s 1 percent.

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By comparison, a large majority of student media appeal to a very small readership.  And while their content might be appreciated, paying for it will most likely be a deal-breaker for all but a few diehards.  We need to be honest: Most student newspaper websites are nothing more than slightly repackaged versions of their print editions and are not updated more than once a week.  For free, they are fun reads, but they don’t exactly scream worth-a-fee quality.  Even with an uber-cheap paywall, it is hard to imagine most papers getting 17 subscribers, let alone 177.

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Along with potentially turning away readers without generating much revenue, paywalls at heart also go against the purpose of the student press.  For the moment, campus media are still learning vehicles more than moneymaking ventures.  In that spirit, students must be able to share, share, share their work with others, without restriction, enabling them to join a larger conversation and learn firsthand about reporting and interacting with the public beyond the classroom or campus.

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They also must be able to promote that work, and themselves.  I dislike the notion that students may have to add an addendum to all articles placed on their online portfolios or within all messages sent to prospective employers.  (“You can look at the first three for free, but then you have to pay or I can send you a one-time special access code or here it is simply in the text of an email…”).

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And what about when big news breaks– a campus shooting, out-of-control protests, a visit by a head of state– and media and a mass audience are seeking constant updates?  I recall months back when the O’Colly had a situation of interest that was mentioned on a popular college media advisers’ list-serv.  A number of advisers wanted to read the newspaper’s pieces, but of course quickly ran into a paywall brick wall.

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There are undoubtedly loopholes galore allowing the right people to see things for free at the right time, but the idea of only being free under special circumstances versus being accessible-by-default seems backward at the student level.  In this respect, lastly, there is the rabbit hole argument.  I actually think the worst thing that can happen for the student press is not for paywalls to fail, but for them to be marginally successful.  Why?  Because that will institute even greater reader restrictions.

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In just the past year, the O’Colly has raised its annual subscription fee– and it doesn’t even have 200 subscribers?!  But it’s a typical move.  For example, The New York Times recently reduced its monthly free article count by half, right around the one-year anniversary of its paywall.  It seems the realization that a niche effort like this can generate even a little bit of money triggers a desire to squeeze even more money out of it.

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So do I think the O’Colly’s minimally-priced, fairly-limited paywall restriction is troublesome currently?  No, not really.  What worries me is what will come next, because the trend appears to be higher prices and ever-fewer free reads.

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What do you think???

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After Censorship, Student Newspaper Editor in Britain Resigns via Facebook: ‘It is the Only Avenue Left’

An editor of The SOAS Spirit, the student newspaper serving the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, has quit in protest over alleged censorship.

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In a public letter of resignation posted yesterday afternoon (U.S. time) on Facebook, Gloria de-Waal Montgomery charges the student union with temporarily delaying publication of the Spirit‘s current issue and removing an article she penned about “potential corruption” within the union regarding possibly “missing charity money.”

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As she writes, “I apologise in advance for posting this here, but I feel it is the only avenue left.  After two years of working as an editor of the SOAS Spirit newspaper, I have today decided to quit due to its lack of independence and responsibility towards the student body.  I have spent the last 6 weeks gathering information on potential corruption within the [student] union: the basketball team and the funds that were raised for their tour.  This involved trying to address why the basketball team has been so resistant to handing their tour money over, despite multiple requests over the past 12 months.

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“Despite the effort I put in to interview the appropriate actors . . . the entire paper was held back from being released this month due to the controversy surrounding my article. I have today been informed that my piece will not to go to print. . . . There has been pressure by certain members of the union to not go to print with the paper until they deem it appropriate. Thus my article was deliberately held back due to ‘internal pressure’ from the union.  At this rate, I feel I have no choice but to resign as publicly as possible so students know that not everyone at the paper is in agreement with what has taken place.  Freedom of speech is meaningless if it does not include the freedom to criticise.”

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Beneath the letter, de-Waal Montgomery posted the full draft of the story at the center of the controversy and alleged censorship.

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LSU’s Daily Reveille Identifies Student Suicide Victim Via Social Media, Receives Some Flak

The Daily Reveille at Louisiana State University earned some online flak this past weekend from a pocket of readers for identifying an apparent student suicide victim prior to an official confirmation.  The campus newspaper instead relied on students’ tweets and wall posts that named the victim while expressing grief over his death.

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The specific Daily Reveille update under scrutiny: “8:18 p.m.– University Relations has not yet confirmed the identity of the student, but posts on Facebook and Twitter suggest the student was [I’m omitting name for now], a freshman finance major in the Sigma Chi fraternity.”

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On a message board hosted by the LSU fan site TigerDroppings.com, some commenters criticized the paper’s decision to identify the student solely on the basis of social media chatter.  One no-holds-barred example: “As someone who has taken approximately zero journalism classes in my life, I believe that a paper, even a shitty one like TDR, should be held to a higher standard than what they showed last night.  Publishing the name of a student that just took their own life hours before is a pretty low move, IMO.  Stating that their ‘source’ is Facebook or Twitter is just fricking pathetic.  It is in poor taste to publish the kid’s name before the university has released it.”

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Another example: “[T]hey definitely should have waited for LSU to officially release something.  Citing Twitter was pretty unprofessional and disrespectful.”

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In a separate message to me, an LSU student who admitted bias because she was a friend and classmate of the victim stated, “Is nothing sacred?  Why name him at all?  What is the use? . . . The family is going through enough without this being blasted out there.  Just because it’s being talked about by some people online doesn’t mean it should be free reign for a newspaper to print. . . . I thought journalists had higher standards.”

