Collegian file graphic.
THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN | FALL 2024 EDITORIAL BOARD
The Butler Collegian has provided quality journalism produced by students, for students and the broader campus community since its founding in 1886. In the 139 years since that founding, we have continued to hold fast our values of integrity, transparency and accountability as the paper of record on Butler’s campus.
These values are dependent on our continued independence and autonomy, rights which have recently been threatened by Butler’s administration and have led us to address our readers and supporters to channel support for our continued independence and journalistic freedoms.
Our current positioning of funding and infrastructure houses the Collegian as a student-run journalism outlet within the College of Communications (CCOM), funded by the Provost’s office budget which provides us with operational funding to pay wages for our staff and publish our weekly print issue of the paper for distribution across campus and to subscribers.
Our editors have maintained ongoing concerns regarding this financial dependence on CCOM leadership for lack of transparency regarding budget decisions, but these concerns have come to a head in recent conversations with CCOM leadership, Butler Human Resources (HR) and input from Butler’s General Counsel.
Editors recently sought to address an internal ethical breach that resulted in the termination of a reporter in accordance with our own handbook policies. Butler HR, General Counsel and CCOM leadership stepped in last week to inform us that due to our status as student employees of the university, employment decisions — including hiring and termination — must be coordinated and approved through the channels and investigations of their offices.
In accordance with those procedures, HR asserted that the Collegian should be held to the university’s non-disparagement clause regarding public statements about Butler employees who have been terminated. This means that they believe the Collegian’s published work should protect the reputation and identity of individuals terminated.
These assertions were not only novel to editors both present and past, but present significant conflicts of interest to our editorial independence and supervisory authority as a self-governing organization. Such policies would remove employment protection for editors from removal and retaliation as well as remove the capacity to enforce Collegian Staff Handbook policies in disciplinary matters concerning staff — not to mention the editorial implications of the university’s HR and Legal departments dictating content published in the Collegian.
We have already experienced these implications in that we have had to collectively self-censor our content, with regard to the information provided in the retraction published today, Sept. 25. Moreover, we have witnessed the overreach of CCOM leadership in their past removal of a former editor, a decision that was made executively and without consulting the Collegian leadership team, which directly contradicts the Collegian Staff Handbook procedures.
It has been made clear to us that the interests, ethics and standards of Butler HR and General Counsel are not aligned with our own, and maintain no priority in protecting student press freedom or journalistic independence. The Collegian seeks to uphold industry standard values of maintaining transparency, providing accountability and reporting truth.
In our past coverage, we have reported on subjects of importance to our campus community such as alleged sexual misconduct by a Butler Athletics employee, lack of institutional equity regarding ADA compliance and criminal charges of child sexual abuse material possession against a former faculty member. All of these stories were reported in the pursuit of quality journalism that brings light to crucial and relevant matters that directly affect our readers — not in defense of the university’s interests or reputation. Ultimately, this illustrates the inherent conflict between our mission and the goals of the university administration, distinguishing the rigorous ethics that journalists must be uniquely held to.
Given HR’s years of absence in neglecting to inform Collegian editors and faculty advisors of the policies that editors are now expected to comply with, as well as continued communication in which they have indicated that they will not honor or uphold Collegian Staff Handbook standards in favor of prioritizing Employee Handbook policies that protect the interests of the university, our editorial board views this overreach as a significant threat to our journalistic freedoms.
We plan to continue to publicly and privately advocate for our own autonomy on campus in continued conversations with the administrative bodies that govern us.
Throughout this process, we would like to call upon our readers who believe in the importance of student press freedom for vocal solidarity with the Collegian, through continued advocacy and support of our journalism on campus. We will continue to fight for our journalistic freedoms, and implore the Butler community to do the same.
— The Butler Collegian Fall 2024 Editorial Board
