Residence Life Enforces Quadrangle Interview Policy

By Deirdre Heavey, Fall 2019

Often pushing the status quo and telling untold stories, The Quadrangle has been reporting the truth at Manhattan College since 1924. In September 2019, The Quad’s ability to do journalism was threatened by a newly enforced Residence Life policy that placed limitations on their interview process.

Manhattan College students returned to campus this fall to find that their student ids no longer granted them access to all residence halls. As Access Control created controversy on campus, The Quadrangle became the community’s primary source of information for residence life policy changes and updates.

Charles Clency assumed his position as Director of Residence Life in November 2018. After a year of observing the institution and its practices, Clency began initiating structural policy changes in August 2019. The policy changes have been met by the student body with resistance.

The first policy change, known as Access Control, prevented the student body from freely accessing the residence halls at any given time. Following its implementation, the student body created campaigns on social media and reached out to administrators in protest of the “unfair” and “unjust” policy. Amidst the administration’s lack of communication and students’ outrage, The Quadrangle provided the community with information about Access Control.

“​Sadly, since access control and other unpopular Residence Life policies were the big stories of the semester, I think there is a lot of tension between The Quadrangle and Residence Life at the moment,” Rose Brennan, Managing Editor/Arts and Entertainment Editor for The Quadrangle, said.

In September, senior writers Gillian Puma and Lauren Schuster were reporting a story for the Quadrangle about added Residence Assistants, RAs, duties in Jasper and Chrysostom, C-Block, residence halls as a result of Access Control. When Puma and Schuster approached Clency for an interview, they were told that RAs were no longer permitted to discuss their employment with The Quadrangle. According to Puma, this was the first time in her three years as a Quadrangle reporter that her interview request was denied by the administration.

“First, we got an actual answer from an RA in C-Block who told us what the added duties were for,” Puma said. “When we tried to email higher authorities, we were rudely declined. Then, they emailed all of the RAs a new protocol that they weren’t to discuss their employment with The Quad.”

Soon after they were denied interviews with Residence Life, Puma and Schuster informed Editor-in-Chief Megan Dreher and Rose Brennan about the perceived policy change. Brennan said Residence Life never informed the Quadrangle of these new interview restrictions.

“​Prior to this academic year, we had always been able to interview RAs for stories, and then, for some reason, all of them began declining interviews, redirecting us to senior Residence Life staff,” Brennan said. “They were not allowed to tell us why, but one RA eventually did, and they said they were instructed not to speak to members of The Quad for interviews anymore.”

When Clency declined Puma and Schuster’s interview request, Brennan and Dreher decided to schedule a meeting with Clency and Vice President for Student Life Richard Satterlee to address the issue. During the meeting, Brennan and Dreher learned for the first time that it was not a matter of policy change but policy enforcement.

“This is actually not a new policy for the department,” Clency said. “It has always been a policy, but it was just a policy that was not enforced. The reason for that is, although we have a lot of staff, not every staff member is informed about why we’re doing things.”

According to Clency, RAs who have not been informed about the full extent of a policy initiative pose a liability threat. Because misquoting or misrepresenting the department can actually put RAs’ jobs in jeopardy, Clency said he felt more comfortable having all interview requests filtered through him directly.

“I am trying to be preventative of putting someone in that situation,” Clency said. “I want to make sure that we give any media, particularly the Quadrangle, an educated, thorough and thought-out response and not just a surface response based on how much information they have. This is a way of not running back and forth on that and not really making an employee, whether it be a professional or a student, feel unsafe in their own right because their information or something they have been involved with has been shared inappropriately.”

Faculty advisor to The Quadrangle and journalism professor, Nicholis Gilewicz, said this is a typical response of an authoritative figure dealing with interview requests.

“Regardless of the source, if you’re interviewing someone in some kind of official capacity about their duties or work, they are going to want to be well-represented no matter what, and they’re going to want interviews and stories about them to reflect well upon them,” Gilewicz said. “That’s the case with Charles Clency. Generally, anybody who talks to a journalist doesn’t want to be misquoted... and doesn’t want to look dumb or ignorant. You want the stories to reflect well upon you.”

