2/15/2008

Dean's letter to the faculty

Dean Lavine sent the following letter to the faculty in response to David Spett's column:

Dear Medill Faculty Colleague,

On the front page of today's Chicago Tribune ... you will find a story about me and two letters I wrote a year ago to our alumni in our magazine, Medill.

My summary of this incident is that I commend Daily Northwestern columnist David Spett for raising the issue of unnamed sources. It is a very important topic. His column also illustrates our teaching and commitment to our students doing enterprise journalism.

The quotes David wondered about are what students told me. They are real quotes, a fact that was demonstrated by my including in my letter to the alumni a link to a student video that showed students making the same kind of points. There was no shortage of material from students for these quotes.

If you have any questions or thoughts about these matters, as always please let me know.

Best regards,

John

Thank you for the response, Dean Lavine. However, shouldn't this have been passed on to students as well? We deserve an explanation too as to what happened.

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