Last week, the student life director at San Antonio College refused to grant an interview to the college’s student-run newspaper unless he was paid. The student reporter, Jolene Almendarez emailed Jorge Posadas, the student life director, to request an interview. The purpose of the interview was to learn about the student activities budget. Student fees fund the student activities budget and a committee disperses the money. Posadas chairs the committee that makes those decisions.
In a series of emails between Posadas and Almendarez, the student reporter tells the student life director that he is “inhibiting the learning process.” He tells the student he does not trust the newspaper to accurately represent him. Yet, Posadas is willing to be available should the newspaper decide to pay him. Posadas has since apologized, saying he was confused after being on vacation and being stressed by recent budget cuts.
The newspaper requires that students do interviews face-to-face to help the learning process. Posadas argues that “Face to face is not an accurate accountability measure, as it is one persons word against another a written statement is more accurate and fair.” He also told Almendarez that "It is not my role to be part of your course and serve as an interviewee. Since by doing so it is in an official capacity with repercussions I am not willing to accept.” The president of San Antonio College, Robert Zeigler, said “Generally, when our people get inquiries from the press, they are free to talk, but we ask them to give our public relations office a heads up so we will know what is going on,” Zeigler said. “I encourage people to talk to The Ranger when reporters ask questions.”
I can understand that Posadas may not want to be apart of too many class assignments. However, this situation seems to be different, as this is a student newspaper. Presumably, the purpose of this newspaper is to communicate important issues with students. Whatever you think about student newspapers and their audience, they do help to spread word about important issues on campus. In my undergraduate and masters programs, I regularly read the student newspaper. Thoughtful students always covered the most controversial issues on campus in great detail. This provided a lot of information that was not screened by the university public relations and media team.
In this case, the students may have wanted to know more about the student activities budget. As the university official in charge of the student activities budget, doesn’t Posadas have an obligation to students to be transparent about the budget? Posadas’ actions now seem to be an attempt to avoid accountability. I understand that he is probably very busy and concerned about other issues. However, this may have been worth his time. It is likely he has damaged his relationship with the newspaper and the student body.
Margaret, thank you for your post. The first word that comes to mind is, wow! I find it very troubling that a college staff person, specifically the director of STUDENT life, would request payment in order to talk with the STUDENT newspaper. If the director is so worried about misinformation, why not record the conversation or put conditions around the interview (like wanting to review the article prior to it being published).
ReplyDeleteAs the director of student life, especially student life, it is imperative for this staff person to actively engage students in different capacities of the college. This includes understanding the important role the school newspaper plays in disseminating information to students, providing journalistic experience to students, and actively engaging students. I would think there would have been some type of intervention from the top student affairs leaders.
I agree with you, Lori. WoW. I am hoping that the message was a joke, and that it was misinterpreted--or at least if the funding was going to the student life pool. But alas, it doesn't sound like that. I know a lot of Student Life folks who depend on a good relationship with the student newspaper to thrive--advertising events, coverage of those events, good-natured commentary, etc. Instead this is an incredibly odd form of corruption. I wonder what the human resources ramifications are going to be for this director. I do believe that it may even be illegal to receive outside compensation for the job you already perform. I think the part that strikes me as the most ironic is that the interview was over student fees!
ReplyDeleteI was curious about this particular case as well and suspect that one of three possibilities maybe at play. First, there could be some important details being left out of the story. I have no idea what they might be but something about this doesn’t add up. Second, it could be that this guy was just having a bad day (week) and should have paused before sending emails. This happens and, while not making excuses, could serve as a learning opportunity for him, the students, and the campus. He did state that his email was inappropriate; so let’s hope that he understands the error of his ways. Finally, it could be the case that this guy is an incompetent idiot.
ReplyDeleteReturning to the first item. I once worked for a dean of students who loathed the student newspaper and the editor in particular. I was a recent hire and could not understand why the dean had such distain. The dean essentially banned the professional staff from speaking to any of the reporters. I asked a lot of questions about this and the dean explained the issue. Over the course of 2 years the paper and its editor had basically set out to do everything it could to make the dean look bad. Some pretty horrific stuff. If I remember correctly a competent staff member was terminated because of simple allegations made in the paper. The student newspapers faculty advisor refused to even discuss the nature of the articles stating that it was a First Amendment issue. The institutions senior most leadership told the dean to suck it up and take the bad press…doing more would only make the matter worse. At one point the newspaper’s offices were robbed because the editor didn’t lock the door. The computers (probably 286s…old) were taken along with a dot-matrix printer. The next edition actually suggested that the dean was behind the break in. At one point the editor made me the subject of an article (now I am trying to remember what the issue was). I was misquoted in the article and the subject of non-factual statements. I was very upset and ready to have some heated words with the editor (yes, I was worried about my job security). Thankfully my dean sent me a short email suggesting I not worry and instead wear (quietly) as a badge of honor.
The little contact I have had with the UNC newspaper, the Mirror, through student activities, has generally led to many misquotings and frustrations. However because it is a student run newspaper, which fosters student development and growth; I believe is a part of my role as a student affairs professional to work with these students whenever they want to report on what events UPC has coming up, even if it does mean I will end up being misquoted, dates will be published incorrectly or other mishaps occur. That being said, if something is misprinted, as student affairs professional, it would be beneficial for the newspaper staff to know about it so that they can learn from their mistakes. Does the Student Life Director, not believe that it is a part of his role to foster student growth?
