Who Speaks for Loyola?

Summary

Campus Files: Who Speaks for Loyola?
Episode Summary

Introduction and Background

In the July 9, 2025 episode of Campus Files, host Margo Gray delves into the turbulent relationship between Loyola University Chicago’s administration and its student-run newspaper, The Phoenix. This episode uncovers a significant period of conflict that highlights issues of free speech, journalistic integrity, and administrative control within a prestigious Catholic institution.

The Phoenix Newspaper and Bob Hergath

At the heart of the story is Mary, a dedicated senior journalism student at Loyola, whose fearless reporting for The Phoenix brought her into direct conflict with university administrators. Mary’s work covered critical and often uncomfortable topics, including street crime, sexual assault handling, and notably, tuition hikes. Her commitment to truth and accountability exemplifies the crucial role of student journalism in holding institutions accountable.

Bob Hergath, a seasoned journalist with over 25 years at the Chicago Sun Times, serves as the faculty advisor for The Phoenix. His deep-rooted belief in the importance of journalism is evident when he states at [04:10] Hergath: "I grew up reading the Chicago Sun Times. My dad worked there... I just grew up with journalism in my bloodstream. I really love what I do, and I take it really seriously."

Change in Administration and Its Impact

The dynamics at Loyola shifted dramatically in the spring of 2016 with the appointment of Joanne Rooney as the new president. Rooney, the first woman and layperson to lead the university, brought a markedly different approach to administration. Her tenure saw a strategic pivot towards controlling the narrative around the university, affecting the autonomy of The Phoenix.

March Madness and Media Control

The 2018 March Madness tournament marked a turning point. Loyola’s unexpected success, highlighted by the charismatic 98-year-old chaplain Sister Jean, attracted positive media attention. As Mary reflects at [14:29], “As a student it was really fun. But as a journalist it was clear that there were so many attempts... to keep any possible issues pushed down.” This surge in positive publicity intensified the administration’s efforts to suppress negative reporting, particularly concerning sensitive issues like sexual assault and campus safety.

Media Policy and Editorial Responses

In response to increased media attention, Rooney’s administration implemented a new media policy requiring all journalistic inquiries to funnel through the university’s Public Relations (PR) staff. This policy, introduced subtly around March 2018, severely restricted direct access to faculty and administrative officials. Mary recounts at [18:52], “It felt so odd because first of all, that's a lot of time to take all of our requests. We were a weekly paper, we were working on several stories at a time...”

The restrictive policy led to mounting frustration among the student journalists. Attempts to directly contact professors resulted in reprimands, as illustrated when a student received a scolding email for pursuing a story on women in Loyola's STEM programs (at [19:25]). Faced with diminishing access and increasing hostility, the student body decided to take a stand.

On February 13, 2019, The Phoenix published an editorial titled “Loyola's Media Policy is Straight Out of the Trump Playbook,” drawing national attention to the administration’s tactics. At [22:00], Bob Hergath reflects, “In our story this year, Rooney refused.” The editorial’s bold comparison to the Trump administration’s press handling resonated widely, leading to coverage by major outlets like NBC News and intervention from free speech organizations such as Fire and Pen America, which advocated for the rescinding of the restrictive media policy.

Aftermath and Legacy

While the administration eventually rolled back the media policy due to external pressure, tensions persisted. Mary experienced direct hostility, including a confronting phone call with the university’s CFO over her reporting ([23:50]). The resiliency and courage of the student journalists, supported by Bob Hergath’s unwavering guidance, underscored the importance of free press within academic institutions.

Rooney’s resignation in 2021 marked the end of an era, yet questions remained about the long-term impact on Loyola’s commitment to journalistic integrity. Bob Hergath expressed his disillusionment, stating at [26:16], “This is ridiculous. This is the 21st century... no way that this press department... should be behaving this way.” The appointment of a new dean in 2024, lacking a journalism background, suggested ongoing challenges in prioritizing authentic journalistic education at Loyola.

Conclusion and Reflections

The episode concludes with reflections from both Mary and Bob on how their experiences at Loyola shaped their professional lives. Mary emphasizes the importance of mentorship and support, while Bob highlights the critical need for integrity and resilience in journalism. Their stories serve as a powerful reminder of the essential role that free, independent media plays in educational settings and beyond.

Notable Quotes

• Mary [02:21]: "There's no other way to describe it than it was a temper tantrum. It was incredibly hostile and incredibly disrespectful."

• Bob Hergath [05:54]: "Thou shalt not make up shit. Thou shall not pass off anyone else's work as your own."

• Mary [07:00]: "One specific one that will stick with me forever is the student who was found responsible for rape in the Title IX office and walked the stage at graduation after he was expelled and banned from campus."

• Bob Hergath [11:31]: "I'm not there anymore. I didn't want anything out of it other than just this to be acknowledged and not to be repeated, and I never heard back."

Impact and Significance

This episode of Campus Files not only chronicles the specific struggles at Loyola University Chicago but also reflects broader themes pertinent to academic freedom and the safeguarding of free speech within educational institutions. By highlighting the personal experiences of Mary and Bob, the podcast underscores the enduring importance of journalistic integrity and the challenges faced in maintaining it against institutional pressures.

Further Resources

For additional stories on scandals that have rocked American institutions, listeners are encouraged to explore seasons 1-3 of Gangster Capitalism available on the same feed:

• Season 1: The College Admissions Scandal
• Season 2: The NRA
• Season 3: Jerry Falwell Jr. and Liberty University

Campus Files continues to serve as an unofficial campus tour, revealing the often-hidden complexities behind the revered façade of American colleges.

Transcript

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[Margo Gray]

In the spring of 2020, Mary was a senior at Loyola University in Chicago. She was studying journalism and she'd fallen in love with the student paper. Since her freshman year, she'd been a reporter for the Phoenix. Mary didn't shy away from tough stories, ones that were important to students but often uncomfortable for the administration. She wrote about street crime near campus and the university's handling of sexual assault cases, but it was her writing about the university's tuition hikes that apparently crossed the line. Not long after her article ran, Mary got a call from the university's chief financial officer.

[Mary]

There's no other way to describe it than it was a temper tantrum. It was incredibly hostile and incredibly disrespectful. I think of how young I was and frankly, how well I handled the situation considering I was 22, getting yelled at by a 50 year old man who is a CFO at a university.

[Margo Gray]

Mary was caught off guard by the yelling, but not necessarily by the administration's hostility. By now, tensions between the student paper and the administration had reached a boiling point.

[Bob Hergath]

The level of being just berated and harassed and yelled at, and my character was questioned.

[Mary]

It wasn't normal. And in five years as a professional journalist, I have never been treated that way. It is not normal.

[Margo Gray]

I'm Margo Gray. This week on Campus Files, Loyola's administration tries to censor its own student paper. I never would have heard about this story if it weren't for a tip. The call came from a Chicago area code. On the other end, Bob Hergath, a longtime journalist.

[Bob Hergath]

Journalism is this very crucial tool in education. Educating the public, keeping tabs on levers of power, ensuring, as best we can, the purity of democracy and whatnot.

[Margo Gray]

As you can tell, Bob's a true believer in what he does. He's been a reporter at the Chicago Sun Times for 25 years, and his connection to the paper goes back even further.

[Bob Hergath]

I grew up reading the Chicago Sun Times. My dad worked there. He was a reporter and columnist, and my mom also was a reporter. You know, I just grew up with journalism in my bloodstream. I really love what I do, and I take it really seriously. I joke that it's sort of my religion.

[Margo Gray]

Bob's other religion is Catholicism. He grew up in the church and later attended Loyola University, one of the country's largest Catholic schools run by the Jesuit order.

[Bob Hergath]

It's based in Rogers park, which is a northernmost neighborhood in the city of Chicago, right on Lake Michigan. I mean, it's got this gorgeous chapel that kind of rises from the edge of the lake that anchors the campus.

[Margo Gray]

Decades after graduating from Loyola, Bob got the chance to come back, but this time in a different role. The university invited him to be the faculty advisor for the student paper the Phoenix, combining his two lifelong passions, journalism and faith.

[Bob Hergath]

Not that I'm some preacher, but I do see a really deep intersection between Christianity and journalism. Both of them purport to pursue the truth.

[Margo Gray]

As faculty advisor, Bob's role was to guide student reporters on ethical and accurate journalism, a responsibility he took very seriously.

[Bob Hergath]

You gotta care what goes on in the colleges at this level and educating them correctly, the students in journalism, because are going to be in the future.

[Margo Gray]

At the start of each year, Bob had his students read the SPJ Code of Ethics, a guide to what journalists should and shouldn't do. Bob also shared his own list, what he called the Ten Commandments for Phoenix staffers.

[Bob Hergath]

Thou shalt not make up shit. Thou shall not pass off anyone else's work as your own. Thou shalt be exceedingly accurate. Thou shalt challenge authority. In the status quo when necessary.

[Margo Gray]

Bob's commitment to the paper paid off. During his time as advisor, the Phoenix was named the best student paper in the country, not once, but twice.

[Bob Hergath]

Loyola was not known as, you know, it's certainly not that. I know of a ranked journalism program that's typically been regarded as Columbia University, Northwestern, and Mizzou. Yet Loyola's paper was really a force. I'm really proud of that.

[Mary]

We took ourselves very seriously as a student paper, and I was always working on something that was really important and felt important as a student.

[Margo Gray]

This is Mary, the student journalist we heard from at the top of the episode. She says the Phoenix earned its reputation by tackling difficult stories, never hesitating to call out the administration or report on issues that reflected poorly on the university. And there's a long list of those stories.

[Mary]

There was a woman who was beaten and robbed like blocks from campus, and we never got a crime alert about it. There was a building on campus that housed offices for a certain department, and they had been reporting mold and air quality issues for five years and hadn't received mitigation for that. There was a professor in which an investigation found evidence of sexual harassment. He was still teaching. One specific one that will stick with me forever is the student who was found responsible for rape in the Title IX office and walked the stage at graduation after he was expelled and banned from campus.

[Margo Gray]

The Loyola administration wasn't exactly thrilled with stories like these. And sometimes they complained. But the unspoken rule held firm. The administration stayed out of the newsroom. Students reported what they wanted when they wanted. That delicate balance started to shift in the spring of 2016, as Mary wrapped up her freshman year. A new president was taking the helm of the university. Joanne Rooney. And as Mary soon learned, Rooney had very different ideas about what student journalists should and shouldn't be allowed to say. You know that feeling when the weather finally warms up and nothing in your closet feels right? Personally, I was there last month and I didn't want to splurge on pieces I'd only wear once. So I decided to give Quint a try. And it was a game changer. Their clothing is high quality and made to last at a way better price than comparable brands. I added their 100% European linen dress to my closet. It's already a go to, and I know it's not just going to be my staple for this summer, but for next summer, too. Quint's makes luxury affordable by working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen. Everything is ethically made responsibly sourced and beautifully crafted. So give your summer wardrobe a serious upgrade with quints. Go to quints.com campus for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's Quincus for free shipping and 365 day returns.quints.com campus hey, what's up flies?

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[Dana Carvey]

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[Dana Carvey]

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[Margo Gray]

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[Mary]

I was so new to college and new to Chicago and new to everything that that was not even on my radar who the university president was when I was a freshman.

[Margo Gray]

But Bob, the paper's faculty advisor, was very interested in getting to know the new university leadership. After all, it directly affected his job. He served as the go between for the administration and student journalists.

[Bob Hergath]

I don't recall ever being aware of her prior to her being hired. She's not this towering figure that I would have been aware of. But once she was hired, we all became quite aware of her history in the Defense Department and the controversies that she had been involved in the controversy.

[Margo Gray]

Bob is referring to. Years earlier, President Obama had nominated Rooney for Under Secretary of the Navy. But the nomination fell apart after she made controversial remarks about sexual assault in the military. The coverage was intense and the backlash was swift.

[Bob Hergath]

I wonder whether that if she felt that she was treated unfairly at the time by the media, if that informed her views of the media. I don't know. All I know is that before she got there, Loyola was really building up and bulking up and professionalizing its journalism program. And that ceased to be a priority shortly after she arrived.

[Margo Gray]

There were other red flags early in Rooney's presidency. At one of her first faculty meetings, for instance, she started raising questions about the Phoenix.

[Bob Hergath]

I was just surprised like that the school paper would be on her radar. Out of all the things for the new president of a school with, you know, 10,000 plus students and thousands of employees and a billion dollars plus of whatever. And then I found out that it was very much on her radar.

[Margo Gray]

To be fair, the previous administration also kept the Phoenix on its radar. After all, student reporters had the power to influence the school's reputation. So those in charge made sure to keep an eye on them.

[Bob Hergath]

In years past, when Father Garanzini was the president of the school, he got pissed from time to time over the coverage or if there was a perceived mistake or something unfair, and we'd hear about it. But the school wasn't on lockdown verbally.

[Margo Gray]

In other words, while the previous administration didn't always agree with the Phoenix's coverage, they still made themselves available to student reporters, sitting for interviews and answering questions. But that was starting to change under Rooney. Mary saw it firsthand. Early in Rooney's presidency, she was covering the new administration's announcement that tuition would be raised.

[Bob Hergath]

When Rooney came in, one of her biggest promises was that she wouldn't raise tuition. When you break a promise, you should at least be able to explain why. Why are you not keeping your word?

[Margo Gray]

Phoenix reporters wanted answers. Why exactly did tuition need to be raised? Where was the money going? But Rooney didn't respond. No statement, no explanation. And this pattern of silence was just the beginning. The administration became even less transparent as Loyola found itself in the national spotlight.

[Dana Carvey]

Loyola, they are in the tournament for.

[Bob Hergath]

The first time in 33 years.

[TJ Raphael]

The new darlings of March Madness.

[Margo Gray]

The men's basketball team made a surprising run in the 2018 March Madness tournament as an 11th seed. They kept pulling off one upset after another. The media couldn't get enough of the Cinderella story, especially the team's 98 year old chaplain. Sister Jean.

[Natalie Morales]

Good and gracious God, we're here today to beat Miami.

[Margo Gray]

We feel confident in playing this game. We're focused.

[Mary]

As a student it was really fun. But as a journalist it was clear that there were so many attempts and probably successful attempts to keep this fun little school in Chicago image with Sister Jean and keep that at the forefront and, and any possible issues pushed down.

[Margo Gray]

In other words, the wave of positive press only intensified the administration's desire to suppress negative coverage, especially stories about sexual assault and street crime. Here's Bob.

[Bob Hergath]

They were very restrictive on discussing and helping with those types of stories. It was like a battle to get information to address allegations and the school's handling of those allegations. The Title IX office, for instance.

[Margo Gray]

Eventually, Bob tried to reason with the administration. He arranged a meeting with Rooney's head of marketing and communications.

[Bob Hergath]

We sat and we tried to sort of clear the air. And you know, one of the things that he had said was that, well, she's got to worry about the reputation of the place. And I thought, well, yeah, she does. And she also has to worry about the safety of the place. Not that the administration is to blame for everything that happens, but they can choose how they respond and react. And to me, information is power. If you know that there's a spate of robberies over here, maybe you don't walk there alone at night. Then if you hear about somebody being roofied at a bar, which did happen, then maybe you don't go to that bar and maybe you're more careful. And so this is not just fun and games.

[Margo Gray]

In the end, Bob's conversation didn't change anything. In fact, things only got worse. After March Madness.

[Mary]

I remember feeling like it was getting increasingly harder to get in touch with people. Honestly, it was incredibly difficult to get answers out of anybody.

[Margo Gray]

And it turns out this wasn't just a shift in leadership style. It was a deliberate attempt to silence critical coverage that left the Phoenix with a choice. Capitulate or fight back. Epic views, waterfall, mists, summit, sunsets. It's all better outside. And with alltrails, you can discover the best of nature. With over 450,000 trails around the world. Download the free app today and find your next adventure.

[Mary]

What does possibility meet you? Um, that's a hard question.

[Margo Gray]

Something that you can strive for.

[Mary]

I'm able to do anything I set my mind to. You're confident in yourself and you believe in yourself. Stuff that you could achieve, I feel at Saita, at ebay is possible when you're more confident Shoes are a huge part of that.

[Margo Gray]

They are the most important part of my style.

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You can, like, express yourself in the right shoes.

[Mary]

Anything is possible.

[Margo Gray]

DSW countless shoes at bragworthy prices. Imagine the possibilities. Ask any student journalist and they'll tell you. Professors play a very important, even crucial, role in their reporting.

