Those leaders retaliated by trying to shut down the paper. Student Affairs saved us:
The assistant dean forced SG to unfreeze the UP's budget and pay the staff its weekly wages. The dean stopped SG from trying to change the locks on the newsroom door. And the vice president interrupted SG's plan to fire me – and fine me $6,000 on my way out the door.
That Student Affairs crew won something called "The John R. Emens National Award for Support of a Free Student Press," awarded by Ball State University. The assistant dean actually flew to Muncie, Indiana, to pick up the plaque at an awards banquet.
Five years later, a new Student Affairs team has fired me, and a new SG team is defending me.
"The way Student Affairs handled this was wrong," student body president Ayden Maher declared at Friday's SG House of Representatives meeting. Maher said it "sucked" that I was only given three days' notice, and it was "unjust" that Student Affairs didn't ask any students – either at the UP or in SG – what they wanted in a "restructured" student media department.
"No longer will Student Affairs be able to make these decisions without student input," Maher said. "I promise you that."
Strong words for a student body president. Usually, SBPs just genuflect before Student Affairs because they want a glowing letter of recommendation at the end of their terms.
Of course, Maher isn't going to fight to get my job back. Which is fine. His tough words are meaningful enough given his predecessors' track record of blind obedience. And if you believe Maher, he has done more than just talk.
Maher said he met for three hours with student media director Marti Harvey last week, and he made two announcements that Marti has not told the UP editors nor myself...
1. About the crappy salary Marti originally proposed for the new full-time adviser: "We're going to pay them more. We're upgrading to $45,000. No more $33,000 to $35,000. We want someone good."
2. About my status next week and in the future: "Koretzky's not getting arrested, I promise you that. I promise you Marti and I have talked about letting Koretzky come back in to give seminars and workshops. I will gladly sign off on the forms."
From the mouth of babes.
TOMORROW: Why is all this happening now? An intriguing theory.
1. About the crappy salary Marti originally proposed for the new full-time adviser: "We're going to pay them more. We're upgrading to $45,000. No more $33,000 to $35,000. We want someone good."
2. About my status next week and in the future: "Koretzky's not getting arrested, I promise you that. I promise you Marti and I have talked about letting Koretzky come back in to give seminars and workshops. I will gladly sign off on the forms."
From the mouth of babes.
TOMORROW: Why is all this happening now? An intriguing theory.
