In Friday's Community News Brief story 'WIU Librarians to be Rehired,' the article reported that the CNB asked WIU for a statement on the ruling and published the provided statement, which was received Wednesday afternoon.
To clarify, the CNB writer also requested the salaries of the 11 employees at the time of their layoff on Wednesday afternoon. The story mentioned that WIU administration did not respond to questions regarding the salaries for the 11 library staff. In fact, our writer heard back from WIU at 7 a.m. Thursday that the request needed to be in the form of a Freedom of Information Act request. Furthermore, the June 10 email request would have met the requirements of a FOIA request, so an additional request need not have been filed.
Shortly after 12:15 p.m., on Thursday, June 11, WIU staff informed the CNB that the requested salary information was being gathered. The CNB informed the university spokesperson that the story was past deadline and shared the language that would appear in Friday's edition. Later Thursday afternoon, the university's attorney contacted the CNB, asserting the newspaper published false information by claiming WIU did not respond and could therefore be held for libel.
Accordingly, the statement could have read: ' At press time, WIU had not provided, nor responded to, the requested salary information; therefore, total figures were calculated using data available in the FY24 budget book available online.'
The Community News Brief is committed to providing accurate and timely information to the public. We regret any misunderstanding or miscommunication that may have occurred regarding this matter.
