The fact that The Daily Orange Editorial Board couldn’t come to a unanimous consensus on whether or not the Newhouse School should’ve disinvited Michel du Cille from participating in the 2014 Fall Workshop reinforces the extremely difficult situation Dean Lorraine Branham and Syracuse University were put in.

As Branham has said in numerous interviews, the decision — whichever way the school decided — was going to upset people. The dean and the university should be commended for decidedly picking a side in the case — something the Editorial Board did not do.
The focus of Monday’s editorial should’ve been on the imminent adversity the school was going to face no matter what they decided, not “Decision to disinvite photographer was fueled by Ebola hysteria.” If The Daily Orange is going to run such a headline for its editorial, then all eight members of the board should stand by it. That was not the case.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board, which has nothing at stake with running its editorial, couldn’t come to a unanimous decision after a weekend in which the event received national coverage. Branham, who had much more at stake, made the controversial decision on a stricter deadline, which solidifies her position as the dean of a premiere journalism school, and doesn’t, as the board suggest, “reflect poorly on Newhouse.”

Branham insists it was not a journalism decision, but rather a student decision. The Editorial Board and many of Branham’s other critics don’t understand what it’s like to make a “student decision.” Branham does, and the Editorial Board ignored this.

The Editorial Board writes that the decision didn’t stem from “factual evidence,” but it’s the Editorial Board who downplayed the facts that went into the decision. The board writes, “du Cille had passed the 21-day incubation period.” This implies that the incubation period passed at least, say, a week before. The Washington Post, du Cille’s employer, reports “it had been exactly 21 days since du Cille returned from Liberia.” That’s a big factor in the school’s decision, and the Editorial Board misreported it.

The administrators’ ability to make a tough decision in the face of adversity justifies the status of the prestigious journalism school — emphasis on “school.” The failure to recognize this paired with misreporting the 21-day incubation period reflects poorly on The Daily Orange Editorial Board.

Nick Canedo
Graduate student
Magazine, newspaper and online journalism major
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications