Tag Archives: E. W. Scripps School

For stakeholders of Ohio’s Scripps School, it’s time to take sides

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Update (3/30/10): Late yesterday afternoon, Ohio University President Roderick McDavis said he will accept the recommendation of the ad hoc committee of the faculty senate and recommended that Bill Reader be granted tenure and promotion at Ohio University.

Here is the latest from Inside Higher Ed

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If you’re among the PR professionals drawn to Grunig’s symmetrical model, you tend to shy from conflict. You’d prefer that organizations and key publics adapt to one another, that they live in accord.

But real life doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes you gotta fight.

At the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University (my alma mater), they’re waging an ugly war over the denial of tenure to Professor Bill Reader. I wrote about it on Groundhog Day, and just like in the movie, the story has returned for another unsettling visit. Continue reading →

Can PR fix the scandal at Scripps? I doubt it

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Update: Seems that U.S. News reporter Jeff Greer has published a blog post (at the U.S. News site) about the Scripps/Reader dust-up. I suppose this raises the PR stakes a bit, since the story now has a broader potential audience. Unfortunately, the reporter relies entirely on the Ohio University Post (the student newspaper) for his information. In that sense, it’s pretty shoddy journalism. But then again, my own post here also relies on secondary sources. So I’d best not throw stones.

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If you don’t live and work in academe, the scandal brewing at Ohio University’s E. W. Scripps School is inside baseball. And because it centers on universities granting lifetime job security (aka, tenure), it’s sure to piss people off even more. No one likes tenure except for those of us who have it.

Background. Last semester, the powers that be at Scripps recommended denying tenure to Bill Reader, a faculty member since 2002. The s#&* has now hit the fan, and the pro- and anti-Reader forces have gone to war.

As always, there are two sided to every story. If you want details, check the account in Inside Higher Ed. For the lazy among us, here’s my summary: Continue reading →