MARQUETTE, MI-- The North Wind Board of Directors has decided not to rehire the newspaper’s faculty advisor, and a national group is calling for a reversal of that decision.
In a meeting April 3 the board voted not to reappoint Cheryl Reed as advisor in the coming school year, and also denied the application of current managing editor Michael Williams for the editor-in-chief post.
Reed believes the move is in retaliation for her defense of the North Wind’s coverage of stories that put the university in an unfavorable light.
Now the Society of Professional Journalists is asking board members to reconsider their decision. The SPJ says the board violated First Amendment principles in dismissing Reed and rejecting Williams because it made clear it disagreed with the editorial direction of the paper.
Reed says she doesn’t think it’s a coincidence the board’s vote came only eight days after the chair of Northern’s Board of Trustees send a campus-wide email reacting negatively to a North Wind report on trustees’ travel expenses.
SPJ National President Dana Neuts says boards that oversee student media must avoid censorship or pre-publication interference. She says schools “should give advisers the freedom to teach students about good, ethical journalism without fear of retribution if something less than positive is published about the institution.”
The SPJ is also calling on NMU’s administration to review the North Wind Board of Directors bylaws to make sure they adhere to free press principles.
