Jul 27, 2020
In 2005, Dr. Kimetris Baltrip was named the student newspaper faculty advisor at Kansas State University amid a firestorm.
A year prior, the Kansas State Collegian's former advisor, Ron Johnson, had been dismissed from his position. School administrators said Johnson was removed because of a decline in the overall quality of the newspaper. Student editors believed it was because the school was trying to control the content of the newspaper — a first amendment violation — after complaints arose from minority groups across campus accusing the paper of a lack of coverage.
From Day 1, Dr. Baltrip, the student newspaper's first female racial minority advisor, faced headwinds and at times outright racism. A former copy editor at The New York Times, Baltrip brought a love of journalism and reporting to Kansas State only to be embroiled in an on-campus tug-of-war.
Some groups saw her as a figurehead hire and a threat to students' first amendment rights, while others saw her as their chance to control the student newspaper's content.
Several years after leaving Kansas State, Baltrip details the 13 years she spent at the university and the hardships she endured, as well as the accomplishments she achieved.
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