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What do you think?  In the wake of incidents like the Onward State Paterno faux-death tweet, should the paper have restrained itself and checked with additional trusted sources before identifying the student?  Should it be publishing the student’s name to begin with, regardless of where the confirmation comes from?  And is verification of information via social media appropriate for situations involving suicide and death?

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I reached out to Daily Reveille EIC Matthew Jacobs late Sunday night.  He kindheartedly responded uber-quick with some thoughts worth considering:

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“Such a decision is not made lightly.  There has been talk back and forth regarding when it’s appropriate to publish a suicide victim’s name, if at all.  I know many professional papers take the stance that suicide should never be a news item unless it involves a public figure.  If I were running a metro paper, I’d probably take the same stance.  Things are different on a college campus, though.

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“Even at a large school like LSU, gossip and the rumor mill operate within a fairly isolated bubble, especially now that social media is so dominant in college students’ lives. It’s vital, therefore, for a college newspaper to be the arbiter of such gossip and to provide definitive answers. While there are times when I would not accept social media as a news source, there are other times when information is so ubiquitously known that it becomes corroborative.

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“There was a flood of attention across social media from LSU mourners and sympathizers who pinpointed the suicide victim’s name.  Dozens of posts across the Internet naming the same person left little doubt, particularly the ones written on the victim’s own Facebook page, which anyone can see because it’s accessible to the public.  LSU is big but close-knit, especially the Greek community, and we felt the news was universally accepted enough so that we weren’t releasing anything people didn’t already know.  We were sure not to include details about the method by which the suicide was committed or the circumstances, because those things become gritty and gossipy.

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“Since the story broke, we have received confirmation from the university’s chancellor and police department.  The chancellor identified the victim’s name in an e-mail, so there’s no question that we would have included it in Monday’s print story if we hadn’t already.  That sourcing has since been updated online.”

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East Carolina, Former Student Media Director Reach Settlement: Firing Due to ‘Difference in Philosophy’

The former student media director at East Carolina University is no longer attempting through legal channels to regain his position, more than three months after a termination that involved discussions of a streaker and free speech.

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In January, prior to the start of spring semester, ECU officials fired Paul Isom without warning or much explanation.  The sudden dismissal prompted speculation among many in collegemediatopia that it was related to the The East Carolinian’s infamous ‘streaker’ photo published the previous November on its front page.  A barrage of public criticism from journalism and First Amendment advocacy organizations quickly followed.

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For example, in a public letter sent to ECU’s chancellor and its board of trustees chairman, Student Press Law Center executive director Frank LoMonte noted SPLC’s deep concern with what it considered a “personnel decision . . . [that] carries profound implications for the overall climate for free expression on campus, and in particular for the willingness of student journalists to publish material that provokes strong public reaction, as journalists must.”

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A joint statement released Friday by Isom and ECU declared the speculation and concerns invalid, stating that “Isom’s separation from his role was because of a difference in philosophy, not for cause. . . . While the timing [in respect to the streaker photo saga] drew some criticism from First Amendment advocates, Isom has acknowledged that it resulted from a difference in his professional philosophy and the expectations of the university.”

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In case that wasn’t clear, the phrase ‘difference in philosophy’ pops up in the statement one more time, in a quote from an ECU administrator: “This separation reflected a difference in philosophy and a desire to take student journalism at the East Carolinian in a new direction.”  The headline of the statement: “Difference in Philosophy.“

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As part of the settlement, Isom is getting six months’ back-pay, totaling more than $30,000.

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Related

East Carolina Hires Interim Adviser to Lead Campus Newspaper Weeks After Student Media Director’s Firing

Latest Round in East Carolina Fired Director Fight: Release of Director’s Personnel Records

East Carolina Fired Director-Streaker Saga Update: A School Statement and a CMA Inquiry

East Carolina Journalism Faculty, FIRE, SPLC Rally Around Ousted Student Media Director

Former East Carolina Student Media Director Considers Lawsuit, Other Options to Contest Firing

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Plagiarism Body Count at Rochester Student Magazine: 1 Fired Writer, 2 Resigning Editors, 2 Pulled Stories

A student writer has been fired and two editors are resigning from The Reporter at the Rochester Institute of Technology amid discoveries of plagiarism within two recent stories.

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According to a statement appearing in the weekly campus magazine’s current issue, copycatting was first spotted within a profile of a student-run sports news program.  Infinity Quad editor Chris Zubak-Skees confirms the offending article “contains phrases that are nearly identical to a [university PR] story, SportsZone‘s website, and a web page for the College Television Awards.”  It also sports at least one major factual snafu and spelling error.

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At an emergency meeting called after complaints were first leveled at the piece, the RIT editorial board “investigated the writer’s entire body of work, as well as the past three issues in their entirety, in an effort to ensure that there were no other instances of plagiarism in our recent publications.  We discovered that one of the writer’s other articles, ‘A Woman’s Guide to Manscaping‘ (Vol. 61, Issue 22), also contained plagiarized content .”

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The writer was immediately fired.  The two editors who oversee the sections in which the sullied stories appeared– the sports editor and leisure editor– have voluntarily offered their resignations effective once replacements are hired.  And both pieces have been removed from the Reporter website.  (The image above is a screenshot of the cached version.)

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A portion of the editorial board statement, hand-signed by nine top editors (including the two planning to resign), states, “We deeply regret and assume full responsibility for this error. . . . Reporter’s editorial board will undergo more rigorous training to ensure that they are aware of their roles in the magazine. We will be reviewing our editorial policy regarding fact checking and attribution. We will be having professional journalists speak to our staff on the matters of ethics and purpose. We are also looking to acquire commercial anti-plagiarism software such as Turnitin.”

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Rochester Student Magazine Changes ‘F-ck Cats’ Cover of April Fools’ Issue at Request of School Officials

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