Despite the intense controversy still surrounding Northwestern’s decision to suspend David Protess from teaching the popular Investigative Journalism class this quarter, Medill Prof. Alec Klein and eight students are preparing for a spring class that will look very similar to the old model.
Earlier this month, Medill Dean John Lavine told Protess, an award-winning 29-year professor and the director of the Medill Innocence Project, that he will not be allowed to teach the course. Lavine and other administrators have declined to give a reason for the decision.
Over the past two weeks, the professor switch sparked three petitions from various groups of students and alumni, as well as a letter from the American Association of University Professors, demanding a reason for the decision.
The AAUP letter, directed to University President Morton Schapiro, cited provisions in the Northwestern Faculty Handbook in asking for an explanation and a faculty hearing, which are described as required steps in the handbook.
The spring version of the class will continue to focus on wrongful convictions, the students will read the same textbook as they have in the past and longtime teaching assistant Sergio Serritella will return to the class after a quarter off, according to emails sent by Klein to the students in the class. Klein declined to comment.
The student and alumni petitions have not expressed any concerns about the capability of Klein, who taught the class in the fall while Protess was on sabbatical. Instead, they have focused on the implications of the decision on Protess’s Innocence Project, which historically has worked closely with the course to investigate cases with significant evidence of wrongful conviction.
The attorney representing the two inmates whom the class investigated in the winter is also serving as Protess’s private attorney. The attorney, Robert Stephenson, has informed the students that he won’t allow the inmates to work with them anymore.
The University decision comes as it continues a “review” of Protess and the Innocent Project, which has freed 12 innocent men from prison, including five from death row.
The review was launched in the fall after Cook County prosecutors produced evidence that Investigative Journalism students may have violated the law in investigating the case of Anthony McKinney, who has been in prison for nearly 30 years.
Prosecutors are subpoenaing thousands of student documents related to the Innocence Project’s three-year investigation of the McKinney case. While Protess has refused to turn over any documents, NU has given prosecutors hundreds of documents and is reviewing many more in anticipation of turning them over.
“The work of Professor Protess and the Medill Innocence Project has gained national recognition and brought credit to Northwestern and Medill,” University spokesman Al Cubbage said in a statement. “More importantly, that work has helped free wrongfully convicted individuals from prison. However, the laudable goal of the Innocence Project would not justify any improper actions that may have been taken by Professor Protess.”
Cubbage has declined to comment directly on the professor switch.
Protess responded to the statement by saying it was “outrageous that the University’s spokesperson continues to comment on a personnel matter.”
Innocence Project students and alumni, meanwhile, expressed outrage that the University hasn’t commented more on the situation by giving a reason for the suspension.
An online petition signed by nearly 400 students and alumni requested “a public explanation of the facts surrounding the apparent removal of Professor Protess” from Schapiro and Lavine.
Another petition, signed by the eight students enrolled in the spring course, expressed “our deepest disappointment” at the decision, which was “not made in consideration of the best interests of the students, past, present or future.”
The 10 students in Protess’s Winter Quarter Investigative Journalism course sent a petition to Schapiro, Lavine and Prof. Michele Bitoun, senior director of undergraduate education for Medill, adding their voice to the “chorus of disappointment” and requesting the administration “reconsider” its decision.
Protess has won several teaching and community service awards, including the University-wide Charles Deering McCormick Chair for Teaching Excellence and the Alumni Teaching Award. He earned nearly perfect scores from his Winter Quarter students in their anonymous Course and Teacher Evaluations, which he provided to The Daily.
“This class, taken with David Protess, will change your life. I am a much better journalist for having taken it, but more importantly, I am a better person,” one student wrote.
Klein, a former investigative business reporter at The Washington Post and best-selling author, also received high marks on the Fall Quarter CTECs, including a 5.25 out of 6.0 in “overall rating of instruction.”
“This course is the most amazing experience I have ever had at Northwestern,” one student wrote.
