COMMENTARY: J Advice for new Prez

Guarding our Watchdogs

Frank LoMonte, director of the Student Press Law Center penned a terrific column on the Education Advice for the New President blog.

In the column, "Protect Student Journalism," LoMonte wrote that today's student journalists face more challenges and carry more responsibility.

"With professional journalism outlets slashing staff, the watchdog role of student journalists in holding our schools accountable for their performance is more important than ever," he wrote.

I've made a few emergency calls to SPLC while a staffer on the student newspaper The Campus Ledger. I wouldn't have been able to investigate and publish my 13-month investigative story on the allegations of sexual harassment against my college president, who immediately stepped down and retired when the story broke.

Student journalists give voice to the campus community and ensure public business takes place in public. Thank goodness there is an organization like SPLC that strives to ensure the rights and voices of student journalists.

Become a fan of SPLC on facebook here.

SUNSHINE WEEK: FERPA vs FOI

Walking on the Ledge:
FERPA FOLLIES

Margret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education, announces new brochures to help guide schools on disclosing student information. She made the announcement with Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary (left), and Carlos Gutierrez, Commerce Secretary (right), Oct. 31, 2008.

The battle over student information comes down to FERPA

The incident with the missing student and the e-mail assault that took place after got me thinking about FERPA, the Family Education Rights Privacy Act.

FERPA, or the Buckley Amendment, stands as one of the major points of contention between student media and college officials. Usually neither camp understands the finer points of FERPA that allows and promotes disclosing information.

Following the shootings at Virginia Tech last April, the Department of Education issued a guidance to college administrators that focuses on how to disclose information under FERPA. It supports the act's original provision that states:

“An educational agency or institution may disclose personally identifiable information from an education record to appropriate parties in connection with an emergency if knowledge of the information is necessary to protect the health or safety of the student or other individuals.”

In addition, campus police departments, like the one JCCC wants to establish, cannot withhold information under FERPA. According to the Student Press Law Center:

“FERPA mandates that schools cannot release a student's educational record without that student's consent, but a 1992 amendment to the law clarifies that records maintained and created by a ‘law enforcement unit’ of a college or university do not fall under FERPA's restrictions.”

While student journalists may now have some leverage in accessing information, they still face the misconception -- endorsed by administrators -- that they cannot publish it.

However, the College Media Advisers blog, Inside CMA, notes that FERPA disclosure restrictions do not apply to student media because they are not agents of the college.

“This issues comes up at least once a year on the listserv and has come up a million times in the gazillion law sessions I’ve done at CMA conventions. The Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (aka-Buckley Amendment) applies to 'colleges and universities' releasing information. Certainly at public schools, the courts have made it clear that would student editors make decisions, they are not 'government actors.' Thus, for FERPA purposes information released by a student media organization is not information released by the university.”

Student journalists often have trouble navigating the waters of campus journalism especially if an administrator dosen't know the law or intentionally cites a violation where none exists.

Yet, the responsibility does not rest entirely on administrators. If student journalists want to ride the rapids, they better master the essential policies, procedures and skills or else they'll find themselves up a creek without a paddle.

SUNSHSINE WEEK: Campus Crime

Campus Crime Information Vital in Keeping Students Safe

By Adam Goldstein

Universities receiving federal funding are presented with a fine line to walk when it comes to opening and providing their records. On the one hand, colleges have a mandate to protect student privacy; on the other hand, campus crime information must be made available to the student body. There is little room for error between these two obligations, because both are designed to protect the safety of students.

The obligation to disclose crime information was imposed to correct a tragic error of omission.

On April 5, 1986, Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered by a fellow student. Jeanne, a 19-year-old freshman at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, had her throat cut with a broken beer bottle and was strangled to death by an attacker who passed through three unlocked, propped-open doors to reach her.

Each of those doors could have been, and should have been, locked. But Jeanne, like many students at Lehigh, did not know that there had been reports of violent crime on the campus; they did not know that there were simple steps they could take to protect themselves.

It was with this in mind that the Campus Security Act, later renamed in honor of Jeanne Clery, was signed into law in 1990. The Clery Act requires all colleges receiving federal funds to maintain open daily crime logs, report annual crime statistics, and provide a "timely warning" to the campus when crimes present a serious or continuing threat to students and employees.

