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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2004)
Gleason accepts responsibility for workshop The following is a letter written to School of Journalism and Communication stu dents, faculty and staff It will be posted to day on the school's Website. An advertising workshop led by Port land-based advertising legend Dan Wieden has been the subject of news re ports and editorials recently. Now that the workshop has concluded and the assignments have been completed — and with the perspective time provides — I wanted to share with you the les sons we have learned and how they will shape the academic experience in the future. It is clear that some students found themselves in a position that resulted in behaviors that are inconsistent with the __mission, |CC—, ethics, values I and vision of COMMENTARY !heSd'°ol°f _ lournahsm and Com munication and the University of Ore gon. For that, I express my deepest re gret and accept full responsibility. Founded in 1916, the University's School of Journalism and Communi cation is one of the oldest schools of its type in the country. From the beginning we have been committed to the highest ethical standards and excellence in teaching. At the heart of the school's mission is the welfare of its students. To that end, the faculty will begin work im mediately to examine existing policies and, where necessary, outline new guidelines intended to safeguard stu dents against any assignments that might lead them to actions inconsistent with the ethics and vision of the school. As we continue to innovate and, yes, to take risks, we will be even more vigilant in assuring that our coursework is always conducted with the utmost in tegrity. The School of Journalism and Com munication's relationship with Dan Wieden will continue. He is an hon ored alumnus who shares our commit ment to ethical principles and to the welfare of students. He has given un selfishly of his time for the past 12 years to run a student workshop that has proved invaluable. It has led to tremen dous learning and career opportunities for many of the school's graduates. This year, as in the past, student feedback on the workshop was very positive. In the future, the school will work with Dan more carefully to ensure that all assign ments in the workshop are consistent with the school's policies and vision. Ihe School of Journalism and Com munication has a time-honored tradi tion of being accountable to its students and making its students accountable. As dean, it is my intention to ensure that we continue that tradition. We will learn from this experience, grow from it, and use it to improve the student learning experience. Tim Gleason is the dean of the School of Journalism and Communication. Nothing left to fear: The conclusion of Wieden Dan Wieden paused for a moment in his speech, as the professor said to him, "Dan, this is Marissa." On Fri day, June 4, I came face-to-face with the "advertisingguru" whom I scold ed in a previous column for the as signments he gave in his workshop. I wanted to slide under the table, pre tending I'd dropped my pen, but I sat in my chair, with hands clasped tightly to the armrests, ready for whatever was coming my way. It was time to see how Mr. Wieden would react to my column and the media coverage surrounding my opinion. It turned out that he reacted with more maturity and compassion than anyone I had spoken with in the past three weeks. Several times he tried to explain to me that no one in the room was angry with me, and he re spected what I had done. He asked me to tell my story and all that 1 had been through in the weeks following the workshop. When I explained how I felt attacked when the various tasks kept being assigned to me, one of the men who had been at the workshop nodded in understanding. Throughout the day, Mr. Wieden did his best to make sure I felt comfortable, sitting with me at lunch, talking to me about my con cerns and complimenting me on my writing. In truth, I felt more comfort able that day at Wieden + Kennedy than I've felt in Allen Hall recently. Although Mr. Wieden said no one was angry with me, it certainly didn't feel that way. One of my former pro fessors and the dean wouldn't even look at me. In the students' videos, they took shots at my newspaper and my viewpoint on the workshop. One student's video placed a pic ture of Dan Wieden on the screen with the caption "This is God," fol lowed by a picture of the agency's in terior with the caption "This is heav en." Then words appeared on the screen about how Dan Wieden was an upstanding citizen, helping inner city children. He concluded his trib ute with a comment about how the real tragedy of all of this was that when you type Dan Wieden's name into Google, the fourth thing to ap pear was some garbage about this workshop. It hurts to have your ef forts to stand up for students deemed garbage, but to each his own. Marissa Jones Cry me a river After the video we took a break. 1 quickly rushed out of the building for some fresh air. As 1 crossed the street, tears began to roll down my cheeks. 1 was strong, but not invinci ble. 1 heard someone call my name, and as I turned around, 1 found Dan Wieden running out of the building after me. He asked if 1 was all right, showing his concern for me. Some how I managed to form a smile, as my broken voice said, "I'm fine. It just gets really wearing sitting there being attacked." He patted me on my shoulder as I cried. It took a long six hours until we finished everything in the workshop. The videos had turned out like I had thought. I never denied that watch ing a student go out on a date with a blow-up doll would be funny. I just never saw the point. Some of the stu dents had been kicked out of stores or restaurants, while one talked about feeling bad for deceiving peo ple who had been so nice. A few stu dents decided to bypass the specific directions given to them in the work shop, saying it was just mean and that they wouldn't follow them. 1 he time had come for my presen tation, which was a collection of quotes and stories from the articles on fear given to us along with a book on Andy Kaufman. 1 could hear the weakness in my voice, as it fluctuat ed between my deep breaths. But as 1 reached the third slide, which had a quote about fearing disconnection from your peers by being different, my voice disappeared. The tension was too strong for me fight, as I be gan to cry. There are very few times I can remember letting others see me cry, and here I sat in front of fourteen peers, Dan Wieden, two men from the agency, a professor and the dean. It was then that for the first time, someone associated with the work shop stood up for me. As I stared at the words blurred by my tears, Dan Wieden spoke, telling me to keep go ing and that 1 was absolutely right. In the past weeks, 1 had been told I wasn't creative enough and that Dan Wieden was great. I was asked, 'What the hell are you doing?" Someone else said that my column might cause Dan Wieden to cancel the workshop in the future. A profes sor even told me that some of his friends would have thought it was funny if someone objected at their wedding. The point was that / didn't think it was funny, and that there was nothing wrong with my viewpoint. In fact, a lot of people outside the workshop agreed with me. Instead of validating my concerns, everyone as sociated with the workshop attacked me, except for the man whom they all feared l offended. After 1 finished my presentation, a student came up to me and said that if the workshop was about fear and courage, what I had done took more courage than any of the other tasks. 1 slipped out of the room, as my peers said goodbye and congratulated me. 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