[Bob Hergath]

Here's Mary College professors are so valuable because they usually have one area of study that they are just experts on. And when you write about anything, especially once it gets into things like science, the environment, technology, health, you need people that are going to walk you through things and explain them in the context of the greater field.

[Margo Gray]

So you can understand why Phoenix reporters started to worry when professors suddenly became harder to reach after March Madness. As it turns out, they had good reason to worry. A new media policy had quietly gone into effect, one that required Loyola professors to funnel all media requests through the university's PR staff, even requests from their own student reporters.

[Mary]

It was under the guise of, oh well, we got so many media requests during March Madness. It's just easier this way to have them all funneled through university marketing and communications. And that felt so odd because first of all, that's a lot of time to take all of our requests. We were a weekly paper, we were working on several stories at a time, and there's no way that a communications professional would be able to speak about every topic in depth.

[Margo Gray]

On one occasion, a student journalist got in trouble for reaching out directly to professors. She was working on a story about the high number of women in Loyola's STEM programs, a positive, flattering piece, the kind of story any university would typically welcome. But none of the professors responded. Instead, she got a scolding email from a PR official. It read, this is the third inquiry on this topic that has been forwarded my way, and I've been notified of several others. This is disrespectful and unacceptable. I am the first point of contact for the Phoenix.

[Bob Hergath]

It was impeding our ability as journalists to tell a story, and it was also putting us in a tough spot. Just as a student of I'm a student here, and those are my professors. And there was a wall built between us that just felt off. And it felt like my status as a student journalist was all of a sudden this badge of dishonor, almost.

[Margo Gray]

If student journalists had any doubts about their disfavored status on campus, those vanished when they stumbled across a video seminar from the administration. They'd found it online, a seminar led by the communications department and intended for the entire faculty. The stated purpose was to train professors on how to deal with the media.

[Bob Hergath]

I think the real reason is probably closer to intimidating everybody so they don't feel like they can talk to a reporter. And they were painting us as these bad people that wanted to twist your words and wanted just to get clicks and wanted to write only negative stories.

[Mary]

They were saying that off the record doesn't exist anymore. And even if you agree with a reporter that you're off the record, they will still publish what you had to say because we want clicks. It was jarring.

[Margo Gray]

By now, the Phoenix reporters were fed up. They decided it was time to publicize the challenges they'd been facing, specifically through an editorial.

[Bob Hergath]

I remember very clearly being in the newsroom that night before we published it. And there had already been conversations all week of just how far is too far.

[Margo Gray]

On February 13, 2019, the editorial staff published a piece titled Loyola's Media Policy is straight out of the Trump Playbook. They released an audio version to go with it.

[Bob Hergath]

In our story this year, Rooney refused.

[Joanne Rooney]

To talk to us. In an era when the press in the United States is under unprecedented attack, how could Loyola not realize the context it's operating in?

[TJ Raphael]

For as many times as Rooney has issued statements decrying the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration, dealing with Rooney's administration is no better than a White House press briefing led by Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

[Bob Hergath]

The decision to use Trump's name, I mean, we went back and forth. I don't know that it would have gotten the attention had it not been a direct comparison to Trump.

[Margo Gray]

The story got a lot of attention, and not just on campus. It made national headlines. On the same day the editorial came out, NBC News invited the Phoenix editor in chief to talk about it on the show.

[Natalie Morales]

Is freedom of the press under fire at Loyola University?

[Joanne Rooney]

Never had to bang our heads against a wall just to get an inch of information from the school.

[Natalie Morales]

Student reporters and editorial staff say they're fighting an assault on free speech on their campus.

[Margo Gray]

Not long after, Fire and Pen America, two major free speech organizations, sent a joint letter directly to President Rooney urging Loyola to rescind the media policy. It read, fire and Pen America are concerned for the state of freedom of expression at Loyola University Chicago. This policy restricts both student and faculty members right to expression and inquiry. In the end, the pressure worked. Loyola rescinded the media policy, but that didn't mean the administration warmed up to the paper. In fact, it was around that time that Mary was yelled at by the university's CFO over a story she'd written the phone call she described at the beginning of the episode.

