2008 Woodie Awards
MSSU policy on media relations sparks concern
Jeremy Johnson
Issue date: 7/24/08 Section: Campus Life
Both Speck and Smith stress that the university is not "trying to say that faculty and staff can't talk to the media," and that exceptions are made for news topics that deal with professors' areas of specialization.
"If the policy were rigidly followed, we would have to make lots of exceptions," Smith said. "If a representative from the media wanted to ask a professor his or her opinion on U.S. policy in the Middle East, then that's fine, because that doesn't fall within the university's official stance. We just like to know ahead of time if the news media are reporting on MSSU."
In addition to wanting to keep official university stances consistent, officials have cited safety as another concern that spurred the policy. In an e-mail sent to faculty and staff at MSSU, Speck mentioned the importance of "representatives of the media, who may be carrying large bags with equipment or large camera equipment, to have appropriate identification" for security reasons.
"After the incident at Virginia Tech, there has been a slight feeling related to security, and we want to make sure the campus remains as safe as possible," said Smith.
Adam Goldstein, an attorney advocate at the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., says the policy is legal, but questionable.
"If the university were putting a policy in place in reaction to a negative story that came out about them, or as punishment to professors or media, then that would constitute censorship, which is against the law for a university to do," Goldstein said. "However, if they are enacting the policy to monitor what faculty say, then that's fine, but seems like a strange thing for a university to do."
Goldstein agrees that a university has the right to make sure the positions of faculty who speak to the media about an issue are not mistaken for the university's official position, but he says that a policy requiring faculty to refer media representatives to the PR office first in order to give a "unified" university position was a little out of line.
"If the policy were rigidly followed, we would have to make lots of exceptions," Smith said. "If a representative from the media wanted to ask a professor his or her opinion on U.S. policy in the Middle East, then that's fine, because that doesn't fall within the university's official stance. We just like to know ahead of time if the news media are reporting on MSSU."
In addition to wanting to keep official university stances consistent, officials have cited safety as another concern that spurred the policy. In an e-mail sent to faculty and staff at MSSU, Speck mentioned the importance of "representatives of the media, who may be carrying large bags with equipment or large camera equipment, to have appropriate identification" for security reasons.
"After the incident at Virginia Tech, there has been a slight feeling related to security, and we want to make sure the campus remains as safe as possible," said Smith.
Adam Goldstein, an attorney advocate at the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., says the policy is legal, but questionable.
"If the university were putting a policy in place in reaction to a negative story that came out about them, or as punishment to professors or media, then that would constitute censorship, which is against the law for a university to do," Goldstein said. "However, if they are enacting the policy to monitor what faculty say, then that's fine, but seems like a strange thing for a university to do."
Goldstein agrees that a university has the right to make sure the positions of faculty who speak to the media about an issue are not mistaken for the university's official position, but he says that a policy requiring faculty to refer media representatives to the PR office first in order to give a "unified" university position was a little out of line.
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