A committee appointed by the provost of Northwestern University has found “no evidence” that John Lavine, dean of the university’s Medill School of Journalism, fabricated quotations in a column he wrote for the school’s alumni magazine.
Mr. Lavine has faced intense criticism from students and alumni of Medill for using quotes from anonymous students in the column, which praised a marketing class at the school.
Students at the journalism school are generally instructed to avoid using unnamed sources in their reporting — a longstanding trope of old-school journalism. According to many observers, the dustup over Mr. Lavine’s column telegraphs a larger conflict at Medill between such traditional journalistic values and a set of new emphases, spearheaded by Mr. Lavine, on marketing and audience research.
Last week Daniel I. Linzer, the provost, announced that he had appointed an ad hoc committee of three Medill alumni to look into the matter of the disputed quotes. In a statement today, Mr. Linzer reported the committee’s finding that, “although a record of the student statements that were quoted cannot be found … sentiments similar to quotes had been expressed by students.”
The committee said it had found “no evidence to point to any likelihood that the quotes were fabricated.”
Last week Mr. Lavine apologized for what he called his “poor judgment” in using a quotation, though he did not name its source. He said the quote had come from either lost notes or an e-mail message he had erased.
The ad hoc committee said that, in the future, “meticulous archiving might be desirable.” —John Gravois