While Clency attempted to ensure Residence Life communicates to The Quadrangle accurately, The Quadrangle interview policy enforcement had the opposite result. Many of The Quadrangle reporter’s primary complaints were rooted in the lack of communication between the two entities.

“​[The Quadrangle] is rightly sensitive to any attempt or perceived attempt by college administrators to interfere with their ability to write for the paper,” Gilewicz said. “Rose and Meg were right to ask for a meeting to clarify things and the relationship they would have with Clency, Satterlee and Residence Life issues.”

In terms of responding to requests for interviews, Gilewicz said Clency and his staff have been great about making themselves available to The Quadrangle staff writers. However, he said miscommunication has been an on-going issue at Manhattan College, not only in Residence Life but throughout the college’s administration.

“I believe Residence Life thought they were transparent about this policy because apparently, it has always been the office's policy not to allow RAs to be interviewed by Quad members about residence life matters,” Brennan said. “However, this policy had not been enforced before this academic year, which led to a fair amount of confusion on our part. ​In our meeting, I communicated to Mr. Clency that if Residence Life makes decisions like this where another organization on campus is implicated by a policy, that policy must be communicated to that organization.​”

After voicing their communication concerns with Clency and Satterlee, Brennan and Gilewicz said they are optimistic that similar miscommunication issues will not arise moving forward. Following the meeting, Brennan ensured The Quadrangle staff that an open line of communication has been established with Residence Life.

“Hopefully, Clency will give a forthright perspective or an overarching perspective about Residence Life issues,” Gilewicz said. “The challenge, of course, is if you wanted to learn about the challenges of being an RA. These stories will become harder to report on if RAs are unable to talk to The Quad. In terms of policy matters, it’s probably more apt to talk to someone with a higher power.”

According to Puma and Brennan, the policy was enforced by Residence Life as a way to maintain their reputation on campus.

“There have been far more controversial articles written, and one about the employment of RAs shouldn’t be an issue,” Puma said about the article she was denied from writing. “I think they thought we were giving them bad press.”

Brennan said she understands Clency’s liability concern, but she added that the policy patronizes both The Quad and the RAs, and it might prevent RAs’ voices from being heard. While Puma says the policy threatens free speech, Brennan said it is “merely wrong” to censor RAs from speaking to The Quad.

“A side effect of this decision, with which I do not agree, is that RAs cannot speak up when they believe something is wrong,” Brennan said. “Residence Life needs to acknowledge that RAs are students, too. They are not immune to the impact of the office's policies; they experience them firsthand.”

Clency, an advocate for journalism and student newspapers, said he thinks the student’s voices should be represented in the newspaper. However, he said he has an obligation to the department first and foremost. While RAs are no longer free to voice their opinions in The Quadrangle, Clency has established an RA Council to serve as an internal forum for RAs’ issues and concerns.

“I wanted our RA student staff to have a place where their voices can be heard,” Clency said. “I have tried to establish that and have continued to try to sustain it in order for me to hear the RAs’ voices as well as have an opportunity to explain things to them about why we’re going down this road.”

Within the RA Council, Clency said representatives from each RA staff are invited to meet with him directly as a way for RAs to communicate concerns and for him to inform them of policy changes. However, Clency admitted that an RA’s disapproval or discomfort with a policy is unlikely to sway his decision to enforce or implement said policy.

“Some changes, no matter what the RA says, is not going to change the outcome,” Clency said. “With access control for example, if the RAs had an opportunity to voice their concerns... as much as they may not have liked it or the general implementation of it, it was something that needed to be done for liability reasons.”

According to Clency, the RA position is designed as a leadership opportunity to foster community within the residence halls and throughout campus. Because of Clency’s primary concern with creating community at Manhattan College, he said that their concerns will only be addressed to an extent.

