Jackie Palank & Amanda Burrows

The Society of Professional Journalists' task force to investigate the College of Communication's decision to not renew the contract of Tribune adviser Tom Mueller urged the university to "take a deep breath and make certain it has decided not to renew Mueller for the right reasons."

The investigation's findings were released Saturday.

The Tribune reported Feb. 1 that Mueller's contract had not been renewed after he advised the Tribune and Marquette Journal for nearly four years and taught for nine. SPJ, a national organization, formed a task force to investigate the college's decision and the role of the administration in the Tribune's content and operations.

SPJ task force members were Dave Aeikens, SPJ Region 6 director; Gordon Govier, Madison's SPJ Pro Chapter president; Callie Martell, SPJ national student representative from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota; Maryann Lazarski, SPJ adviser at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and Kathy Lawrence, president of College Media Advisers, a national organization.

The report stated, "while our investigation has disclosed some incidents that give us concern, we do not believe the evidence is strong enough to suggest that the university administration is overly involved in the newspaper's operations or is trying to control content."

College of Communication Dean Bill Elliott said a desire to control the content of the Tribune was not why Mueller's contract was not renewed.

Mueller's dismissal, the report said, at best creates a perception that Marquette does not support its campus advisers. At worst, the report said the decision is unfair if it is based on one story, particularly a story from 2003 that named a professor who had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. The story was the source of several conflicts between Mueller and university administration.

The report said "Elliott and his superiors appear to have lost confidence in Mueller and his ability to advise the newspaper staff." Elliott said he did not say this, but the task force inferred this.

The report also said a primary reason for tension between Mueller and administrators of the college and university is due to the administration's concern "that something in the paper will get the university sued."

The report said none of the university's interactions with Mueller were unreasonable, except for a letter from University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild to Mueller that criticized Mueller's support for the Tribune's decision to publish the name of the professor with tuberculosis.

The task force made six recommendations to help address the administration's concern, as well as to assist the Tribune for a "fresh start" upon Elliott's June retirement and the appointment of a new adviser.

One of the recommendations was to "establish a clear and defined structure that separates the university administration from the newspaper." This would give the university, as the Tribune's publisher, "the security it seeks from a potential lawsuit," the report said.

The other recommendations included finishing student media bylaws for the student media board, writing a job description for the adviser, finding separate legal counsel for the Tribune and offering ethics and law seminars for Tribune staff members. The Tribune conducts seminars on various subjects, often including ethics and law, each August and January.

"The report says there is a lot of blame to go around for all of the difficulties that are here," Mueller said. "I hope the college acts on these six recommendations, many of which have been languishing for years, some of them, months others."

Mueller said the prestigious reputation of SPJ would hopefully spur the university to act on the six recommendations "with due speed."

The report included an individual recommendation from Lawrence. She recommended giving Mueller a one-year probationary contract extension for several reasons, including the fact that Mueller's supervisors failed to offer him suggestions for improvement.

Mueller "had no job description as adviser," Lawrence wrote in her response to the report. In addition, "there has been nothing in writing from students or others suggesting better ways Mr. Mueller might perform his job."

Elliott reacted to the report Monday.

"I think it was an effort by a group of professionals to be impartial and apply journalistic standards to a difficult story," Elliott said of the report, which he called a "thorough, fair evaluation."

James Scotton, chair of the journalism department, said the report was "very balanced."

"It has criticisms on both sides of the issue, but clearly suggests there was a breakdown in communication between the student media adviser and the university administration," Scotton said.

Mueller said the legacy of the report will be important.

"Whether this report keeps me or not, we're doing some good for the next (newspaper adviser)," he said.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on May 2 2005.