MARQUETTE, MI-- Former faculty adviser to The North Wind Cheryl Reed and managing editor Michael Williams have voluntarily dismissed their federal lawsuit against the paper’s Board of Directors.
In a joint statement they said they are disappointed in the judge’s refusal to reinstate Reed as adviser, and while they believe evidence would establish that the Board overreached its boundaries by involving itself in newsroom decisions, “…we are faced with many costly months of discovery and trial, after which it seems unlikely as a practical matter that the Court will reassign the journalism course and reinstate Cheryl Reed as adviser in the middle of an academic term.”
In the suit, Reed and Williams claimed their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights had been violated by the board. She said her firing was the result of retaliation for negative stories about Northern Michigan University.
Reed and Williams are calling on Vice President Steven Neiheisel and President Fritz Erickson to approve North Wind bylaw amendments that keep the Board from overruling journalistic judgments made in the newsroom.
To ensure the situation doesn’t happen again Reed and Williams are launching the New Voices of Michigan campaign, which aims to enact state legislation that protects student journalists and their advisers against retaliation by educational institutions.
Secondly, they’re launching a Go Fund Me page with a goal of raising $1,000 to pay for Freedom of
Information Act requests. It would be independent of The North Wind Board.
In response, Assistant Vice President of Communications and Marketing Derek Hall said, “The dismissal of the suit allows the University to move forward with working with the student editors and writers, as well as The North Wind Board of Directors. The administration seeks, as always, positive working relationships with students associated with The North Wind. The publication is a valuable part of our campus. The new editor-in-chief, Ray Bressette, has our full support as he runs the newsroom. In the near future, President Erickson will appoint a community member to the student-led Board of Directors to assist with the functioning of the newspaper.”
