Student journalists at UMass Dartmouth are speaking out about what they say may be unfair treatment, or even retribution, after the university’s only journalism professor was let go — two months after a university dean wrote that the professor’s contract extension was already “approved.”
After a year of revamped student journalism that raised hard questions about campus policies, administrators say that Natalie Pattillo, the teaching professor who also advised The Torch student newspaper, was let go for budgetary reasons — and nothing more.
“The administration is trying to punish us for trying to have a voice,” said Tony Le, a rising junior who commutes to the Dartmouth campus from Fall River. Le said that school officials didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment when he reported about parking issues on campus earlier this year.
“I definitely feel like [administrators] did not appreciate the inquiries,” said Karissa Davis, a rising senior from Dorchester. Davis said she was stonewalled by administrators when she wanted to report on student activities and campus affinity groups.
“We’re not trying to shed a bad light on the school, but if you are being hesitant and being defensive it’s going to turn around and give it a bad look,” Davis said.
Campus coverage reached a climax this year when a story about administrators using AI to generate advertising materials went viral. The New Bedford Light covered how student journalists broke the story, and shortly after it was picked up by the Boston Globe.
Now, the two journalism seminars for the upcoming semester (both of which have enrolled near the maximum number of students) do not have an instructor. Students say they have not received any communication from the university about what will happen with those classes. “It’s frustrating because I don’t know where my schedule stands,” said Hannah Abrams, a rising junior from Westport who said she fell in love with journalism after taking a class this year. “I built my schedule around taking that [journalism] class. I loved the teacher.”
The Torch student newspaper also does not have an adviser.
Provost Ramprasad Balasubramanian said in an interview with The Light that his decision was driven by budget concerns, not the conduct of student journalists or his support for a journalism program.
“I had reasons to believe based on what I had seen at that time [in the spring] that we might be able to renew that position. As the picture became clear in terms of enrollment, it became clear to me that I had to make some changes.”
“That was not the only position I had to make changes on based on what I had anticipated back in the spring,” said Balasubramanian, citing other non-renewed contracts in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the College of Arts & Sciences.
Balasubramanian said that Pattillo, the journalism professor, may have been in a vulnerable position as a first-year faculty member hired on an emergency, one-year contract (meaning the university hired her without conducting a nationwide search).
“What I’m balancing is eight different colleges and schools. I am managing my instructional needs across all these units,” Balasubramanian said. “My primary responsibility is that our full-time faculty and continuous appointments are fully deployed.”
When asked about the students who were concerned they might be facing retribution, Balasubramanian said, “We actively encourage students to ask questions. We have lots of faculty that encourage [asking questions], and asking difficult questions is really what a college education is about.” He added, “I am happy to meet with those students.”
Shari Evans, the chair of the English department and Pattillo’s former supervisor, said, “I’m frustrated and I think the department is similarly frustrated” about reversing Pattillo’s contract decision. She added, “But I don’t think anything untoward is happening.”
“It’s difficult to run a program without the people you need to run it, and that includes people like Natalie, who is a talented instructor and journalist. But I don’t think that anyone is doing this to us,” Evans said. “All I’m being told is that this is a budgetary decision.”
The difficulty of asking questions in Dartmouth
When Davis, the now-rising senior from Dorchester, wanted to write an article about the Frederick Douglass Unity House last year, she sought a quote from the office of Student Affairs.
Instead, Davis received a lengthy email from the vice chancellor for Student Affairs, Kimberly Scott, outlining the rules that Davis must agree to before an interview. Some of those points included:
- “Any direct quotes intended for publication must be sent to the Vice Chancellor’s Office for verification prior to printing to ensure accuracy and context.”
- “All interview questions must be submitted at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled interview.”
- “Only one representative from the student newspaper may attend unless prior approval is given.”
- “The Vice Chancellor reserves the right to end the interview if guidelines are not followed.”
- “Any clarifying questions after the interview must be submitted in writing.”
Davis was stunned.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in our student handbook, and it went against a lot of the ethics we learned in our journalism class,” she said. “I felt borderline being censored.”
Davis went to the university’s communications office, who told her these rules were not the university’s official policy, she said. But Scott, who runs the Division of Student Affairs, still wouldn’t change the interview rules, she said.
The Light sought an interview with Scott, but the administrator was not available. Any questions would have to be submitted in writing, according to a university spokesperson.
Asked why the Student Affairs office required these conditions to meet with student reporters, Scott wrote back: “That is my preference.”