It is sad that the need to share campus crime information came at the cost of a young woman’s life. It is sadder still that some universities two decades later still had not learned from that tragedy.

On Dec. 15, 2006, Laura Dickinson’s body was found in her dorm room at Eastern Michigan University, where she had died four days earlier. The next day, the university issued a press release to the community informing students about the death and stating that there was "no reason to suspect foul play."

Ten weeks later, a suspect — a fellow student — was arrested and charged with homicide and criminal sexual misconduct in the death of Laura Dickinson. It was revealed that, at the time the press release was issued suggesting nothing violent about Laura's death, the University knew her body had been found naked with a pillowcase over her head.

In July 2007, the Department of Education found that Eastern Michigan University had failed to adhere to the provisions of the Clery Act. In fact, the report found — among other things — that in 2003, 2004 and 2005, the university had failed to properly disclose crime statistics, and the crime log had also been improperly maintained, in that Laura's death was not listed as a homicide within 48 hours of that information being known to the school.

"Not only did EMU fail to disclose information that would enable the campus community to make informed decisions and take necessary precautions to protect themselves, but it issued misleading statements from the outset, providing false reassurance that foul play was not suspected, and that it had no knowledge of an ongoing criminal/homicide investigation prior to the arrest of the suspect," the Department of Education report said.

The failure to correctly report crime statistics in prior years is especially sad, as it was the hope among those who championed the Clery Act that this information might have led Jeanne to take more precautions.

Had it been correct at Eastern Michigan, it might have led Laura to take more precautions, too.

The trial for the suspect in Laura Dickinson's death is ongoing, and Eastern Michigan University has been fined for its violation. The university has acknowledged its failure to maintain the provisions of the Clery Act, though it is appealing the amount of the fine later levied: $357,000.

No fine will bring Laura back, just as no law could bring Jeanne back. But it was the federal law passed in the aftermath of Jeanne's murder that was supposed protect Laura. And what lesson can we learn from the events before and after Laura’s death?

What we know is that, on some campuses, they have not learned the bloody lessons from an April night over two decades ago. And what we do not know is how many bodies it will take for those lessons to sink in.

Incidents like the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University have brought a renewed focus on the importance of campus security officers sharing information honestly and quickly after a tragedy begins. But we must not forget that the obligation — both legal and moral — to protect college students begins long before the first bullet is fired. It begins before the murder, before the rape, before the burglary; it begins even before the first-year student arrives on campus.

The obligation to protect college students begins with giving students honest and accurate information about the crime on campus so that the student can protect himself or herself.

And the institution that plays a public relations game with that information is putting its image above the lives of its students.

Goldstein is attorney advocate for the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va.

TIME OUT: Pimp My Writing

"Ninety percent of being a journalist is showing up."
- Mitch Gelman, Senior Vice President and Executive Producer, CNN.com

Here are a few of the topics from my presentation "Pimp My Writing" at The Campus Ledger's spring orientation.

The session covered:

• Can I ax you something? - Developing questions that are both word and hatchets
• Journalistic Bling - Style and Voice vs a hot mess
• That's tight -- literally - Writing tight and with a focus

I'll add a few notes from the discussion and the Q&A.

Below are some of the web links I mentioned in the presentation.

Websites:

• Ask the AP Style Editor
• Edit Teach
• News College
• Poynter
• News U
• No Train, No Gain

Handouts:

• Make Every Word Count
• Helping Reporters Improve Stories
• Covering Meetings
• Ten Tips for Better Cutlines
• Writing Must-Read Columns

Freedom of Information:

• Student Press Law Center letter generator
• JCCC Open Records policies

TIME OUT: Working the 12 Steps

This is part of my presentation covered at the KACP workshop "Handling the Big Story on Campus"

Reporting Scandals:

12 Steps for Covering Sensitive Stories on the Administration

1. Document everything - Keep a reporter's log narrating the obstacles and accomplishments in reporting the story. Its a safe way to express your the emotions and keep them out of the news story. Also reporters sometimes become the story. Use the log as a tool to show you did your homework. It is also helpful if you end up filing a grievance against an administrator who's attempting to stop publication of your article.
2. Notify SPLC ASAP - Avoid of Libel by using the Student Press Law Center. The SPLC site also contains a comprehensive report: "A Dozen Tips to Avoid Being Burned by a Hot Story," and a State Open Records Law Request Letter Generator. The letter generator helps students submit state open records requests by citing the statues of their state.
3. Memorize policy - Well, at least know what administrators are talking about when they invoke college policy. You have to know policy better than they do -- use it to your advantage.
4. Get the documents - Using official letters, Board of Trustees meeting packets, e-mails, etc. is critical to getting accurate details and protecting yourself against libel. Your notebook, recorded interviews, e-mail and even voice messages become essential documents. Take careful notes and hang on to your notebook and recorded interviews. Make copies of everything.
5. Allow time to get all sides - Be sure to contact every party for comment multiple time and in multiple ways. Allow a reasonable amount of time for them to respond. Plan ahead for breaking news: Get the cell numbers and home phone numbers of college spokespeople.
6. Don't let them call it "shabby journalism" - Accuracy is always important but even more so in sensitive stories. Even a small inaccuracy will cast doubt on the entire process. Don't give anyone a reason to dismiss the credibility of the article.
7. Name names - Because we are student journalists people will doubt the story's validity simply because we reported it. Not only do unnamed sources cast doubt on the reporter but officials can sidestep the issues raised in the article by focusing on identifying the unnamed sources.
8. Find the student - Regular stories about the administration are hard to make relevant to students. In this case it is essential to show how this scandal affects students' daily lives.
9. Avoid sensationalizing - Play it straight, let the facts of the scandal speak for themselves. Be able to rely on the newsworthiness of the story if anyone asks, "How could you print such a thing?"
10. Talk to your staff - When the time comes, explain that the paper is going to publish a big story that could have repercussions for the entire staff. Give them the option of not participating in that issue because they all have different reasons for being on staff. Not all of them signed up for this kind of stuff.
11. Be professional - Administrators will get in your face. People will start yelling at you or your staff. When complaints start rolling in, be professional. Don't let others think you take personal pleasure in the public embarrassment of others.
12. Follow up - Be sure to update your readers on the fallout and reaction. This also helps re-emphasize the newsworthiness of the story.

Miguel M. Morales, Johnson County Community College for the Kansas Associated Collegiate Press convention - April 16, 2007
Adapted from a handout by Amy Callahan, Northern Essex Community College

Sunshine Week: Sunflower Power!

The Student Press Law Center is writing a series of articles to celebrate Sunshine Week. The first article features my struggle reporting for The Campus Ledger at JCCC:

SUNSHINE WEEK: Student journalist fights for access at community college

Anonymous tip leads to big story, rejected open records requests

By Jared Taylor, SPLC staff writer
© 2007 Student Press Law Center

March 13, 2007

A citizen's right to know and journalists' rights to report are threatened every day, say the organizers of Sunshine Week, who planned the weeklong program to highlight freedom of information issues and emphasize the importance of open government. The Student Press Law Center is celebrating Sunshine Week with a series of reports on how student journalists can encourage open government and use open records to expand their journalistic horizons and let the sunshine in.

Student journalist Miguel Morales has reported stories that have rocked his community college’s foundations.

But after unearthing controversies by using open records requests and building trust with key whistleblowers, Morales said reporting on campus issues has only become tougher.

For the 39-year-old Morales, journalism was not his first pursuit in life. After spending about 10 years as a HIV outreach worker, Morales enrolled part-time at Johnson County Community College in Kansas in 2001 and set his sights on a career in journalism.

“Writing was the one thing I could always do,” he said.

In March 2005, Morales received an anonymous e-mail from someone who told him to examine attachments to the agenda of a recent board of trustees meeting. He did, but found nothing that seemed out of the ordinary.

Morales then received a tip and documentation from his anonymous source that documented that Charles Carlsen, the college’s president, had allegedly sexually harassed college administrator Teresa Lee since 2003. Lee alleged that Carlsen had touched her breast with his forearm and performed other acts that made her feel uncomfortable.

College officials had not responded to Lee’s complaints against Carlsen, the popular leader of a campus with a performing arts center that bears his name. Lee agreed to speak on the record for a story, understanding it could lead to her losing her job, Morales said.

