For almost two weeks, Pamela Whitten, dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, has been mum about the status of both the School of Journalism and its former director, Jane Briggs-Bunting.
Briggs-Bunting was asked to resign or face suspension after the dean took office almost two weeks ago. Journalism students have questioned the decision and have received no word from Whitten, who has not spoken publicly about the incident.
Repeated attempts by The State News to speak with Whitten have been unsuccessful.
Reporters from The State News have visited Whitten’s office several times and only briefly spoke with the dean regarding the status of Briggs-Bunting on one occasion. On the first attempt, Whitten’s personal staff directed all media inquiries to university spokesman Terry Denbow, who has declined several times to comment on personnel matters. Also during that first attempt, Kirsten Khire, communications manager for College of Communication Arts and Sciences, told The State News that no new developments with regard to Briggs-Bunting had occurred and attempts to wait and speak with Whitten would produce only the same comment from the dean.
When asked to comment while leaving her office Tuesday, Whitten referred media inquiries to Denbow.
“There is nothing anyone else can say other than what I said (last week),” Denbow told The State News on Tuesday.
An attempt to reach Whitten for comment at home Sunday also failed.
When a reporter showed up to speak with Whitten on Thursday about communication policies in the School of Journalism, the dean’s office was promptly closed for the day.
Briggs-Bunting said there was a desire to move the School of Journalism to a research based-curriculum, instead of a teaching one, and that could have played a factor in her dismissal. She was hired as the director of the school in 2003.
Journalism faculty met with Whitten on Thursday, but the details of the meeting were not released. It also was closed to students. Several members of the faculty have declined to comment or not returned calls to The State News about the situation and the details of the Thursday meeting.
The lack of public comment from Whitten has not gone unnoticed by journalism students, who have even go so far as to create a Web site, www.savemsujrn.com, to express their concerns.
Jayna Salk, a journalism education sophomore who has contributed to the Web site, said although Whitten has yet to publicly comment, she is feeling better about the situation than she did when the news first broke.
“I think that Dean Whitten is definitely making small strides to communicate better with people, but I still kind of think there’s a lot to be done,” she said. “The feeling I’ve been getting from people around the J-School is that she really does have the best interest of the J-School in mind.”
Salk said Whitten has scheduled a meeting to be held this Friday with students to discuss the school, although she is not sure whether the meeting is supposed to be one-on-one or if more than one student will be allowed to attend.
“She’s talking so much about a new direction and about changing the way things are done and I want to hear her ideas,” she said. “If I don’t agree with them, I think, as a paying student, she should hear my ideas.”
Jessica McLean, who recently graduated from MSU and majored in English and journalism, said she doesn’t want to make speculations as to why Whitten asked for Briggs-Bunting’s resignation.
“It’s one of those things that you have to wonder if there’s something going on behind closed doors,” she said. “But it could be something as innocent as there (being) a new direction and they don’t feel she’s part of it.”
MSU professor of journalism and communication Stephen Lacy declined to comment on the matter, but said the faculty is ready to move on.
Several calls to MSU spokespeople Sunday went unreturned.
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