At Western Oregon University the First Amendment and the school’s administration have collided, and the result is a group of student journalists struggling to fulfill their professional duties to the student body.
Gerry Blakney, Western Oregon Journal editor in chief, has been fighting an uphill battle with Western Oregon University administrators since last summer when copy editor Blair Loving inadvertently discovered more than 80 students’ private information posted unsecured on the university network. Journal editors copied the file – which included students’ social security numbers, test scores and GPAs – as evidence for a story and then reported it to the administration. A week later, the Journal ran a story detailing the incident.
University employees subsequently searched the Journal office during the night without the staff’s knowledge and fired the newspaper’s adviser.
Western Oregon University Vice President for Student Affairs Gary Dukes in an e-mail said he “would deny most of the claims that Gerry Blakney has made” about him.
“I spoke with Mr. Blakney early fall term and he asked me if I was looking at changes to the Student Media Board, and I said I was,” Dukes said. “Until January 11, 2008, I never heard any interest or questions from him regarding participation or interest in the changes.”
Blakney said he’s not surprised Dukes denied the allegations, but insists he has suitable documentation to back him up.
On Jan. 12, Blakney e-mailed a plea for help to journalists, legislators, students and faculty with his detailed account of what transpired since Loving found the files.
“Time and time again,” the letter read, “the administration has proven that they do not care about a free press, the First Amendment or, seemingly, students.”
Loving sent his own e-mail a few days later refuting many of Blakney’s allegations, calling them “unsupportable accusations.”
According to Blakney, in order to prevent Journal staff members from handing copies of the newspaper out to prospective students, the provost’s office authorized admissions officers to confiscate copies of the Journal on Preview Day a month later. On Jan. 11, Blakney discovered the University’s vice president for student affairs and interim media advisor had been “secretly” altering bylaws of the Media Board, the group that essentially governs student media on campus.
Western Oregon University President John Minahan appointed a panel comprising two faculty members and a representative from the Statesman Journal, the Salem-based newspaper, to investigate Blakney’s allegations of administrative actions. The panel is supposed to release its findings by the end of winter term. Blakney met with the members Wednesday afternoon and presented them with an 85-page document containing “evidence” such as a timeline of events leading up to the mass e-mail, records of student bylaws and other supporting documents.
“I’m confident actually that they will find a serious problem on this campus,” Blakney said. “They hopefully will be given more authority to delve into things than the Journal.”
The Journal’s conflict with the university administration has drawn significant public attention. The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Oregonian and Willamette Week have all written about the student newspaper. Blakney said he would have liked to see more attention from journalists, but he was surprised by the enthusiasm with which legislators picked up on the issue. Larry Galizio of Tigard and Vicki Berger of Salem in particular have expressed support for the Journal.
Although Blakney asserted in the mass e-mail the administration is eliminating the Journal’s First Amendment rights, Dukes said that is not the case, and the Student Media bylaw alterations would not impact free speech.
“The administration has no interest or intention of controlling content of the student newspaper,” said Dukes.
Blakney said the events of the past several months have made it difficult to run the paper the way he would like to.
“My staff is continually having to second-guess what they’re printing because of what may happen to them personally,” Blakney said. “Some of the staff trying to meet with administrators for unrelated things have had to talk to them about this.” Blakney also believes the administration’s actions have called the Journal’s credibility into question.
Blakney said the Journal’s leadership this year has set a journalistic standard unfamiliar to administrators, which is why they reacted this way.
“I just think that the Journal as a whole this year has been more open and more upfront with printing things that happen on this campus that may be considered controversial by some,” Blakney said. “When I came into the editor in chief position my first meeting with the staff was, ‘We’re not going to go out and seek controversial stuff, but if it does happen we aren’t going to hide from it.’”
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