ReplyDeleteKim M
I understand the hesitation to be interviewed in fear of being inaccurately represented or misquoted. I was interviewed by a student newspaper for an event I held and I attempted to be as clear as possible during the interview. The student reporter also received one of our fliers with all of the accurate event information. When the article came out, the information was wrong, information was missing, and the most important information about the event was omitted. It was frustrating because there is no fixing that. The individuals involved in the event did not get the credit they deserved and the information on a very important topic was not relayed to the student body. I can understand Posadas not wanting this type of thing to happen about an interview on such an important topic that most students will read (student activities budget).
ReplyDeleteOverall, Posadas handled this situation horribly. First of all, the disrespectful way students get treated sometimes by faculty and or staff is unacceptable. The student reporter was simply doing her job and trying to develop as a writer. There is never a reason to treat a student as Posadas did. Even if he was concerned about being misrepresented. I like Lori's idea about creating conditions for the interview (ability to review the article before print).
As for the excuse of Posadas being "too busy", could he have handled it in a more professional way and provided the student reporter an assistant or someone else who could competently give an interview on the topic?
I will never understand the reasoning for Posadas wanting to be paid for an interview for a student newspaper. This, too me, is pure arrogance.
This brings up an interesting point about what services we charge students for. In increased scrutiny of how we spend resources, maybe this will be a route more institutions go. I think the Dean was out of line to charge for a meeting with a student, but could we be in a situation where we begin to charge students for more resources that they use?
ReplyDeleteI know of institutions that charge students for having conduct hearings. I suppose the rationale here is something like, 'why should well-behaving students have to pay for the services that only the trouble makers use?' Perhaps they have a process where the fee is waved if they are not held responsible. Absolutely, this person was out of line, but is this something we'll see more in the future - charging students individually for using services rather than having it come out of a student services fee, auxiliary fee, or tuition?
I agree with the Director to not give an interview in person to the student newspaper. I've had several interviews a semester with them for events that CPE has planned, and my supervisor and I both request that students email us the questions rather than answering them over the phone. I've been misquoted in the newspaper before, and it's frustrating when we're talking about really important issues that our students put a lot of effort into planning. I understand that it's a learning opportunity for student reporters, but it's more important that our program and students are represented accurately. I can usually give more complete answers over email as well.
ReplyDeleteI do not condone the director asking for payment and being so difficult to work with; however, he has probably had some prior experience that has made him react this way to an interview, especially regarding budget. It doesn't take much for students or other university professionals to get fired up about money and the way it's being dispersed.
Usually, once a blog has more than 5 posts, I try to find something else on which to comment. However, in my past life, I was a student media advisor and this sort of situation happens much more than is appropriate.
ReplyDeleteWhen timely, news worthy events happen on campus, the students want to be able to get the scoop on the local, professional media. Of course! It’s their campus! If the events are bad marketing for the institution, such as a suicide/student death or pending lawsuit, the administrators can suggest the media, including students, contact the University Relations staff. If the event is good marketing, or just informational and neither good nor bad, the administration is the best source, even if the students do not always get the information accurate later. Typically, media policies would not allow the interviewer to review the story before it was distributed. And, if the administration forces that issue, there’s a great organization, called Student Press Law Center that would support the student media through the inevitable lawsuit.
The most important thing is: this is practice for the students who want to do this in the real world. The entire process, from choosing a story and setting up an interview to, to meeting a deadline and broadcasting the story, is a learning opportunity. The “face-to-face” interview is best because it provides students with the chance to learn hands-on flexibility and add follow up questions as the interview progresses. We would expect professional journalists to conduct themselves in this manner and yes, record the conversation for accuracy and ethical considerations. We all know email is devoid of non-verbal cues and intonations such as sarcasm do not translate well, therefore conducting an interview via email is very limited in the quality of communication it produces. Yes, the media posts inaccuracies and student media is no better. Yes, they get facts and quotes wrong. Not alerting them to this situation helps no one. They will not learn the error of their ways unless it is clearly indicated in constructive criticism. Just saying “well, they always get it wrong” and letting it go at that means we’re sending more people out into the world who think they are doing a quality job when maybe they could do better. Writing a letter to the editor or checking in with the advisor can help improve the paper’s fact checking process.
Sometimes, higher education professionals move up into positions of authority and have not had positive experiences with information sharing in general. I firmly believe administration and staff should be trained on university policies regarding how to handle media requests in a timely and polite manner, especially but not only when working with students. University polices regarding media communication should incorporate transparency and integrity, as these are also open records. The worst thing an institution can possibly do is stick it’s head in the sand and attempt to ignore the request. That’s when sentences such as “did not respond to phone messages seeking comment” stand in for actual quotes or explanations. If the students get the information wrong, it does not help them learn if they are not made aware.
Student Life Director Jorge Posadas just cost himself credibility with not only the student paper but educators in general.
I do not really understand the thought process behind the way this student life director responded to the interview request. If he decided it was in his, and the school's, best interest to not allow the interview, there had to have been better words to use to deny the request. Additionally, trying to back track by saying he was confused after being on vacation is a poor attempt to try to get out of what was actually said.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that it should not be an issue to begin with, as the way student fees are distributed should in fact be transparent. It seems as though this person should work for corporate America, instead of a higher education institution where he needs to interact with students. It is obvious he has no interest in doing so.
While I certainly don't know the reasons behind Posadas making the statement that he did and interacting the way he did with the student newspaper staff, I can certainly understand a staff member having some concern and anxiety about being asked to be interviewed for a student newspaper.
ReplyDeleteThe first three years or so at my current institution, we had a student run newspaper and I cannot count the number of times there were significant misquotes of members of my staff and other Student Services department staff members. There had long been a contentious relationship between the faculty member who served as the Advisor for the newspaper, and Administration, and that seemed to significantly impact the way he guided the student newspaper staff members.
The student newspaper has since ceased to exist and we have found other ways of spreading information...and everyone can breathe a little easier.