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Where do you go when you’ve already gone down the tubes?

You become a paranoid police state.

Chicago State University – graduation rate barely above ten percent – has just issued an email to its faculty:

In an email sent March 22 to faculty and staff, Sabrina Land, the university’s director of marketing and communications, wrote that all communications must be “strategically deployed” in a way that “safeguards the reputation, work product and ultimately, the students, of CSU.”

The policy applies to media interviews, opinion pieces, newsletters, social media and other types of communications, stating that they must be approved by the university’s division of public relations. “All disclosures to the media will be communicated by an authorized CSU media relations officer or designate,” the policy says.

Failure to follow the rules “will be treated as serious and will result in disciplinary action, possible termination and could give rise to civil and/or criminal liability on the part of the employee.”

Shades of North Korea.

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Update: Chicago State decides it doesn’t want to be North Korea.

Margaret Soltan, April 6, 2012 9:56AM
Posted in: democracy

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4 Responses to “Where do you go when you’ve already gone down the tubes?”

  1. Stephen Karlson Says:

    So much for Chicago State being able to maintain a resource for journalists. See an example from Northern Illinois. Type in “energy” and see what might come up. (Yes, I did take a call, from a suburban newspaper, only yesterday, inquiring about gas prices.) The policy is only going to make State look worse, because interviews about mundane matters like gas prices can’t take place until marketing approves?

  2. Mike S. Says:

    “I do want you to know that this policy is under review.”

    Why didn’t Watson, Land and the rest of the administration review the legal issues before the enacting policy?

    Incompetence, meaning some of these people aren’t cut out for the jobs they are in.

  3. theprofessor Says:

    This institution had a somewhat similar policy; for all I know, it may still exist, but no one has bothered to try to enforce it. When it first came out, buried in a faculty manual, I asked the director of public relations whether it meant that if someone from the media called and wanted an interview concerning a point from my arcane area, I needed her approval. “Oh yes,” she said. “Also, we want to have someone from my office present.” I told her that she was flat-out crazy and that not even the sizable gaggle of chronic submissives here would ever obey. She huffed off and probably referred me to her superiors; who knows what they told her?

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:

    tp: Chronic submissives. LOL.

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