The Mercury, the student-run newspaper at the University of Texas at Dallas since 1980, is on hiatus after the termination of its editor-in-chief on Sept. 13.
“Without us, there is no student media,” said ex-Editor-in-Chief Gregorio Olivares. The editorial board said the board’s recent coverage of protests on campus received backlash from administrators. When the Student Media Operating Board terminated Olivares over reports from the administration about mismanagement, his staff followed him to launch an independent paper called The Retrograde. The Retrograde plans to publish online biweekly, with the first issue released Sept. 30.
“Gregorio is someone that I respect,” said Paola Martinez, the former life and arts editor of The Mercury. “He’s put in so much of his time and effort and hard work into making The Mercury more of a fun place to work at. I was shocked.”
Conflicts began when the paper released an early summer issue on May 20 with breaking news about the May 1 pro-Palestine encampment, features on students who were arrested and editorials condemning the university’s use of “military-grade violence.”
Two days later, Student Affairs demoted advisor Jonathan Stewart from The Mercury. Jenni Huffenberger, the senior director of student media, temporarily took his place critiquing the paper’s work. Mercury student management said they then dealt with a series of problems with administrators, including hostile critique meetings, pressures to submit their work for prior review and changes to how staff were paid.
In July, Student Affairs appointed a new advisor and director of student media, Lydia Lum. On Sept. 11, Lum sent a memo to the Student Media Operating Board stating Olivares committed three violations of the Student Media Bylaws: holding a second university job, causing budget overruns and bypassing Lum’s advisory role by keeping stories “private.”
“Lydia was pushing for us to show her the content that we were writing prior to publication to a degree that we were uncomfortable with,” said Maria Shaikh, former managing editor of The Mercury.
Lum called a Student Media Operating Board meeting on Sept. 13 to vote for Olivares’ termination. She told student board members they “won’t need to attend” because the meeting would be “unusual,” and she would schedule a “real meeting” of the board soon.
Only two of five student voting members were present at the meeting, while both faculty members were, resulting in a 3-1 vote to terminate Olivares. Still, the Student Media Bylaws indicated he could appeal first to the board, and lastly to senior director Huffenberger.
However, Gene Fitch, the vice president of Student Affairs, directed Huffenberger to make the final decision without the board. Student Affairs staff did not respond to questions regarding the change in appeals procedures. Huffenberger officially denied the appeal on Sept. 26, prompting Olivares and ex-Mercury staff to establish The Retrograde.
Over 1,200 people have cosigned the strike statement. No decisions have been made about The Mercury or its staffing at this time, the university said in a statement.
“Regardless of if we call ourselves The Mercury, or if we call ourselves The Retrograde, we’ve got that same commitment to the campus of keeping them informed and working to provide our own staff with as many possibilities and opportunities as possible,” Olivares said.
Editor’s note: This story was changed to correct the spelling of a source’s name. A previous version of the story also misstated the publication frequency of The Retrograde. The Texan regrets these errors.
