The Daily Campus

Can UConn say FIRST AMENDMENT?

You should check your facts before you publish a story - It's the DIVISION of Student Affairs.

The purpose of the Daily Campus is, among other things, to provide accurate and relevant news to the University of Connecticut student body. Seeing as the Daily Campus has failed at this several times this semester, the Division of Student Affairs is simply trying to help you do your job.

Earlier this semester, you incorrectly reported that President Hogan was not advocating forcefully enough for students (9/5/08) when the reality is our rescission has been lighter than any other state institution's.

The UConn foundation only lost 17 million in their endowment, and was nowhere near 400 million, as stated in a news article dated 9/25/08.

The Daily Campus also incorrectly reported on 9/29/08 that the student:faculty ratio was on a "negative trend in recent years," when, in fact, the ratio has been improving over the last several year and this year is the only one in recent memory where the ratio has increased.

If you're going to report news, report it correctly. You have a responsibility to the students here. Student Affairs is asking you to speak with Karen Grava to assure that what you print is correct and does not mislead students.


And as far as the Quinnipiac comparison goes, their University officials did all of the following to censor free speech:

Forcing the newspaper to contact all university staffers through the school's public affairs office; asserting control over the selection of incoming editors; discouraging Chronicle staffers from attending public events at which university administrators spoke so that the events wouldn't become "a press conference to the world"; threatening the newspaper's editor in chief after he criticized various administrative limitations; and restricting editors from posting breaking news online prior to the paper's print edition. (Collegemediamatters.com)

As far as I know, the University wants you to speak with the University Spokesperson to verify the accuracy of your facts; not to tell you what to write. Other than that, UConn is nowhere near that level of repression.

Please do your research and try to contact someone with the University to be sure that what you're printing is accurate. This is not an attempt to stifle free speech, but rather a helping hand to do a service to students.

To "R"

Perhaps the greater problem with this policy is the control of information. UConn is a public institution, and as such its administrators and staff should be able to speak publicly to the media. This policy is meant to control the University's image. The image would not need controlling if everything was being done on the up and up, but sending all public comments through Ms. Grava suggests otherwise. It is the media's job to see through images and spin (something that, in my mind, is synonymous with a spokesperson) and provide an accurate representation of the truth to the public. This policy ensures two things: 1. That the only thing that, from here on out, that will be publicly commented on is something that falls in line with Ms. Grava's talking points and, 2. That the Daily Campus, Hartford Courant and other news sources will now be rife with "anonymous sources" who believe in the right thing but cannot afford to put their jobs in jeopardy,

I am not a Daily Campus employee and I have never been. Funny how many DSAers like to comment on DC stories. Is Karen Grava out there in comment-world? Or are you violating the policy already?

I agree with "R" -- this is nothing like Quinnipiac. And, having a media office through which all inquiries are channeled is STANDARD at any large organization. It does not prohibit the media from speaking with administrators and in no way does it censor what they print. All it does is try to give inquiring parties access to someone who knows the correct person or office to contact about a question or issue so the inquiring party doesn't waste her or his time or that of others.

Once more the DC has gotten the facts wrong. There is no threat to free speech here and there is no violation of Freedom of Information Act -- not even a threat of a violation! (FOIA has to do with requesting documents from public agencies.) Once more, the DC editors and writers have completely failed to check their facts and do the background work that any decent journalist would do. My kid's high school paper does a better job in fact-checking and getting the stories right than these college wannabe journalists.

I also find it very disturbing that Kate King used such a misleading leader in her front-page story on this, which implies that the Student Affairs policy is one that applies to all administrators and UConn offices. It's not -- she knows that and so do the editors who are responsible for printing this. They know this because they call offices throughout the university all the time and speak to directly to administrators. You should all be ashamed of yourselves and should resign now for such egregious and ongoing violations of journalistic integrity and ethics.

Finally, am I the only one who thinks that it is odd that Prof. Croteau thinks it's perfectly OK to give students assignments that are a nuisance to administrators? How in the world is this necessary for a course in quality journalism? Maybe it's time for us to start spamming Prof. Croteau with calls and e-mails asking her for an interview to explain this ridiculous off-loading of her teaching effort to others.

David, having had to more on the "sudden death" assignment, I can tell you it is vitally important to students who aim to become professional journalists. The assignment is designed to force students to think on their feet while also reporting and writing a story in a timely manner. Sometimes you don't have a full day to write a story in the professional world. Sometimes you need to write a story within a matter of an hour or less and you need to be prepared for that. I think it's not a case of Prof. Croteau "off-loading" her "teaching effort to others."
I also think the policy is misguided. While a professional journalist might more time to wait for an interview to be set up and conducted, student journalists have smaller windows due to classes, homework, etc. And to funnel all this through one person seems as though it could create a log jam. All this policy does is add more red tape.

Dear UConn journalism alum,

I do not understand your logic. If we are training students to become "professional journalists" instead of "student journalists," then why in the world would we give them assignments that only pertain to being "student journalists"? (You say that professional journalists take time to set up appropriate interviews.) Of course, journalists need write quickly and think on their feet, but does that mean they have to start calling several administrators every time Prof. Crotreau gives a sudden-death assignment? Can't she put some parameters on this so that she doesn't have to so dramatically interrupt our operations?

This is what is happening -- I am an administrative assistant and when she does this, we can get flooded with dozens and dozens of requests in the space of 15 minutes and it goes on for two hours. I don't have time to do my job (which entails helping students in personal crisis, by the way) when I have to deal with this.

What her students do as soon as she give the two-hour signal, is to start calling every administrative office in our unit in hopes of landing one interview. Do the math -- multiply by the number of students and the number of offices and you'll see what an incredible burden this is on the administrative staff. It's fine if it's one student (or one reporter), but we are putting other students in jeopardy when dozens of students flood us and call all over the place frantically to make her deadline over and over again (they call us about every five minutes).

It is a thoughtless imposition on other people by Prof. Croteau. Student Affairs (which is the major recipient when this exercise is given) had to do something so that we could continue to do our job -- help our students. Asking Ms. Grava -- who is very competent -- to coordinate this is an attempt to try to facilitate the class (by the way, in a very "real-world" way -- journalists must frequently work through a media office), while letting us do our job, seems the only viable solution. You may not like it, but the University can't stop everything for Prof. Croteau and a few dozen students.

I find it interesting that if this is such a great exercise, the Daily Campus has such poor reporting -- Prof. Croteau is one of their advisers. It seems that what she is encouraging is sloppy journalism, lack of fact-checking and research. It's evident over-and-over again in the inaccurate reporting of the Daily Cmpus writers.

Prof. Croteau is the one that created this problem and for the Daily Campus to blame the administration under her watch is reprehensible -- to inaccurately accuse the administration of violating First Amendment Rights and Freedom of Information Act is a clear demonstration of the incompetence of the writers, and perhaps more accurately, their adviser.

UConn's policy is not nearly as bad as it seems to some, but it's still bad. It only covers administrators in the division of student affairs, so journalists should still have unfettered access to academics. Still, the policy is misguided. While Grava can be a useful tool for journalists, having her contact department heads first allows her provide a department head with sterile university talking points. She can stand between a journalist and the unfiltered facts or opinions.
This policy however does not nearly compare with Quinnipiac University's shameful censorship and petty, retributive actions toward the now former staff of their university's paper.
Also, I hardly feel the "sudden death" assignment, which occurs on one day, once a semester with classes of about 20 students at a time presents a real hardship to any faculty or administrative assistants. In fact, the assignment more closely mirrors what a real reporter working for a daily newspapers goes through everyday.
Unfortunately student journalists, all journalists, at times make mistakes. This policy won't help that. Only sound, thoughtful reporting and editing will.