College Media Advisers Lifts Censure of Kansas State University

By: A national journalism organization has lifted its censure of Kansas State University for the 2004 firing of newspaper adviser Ron Johnson.

College Media Advisers said Thursday the move was made partly because former A.Q. Miller School of Journalism director Todd Simon resigned after the firing and Johnson has taken another job.

Johnson is a northwest Kansas native, graduate of Fort Hays State University and former director of the FHSU journalism program. He is now director of student media at the Indiana University School of Journalism, Bloomington, Ind.

Also, the journalism school?s current director has assured that no adviser would ever again be fired for content in the Kansas State Collegian student newspaper.

The university claimed Johnson was fired because of the newspaper?s ?declining quality,? but many believed it was because of a dispute between the Collegian and the Black Student Union.

College Media Advisers represents about 550 colleges and universities across the U.S.