While none of Lee’s coworkers could confirm her claims, Morales confronted Carlsen about the accusations. During an interview, he said that the president’s face said it all.

“He just turned red,” Morales said of Carlsen’s reaction when asked about the harassment allegations. Carlsen denied everything Lee alleged in the complaint.

Following the meeting with Carlsen, Mark Ferguson, the college’s attorney, confronted Morales about investigation, saying Lee’s accusations were not credible. “I felt he was intimidating me into not writing this story,” Morales said.

Despite the perceived threats, Morales continued to investigate and found another potential instance of unaddressed sexual harassment, which involved student employee Andrea Evans and her campus services department supervisors. After Evans shared documents she kept that detailed the harassment charges, Morales’ harassment story broadened.

After reporting for more than a year, The Campus Ledger published the results of Morales’ investigation on April 14, 2006. In two stories, he detailed the harassment claims involving the president and the campus services employees.

Less than a week later, Carlsen resigned from his post after 25 years as president. The college board of trustees launched an independent investigation into the matter. The campus services employees in the other alleged harassment case left the college.

“I have had two heart attacks, an angioplasty, and quintuple bypass surgery. It is apparent to me from the stress of the last two weeks that immediate retirement is the appropriate step to take,” Carlsen wrote in his resignation letter, dated Apr. 20, 2006.

After the stories were published, The Campus Ledger received another lead — this time from one of the former campus services managers. The former manager alleged that the college was improperly paying overtime to campus employees.

Along with reporter Kevin Mimms, the student journalists began looking into the matter, but because of the controversy surrounding Carlsen’s departure, administrators would tell little to Campus Ledger reporters, hesitant of further negative publicity, Morales said.

“It’s my story that’s not getting them the quotes that they need,” Morales said.

The two turned to using open records requests to get the information they needed — but found further road blocks.

“Denied left and right”

College officials declined open records requests for budget information that would show potential overtime violations because their letters were “poorly worded” and even criticized the reporters for using the Student Press Law Center’s state open records request letter generator, rather than authoring the open records letters themselves, Morales said.

“A request is a request whether it’s [from] a letter generator or if it’s written in crayon,” Morales said in an e-mail.

Morales recalled one instance where an administrator denied an open records request because “you’re going to write a story about it.”

“It got to the point last spring where they weren’t responding at all,” Morales said.

With an interim president still to be named and as the independent investigation into Lee’s alleged sexual harassment was scheduled to end in the June 2006, Morales and his staff asked the college’s publication board for permission to publish throughout the summer. The publication board approved the request, but it was soon overruled by the college board of trustees, which Morales said, “didn’t want to spend any more money” for a summer paper.

But Morales and Mimms would not let that stop them from chasing the story.

“We scraped up our money, found a printer and got donations from employees and students at the college, and published our own paper,” Morales said.

By July 2006, Morales and Mimms had reported in The Lexicon — the alternative paper they created — on the search for a new president and the results of the independent investigation confirming Carlsen’s harassment, which cost the college more than half a million dollars.

Today, Morales says many open records requests continue to be refused by administrators without clear reasoning, but he said the newspaper is “just collecting all our rejections” hoping to “integrate them into a story.”

“I think they just don't know what information citizens can request nor do they know what they can release,” Morales said. “So our information requests get denied as a precaution.”

Johnson County Community College spokeswoman Julie Haas said administrators understand which records are public under state law. She said the college has responded to every records request from Campus Ledger reporters.

“We responded to everything that I know of,” Haas said. “I want to know what it was that [Morales] perceives that we didn’t fulfill.”

While he has received some of the budget information requested, Morales said the data has been difficult to interpret.

“We asked for budget numbers. They’re not giving it to us electronically, they’re giving us [printed] spreadsheets,” Morales said. “It’s hard for us to manipulate the data.”

Morales would not clarify which documents or the sources of the data he is requesting for his ongoing investigation into alleged overtime violations, saying only that the college’s budget and documents related to it are a “treasure trove” of information.

“It didn’t really hit me”

Morales and The Campus Ledger staff’s efforts did not go unrecognized. At its convention held in August 2006, the Society of Professional Journalists awarded Morales and Campus Ledger staff with the First Amendment Award given to individuals and groups for efforts to preserve and strengthen the First Amendment for their harassment story.

