Blade Article of Interest (Excerpt)

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Article published January 02, 2011
Ties between The Blade, UT should be disclosed

Andrew Jorgensen, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Toledo, is unhappy with the newspaper's Dec. 20 story about ongoing clashes between the faculty and UT President Lloyd Jacobs, primarily over reorganization efforts at the school.

Essentially, President Jacobs is reforming the College of Arts and Sciences into three new, smaller colleges. Many of the faculty aren't happy about that, and are less happy with what they feel is the high-handed way in which he went about it.

"The article did not present a fair, balanced, and appropriately-researched story," said Mr. Jorgensen, a former president of the academic senate. He then lists a number of problems he had with the story. He thought the story wasn't tough enough on President Jacobs, and didn't devote enough space to concerns from groups such as the faculty senate and the arts and sciences council.

The professor had other concerns too, some of them clearly niggling, some not. He would have liked more space given to items such as a resolution passed by the faculty senate, for example.

So, was he right?

Your ombudsman has been a faculty member at Wayne State University for many years, and knows that faculty members and university presidents rarely are completely happy with each other.

As a longtime journalist, I also knows it is somewhere between hard and impossible to write a story about conflicts at a university that would satisfy everyone. I also know that if the newspaper included every detail about internal bureaucratic infighting over what are, essentially, organizational changes, it would put readers to sleep.

But was this story fair?

Having studied it in detail, my conclusion is that writer Christopher Kirkpatrick actually did a fairly balanced job -- though I have a few niggles of my own.

I don't agree with Mr. Jorgenson's apparent perception that the story wasn't tough enough on President Jacobs.

The fourth paragraph had one longtime professor calling the university's leader "a petty tyrant." Other academic voices indicated dismay at which the changes were rammed though in an arrogant, high-handed way that really didn't make them feel part of them.

The story wasn't perfect, however.

The front-page headline "Judge's ruling rekindles fight over reorganization at UT," was misleading. Three days later, the newspaper did publish a correction, noting that the lawsuit, which the faculty union filed to try and block the reorganization, did not "rekindle a fight." The suit had in fact been filed months ago, and a judge had ruled in favor of the university, meaning President Jacobs' reorganization efforts, before the story went to press. The headline on the online edition, "UT president and faculty at odds over academics," is much more accurate.

Professor Jorgenson did raise one concern involving an apparent conflict of interest involving The Blade. "Blade President (and General Manager) Joseph H. Zerbey IV sits on the UT Board of Trustees and is, in fact, chair of the Academic and Student Affairs Committee … this fact should have been disclosed in the article."

The ombudsman agrees with the professor. When asked, Mr. Kirkpatrick, the staff writer who wrote the story, said his reporting indicated "Mr. Zerbey did not factor into it and did not come up with the changes, [President] Jacobs did."

In any event the story ought to have mentioned the relationship, and the reporter, in my view, should have asked Mr. Zerbey for a comment and included it in this story.

The controversy over the academic reorganization is unlikely to end any time soon.

Dave Murray, Blade managing editor, says the newspaper will continue to cover the story, and that he has asked Mr. Kirkpatrick to seek additional comment from faculty members.