[Mary]

I almost look at this through a harsher lens now that I'm a professional journalist, because as a professional journalist, people view you as a little bit more of an equal. I'm an adult, I've been doing this. I have experience. But as a student reporter, it's not outlandish to think that getting reamed by an administrator at your university could completely keep somebody from pursuing journalism. I mean, it's exploiting the power that you have over your students as the one who makes decisions about their finances, about their living situation, about their safety, about their education. And to come with such vitriol was really astounding.

[Margo Gray]

Looking back, Meri believes those experiences helped prepare her for tough interviews in her current role at the Chicago Sun Times.

[Bob Hergath]

Going toe to toe with some of the most powerful people at my university, I think it honestly just shaped my ability to stay cool, calm and collected in tough interviews. And I think if I had not worked on the Phoenix, and if it wasn't the chaos that it was, I would have been a little scared of people not liking my reporting or saying that it's mischaracterized or any of those things. But as a journalist, had to grow up a little quicker.

[Margo Gray]

When it comes to her career as a professional journalist, Mary also credits Bob not just for teaching her the skills she needed, but for encouraging her and her fellow journalists to keep reporting.

[Mary]

His most important role was probably instilling in us the fact that we were doing important work and that we couldn't and shouldn't be shy away from it, because then that would have been exactly what the university wanted. And if we didn't have somebody who was willing to stand up to his employer, we wouldn't have had any guidance.

[Bob Hergath]

I got a win through a colleague that the Rooney administration wanted to have me fired, and that never happened. But that was something that was discussed internally, which is kind of crazy. You know, major universities where education and intellectualism are supposed to be paramount. It's sort of shocking if you look at it that way.

[Margo Gray]

In the end, Bob stayed in his role at the Phoenix through 2021, even after stepping down. What happened at Loyola left a lasting impression.

[Bob Hergath]

As I thought about it over the months after I left, I thought, you know, this is ridiculous. This is the 21st century. This is a Catholic school. It's an institution of higher learning, and there's no way that this press department for the school and the administration of this school should be behaving this way. I wrote down all this in an email, sent it to various people, including the chairperson of the board, Loyola.

[Margo Gray]

Bob's email reads, in part, the administration's actions are wrong and unethical and threaten to undermine the school's integrity and reputation and increase its liability. I'm coming to you because I have zero trust in this administration and suspect the board is unaware of some or all of these problems.

[Bob Hergath]

I'm not there anymore. I didn't want anything out of it other than just this to be acknowledged and not to be repeated, and I never heard back.

[Margo Gray]

As for Rooney, she also resigned in 2021, but whether that solved any of the deeper issues at Loyola is still up for debate.

[Bob Hergath]

They named some sort of room after her, so she went out on a high note, very disappointed, not only that this all transpired, but that this wasn't, in my mind, taken as seriously as it should have been.

[Margo Gray]

Bob pointed to another troubling sign that the administration wasn't taking things seriously. In 2024, Loyola appointed a new dean to lead its school of Communication, someone with zero background in journalism.

[Bob Hergath]

If you have a school of communication where you have advertising, PR, and journalism all lumped together, which Loyla does and a lot of schools do, typically you want, in my experience, somebody with strong journalistic experience that they hired somebody without that experience, that doesn't convey an investment to me in journalism.

[Margo Gray]

Campus Files is An Odyssey Original Podcast. This episode was written and reported by Margo Gray. Campus Files is produced by Ian Mont Eliot Adler and me, Margo Gray. Our executive producers and story editors are Maddie Sprunkheiser and Lloyd Lockridge. Campus Files is edited, mixed and mastered by Chris Basel and Andy Jaskowicz. Special thanks to Jenna Weiss Berman, J.D. crowley, Leah Rees, Dennis, Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney, Hilary Schuff, Sean Cherry, Laura Berman and Hilary Van Ornam. Original theme music by James Waterman and Davy Sumner. If you have tips or story ideas, write to [e-mail].

[Natalie Morales]

I'm Natalie Morales of 48 Hours. So much of our reporting focuses on the stories of victims who didn't survive. But what about those who live to tell?

[Margo Gray]

I survived a violent home invasion. There's no earthly reason why I'm alive.

[Natalie Morales]

From 48 hours. This is it could have Been Me.

[Mary]

It makes you grateful for everything you have.

[Natalie Morales]

You know you can follow and listen to it could have Been Me on Tuesdays in the 48 Hours podcast feed on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.