Last updated at 9:05 p.m., Nov. 17, 2010.
Monty Cook, former executive producer of the Reese Felts Digital News Project, resigned on Tuesday due to improper conduct with a female student. Dean Jean Folkerts of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication announced the resignation in a meeting with reesenews staff Wednesday afternoon.
According to the student in question and several sources familiar with the incident, conversations of a sexual nature occurred between Cook and the student over Google chat, an instant messaging service provided by Gmail.
This might not be the first time Cook has engaged in illicit electronic conversations. Several members of UNC-CH faculty received an e-mail in May 2010, two months after Cook was hired, with the text of an alleged Google chat conversation between Cook and an unidentified woman. The conversation was explicit in nature.
The e-mail was sent by the woman’s husband and received by 25 faculty members, including Dean Folkerts. The stated purpose of the e-mail was to end the relationship between Cook and the man’s wife.
Cook, 46, is married with two children.
The e-mail was received after Cook was hired but before he began to work with students in his capacity as executive producer of the Reese Felts project. There was never discussion between Folkerts and other faculty about whether to terminate Cook. According to Folkerts, Cook assured her that the e-mail conversation was “not what it appeared to be.”
“I don’t police what people do with consenting adults,” Folkerts said. “There was no violation of university policy.”
Folkerts said she stands by her decision not to fire Cook last May. However, if Cook had not resigned, Folkerts confirmed he would have been terminated this week.
Dr. Rhonda Gibson, an associate professor at the school, was one of the faculty who received the e-mail.
“The similarities are distressing,” she said, “but I don’t know whether what we know now means that it should have been handled differently.”
Gibson said she was shocked when she received the e-mail, but did not disagree with how Folkerts proceeded.
The current situation came to light on Friday evening, when the boyfriend of the student in question entered the Reese Felts newsroom in the basement of Carroll Hall. A campus police report characterized the incident as “suspicious.” It is unclear whether police entered the newsroom, though eyewitnesses confirmed the boyfriend was angry.
Folkerts first became aware of the situation that evening.
“My first reaction was dismay,” she said. “My second reaction was action.”
Her initial move was to contact human resources.
Cook called Folkerts Saturday morning in an attempt to explain the situation, she said. The two spoke several times over the weekend.
After speaking with the provost’s office Sunday afternoon, Folkerts issued a letter relegating Cook to an “off-campus assignment” on Monday. Subsequently, she conferred with the university’s general counsel. She recommended that Cook’s position be terminated.
Police reports show that the student’s boyfriend visited the newsroom again on Monday. Campus police instructed him to leave, and the visiting student exited without incident.
On Tuesday afternoon, Cook sent Folkerts an e-mail with his resignation letter attached.
“We do careful checks on people,” Folkerts said, speaking of the school’s hiring practices. “If I had any indication that anybody would behave in an improper manner with students, I would not hire them.”
Cook, who graduated from UNC-CH in 1986, was hired by the school in March 2010. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a senior vice president and editor at The Baltimore Sun. Cook’s five-year contract with the school included an annual salary of $135,000. He will not receive any severance pay.
Assistant professor Don Wittekind has joined reesenews as executive producer on an interim basis.
This is ridiculous. What did Cook think he was doing?? It'll be good to see Don in there for the time.
Comment by @blountismo on November 18, 2010 at 7:46 am
Kudos to Dean Folkerts for an expeditious resolution. It's heartening to see an example of a university that places a priority on the safety and wellness of their students.
Comment by Kathleen on November 18, 2010 at 8:30 am
Sympathy to his wife & children. I hope the wife is gainfully employed and can kick him out.
Comment by Alum on November 18, 2010 at 11:00 am
A correction in the story is warranted. It was a former boyfriend of the student, not a current boyfriend, who reported Cook's transgressions, according to the Folkerts letter.
Comment by Jou alum on November 18, 2010 at 11:34 am
Jou alum – that was a mistake in the letter, not in our story. We've contacted the student to confirm that it is indeed a current boyfriend. Thanks for reading.
-Shane
Comment by Shane on November 18, 2010 at 1:33 pm
I used to work with this guy. I'm not surprised by this in the least. The J-School must not have done much of a background check.
Comment by alum on November 18, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Go Dean Folkerts! Quick and ruthless, as the situation deserved. I hope that the unnamed student is able to maintain her privacy until this blows over.
Comment by Miranda on November 18, 2010 at 5:46 pm
What an idiot.
Comment by Cindy on November 19, 2010 at 5:34 am
$135,000 for this clown. Is this where grad tuition dollars go? Who's competent in doing searches here? Depressing, sordid, and an embarrassment.
