Medill lecturer Tom Hayden, who taught the Winter 2007 advertising class at the heart of the controversy over Medill Dean John Lavine’s use of unnamed quotes, released a statement Monday about the dispute.
More to come.
Dear colleagues:
Over the weekend I read the editorial in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune.
I’m sad. Very sad. Extraordinarily sad.
If you want to know why, you’ll have to read on. And I promise you…this is a long letter.
Many of you don’t know me well. Some of you don’t know me at all. But I feel very privileged to serve on the faculty of one of the most prestigious schools, within one of the greatest universities, on the planet. I am quite proud to be a member of the faculty of the Medill School of Journalism, which as you know, we affectionately refer to simply as Medill.
For those who don’t know me, I teach courses in Integrated Marketing Communications, not Journalism. I came to Medill in 1998, first as an adjunct and now as a lecturer. I am a lawyer by education, and a 29-year marketing professional. I gladly accepted the dean’s invitation to oversee communications for Medill in addition to my teaching schedule.
I have taught IMC 303 since arriving in 1998. Students in my winter quarter 2007 class have unfairly become the object of much misinformation and speculation regarding a quote by Dean Lavine in the spring 2007 issue of the Medill magazine.
I find it interesting and troubling that only two reporters attempted to contact me throughout this fabricated media drama. I agreed to speak with one of the two. He seems to be a serious and sincere young man who writes for northbynorthwestern.com. Unless I completely misread him, he appears interested in getting to the truth. With all the things I’ve read over the past weeks and months, I sometimes wonder if there are any others out there searching for the truth.
But no one else has called me. No other faculty members. No one from the Daily Northwestern, not even the student who first wrote about the dean. No one from the Tribune. No one from the Sun-Times. No one from the wire services or other news organizations that picked up the stories and ran them. No one who has posted commentary on our alumni list serv. No one.
No one seems interested in what I have to say, but I’m going to say it anyway. Once. We’ll see if it shows up in the Daily, or on the front page of the Tribune.
As I stated, I’m sad. I’m sad that a very small number of students, faculty, alumni and unaffiliated journalists seem so intent on doing damage to Medill at such a critical and positive stage in its evolution.
But I’m happy because it’s not working.
Medill is in the midst of hiring the largest number of new faculty members in its history. Most of these will be tenured or tenure track faculty. All but two in the current wave will be Journalism faculty. Interest in the positions has been nothing short of overwhelming. Numerous faculty committees have been diligently screening and interviewing well-qualified and enthusiastic candidates. The greatest difficulty will be to select candidates from this abundance of talent.
Medill remains among the “hardest-to-get-into” of all the undergraduate schools at Northwestern. Undergraduate applications are at an all-time high.
Applications to the MSJ and MSIMC programs continue to be robust, both in number and quality.
The number of “name brand” companies who come to campus to interview our students continues to increase as well, for both Journalism and IMC jobs, residencies and internships.
From my perspective, the future of Medill has never been brighter.
Last fall I was fortunate to be invited to a conference whose attendees were primarily newspaper editors and other seasoned, senior journalists, and many of the major U.S. newspapers were represented.
I felt honored, as a marketing instructor, to be invited to attend a conference sponsored by journalists.
Why was I invited? The conference was convened to discuss the First Amendment and my IMC 303 class project during that quarter was to develop a marketing program for the First Amendment. Our client was the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
The point to be made, however, is the number of unsolicited compliments I received from heavyweight journalists about John Lavine and the direction in which he is leading Medill.
Regarding my class, until recently there were three or four journalism majors enrolled each quarter. I should tell you that IMC 303 is one of the most popular undergraduate elective courses at Northwestern, and arguably the most difficult for undergraduates to get into. Since the implementation of the Medill 2020 curriculum, journalism majors have been allowed to pre-register for the course. It is now typical to have 12 to 15 journalism majors in the class each quarter, which comprises about half of the class.
So there you have it…journalism majors electing to take a marketing class in numbers triple what they were just a few years ago.Just so you know, interest is quite strong from students around the university in the new IMC undergraduate certificate program that will be launched in the fall quarter of 2008. Interest is particularly strong among Medill undergraduates.
In my class and in the new program, it is not our intent to turn journalists into “shills” or “spin meisters.” Rather, we are trying to provide all students with learning, skills and tools that will allow them to be more successful in whatever career they choose to pursue.
I want to now focus a bit on what has become known as “quotegate” and my winter quarter 2007 class. Those covering the story have created the impression that all 29 students in that class have specifically denied being the source of the quote in question. Here’s my perspective on what really happened.
