Media organization censures Western for past actions

"The College Media Advisers board of directors has voted to censure Western Oregon University for its handling of the case of former newspaper adviser Susan Wickstrom," was the opening paragraph in an official letter from College Media Advisers (CMA) to Western President John Minahan on Jan. 12, 2009. As stated on its Web site, CMA is an organization founded in 1954, and has since been helping "student media professionals improve their media operations." The site states that it is endorsed by professional college media associations and works with professional media organizations and education associations on the local, state and national levels. "CMA sets the national standard for how a student newspaper should be run. Virtually every university in the country embraces its practices, particularly the notion that an independent student press is crucial for any progressive college campus," said Wickstrom via email. Western President John Minahan, on the other hand, questions CMA's legitimacy, stating he is not clear as to who its members are or whether they are accredited. "They don't seem to be very credible because they didn't really do an investigation. They simply took students and accusations and their word for it, and they quoted newspaper articles and all kinds of things, but they didn't really do their own independent work," he said. CMA President Kenneth Rosenaur did not respond to a request for comments about the details of the investigation or the censure. According to CMA, the censure was the result of the university choosing not to rehire Wickstrom "after student staff of the 'Western Oregon Journal' in spring 2007 discovered Social Security numbers and other confidential information about former students in files on the university's public server. The student downloaded the information to a disk and, after consulting with Wickstrom, notified university administrators of the security breach." CMA also states that "the copy editor involved [Blair Loving] was nearly expelled." In an interview Tuesday, Minahan said, "[CMA's] basic problem with us is that they feel that we unjustly terminated one of their people who was in their organization. They are claiming that we fired her. We didn't; we didn't renew her contract because we wanted to bring in a full-time person who had more credibility." "And they still maintain that we nearly expelled Mr. Loving. The fact is we never brought any sanctions against him; we didn't because I found and everyone else found that he didn't get any guidance by the media adviser," added Minahan. Communication between CMA and Minahan lapsed after a letter of concern was sent to Minahan in June 2008, which addressed CMA's "concerns about this case and offered the assistance of CMA's adviser advocate Mark Witherspoon. "The letter of concern simply requoted the things that were alleged by students and that our committee [the WOU Ad-hoc Committee on Free Press] found to be false. I am not going to give that organization the credibility of answering them when, in fact, I know that what they are claiming to be false," said Minahan. "One of the things that cannot happen is that you cannot respond to false claims." The WOU Ad-Hoc Committee on Free Press was established in 2008 to investigate claims and accusation that First Amendment rights had been violated by the adminstration and faculty of Western. The panel conducted several interviews with parties cited and involved in the allegations. The panel consisted of four Western professors and an outside journalist. CMA also raised concerns in its letter to Minahan about his rejection of help in developing governing documents for student media and helping to develop a set of written guidelines of the adviser's duties that will protect future advisers. "Any help [CMA] offered us predicated on the condition that we hired [Wickstrom] back and that wasn't going to happen," said Minahan. "We didn't really need their help to do a [media adviser] search or anything else," the university president added. "But we had our own people capable of doing that, and their credentials didn't give them the authority. Normally universities tend to solve their own problems and I think we did well with that." As of now, Western has no plans to respond to CMA's censure or rekindle communication with it. Wickstrom has made it clear that she has no interest in getting her adviser position reinstated. She was honored last summer by the Oregon and Southwest Washington chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists with its Freedom Award for her exemplary service to the First Amendment. In the year following the non-renewal of Wickstom's contract, Western's student media program was advised by interim adviser Dr. Curt Yehnert. In the summer of 2008, Western hired full time adviser Shelby Case, a seasoned journalist who was, at the time of hire, working for the "Central Oregonian" in Prineville, Ore. The student media board, which serves as the governing body for the "Journal," was not functioning during most of the year while Yehnert was adviser but has since met regularly. To read CMA's full statement and letter to President Minahan, visit www.collegemedia.org.