A story about black mold may have led to the termination of a campus newspaper adviser in West Virginia. Fairmont State University's campus paper The Columns was headed by Michael Kelley in 2014, but that changed shortly after he and his staff made the university's nonchalant response to the campus's black mold a public controversy.
Kelley filed a grievance against FSU after the university claimed his termination had nothing to do with the story, but instead because his contract had ended. Tyler Wilson, the paper's managing editor, and editor in chief Jacob Buckland, published a series of stories which entailed student's concerns about the mold problem. "We didn't expect [the university] to [terminate Kelley] because that's insanely unintelligent on their end," said Wilson.
Said stories included the test results of swabbed areas that "looked disgusting", and the testimony of a student who alleged her hospitalization was "a result of mold exposure from living on campus." After the publications, one department head "became hostile," notes Buckland, and also allegedly threatened to withdraw funding. Kelley said the same individual would only allow the paper to continue if it "contained nothing controversial."
Kelley received an email shortly after the publications which entailed the end of his one-year appointment, which contradicted his belief that his appointment was three-times as long. However, "according to a contract signed by Kelley on October 21, 2014 confirming his hire as a temporary assistant professor of journalism, Kelley's position was a temporary, full-time, 9-month position beginning August 11, 2014 and ending May 17, 2015. Kelley apparently misunderstood the terms of his hire, which he thought would come in three, separate 9-month contracts. Such contracts he never received.
Donna Long, a member of the selection committee, stated her misunderstanding as well, saying "that the job posting specified a three-year appointment." The university has offered up more reasons that may have affected Kelley's termination: budget cuts, loss of students, program success, and so on. Because Kelley wasn't promised three years in his initial contract, the university is safe in implying that it is the cause of his termination and not the stories they may have desired to censor.
"Really, anything that has the truth in it has been attempted to be muzzled and stifled by senior-level administration on campus." - Tyler Wilson
Original Story by Trisha LeBoeuf here
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