WICHITA, Kan. — A federal mediator is expected to hear arguments next month over a grievance stemming from a fray between administrators at Hutchinson Community College and student journalists and their suspended professor.
The dispute resulted in administrators cancelling media classes near the semester’s end and briefly seizing an edition of The Hutchinson Collegian. The student paper contained a story critical of the administration.
Professor Alan Montgomery alleges that the administration’s actions interfere with contractually guaranteed provisions for academic freedom and involve threats of disciplinary proceedings to intimidate students.
Montgomery is also suspended as a college employee, which is separate from the grievance the mediator will hear.
College President Carter File declined to discuss the suspension or student discipline, but defended the college’s actions. “Honestly, I don’t care what is in the paper,” he said.
“This is a student paper,” File said. “It should be produced by the students for the students and we have exercised absolutely no editorial control over this from an administration standpoint.”
The trouble began after Editor Loribeth Reynolds and staff writer Jeff Leddy wrote stories in December chronicling a dispute among faculty members and critical of the administration’s handling of it. Montgomery, who was co-president of the faculty union at the time, was quoted in the story. But as the paper’s faculty adviser, he also edited the stories and coached the students writing them.