Morales said when he found out about the honor, he did not understand the magnitude of the award. He said he was unsure if he should even make the drive to Chicago to accept the award, but his instructors told him that it was “a big deal and [he] should really go.”

Even though college administrators are now more hesitant when a Ledger reporter makes an inquiry, Morales said he “wouldn’t do anything different” in his reporting of the harassment story. He said it is best to get to know the people in campus offices and use formal open records requests as a last resort.

“Be nice — know where document is,” Morales said. “Don't just slap the letter down on [the administrator’s] desk.”

Morales said he plans on graduating from Johnson County Community College at the end of the summer, and wants to complete his degree at the University of Kansas. Eventually, he said he would like to return to Johnson County Community College to teach journalism.

For Morales, whose name means “morals” in Spanish, he said he believes he “finally found my calling” in journalism.

“I let my ethics and integrity guide me,” he said.

Mr. Morales Goes to Washington

I've been accepted into the National Press Foundation's An Introduction to Washington for College Journalists program Jan 25-28. I'm eager to learn how to better link national issues to my campus and local area.

Last October, I attended the NFP's Opening Washington's File Cabinet session at the ACP conference in St. Louis. I had heard about that session and knew it was only open to professionals. So when I heard they were adapting it for students, I jumped at the chance.

Now for this program, we're supposed to visit the Pentagon. I don't think I'll get the security clearance since I have an arrest for Civil Disobedience from a protest I attended at the White House a few years back.

I'm not much for sightseeing. However, I want to visit the Newseum and the Student Press Law Center. I should try to take advantage of the visit and grab a few interviews for a few freelance articles or content for The Lexicon.

BREAKING NEWS: SPLC's NewsFlash

The Lexicon, The Ledger and Johnson County Community College make headlines -- again.

BREAKING NEWS: Good Friday

On April 11, I did what most editors in chief never get to do – I stopped the presses.

My 13-month investigation concerning allegations of sexual harassment against my college’s president by a female employee came to a head.

The college’s Board of Trustees met twice in six days in closed-door sessions. While the local media started digging, I accommodated each new twist. However, knowing other media may break the story, I stopped the presses asking the staff to use the next 24 hours to ensure our story package would be superior.

“They might scoop us, but they can’t tell the story -- we can,” I thought. “I have the sources, the documents, and the best support team allowing me to frame the story -- not just report it.”

I’ve learned so much about investigative reporting from this enterprise – things they don’t teach in a classroom. I promise to break down my process into steps soon. Perhaps my insight will help other student journalists.

Now, I’m learning how to manage the aftermath of having scooped every media organization in the city. Reporters want me as their source. They want my year-long research and access to my sources. Most importantly, I'm trying to learn how not to become the story.

That last one is the hardest because I still have to report the result of these allegations, attend class, work my other job, and manage with my freelance responsibilities.

This was indeed, a good Friday.

COMMENTARY: Mano-a-Mano

Lately, I’ve been feeling under the boot of “the man” even though sometimes it’s a woman.

We had this giant meeting with the president of the college, the vice-president of student services, the director of student life, our regular two print journalism instructors, adviser and staff.

It was supposed to be our regular staff meeting where we discuss the status of our current issue, address problems, planning the next issue, etc. However with the smell of bacon in the room and not wanting to grant prior review, we decided to turn the floor over to our visitors.

The nodding heads stayed quiet except to say they support our efforts and hoped we’d make an effort to get both sides of the story. President Carlsen made thinly veiled references to my columns, the nodding heads supported. He asked me straight out if the administration ever censored our newspaper. I told him no one has ever prevented us from printing stories. However, people censor us by not consenting to interviews, not responding to phone calls and e-mail requests and generally dragging their feet until publication day comes and goes. He raised his hand and waved me off.

I asked him with the Hosty v. Carter controversy, if he would sign a document saying he would never censor our paper. He said that he’d sign it in a minute. Like he’d refuse to sign in front of administrators and student journalists – one of which recorded the meeting.

Our editor in chief also hammered the point that opinions are not news stories. He also told them they could write a letter to the editor or guest column citing their concerns.

The bravest of the head nodders and a man I have learned to respect sent us a column the next day.