CALIFORNIA — Administrators at the University of Southern
California have agreed to implement a former editor’s recommendations that
were submitted in his platform for reappointment, which was rejected by the
school.
The changes include increased salaries for the staff and more
transparency regarding the paper’s budget. Former Editor in Chief Zach Fox
offered the suggestions in his attempt at a second term as editor, which was
blocked by the university’s media board.
In making the changes,
administrators are also disputing the claim that the denial of Fox’s
application was because of the changes he raised in his platform.
The
move was met by outrage from college newspapers across the country, about 20 of
which published an editorial in December 2006 chastising the university and
questioning whether the decision was because of Fox’s “probing
questions.”
A university spokesman said that the editorials had
misconstrued the situation and that Fox’s second term was denied because
he was seeking to make changes to the position of editor at the same time he was
applying for the job. The university established a task force to review
Fox’s proposals, most of which were approved earlier this
month.
“It was assumed by people outside of the campus that there
was some major First Amendment controversy here, and that wasn’t the
case,” said Larry Pryor, associate journalism professor and adviser to
The Daily Trojan. "Granted, Zach’s application to be editor was
denied, but it wasn’t for the reasons that people seem to have
concluded.
“The ideas that he produced were good and we all agreed
they were good. And it was the way he wanted to implement them where there was
fallout.”
Among the measures are salaries for photographers and
writers, budget transparency and an increase in the paper’s online
capabilities.
Fox, a senior, said he believes that overall the changes
will be good for the paper, but he expressed trepidation about the
implementation of the changes, especially the university’s funding of
them.
“They keep telling us to be patient,” said Fox.
“Just the way they handled my election last semester doesn’t leave
me with much confidence.”
Fox, who described his reaction to being
denied a second term as “crushed,” said he intends to work with the
paper’s leaders to see that the changes are put in place
properly.
The measures will not be implemented immediately, Pryor said,
mainly because the paper’s budget has already been established for this
year. And some of the measures, such as the expanded Web site, will take time to
execute, he said.
“If you’re going to build a good student
Web site, it’s going to take a lot of training. It’s going to take
student journalists learning new skills. There are some skills you can’t
just pick up in a week.”
By Brian Hudson, SPLC staff
writer
