Reporters ghosted by administrator

By Jay Roberson and Caroline Haviland

It is The Rider News’ duty to report on matters that impact the Rider community in a timely fashion. This includes interviewing high-ranking administrators who are incredibly knowledgeable in their respectives fields, making them crucial to balanced, well-informed coverage. Often, we do not have any issues contacting and scheduling interviews with administrators, but we recently ran into difficulties with Public Safety Director James Waldon.

When emailing administrators, we often get a reply within the day, and they are available within the next 24-48 hours for an interview. With respect to their time, a majority of interviews only take 10-15 minutes to complete.

The Rider News initially reached out to Waldon on Oct. 7 via email to discuss the 2023 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. With no response, we called Public Safety three times on Oct. 8 and were unable to speak with Waldon, as we were told he was in meetings. 

We reached out via email on Oct. 10, requesting an interview before Oct. 15, and got a response from his assistant, Lalena Grossman. In the email, Grossman stated, “I can add a meeting to your calendar to speak with the Director on October 17th? If you’re unable to meet with him on October 17 please email me the questions you would like to ask him.” 

We were unable to meet at the provided time, so we attempted to reschedule via email for Oct. 24, but Waldon was out of office. On Oct. 28, we emailed Waldon to follow up and received another response from Grossman, stating he would be available on Oct. 29 at 10:30 a.m. Grossman also requested we send interview questions in advance so Waldon had time to prepare. 

Once a reporter arrived at the scheduled time, they were informed that an interview was never arranged, and Waldon had not yet come into the office to prepare. The reporter was asked to wait an additional 30 minutes to talk with Waldon once he came in. 

At 11:15 a.m., Waldon told the reporter that he might be available for an interview at 12:30 p.m., and he would give them a call by 12:15 p.m. to confirm. An hour later, Waldon called to ask the reporter if the interview could take place at 6 p.m. instead. 

At 6 p.m., a reporter called Public Safety, requesting to speak with Waldon, only to learn he already left the office. After asking again, Public Safety informed the reporter he was available and transferred the call to Waldon, who expected the interview to be in person. Since Tuesday nights are when we assemble the newspaper, the reporter was unable to meet Waldon in person. 

It is routine for journalists to record their interviews to ensure accuracy when reporting, but when asked for consent, Waldon refused to be recorded. In compliance to New Jersey law, the journalist could have kept recording, but did not want to disrespect a source. This meant the reporter had to write down each word he said as he spoke. When asked to repeat information for clarity, Waldon often changed the wording or spoke about another part of the report. 

In the provided questions, the reporter incorrectly stated numbers from the report after misreading a statistic. Rather than providing the accurate statistic, Waldon simply stated the reporter was wrong and did not provide clarification until the reporter asked. A majority of Rider’s administration is happy to provide The Rider News with more context when needed, but trying to get that from Waldon felt like pulling teeth. 

The Rider News respects the hard work administration does for students, but we also expect the same respect for what we do. We are all busy students taking classes, working internships and writing at least one article a week. Waldon was unable to take into consideration that our time is as valuable as his.

Jay Roberson is a senior English and secondary education major

Caroline Haviland is a junior journalism major