This year, The Huntington News was denied its annual spring interview with the president of the university. Summer, staff members were told, would be a better time, because President Joseph E. Aoun is too busy. In the summer, The News’ readership, circulation and the number of students on campus all drop. The News requested an interview with the president a month in advance of today’s issue.
In the past, The News has annually interviewed the president for roughly an hour about events that happened during the year. This time, staff members planned to ask Aoun about topics like the elimination of activities period and the new residence hall at the YMCA – stories students have heard about, but without any commentary from Aoun.
The News’ annual interview with the president is his opportunity to speak directly to students in a candid format, but now, an entire class of students will graduate without hearing what Northeastern’s leader has to say about the most important issues this year.
This isn’t the first time The News hasn’t been allowed to interview school administrators. The contentious reorganization of the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Criminal Justice led to three new colleges and three new deans, all of whom were prevented from giving The News interviews, even after The News requested interviews on a regular basis for three months. Instead, The Voice, a publication put out by Northeastern’s marketing and communications team, contained brief profiles of each.
For the better part of this academic year, The News has also been blocked from conducting interviews with staff members. For an article about fair-labor apparel in the bookstore, published Nov. 4, 2010, The News requested an interview with the bookstore’s manager. And the bookstore’s manager requested an interview with The News. Both requests were denied by a member of Northeastern’s public relations team. But at least a denial is a response. Requests for interviews have sometimes been ignored.
Usually, The News is forced to conduct interviews through a member of the public relations team. Reporters aren’t allowed to speak directly to staff members. Instead, they have to email questions, which a member of a PR team will ask staff member and the answers will come back in email form. No phone call, no face-to-face contact.
So is this communication breakdown calculated, or is it the product of ineptitude? Either way, it’s telling of an attitude that’s present here.
How important is it to be transparent with students who are gone in five years (four, if some administrators have their way)? Ten years later, the most students will remember is how much fun it was to party on Mission Hill when someone from the alumni office calls asking for a donation. Right? And so runs the university machine, churning out graduates kept vaguely oblivious to its intent, but well informed of its higher ranking.
The systematic disregard for The News, and for informing students of issues in an honest, timely manner is troubling at best. The News isn’t The New York Times, but it isn’t nothing, either. It’s the only student newspaper on campus, and it doesn’t deserve to be ignored by any member of the administration.