“In terms of the RA being uncomfortable in a situation, RAs don’t have a say on where they are,” Clency said. “Their comfort level is limited to whether or not they want the job. You either want to be an RA or you don’t.”

While Clency has made it clear that RAs will not have an ability to voice their concerns to The Quadrangle, Gilewicz said he sees this experience as a learning opportunity for Manhattan’s student journalists.

“As a training ground, it’s important for students to talk to people in positions of power and authority and to get used to that,” Gilewicz said. “As a journalist, you’re going to often need to speak with people who have greater political, social, cultural or economic power than you.”

Rather than view the new policy enforcement as a setback, Gilewicz said it actually presents a chance for The Quadrangle to practice speaking with authority figures. As a journalist, Gilewicz also said that these types of sourcing issues regularly arise.

“One of the challenging things about being a journalist is figuring out how to navigate that question,” Gilewicz said. “If there’s an issue with discrimination in RA hiring or something like that, it would hard to write the story without getting RAs to discuss it.”

While it would be more difficult for a reporter to write a story without speaking to those directly affected, Gilewicz said there is always a way around sourcing issues. Rather than speak directly to the RAs affected, Gilewicz said the story of those who would have been discriminated against would surface through alternate means.

“The overall point is in general, this is the kind of tension and tension with sourcing that journalists face whether it’s the Quadrangle with Residence Life or the New York Times with the CIA, there’s the same kind of structural issues with different stakes,” Gilewicz said. “The overall dynamics and the relationship between sources and how you find information is not all that different.”

To mitigate the sourcing tension with Residence Life, Brennan said the Quadrangle has developed new strategies to gain input on how policy changes may affect RAs. While the Residence Life interview policy enforcement has prevented the community from hearing RAs’ perspectives on new policies, Brennan said former RAs can often fill in those gaps.

“I have been respectful of the policy since I was informed of it and have not tried to solicit interviews from current RAs since,” Brennan said. “However, we've found ways around the policy, namely by interviewing students who were RAs last year but did not return to their position or by interviewing alumni who served as RAs while they were attending school here. We are nothing if not professionals at The Quad, and we can always work something out.”

In November, Brennan wrote a story about Clency’s decision to allow rising sophomores to apply for the RA position. Brennan was able to interview Clency about his decision to relay the full scope of the decision to the community. To gain a well-rounded perspective, Brennan reached out to a Manhattan College alumnus who was an RA his senior year and a freshman commuter who is interested in applying for the position. Through these sourcing means, Brennan produced an impartial article yielding multiple perspectives.

For The Tabboo Issue of The Quad in October, assistant editors Madalyn Johnson and Katie Heneghan wrote an article about the discomfort LGBTQ+ students face within Residence Life. Gilewicz said he was appreciative of Clency for agreeing to speak on the issue as it’s an important one.

With established communication between The Quadrangle and Residence Life, Clency said the situation has begun to work itself out. As a major proponent of change, Clency said he recognizes people dislike change and struggle to adapt to it. When Clency enacted Access Control, he said he expected the vocal reaction from the student body. However, as time has gone on, Clency said the student body has accepted it and moved on. He said he believes the same will be true with The Quadrangle policy.

“I have never made policy changes anywhere without students inquiring about change,” Clency said. “Because it’s a change in the procession of the Quadrangle, it’s met with reluctance. As time goes on, I think they’re going to see that it actually works pretty well.”

For Brennan, she said the issue does not lie in the change itself but in the transparency of the department. She added that the Quadrangle and the student body themselves share a similar sentiment.

“​The lack of information on what really matters is what is frustrating both to The Quad and to the students here,” Brennan said. “I believe it can all be addressed if Residence Life is more effective and clear in their communication of new policies.”

While Residence Life’s limitation to the Quadrangle’s interview process came as a surprise, the students responded with respect and diligence. The Quadrangle has a long history of reporting the news at Manhattan College with professionalism. Perceived by Gilewicz as a learning opportunity for The Quadrangle, student reporters have maintained their journalistic integrity by finding ulterior means to convey the truth.