In October, The Gazelle reported on a editorial published by NYU New York’s Washington Square News announcing the collective resignation of 43 staff editors after the forced appointment of Editorial Advisor Dr. Kenna Griffin. The editorial marked the beginning of a publishing hiatus until the staff’s demands were met.

Now, nearly two and a half months later, WSN is still not publishing, making this the paper’s longest publication disruption since its inception in 1973. The Gazelle spoke to Finley Muratova, NYUNY Class of 2022 and the former Managing Editor for WSN’s affiliate magazine Under the Arch. Muratova and Abby Hofstetter, Class of 2022 and former acting Editor-in-Chief at the time of the staff’s resignation, are the only two students actively working to restore WSN.

Muratova shared that they’ve been attempting to contact their former business advisor, who has ignored the majority of their texts, calls and emails. The most communication the students have received in the last two months has been one response: “The university is working on the situation and making progress,” the advisor wrote.

After September’s events, the College Media Association (CMA), an organization dedicated to supporting and educating student journalists, announced that it would be launching an investigation of Griffin, who was serving as the association’s president at the time. Two weeks later, CMA announced that it was ill-equipped to conduct such investigation, and in a three-to-one vote with one abstention, the CMA executive committee voted against asking Griffin to resign. CMA cited litigation concerns as well as the fact that Griffin was still employed by NYUNY as its primary reasons for abandoning the investigation. However, NYUNY Spokesman John Beckman wrote in a statement earlier in September that Griffin is independent of NYUNY and is paid with WSN revenues.

As of now, Griffin is still officially WSN’s advisor and has not recognized the staff’s demands for her resignation.

“I don’t know how we are going to rebuild WSN without at least meeting the demand of Dr. Griffin’s resignation,” shared Muratova. “They can’t possibly delete the editorial, if they do that’s censorship. Even if they do delete the editorial, and enough time has passed that nobody notices, the things that happened will still pop up when you google us or Dr. Griffin.”

Muratova also mentioned the ramifications of the scandal on attracting future staffers to the paper. Prospective staff members who learn about what happened at WSN might be deterred from joining themselves. The resignation editorial prompted numerous former staff members to speak out about their own negative experiences at WSN and denounce alleged biases embedded in the publication.

The pandemic has made this disruption even more difficult for the former WSN staff. Many of the students felt isolated during September’s events, and the normal sense of camaraderie found in the bustling WSN newsroom in the basement of an NYUNY residential building was completely lost. The staff are scattered all over the world, trying to run a newsroom over Google Docs and Slack messages. “Even just being able to hug each other would have made this experience much more bearable,” shared Muratova.

Other media organizations at NYUNY, such as the blog NYU Local and radio station WNYU, have been working to fill the gap that WSN’s publishing hiatus has created. But nonetheless, WSN’s absence has been deeply felt by the NYU community. “Honestly, it’s immeasurable how much students have lost in the month or so since WSN stopped updating,” said Paul Ibuzor, NYUNY’s school senator for the College of Arts and Sciences.

WSN has always covered major stories that are critically important to the NYU community. In the first month of the academic year alone, they reported on Covid-19 policies in New York and at the university, a greater presence of New York police officers on the NYUNY campus and discrimination against low-income students

“It’s as much about WSN as it is about not letting other student journalists be harmed by the same situation we were harmed by,” said Muratova.

Not only does WSN need a new editorial advisor to help rebuild and improve the publication, but it needs a complete overhaul of its journalistic procedures and standards for reporting. NYU is a predominantly white institution, which is reflected in the staff diversity of WSN. Muratova discussed WSN’s need to incorporate trainings on journalistic integrity when reporting on minority groups, LGBTQ communities and other sensitive topics.

WSN’s publication has been disrupted, and its reputation has also been tarnished. However, the staff remains discouraged by the lack of action and transparency by NYUNY, as well as its unwillingness to help the students reach a solution. It will take significant teamwork to rebuild WSN and reestablish itself across NYU and the journalistic community in the times to come.