SPJ task force recommends Bosley's reinstatement

SPJ releases findings from Ocean County College Task Force report

For Immediate Release:
5/10/2006

Contact:
Paul Schreiber, Task Force Chairman: paulschr@optonline.net
Carl Corry, Task-Force Member: (631) 737-1700, carl.corry@libn.com
David Carlson, President: (352) 846-0171, carlson@spj.org

INDIANAPOLIS – After an exhaustive inquiry into the removal of Professor Karen Bosley as student newspaper adviser at Ocean County College in New Jersey, a Society of Professional Journalists task force recommends that Bosley be reinstated.

In December 2005, at the recommendation of Ocean County College President Jon Larson and his chief administrators, the school’s board of trustees voted unanimously not to reappoint the adviser to the campus newspaper. Karen Bosley had held the post for 35 years. She also was reassigned from teaching journalism to teaching English.

Reasons given for not renewing Bosley’s contract included unsatisfactory job performance. The college said she was slow to incorporate new technologies and resisted efforts to modernize the newspaper. Larson and the trustees said criticism of the administration published by the campus newspaper was not factored into the decision.

After hearing of Bosley’s dismissal as campus newspaper adviser, SPJ president David Carlson appointed a task force of SPJ members to investigate the facts of the situation. The task force visited the campus in February and interviewed people on all sides of the issue.

The Ocean County College case is a “study in suspicion, frustration, escalation and the hardening of positions on all sides,” the task force concluded.

“At the very least,” the task force reported, the termination of Bosley as the adviser to the campus newspaper “was handled badly.”

Read the full press release (includes link to full 23-page report)