ILLINOIS — A college newspaper adviser who was abruptlydismissed last spring has regained his position, thanks in nosmall part to the efforts of student editors.
"I think the [students’ support] was a key factor,"said Jim Sulski, a professor at Columbia College in Chicago whoearlier this month regained the faculty adviser position at theColumbia Chronicle. "All politics aside, they sawthat I was willing to fight for them in the trenches."
By the end of summer when the adviser post remained vacant,administrators offered Sulski the job he had held for nearly sixyears. He was dismissed for allowing the paper’s editors to runan anonymous May 14 letter to the editor that leveled numerousinsults and accusations at Zafra Lerman, director of the college’sInstitute for Science Education and Science Communication.
Students were upset at Sulski’s firing because they felt hewas paying the price for their mistake.
"Really the newspaper is a learning environment for us,and we did make a mistake by running the letter," editorRyan Adair said in June. "However, the backlash was toward[Sulski] and not us — and it should have been toward us."
With Sulski back at the helm, Adair said the newspaper’s firstpublication of the academic year is slated to hit stands Monday.