Frigid temperatures this weekend prompt cold weather advisories

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

After the news of the resignation of Karen Himle, the 

documentary flap, I talked to Brian DeVore, communications coordinator for the Land Stewardship Project.

The nonprofit environmental organization has been perhaps the most vocal critic of how Himle and the U have handled the pulling of the controversial documentary, and called for her ouster when it happened. It also archived many of the documents and e-mails released by the U under a data release request.

Himle has denied that she resigned over the fiasco. And Bruininks said Himle's resignation was due to the impending arrival of   the new president, Eric Kaler, and that she'd always had the aim of going back into the private sector.

You could debate whether that's just a face-saving move. DeVore told me:

That said, the move seemed to have come out of the blue to him:

Himle came under intense criticism after it was revealed she had ties to  agribusiness when she made the call to cancel the film's premier.  Critics such as DeVore railed against what they saw as a conflict of  interest. They also questioned whether agribusiness interests had  pressured Himle and university officials to pull the film.

University officials have said Himle made the phone call that canceled the film's showing on Twin Cities Public Television -- which in turn prompted the cancellation of its debut at the Bell Museum -- but wasn't necessarily the one who made the final decision.

Devore didn't seem to buy that after reading the released correspondence. (Indeed, Himle was the most outspoken critic of the film, raising objections in e-mail after e-mail that had not been raised by others. Even Agriculture Dean Al Levine, though not a fan of the film, had warned against pulling it.)

And yet just after the decision was apparently made, one staffer indicated in an e-mail that President Robert Bruininks had known about -- and thus approved -- the yanking of the film.

DeVore said he has come to believe that the yanking of the film was a case of self-censorship, a chilling effect within the university brought on by past tussles with commercial interests over U research critical of agriculture:

And the University of Minnesota still hasn't -- at least officially -- found the root of the problem and resolved it, he said:

DeVore said his organization has used the 

 fiasco to push the U to increase its support for "sustainable organic agricultural outreach."

Education News

On Campus Blog

Alex Friedrich

Author

After the news of the resignation of Karen Himle, the University of Minnesota official in the middle of the Troubled Waters documentary flap, I talked to Brian DeVore, communications coordinator for the Land Stewardship Project. The nonprofit environmental organization has been perhaps the most vocal critic of how Himle and the U have handled the…

What Himle's biggest critic says about her resignation

Go Deeper.

Like this?