You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
The DePauw University visiting journalism professor who used a student's arrest records to teach a lesson about public documents won't be sanctioned, the professor, Mark Tatge, said in a statement Wednesday. Students had complained after Tatge gave his class information on an athlete's arrest on suspicion of resisting arrest, public drunkenness and being a minor in possession of alcohol. The information was all publicly available. In a statement released to Inside Higher Ed on Wednesday, Tatge said he had "learned some things" from the process but maintained that his lesson was legitimate and not mean-spirited.
"I in no way meant to call attention to or to embarrass anyone," he wrote. "My goal here was merely to teach students about public records and make them better critical thinkers by using actual records filed in a public, open Indiana court."
He was also critical of the university's handling of the situation. "I feel the university did a poor job of communicating the intentions and procedures behind its review process to the media," he wrote. "I am committed to working with officials here in hope this kind of situation can be avoided in the future so another DePauw professor does not witness this same kind of communication breakdown."
