CHICAGO — The head of a college journalism program resigned to protest the promotion of a teacher who was fired 16 years ago as a reporter for allegedly faking a story.
Carolyn Hulse, the head of the Columbia College journalism program, announced her resignation Friday, a day after Wade Roberts was named acting dean of the new School of Media Arts.
“I resigned because I felt the appointment of the new acting dean was an inappropriate choice,” Hulse said in a brief statement.
Hulse said she would resume her teaching duties at the 9,000-student liberal arts college after her resignation, effective Sept. 1.
Roberts teaches fiction writing, television and interactive media at the college. The new position would put him in charge of journalism as well.
Roberts has been nominated three times as Teacher of the Year and has helped make the Interactive Multimedia program one of the most college’s most popular as its director, Columbia College President Warrick L. Carter said in a statement.
“I felt and still feel his is the right person to lead this new unit,” Carter said.
Calls Saturday to a phone number listed for Roberts went unanswered. A message left on his pager was not immediately returned.
Roberts was fired by the Chicago Sun-Times in 1985 after he was accused of making up a feature story describing boisterous fans singing and drinking at a Texas roadhouse after the Chicago Bears beat the Dallas Cowboys.
Newsroom staff suspected the story might have been too good to be true, and then-managing editor Ken Towers flew with Roberts to Texas and spent a weekend trying to find the bar. They never did.
Roberts maintained his story was true and refused to resign. He said the bar was illegal, and that he had been led to it via a circuitous route so that he couldn’t find it again. The Sun-Times fired Roberts and published an apology.
