College Pays Student to Publish Article in The Dartmouth

Robinson Hall, headquarters of The Dartmouth | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Those who accuse The Dartmouth of acting as a public relations firm for the College gained some evidence on January 29, when The D reported that they published an op-ed that was paid for and edited by the College.

According to The Dartmouth, Teddy Roberts ’26 was approached by an employee of the College to write an article promoting Evergreen.AI, Dartmouth’s wellness artificial intelligence project. Roberts was paid $81.25 for this op-ed, and he did not disclose his arrangement with the College to The Dartmouth at the time.

It is clear that College employees used this opportunity to positively promote their project under the guise of independent journalism. The Office of Communications suggested edits to Roberts as he wrote his article. College spokesperson Jana Barnello reportedly prompted Roberts with questions that could present the College’s Evergreen.AI project in a more positive light. This information was only made public when Roberts, the author of the article, came forward to The Dartmouth.

As the publisher of The Dartmouth acknowledges, compensating authors for opinion articles violates journalistic ethics and standards. The Dartmouth benefits here from their apparent obliviousness to the circumstances. Still, one would hope that “America’s Oldest College Newspaper” would more diligently screen its submissions for content and authorship.

Perhaps this says something of the ostensible independence of The Darmouth. The editorial board’s plausible deniability notwithstanding, is it revelatory that they green-lit an opinion piece that so clearly aligned with one of the College’s bureaucratic programs? We aren’t suggesting that the editors of The Dartmouth can’t agree with the College. At times, even we do. But this only lends credence to the naysayers who doubt The Dartmouth’s independence. Can a publication so intertwined in College business really by independent?

The Dartmouth Review was founded primarily on the principle of independence. Our founders defected from The Dartmouth because they could not fairly question campus orthodoxy. Rest assured, this continues to be our most important mission. You can be certain that none of our writers will be paid to promote useless College offices. You can be certain that none of our articles read like puff pieces for administrators’ advantages. And you can be certain that The Review remains the one truly independent publication on campus.