First of all we’re dealing with nearly year-old memories. I challenge anyone reading this to tell me, without looking at calendars or notes, what they were doing on the evening of March 8, 2007, at 9:00 p.m., who they were speaking with, and what was said. That was the date and time the class presentation concluded, and that is when an informal but spirited discussion began between students and the dean.
Fast forward to the present and recent past. At some point in the last month or two, students in that class received a phone call out of the blue from someone they may not have even known, demanding to know if they were the speaker of a specific set of words.
Back in March 2007, many of these students were up for nearly 48 hours, putting the finishing touches on a presentation for a very professional audience. Seventeen executives from Allstate, Leo Burnett and Weber Shandwick attended. The dean, three associate deans and several faculty members attended as well. The pressure leading into the presentation was intense.
I would be very surprised if any of the students could remember, 10 to 12 months later, whom they may have spoken with after that presentation, or what was specifically said. It is unreasonable to expect that it is even possible.
The following, however, recounts what several students recently said to me, confidentially, regarding their conversations with the Daily columnist who contacted them. I have notes and names, but I choose not to share these notes and names for reasons that I will explain below.
One student told me that he refused to talk to the Daily columnist. Further, he
told the columnist that if his name was used publicly, he would deny that
he had ever been contacted.Another told the columnist that he was sure the dean’s quote came from someone
in the class because the quote reflected how everyone in the class felt.Another student suggested that the call she received was “bizarre.” She told me that she didn’t know who the columnist was or what he was talking about so she simply hung up.
Another said she refused to talk to the columnist, but “bitched him out” because
he refused to tell her who had given him her private and unlisted phone number.So at least three of the students in the class neither confirmed nor denied that they spoke the words in question. Yet none of the above has made it into any of the published reports. I shared this with the provost and his committee, however, because they asked me for whatever insight and information I might have. At no time did I reveal the names of any students. Nor was I asked to. Nor will I ever.
I later learned that as some of these students began talking to each other, a sense of anger began to arise since they did not believe the columnist accurately reported what they had collectively told him.
Beyond anger, we are now dealing with feelings of intimidation and fear. Some students have told me that they felt intimidated by not only the columnist from the Daily who called them, but by some other members of the class. Worse yet, some spoke of the fear of reprisal from faculty members who had signed the petition that was sent to the press. One told me that she just wanted to finish and graduate, and not get involved in anything that could interfere with her ability to do just that.
The most disturbing conversation I’ve had regarding this whole matter involved a student who was not even in the Allstate class. The student had an interview with a reasonably well-known newspaper. The interviewer opened with a negative monologue directed at the dean and the school, and the student felt compelled to agree with her or lose any chance of being hired.
I have always believed that journalists are the flag bearers for truth and free speech. If any students, anywhere, should feel confident in articulating any opinion on any issue whatsoever, it should be journalism students. They should never feel pressured to limit their voice, particularly by other journalists.
But I get it. With the cost of a Northwestern education, and with the intense competition for jobs, is it any wonder that students might keep their heads down and steer clear of any controversy – particularly as they approach the completion of their education and find themselves in the hunt for employment? They simply want to graduate and begin their careers. Rational or not, I understand their fears when it comes to anything that might get in the way of their immediate future success.
Some of you might discount or ignore my comments since I have chosen not to name names. I happen to strongly believe that the student-teacher relationship is sacred. I believe that a large part of my job is to provide students with learning and a classroom experience that will help to enable them to get the job of their dreams, or into the graduate program of their choice. As teachers, we are counselors and confidants, just as we are instructors. Involving students in a controversy that is not of their doing would violate the relationships that I have worked hard to build. Since it is my opinion that “quotegate” has been contrived by forces wishing to bring down the dean, I choose to not bring any innocent student bystanders into the fray.
The dean has said that he did not make up the quote. He has apologized for failing to attribute the quote, and for failing to keep whatever notes or e-mails contained the actual words. My students, while none can remember saying the specific words contained in the dean’s letter to the alumni, certainly express a sentiment that is completely consistent with the words the dean used.
There is nothing more that can be done. For the skeptics and cynics, there is no way to prove or disprove anything. The matter is over.
I regret that most of those who covered this story chose not to contact me. But I have now said what I have to say, and it’s all I intend to say.
In spite of the Tribune’s editorial and the abundance of recent negative coverage, I will once again express my strong pride in Medill. I know that most of the students, faculty and alumni feel the same way as I do. I love being here, I love teaching, and I love being part of a dynamic and innovative school and university. I feel very fortunate, indeed.
My best to all of you,
Tom Hayden