“It’s easier to run a campus, like it is to run a city, if there’s not someone looking over your shoulder holding you accountable,” said Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel at the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), who has been in touch with student reporters at The Torch.
“We’ve seen this trend of going after student newspapers,” Hiestand said. In particular, he said he’s seeing more cases of “indirect censorship.” College administrators across the country, for example, have been “going after budgets; [there are] a number of cases where they have targeted advisers; or are changing the criteria under which staff is allowed to be chosen; sometimes the GPA requirement was mysteriously raised by a point,” he said.
He pointed to an ongoing case at Indiana University in Bloomington, where a faculty adviser was fired and a powerhouse college newspaper had its budget significantly cut.
“Those are the sorts of things that can be a First Amendment violation,” said Hiestand. “These colleges have millions and millions of taxpayer dollars at stake. The student press is asking the questions. If nobody’s asking those questions, school officials can do as they wish. It’s a vital role.”
Student reporters at The Torch say that, in addition to losing their adviser, the university has not followed the proper process for providing the newspaper with its funding this year. They said they are also worried because Scott, the Student Affairs administrator involved with the process, has suggested restructuring the paper to them — including ceasing to pay student journalists.
Scott wrote an email to student leaders of The Torch in June, after the semester had ended: “We will likely not be able to sustain historical funding levels across all organizations, including The Torch. In addition, the Student Government Association raised questions about how The Torch should be structured and funded in the future, including whether aspects of its operations align with a traditional student organization model.”
Jesse Magnifico, a current graduate student and the outgoing editor-in-chief of The Torch, said, “we want to promote the First Amendment and what journalists do.”
“A lot of us are paying our own bills, including tuition and housing. If this opportunity were taken away … there’s no other outlet for journalism,” Magnifico said.
In response to The Light’s question about restructuring The Torch, Scott emailed a reply: “No plans to restructure the Torch’s funding have been considered beyond fact-finding reviews of other campuses regarding their models.” She added that historically The Torch has been among the most well-funded student organizations.
Ryan Merrill, a university spokesperson and the assistant vice chancellor of strategic communications, answered follow-up questions. He said that the process for funding student organizations has been delayed this year as a result of broader budgetary and enrollment concerns. He said decisions made about The Torch are not retribution against student journalists.
“While I understand their concerns, that’s not how the process works. In fact, it’s created to protect against that [retribution] from happening,” Merrill said. He explained that the committee that makes funding decisions is primarily composed of other students. Rather than make cuts or restructure, Merrill said this committee hopes to “analyze where the funding should come from” — because The Torch doesn’t receive funding through the same mechanism as many other student organizations.
The Light reached out to other UMass campuses and found that peer student newspapers do pay their student staffs, and sometimes through unique mechanisms.
“For a public university to say they shouldn’t have to pay writers because other clubs don’t pay their members, it’s comparing apples to cucumbers,” said Elijah Horwath, editor-in-chief of UMass Boston’s paper, The Mass Media.
“It’s misleading to describe student newspapers in general, but especially at public universities, as just another club,” Horwath said. “There’s another level of expectations concerning standards of professionalism and editorial standards that other clubs don’t have to think about.”
The Mass Media has a paid staff of nearly 30 writers, editors, and photographers who produce a 16-page biweekly paper, in addition to publishing online almost daily. The Mass Media is funded by an optional student activities fee that is separate from other student fees.
At UMass Amherst, more than 50 staff members are listed on the Daily Collegian’s website, where they produce newsletters and digital articles. The Daily Collegian sells advertising space in its products, but editors did not respond to other outreach. The Torch stopped printing a physical newspaper within the last five years.
“There’s something unique about student journalism on public campuses that we should be trying to uphold and not defund, especially during a time when freedom of speech rights are not being fostered and upheld on the federal or state level,” Horwath said.
The effects on UMass Dartmouth going forward
Dan Petetsky’s hand shot up when his professor asked if anyone was interested in publishing a personal essay. Petetsky was a junior at UMass Dartmouth last year, and he was looking to transfer out of the school. He had been sitting on a personal essay (used for college applications) that he wanted to further develop.
Natalie Pattillo, the former journalism professor who was assigned to teach his business communications class, worked with him for weeks, editing and re-drafting his story until Business Insider eventually published the essay.
“She gave you a reason to put your phone down,” Petetsky said. “People think it’s pretty cool. But it’s not about that — it’s about that she got me thinking that my story really is valuable.”
Pattillo’s student evaluations in her journalism classes met or exceeded the benchmarks the university set for her, according to The Light’s review of those documents. Students were published in local, regional, and national outlets under her tutelage — including essays in The New Bedford Light. Pattillo organized a private tour of the newsroom at GBH, an opportunity that the administration highlighted on its own communications platform.
