From The Transcript After more than 35 years, faculty meetings will no longer be open to reporters.
On April 18, Ohio Wesleyan faculty members voted to disallow The Transcript, the school’s independent student newspaper, from attending future faculty meetings.
Bob Gitter, professor of economics and a member of the faculty’s Executive Committee, presented the motion. Faculty asked the Executive Committee to reconsider the issue of banning The Transcript’s attendance, according to the faculty meeting agenda.
Gitter read the agenda and said, “Faculty meetings will not be open to reporters and a new mechanism in the form of a faculty meeting summary will be made available to the public within 24 hours after the end of the faculty meeting.”
Gitter then called for executive session, which was supported.
The vote was 47-21 in favor of the motion.
“It has a chilling effect on what people are willing to say if they feel the comments are going to be published in the newspaper,” he said.