Members of the Medill community expressed outrage Thursday that a journalism student accused of fabricating parts of more than 17 stories is still enrolled at Northwestern and is eligible to receive a bachelor’s degree from Medill.
Administrators removed Eric Drudis from the graduate program in December after professors could not verify two stories he wrote for the graduate school’s wire service. Drudis was a student in Medill’s accelerated master’s program and was on track to receive both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in June.
Drudis is still at NU and was seen in Ryan Family Auditorium on Wednesday afternoon trying to add into Human Sexuality.
Donna Leff, a Medill graduate professor, said some professors are concerned with the way Medill handled the case.
“It makes me and my colleagues uncomfortable with the situation,” she said, “knowing that someone may have committed an academic dishonesty and is still receiving an undergraduate degree.”
Students working toward their undergraduate degrees said they had similar concerns.
“He’s accused of committing a cardinal sin,” said Evan Benn, a Medill freshman. “Reporters who have been caught fabricating sources get fired from jobs and can’t work in journalism again. They don’t give them a degree from one of the best journalism schools in the country.”
Medill sophomore Chris Nammour said allowing Drudis to complete his undergraduate work devalues the efforts of all Medill students.
“To let someone graduate with a Medill degree (if) that person is a questionable journalist diminishes the value of all our degrees,” he said. “The administration should take a stance – either he did it and they should kick him all the way out, or he didn’t do it and they should allow him to finish his graduate degree. This middle-of-the-road thing they’re doing is really ridiculous.”
Others said the school had acted appropriately in letting Drudis stay on as an undergraduate.
“I really would think that’s up to the university,” said Emily Hiser, a first-year Medill graduate student. “It’s hard to say that he was definitely (fabricating sources) when he was an undergrad.”
Citing a federal law that prevents them from discussing disciplinary actions against students, administrators have declined to comment. Drudis has not responded to repeated requests for interviews.
Three newspaper editors say they cannot verify that more than 30 people that Drudis quoted in stories are real. Drudis has interned at the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Examiner and The (Philadelphia) Daily News in the past two years.
As a graduate student, Drudis worked for the Medill News Service, the journalism school’s student-staffed wire service. On Nov. 17, the service retracted two stories by Drudis that were picked up and published by local papers.