“Professor Pattillo was like a lighthouse for me,” said Davis, the student who said she was stonewalled in her reporting on student affairs. “She opened my eyes to a different world, and she was why I picked up the minor in communications and got into journalism.”
“She pushed me to become 100% a better person than I was before I met her, and I’m so frustrated that students won’t have those opportunities,” Davis said.
Provost Balasubramanian said that he is confident the university will be able to find adjunct professors before September who can take on the journalism course offerings, including one new class that Pattillo had designed and pitched.
“Classes will run. All we have to do is find a suitable instructor,” Balasubramanian said.
Last week, administrators offered the adjunct role to Pattillo. The new role would have offered about $6,000 per course taught, or about $48,000 if Pattillo maintained her current teaching workload. That would have been a cut from the $70,000 salary she earned previously.
Pattillo declined the offer, according to email communication obtained by The Light. “Given everything that has happened at UMass Dartmouth over the past several months, including the withdrawal of my contract renewal, the changes to the position I originally applied for, the significant reduction in pay … and the lack of health insurance/benefits, I need to decline,” Pattillo wrote.
Some other faculty are not happy about the news.
Richard Peltz-Steele, a chancellor professor at the UMass Law School with a background in journalism, said, “There’s no substitute for full-time faculty. They have the prerogative of academic freedom, and you’re getting an investment and enrichment of the program.”
“It’s a happy coincidence that you have budgetary issues — and obviously we do because we reneged on the contract — and the thing you’re cutting is a watchdog,” Peltz-Steele said. “That’s problematic, even if it’s not your intention.”
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org.
Something smells rotten at umass.
Assuming this report is accurate, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Kimberly Scott should be fired forthwith. Has she ever heard of the First Amendment, freedom of the press, or any other bedrock American right?
No news organization worth its salt would EVER submit to the conditions she placed on that interview. She disgraced herself and UMass Dartmouth by attempting to impose them – those types of conditions are what tinpot dictators or beyond-accountability oligarchs routinely impose. Does she really wish to be in that company? And does UMass Dartmouth wish to tacitly assent to that odious behavior by not disciplining her? She’s a public official – she’s required to be accountable to the public. In America, accountability often starts with answering legitimate questions from legitimate journalists – which those reporters at The Torch most certainly are.
I say this as a lifelong journalist of 40 years standing with major news organizations (NPR, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and more – now retired).
While I agree Scott’s terms are absurd, she’s not legally obligated to speak with a journalist on the record if she doesn’t want to, right?
This kind of thing has characterized the Dartmouth campus for some time. Poor leadership has been the cause and continues as a failing.
Dr. James Griffith
Chancellor Professor Emeritous
Class of 1970 and 1976 as a student, faculty member for 42 years
Whether they were actively trying to censor the student newspaper, the actions of the UMass Dartmouth administration, especially in relation to the employment of the journalism professor and the availability (or lack thereof) for interviews with student journalists, indicate a healthy disinterest in supporting The Torch. I’m sure budget constraints are a real issue for the University but not renewing the professor’s contract after originally agreeing to) is bad optics. I’m wondering if the vice chancellor for Student Affairs or the Provost would like to do their same jobs for $20,000 less.
Good grief. No journalist should ever agree to an interview on the terms mandated by UMass-Dartmouth’s vice chancellor for Student Affairs. What a terrible example to set for these students. The upside is it’s a learning experience for the students in what control freaks institutional PR types can be, even when sitting for an interview with students. Unfortunately for these students, it looks like they no longer have a mentor to seek counsel from.
Communist
This is scary stuff. Thank you, NBL for keeping us informed.
Something always smells rotten at UMASS! Vice Chancellor Kimberly Scott should be fired immediately over this nonsense!
While some these articles are informative and good reading.
Where is the coverage on the current New Bedford Budget Crisis?
THIS SHOULD BE THE BIGGEST STORY IN NEW BEDFORD.
1) Negotiations on Fire Station Closure and reduction of manpower on trucks?
2) Negotiations with the Retirement Board ?
3) Negotiations on Healthcare?
4) Tax Increases on Residents and Businesses (has the city received new revenue that will offset the $16 Million Dollars that mayor has designated?
Why not talk to all the players (the Fire Department, Retirement Board, Union Leaders, and the City Council).
Seems the NB Light is failing New Bedford residents and protecting the mayor by not reporting on what is going on in our city.