Comment by Joe on November 19, 2010 at 8:10 am
Alum,
As a member of the search committee that interviewed Cook, I can assure you that he was vetted as carefully as all job candidates are. It's a rigourous process.
Comment by abechtel1 on November 19, 2010 at 8:52 am
"It is unclear whether police entered the newsroom …"
You mean to tell me that this incident took place literally in your backyard and you are unable to verify whether the police entered the newsroom or not? How can you not know? Was no one there?
Comment by TarHeel on November 19, 2010 at 12:47 pm
The transparency is commendable, but an interesting question is why he was hired in the first place. It was clearly a case of hiring by credential rather than thorough vetting. Cook rose to the top editorship of The Baltimore Sun during The Tribune's disastrous ownership when journalistic talent was fleeing and apparatchik like Cook were being promoted. He was hardly well-regarded by colleagues and had no record of journalistic achievement. (He is best known as the creator of the insultingly vapid Sun publication, "B.") So, the question is, why didn't UNC know any of that? If they "vetted him as carefully" as they do other job candidates, I'd worry about the overall quality of your hires. I guarantee you, this appointment by UNC was universally mocked in Baltimore. Defend your process all you want, your choice was laughable even before this incident, especially with all the real talent that is available these days. Shame on you.
Comment by mollove on November 19, 2010 at 3:26 pm
The previous commenter, mollove, hit it dead-on with Mr. Cook. It's worrisome that the J-School would choose a schmoozing, slimy operator like this to run something that had as much money pumped into it as this. As a J-School grad, I've got to say that I'm ashamed and that this has damaged a reputation that others worked so hard to establish. My contributions to UNC will be directed elsewhere among the departments in the future.
Comment by J-School 89 on November 20, 2010 at 11:43 am
Clearly this sounds like one of my former colleagues at The Sun.
"B" was created to eliminate The Baltimore Examiner. Which it did!! The Sun won more journalism awards under Monty short leadership than any of the previous 3 editors. He made a mistake, we all do. Some big and some small, but we all make them. I'm sorry mollove, only one person every walked on water and it's wasn't you.
Comment by Friends of Monty on November 21, 2010 at 7:44 am
NOTE: The "Friends of Monty" post was written by The Full Monty himself.
Comment by J-School 89 on November 22, 2010 at 10:54 am
Just to follow up, search committees at the journalism school takes their tasks very seriously. I've been on several.
We check references and do due diligence on each candidate we interview. We also go "off resume" and talk to other people who have worked with the candidate in their jobs or professional organizations. The dean's office does background checks.
In this case, we were looking for an experienced newsroom manager who had a vision for this project. In two days of interviews on campus last spring, Monty expressed that well, and indeed, the Reesenews site is off to an impressive start by any measure.
During Monty's campus interview, I personally asked him tough questions regarding the layoffs in Baltimore, especially on the copy desk. His answer was that layoffs were unwanted and regrettable, but necessary.
I'm not sure how further vetting would have prevented what happened regarding Monty. For future hires, please let us know what procedures should be in place.
Comment by abechtel1 on November 22, 2010 at 2:30 pm
This was between consenting adults? Im sorry, where is the problem?
Comment by Guest on November 22, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Thankfully, it looks like Cook was being paid with soft money rather than from the school's operating funds, so things like grad student money, staff and faculty salaries, and normal operations and equipment and stuff are safe.
Comment by guest on November 22, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I'm shocked that the UNC school of journalism hired Cook in the first place. What were his qualifications? He helped to dismantle and destroy the once-respected Baltimore Sun, bringing a vapid, unoriginal, graphics-matter-more-than-words mentality and showing zero intelligence or leadership. Readership, respect and revenue all plummeted under Cook's time editing The Sun. So UNC hired him to teach their students how to do the same with their future publications? I don't get it . I doubt the hiring committee at UNC called a single reporter at The Sun to ask whether this guy was a good journalist. The answer would have been… are you crazy?
Comment by Former Sun reporter on November 22, 2010 at 10:05 pm
abechtel1: Here's a procedure you could try: Don't just talk to the candidate. Talk to other former journalists that he or she has worked with.
Your idea of a rigorous review process is laughable. It doesn't matter what hot air Monty Cook blew at you during the interview process — you should have taken a few minutes to call the reporters and editors who worked with Cook at The Baltimore Sun. 99 percent of them would have told you that Cook had no integrity, talent or dedication to journalism. He was not respected by anyone — and he launched publications (such as the tabloid "B") that were an insult to the whole idea of quality journalism, and a slap in the face to the intelligent readers of Baltimore — and money, losers, too. To call your review of his credentials thorough is just a bald-faced lie — unless your goal was to teach lowest-common-denominator journalism to the next generation.
