Something else Marti said on that recording really struck me...
How does it help move student media forward when you're going to write everything I say from your point of view, and that's the way it's gonna be?
While the editors debated her on this point, I was truly ambivalent – in the classic definition of that word, meaning strong emotions both ways instead of no emotions either way.
In those few seconds of the back-and-forth, a dozen conflicting thoughts crossed my mind, several which troubled me...
• "It can't be easy to stand in front of a half-dozen hostile editors and talk about this stuff, with the tiny red light of a recorder always within your line of sight. Whatever differences you have with this woman, that takes guts."
• "But her The Post comment contradicts what she and Student Affairs have been saying for six weeks. She deserves tough questions."
• "Yeah, but this blog and the editor's have escalated things and made compromise impossible."
• "There wasn't going to be a compromise, anyway. At first, Student Affairs wouldn't even let you volunteer, or permit the students to meet with you off campus. Only by fighting loud and hard did FAU back down."
• "OK, if you're so right and righteous, then why do you feel so uncomfortable?"
TOMORROW: Why I feel so uncomfortable.
THE NUT GRAF
For 12 years, I advised the student newspaper at Florida Atlantic University. It was a part-time job but my full-time passion.
I was fired on May 18, 2010, and given three days' notice. I wasn't bitter about it. Just confused.
Student Affairs says it wants to "upgrade" the University Press by hiring a full-time adviser. But it hasn't announced when that will happen, other than to say "in the near future."
Now the UP has no adviser at all. So I volunteered to do it for free if the staff wanted me to. Their vote was unanimous.
Student Affairs has been less than enthusiastic. And that's the drama documented here...
I was fired on May 18, 2010, and given three days' notice. I wasn't bitter about it. Just confused.
Student Affairs says it wants to "upgrade" the University Press by hiring a full-time adviser. But it hasn't announced when that will happen, other than to say "in the near future."
Now the UP has no adviser at all. So I volunteered to do it for free if the staff wanted me to. Their vote was unanimous.
Student Affairs has been less than enthusiastic. And that's the drama documented here...
MULTI-SOURCING
- College Media Matters – CMM 10: Karla Bowsher, Editor in Chief, University Press
- SunSentinel – FAU Student Editor Keeps Job, Continues Critical Voice
- New Times – FAU to Newspaper Editor: You Can't Share Public Information
- SPLC – Former Adviser Will Be Allowed to Advise FAU Student Newspaper
- SunSentinel – Koretzky Can Continue His Voluntary University Press Advising, FAU Says
- Palm Beach Post – FAU Claims Misunderstanding over Newspaper Adviser Position
- FIRE – FAU President Stands up for Newspaper's First Amendment Rights
- UP – Unqualified
- Palm Beach Post – FAU Needs New Media Policy: Better Communication with Students Would Be a Start
- Canada Free Press – Yomin on the FAU Scandal
- College Media Matters – FAU vs. University Press: “An Increasingly Tense Feud”
- Palm Beach Post – Trouble with FAU Newspaper Program and Its Past Adviser Thickens
- FIRE – Florida Atlantic University Threatens Student Paper Over Advisor's Voluntary Service
- SPLC – SPJ, SPLC Voice Concern over FAU’s Attempts to Prevent Former Adviser’s Newspaper Involvement
- SunSentinel – FAU Responds to Journalism Group's Free Speech Complaint
- SunSentinel – Journalism Organization Critizes FAU over Adviser Flap
- SPJ – SPJ Urges FAU to Lift Threats against Student Press
- UP – Authority Issues
- The Alligator – Florida Atlantic University Firestorm
- YAF – FAU Fires Student Newspaper Advisor in Attempt to Censor Campus Free Speech – Again!
- WLRN – FAU Students Reluctant to Let Journalism Advisor Go
- SPLC – FAU Moves to Block Former Adviser from Helping Editors
- First Draft – Not One Step Backward
- New Times – FAU Threatens Student Newspaper Editor for Speaking With Fired Adviser
- SunSentinel – Student Newspaper Editor Says FAU Has Threatened to Discipline Her Over Adviser Flap
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Students Retain Fired Adviser as “Guest Speaker”
- College Media Matters – Former FAU Newspaper Adviser Now Volunteer
- Huffington Post – Florida Atlantic Students Rehire Fired Newspaper Adviser
- Romenesko link
- SunSentinel – FAU Adviser Fired, but Still Advising
- Michael Koretzky: Changing Times, Changing Lives
- SunSentinel – FAU Fires Newspaper Adviser, but Students Want Him to Stay
- UP – Owl Management blog
- SPLC – FAU Cites Desire to Improve Media as Reason for Firing Longtime Adviser
- New Times – Koretzky to FAU: I'll Work for Free. That a Problem?
- Posterous – Giving Thanks to Michael Koretzky
- New Times – FAU Fires Longtime UP Adviser