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Citing group president Karen Ludwig’s impending graduation, members of the Washington University Political Review executive board announced that they would not approve any of the outgoing leader’s actions in the coming months.
“We believe that the WUPR staff should have a say in decisions that affect their future,” said Editor Alec Green. “Karen has done a lot for the paper—hell, she increased readership to almost three people—but she no longer represents the will of the staff. We have to think about the future of our publication.”
Though tensions between President Ludwig and the exec board have been simmering for months, the issue was brought to the forefront when the president moved to nominate her successor in early March. The nominee, junior Martin Spielman, is seen by many in the print media community as a fair compromise between Ludwig and the board. Spielman has historically been a moderating voice on the staff, known for getting lots of shit done without making other people do too much shit of their own. Even so, President Ludwig has faced fierce resistance from WUPR executives.
“I hope that the executive board will move forward with the nomination of Mr. Spielman,” said Ludwig at a press conference in the DUC Media Suite. “He always compromises when people want to get veggie pizza for our staff parties, and I’m pretty sure he even read most of the articles in the last issue.”
The exec board’s actions, though they have riled media traditionalists and Spielman’s mom, are not without precedent. Armour staffers notoriously blocked outgoing editor Harry Billings III when he attempted to correct the spelling of the magazine’s name shortly before the end of his editorial tenure in 1947. The publication still retains both incorrect spelling and superfluous punctuation in its masthead to commemorate the ensuing political battle.
Spielman has been quiet throughout the process, except to say that he would respect any decision that upholds the WUPR constitution, “even if that constitution is just a Google doc we submitted to SU so we could get funding for an exec retreat.”