Comment by Former Sun reporter on November 22, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Former Sun reporter,
Take a deep breath, and please tone down the unwarranted accusations of lying. I'm being honest and open about the process that we go through with all job candidates.
As I said, we talk to not only references on a candidate's resume, but also other people "off resume" who have worked with that person in a newsroom or in professional organizations. In this case, that included other journalists that Cook worked with. They did not raise the issues that you do now.
In short, we did exactly what you are saying that we didn't do. If you had read my comment more carefully, you would have seen that.
If you have other suggestions on preventing such problems in the future, please let us know.
Comment by abechtel1 on November 23, 2010 at 10:47 am
The irony that a scandal drawing attention to Reesenews so soon after its founding is not lost on me.
An earlier comment didn't pass muster but again I wonder just how common this type of behavior – either on the part of the prof or those responsible for hiring him – is here or on the whole.
I also wonder who is moderating these comments…I wasn't expecting such bias.
Comment by Guest on November 23, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Found something to read on the topic:
http://www.slate.com/id/2093351/
Comment by Guest on November 23, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Do you people ask for any character references when you do your "vetting?" If you had done some basic checking with co-workers at this guy's previous employers, you would have discovered a pattern of this type of behavior that might have made you question the wisdom of putting him around college students. I worked with him long ago and can attest to the fact this kind of behavior is not new…
That being said, if this was between consenting adults I am a little interested as to why this is warranting the news attention it is getting. I mean, it was on the Huffington Post too…really? Sex-texts are that big a news deal?
A J-School like UNC can find much better people to head its programs anyway. Next time get someone who cares about actual news, not dumbing down the news…
Comment by Valkyrie on November 23, 2010 at 9:14 pm
"For future hires, please let us know what procedures should be in place."
Well, Andy, since you ask: How about getting someone who understands how an article is put together? That would be a great thing, you know, at a journalism school.
Paired with UNC's misadventure regarding the Society for News Design, this is now the second design-based shipwreck for the university in about two years. Sort of embarrassing, wouldn't you say?
Or perhaps not …
"(T)he Reesenews site is off to an impressive start by any measure."
I bet Mrs. Lincoln really enjoyed that play, too, except for that pesky intruder.
Your response here and the pattern exhibited with these decisions show there should be an investigation into the decision-making process at the school. It's bad enough newspapers have ruined themselves with the design-based approach, but I'd say if a university is doing the same thing, then it might be time for an inquiry.
Comment by rknil on November 24, 2010 at 1:04 am
The managing editor (Rebecca Putterman) and myself moderate all comments on the site. When moderating, we follow our community guidelines and moderation policies, which you can find here: http://reesenews.org/community/community-guidelin…
However, this story is a special case – so, as you can imagine, we've decided on special policies for comment moderation here. Specifically, we've decided to delete any comments discussing the school's handling of the girl involved and any negative comments about the students in the newsroom.
Thanks.
Comment by noelcody on November 24, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Perhaps it's not clear in the story, but if you look at the dean's letter, Cook was clearly in violation of University policy regarding "amorous relationships" between faculty and students. Here's the link to the policy and the rationale behind it: http://hr.unc.edu/policies-procedures-guidelines/…
Comment by S.J. Houston on December 2, 2010 at 2:28 pm
I am so very disappointed by this. I used to think the world of Monty. Sometimes we do stupid things.
Comment by An old friend on January 24, 2011 at 9:10 am
I worked with JMC before he went to The Sun. I can tell you, affair rumors swirled around him long before his downfall at UNC. His alleged affair with a direct report was the worst-kept secret in the newsroom. He and she were often seen leaving the office within 5 minutes of each other from two different exits — but then seen together in a car in the parking lot minutes later. We all knew it was a just matter of time before his wandering eye got him in serious trouble. If you work with journalists, how can you possibly expect to keep affairs a secret?
JMC had enough charisma to talk his way out of almost anything, even at UNC — where, according to the story, he talked his way out of an inappropriate incident just two months before arriving.
Even before I worked with him, infidelity rumors swirled around him — rumors that have much more credibility now.
Comment by guest on February 5, 2011 at 9:48 am
Me think that you and other search committee members protest too much. The justifications fall on one set of deaf ears. Maybe you should search Twitter, Facebook and the other sites during your exercise of due diligence…
Comment by snickers on February 13, 2011 at 9:52 am
BRAVO!!!!
Comment by snickers on February 13, 2011 at 9:54 am