Today's top story is an interview between Spectrum Editor in Chief Matthew Parrino and UB President Satish K. Tripathi. That interview was originally scheduled between Tripathi and me.
But after I wrote a series of articles – about, among other things, an "inaccurate" SUNY rule that Tripathi didn't follow – about three weeks ago, university spokesman John Della Contrada canceled our interview. (There is new information about the SUNY-Tripathi situation. Keep reading, and see also the Parrino-Tripathi interview.)
Della Contrada then told Parrino (not me) that he didn't want me to do the interview because he had just discovered that I am no longer a student at UB.
That's no big secret or scandal.
I graduated from UB last spring, after two years at The Spectrum. This year is my third. I am not the first person to work here while not attending UB, and I probably won't be the last. There is nothing in The Spectrum's bylaws that bars me, or anyone else, from working here. We are an independent publication. And we haven't tried to hide my non-student status. Under my section of the "Meet the Staff" portion of our website (updated over winter break), I wrote:
"Due to a staffing emergency, Editor in Chief Matthew Parrino asked me to return as senior news editor in the fall of 2011, while I wait to hear back from graduate schools. Though I am not a student at UB any longer, I still strive in my reporting to represent the student body as if I were still a part of it."
I've applied to graduate journalism programs, and while I await their decisions, it makes sense for me to continue working and gaining experience at one of the most legitimate print news sources in the Buffalo area (and the only one that happened to be hiring). I, like some other top editors at the paper, am paid modestly for my efforts.
I joined this newspaper in the fall of 2009. Since then, at least three of my colleagues (there may be more I'm not aware of), including a former managing editor, worked here while not enrolled in classes at UB.
I graduated from high school the same year (2007) as current Senior Managing Editor James Twigg, Editorial Editor James Bowe, and Sports Editor Nathaniel Smith. I am over six years younger than Parrino, who was allowed to interview Tripathi. Both Twigg and Parrino joined the paper the year before I did.
It's not like I've been at The Spectrum for seven years, Van Wilder-style, and it's not like I returned to The Spectrum after 10 years and multiple Pulitzer Prizes at The New York Times. But even if that were the case, what would be the problem?
I may not be a student at UB, but as the senior news editor at The Spectrum, it is my job to represent the students at UB. Just like it would be my job to represent the citizens of Kalamazoo, Mich., where I have never been, if I were hired to cover city council meetings for the Kalamazoo Gazette.
I suspect that Della Contrada was disingenuous when he said the reason I couldn't interview Tripathi was because I'm not a student.
With all due respect to Parrino, who did a great job and asked Tripathi tough questions, I have been reporting since October on many of the issues he asked about. It took me countless hours of research, interviews, rough drafts, and rewrites to publish those pieces. Parrino has an entire newspaper to run. He was always involved and a great help to me while I worked on the articles, but I was the only one actually working on them.
We both regret that I was not allowed in the interview, and we agree that I would have been most prepared to engage Tripathi in conversation about what I've reported. What if I had enrolled in an arbitrary course, like Racquetball, at the beginning of this semester? How would that make me more qualified to speak to Tripathi? Or would there be another reason to keep me out?
I also regret that, from the outside, this whole thing may seem like it's gotten personal. I assure you that it hasn't. I respect that Della Contrada has a job to do. His job – representing UB to the media in the most positive way possible – sometimes becomes at odds with an aspect of my job – reporting on issues that may paint UB in a negative light.
In spite of that, my exchanges with Della Contrada have always been civil and professional. They often are even easy-going, routine, and friendly. Usually, he provides the university's stance on an issue I'm reporting on – a simple quote, or a piece of information to supplement my piece.
But when I reported that Tripathi did not abide by a SUNY document that says he needed permission from a state ethics commission before he joined the not-for-profit Buffalo Niagara Partnership's board of directors, and Della Contrada called the document "inaccurate," I felt the best way to allow readers to understand the issue was to report what actually happened – a back-and-forth between Della Contrada and me, with me asking a question, him answering it, me asking him to clarify, and so on.
That may have made it seem like the whole thing was a personal battle between the two of us. I hope no one took it that way. It was two men doing their jobs, and nothing more.
And I'm happy to report that Della Contrada was correct about that issue. The Spectrum obtained a copy of a Tuesday letter from SUNY Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Curtis Lloyd to James Jarvis of SUNY's Office of General Counsel. It reads, in part:
"The statement [in the SUNY Presidential Terms of Employment document] indicates that presidents must get approval from the Chancellor and Commission on Public Integrity in order to serve on non-profit boards. The statement is inconsistent with the Public Officer Law and should not be interpreted as SUNY Policy. Presidents do not need approval from the Chancellor or the Commission on Public Integrity (now JCOPE) to serve on a non-profit board…The statement will be corrected."
I'm not after Tripathi. It's not like I'm disappointed that, after all, he is allowed on the Partnership's board of directors. If anything, I'm glad I helped point out a bureaucratic flaw in an important SUNY document, which people interpreted as SUNY policy.
Here's the bottom line. I've committed no crime and no violation of journalistic ethics, university rules, or Spectrum bylaws. Della Contrada said he thought I had been representing myself as a student. I wasn't. I've been representing myself as a Spectrum reporter, because that's what I am. And The Spectrum should have the right to schedule an interview and choose which reporter(s) to send to the interview. Parrino and I are in the process of scheduling a meeting that Della Contrada proposed between the three of us to talk about these issues, and I am looking forward to it.
Della Contrada also thinks The Spectrum's positions should be filled exclusively by students (99 percent already are), partly because it gives students the opportunity to learn and develop their journalistic skills. Many of you probably don't know that a large part of my job involves teaching the news desk's staff writers, who join through enrolling in an English class, about journalism and writing.
But though I take pride in passing the knowledge I've gained to others, let me be the first to admit: I have much to learn. Almost every day at The Spectrum, I learn something new, shake off a bad habit, or struggle through a situation I've never dealt with before. Though I'm not enrolled at UB, I am still a student of journalism; after all, I do hope to be in graduate school in the fall.
And I've definitely learned a lot in the past few weeks; that's for sure.
Email: luke.hammill@ubspectrum.com
