Former USA Today Writer Chosen as Adviser
“The Hampton Script starts publishing Oct. 13 for the academic year, after a delay imposed by the administration while it searched for an editorial adviser for the student newspaper,” as Shawn Chollette reports on the Black College Wire.
“Editors of The Script said they had been prohibited from publishing until the vacancy for an editorial adviser was filled, and were unable to print their first edition for the school year. It was to have gone to press Sept. 29.
“The paper now has three advisers, named Oct. 4 by the Script’s advisory board, which is made up of journalism school administrators and student editors. The new advisers are: Doug Smith, a visiting professor of journalism, former USA Today sports reporter, Hampton alumnus and Hampton journalism school Hall of Fame inductee; Kia DuPree, a professor in the English Department; and Christina Pinkston-Betts, an English professor who has advised the newspaper on grammar.”
The holdup in publishing the student paper was the latest chapter in the tense relationship between student journalism and the school administration. The saga includes having three leaders of the journalism program in as many years, confiscation of the press run of the Script last year, the appointment of a task force to resolve that dispute, and accusations that the administration has tried to suppress investigative reporting.
The controversies took place as the Scripps Howard Foundation put millions into the school to boost journalism on the historically black campus and the new journalism school brought in a stream of veteran black journalists as visiting professors.
Silencing of Hampton Script Seems Like Payback (Alexander R. LeMaine, Black College Wire)