Thought student media advisors were just bureaucratic gatekeepers

Turns out ours at Kansas State actually blocked administration from censoring a piece I wrote about Title IX delays. Showed me the district policy right there in black and white. Anyone else have an advisor who's actually got your back?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrewt4128d agoMost Upvoted

@shanel13 Not only did they show it to me without me asking, but they had a tabbed copy with specific sections highlighted for common admin pushback situations. Turns out our advisor keeps a running list of "creative interpretations" admin has tried over the years and shares them in the newsroom Slack. Found out later she'd already CC'd the Student Press Law Center on an email "just in case." Didn't even tell me about it until after the piece ran. The whole "advisor as secret weapon" dynamic is way more common than people realize, especially at land-grant schools that have dealt with admin overreach before.

shanel1328d ago

So they actually showed you the policy without trying to spin it first? That's wild to me since most advisors I've dealt with would just vague-talk their way out of showing you anything. Did you already have a copy of the policy before you went to them, or did you have to push them to pull it out?