We expect this kind of controlling policy from secretive government and business entities, not from an institution that claims to cherish academic and press freedoms.
As current students and alumni committed to truth, transparency, and critical examination of our surroundings, this new policy flies in the face of everything we are taught to practice as journalists.
As the Dean, I’m acutely aware of the challenges we have had in recruiting and retaining professors who are both experienced practitioners and accomplished academics.
Buzzsaw first wrote about the troubling treatment of the workers of Sodexo, the company that Ithaca College contracts for its dining services, last Spring, in these two articles by Upfront Editor Alyssa Figueroa (April 2010 article, May 2010 article). The Ithacan, Ithaca College’s student newspaper, published an additional piece last week (“Dining workers seek improvement from Sodexo,” by Elizabeth Sile). Now, Topher Hendricks, who worked alongside Figueroa last year to begin Students Support IC Dining Service Workers. Hendricks is continuing to spearhead the cause this year, working with IC Human Rights and Labor Initiative in Promoting Solidarity student group. In a Facebook note written Monday, Oct. 25, reprinted with permission in full by Buzzsaw the same day, Hendricks responds to The Ithacan’s coverage of the issue. Read the article