A former Amherst College student's nightmarish story of the aftermath of her rape in a campus dorm -- a story so profoundly unsettling that readers are being cautioned to steel themselves before viewing it -- is igniting a wave of indignation over the callous treatment of crime victims when they are most in need of support."Callous" is wholly inadequate to describe author Angie Epifano's ordeal with a system that appears, based on her experience, calculated to create a liability-reducing paper trail instead of to offer sensitive and individually appropriate care to those traumatized by campus violence.Angie's story, published Oct.
Tag: Transparency Tuesday
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Can’t tell the players without a scorecard — so get one.
What's the most useful thing hanging on your newsroom wall?If you said the instructions for the coffee-maker, or the menu for the late-night pizza delivery place ... okay, it's hard to argue with that.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: You can’t play by the rules — or know when to break them — without a copy of the rulebook
To the list of those routine-but-essential tasks that belong on every to-do list -- see the dentist, change your smoke-alarm batteries, rotate your tires -- add this one: Get a copy of your school or college's rulebook -- and read it.Each fall, returning students are ambushed by policy changes that, with remarkable frequency, tend to get enacted during the summer term when scrutiny by the public is at its lowest.For instance, the University of North Carolina is among the schools that, in compliance with a recent federal mandate, rewrote its disciplinary standards to make it easier to prove a claim of sexual assault.Of far lesser consequence, dorm residents at Northwestern University recently learned that the fee for lost keys will nearly triple, to $200, for a third offense.No matter the stakes, it's important for campus journalists to keep current on rule changes enacted by campus trustees or governing boards -- especially those that impact the student media.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Trust, but verify — looking behind Clery Act crime reports should be an annual newsroom to-do
If you're a news reporter on a college campus -- especially one that's reticent about answering requests for information -- Christmas comes next Monday.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Investigating how the investigators investigate the investigators — got that?
A Maryland appeals court is being asked to decide whether the public can have access to the records of an internal investigation into a misconduct complaint against a state trooper.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: When all else fails … there’s always public humiliation
When colleges conceal records they know are rightfully public, it's usually an exercise in public-relations image control.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Bypassing the FERPA roadblock to tell compelling stories about school disciplinary trends
Statistics about discipline are some of the most closely guarded secrets that schools keep -- but they're also some of the most essential for the public to know about.It's now well-documented that nonwhite students are singled out disproportionately for expulsion or suspension, for the same infractions that would merely earn a white student a stern lecture.Recently, the U.S.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Filtering filth (and some facts, too) — get the dirt on school website blocking
A back-to-school open-records project that every public high school news organization ought to try: Get a list of the websites, or terms, that your school's filtering software blocks.There are plenty of news stories about school policies guaranteed to trigger a collective campuswide yawn -- but website blocking is not one of them.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Education Department allows access to records of employee tuition waivers
The cost of tuition has never been a hotter discussion topic. With the sticker price of a year's undergraduate education at a private university topping $28,500 a year -- and the average student graduating with more than $25,000 in loan debt -- serious questions are being raised about whether college is a sound financial investment.Because tuition costs are pinching family budgets so uncomfortably, the public is doubly outraged when it comes to light that well-connected insiders are getting a free ride -- at a cost that inevitably ends up being passed along to the paying customers.In recent years, journalists have brought to light questionable VIP tuition waiver programs in Illinois, where the governor and legislature just abolished a widely abused system of legislator-dispensed scholarships, and in Tennessee, where student government officers at the University of Memphis have benefited for years from free tuition covered by other students' activity fees.The latest free-ride program facing scrutiny is in Rhode Island, where an exceptionally generous perk waives tuition not just for college and university employees, but for their spouses and children as well.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Growing list of states require disclosure of student athletic participation
Pennsylvania has joined the list of states that require public schools to disclose details about how much they spend on sports and how well they are progressing in providing equal athletic opportunities for girls.The law is billed as a step toward promoting fairness in athletics by enabling students and parents to find out whether girls' teams get competitive funding for facilities, travel and other essentials.Among other things, the law requires each middle school, junior high school and high school to report annually each Nov.