Butler University’s decision to replace one of its student newspaper’s advisors with a University spokesperson brought upon an immense backlash from media experts before the University decided to assign the temporary position to the director of its journalism school.

The former advisor for the Butler Collegian, Loni McKown, learned she had been fired from the position she held for five years on Sept. 4. University spokesman Marc Allan would then replace her just four days later.

On Friday, the University backtracked on its decision and assigned the job to Nancy Whitmore, who is the director of the Eugene S. Pulliam School of Journalism. Gary Edgerton, the dean of Butler’s College of Communications told the Indiana Buisness Journal the change was made because the controversy “was becoming a distraction for students.”

When the initial decision was made to replace McKown with a university spokesperson, several professional journalists showed their disappointment with Butler’s decision.

 

One newspaper based in Council Bluffs, Iowa called The Daily Nonpareil referred to the takeover of the Butler Collegian as “troubling” in a column published last Sunday.

“This siege against media is growing on college campuses,” the column reads. “And it’s generally because universities want to emanate nothing but positive pictures of ivy creeping up old brick buildings and rah-rah pieces about athletic successes.”

Indianapolis Star columnist Suzette Hackney also wrote a column about the problem of replacing a journalist with a University spokesman. In her piece, Hackney writes that putting a public relations official in a student media advisor role creates a conflict of interest.

“I have no doubt that Allan, a newspaper reporter for more than two decades and a former adjunct journalism instructor at Butler, was qualified to advise the students,” Hackney wrote. “But in his capacity as the university’s public relations professional, his duties are directly at odds with helping aspiring journalists who may need guidance uncovering unflattering news about the university or its administration.”

Both Hackney and the editorial staff at The Daily Nonpareil are right with both of their claims against Butler’s initial decision to put a spokesman in the role of somebody who monitors what student journalists report. There’s an obvious conflict of interest with student media and University public relations that could result in censorship and more conflict between the two departments.

Even though Allan has a background in journalism, according to Hackney, he is serving two position that can often clash with each other. Even if he allowed students to publish all the content they wanted to, he would most likely hear from University administrators if anything unflattering about the school was ever made public by the newspaper and be told to censor it.

Fortunately for its student journalists, Butler corrected its mistake before any more issues arose.