NYU student newspaper staffers quit

The bulk of NYU’s student newspaper staff abruptly resigned Monday over grievances with its new universityappointed editorial adviser.

The Washington Square News, in a lead editorial atop its website, called on the school to fire the adviser, Kenna Griffin, and accused her of making a power grab that undermined their abilities and authority as student-journalists.

“It was not a decision we enjoyed making,” said the editorial, signed by 40 members of the staff. “However, we understand that continuing to work at WSN in our current circumstance would do more harm than good, and we refuse to condone what we have seen over the past three weeks.”

The only name missing from the list was that of the paper’s former editorin-chief, who was fired “without warning” earlier this month, the editorial said.

Since then, the paper has been operating under a cloud of fear, belittled by an over-demanding administrator whose criticism is more personal than constructive, the staffers said.

The last straw, they said, came after Griffin clashed with a Black staffer last week over an article about protests that followed a Kentucky grand jury’s decision not to pursue homicide charges against three officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor.

“Dr. Griffin displayed an increasing disrespect to WSN’s Black staff members, leading to one staff member choosing to speak out and accuse Dr. Griffin of intolerance,” the editorial said.

“We are not comfortable continuing to work in an environment that trivializes Black voices when they speak up and then uses them for personal gain.”

An NYU spokesman said the announcement came as “a complete surprise.”

“The WSN has been around for a very long time, and we do think it is important for there to be a journalistic voice at a university,” school spokesman John Beckman said in a statement. “Our expectation is that the students must sort out this internal dispute between themselves, their advisor (who is a person independent of NYU and is paid with WSN revenues), and their publication board, perhaps by enlisting the counsel and assistance of those with journalism or college journalism experience.

Griffin could not be reached for comment.