Paul Glader
Executive Editor
Religion Unplugged
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The Demise of The King's College |
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Our non-profit news outlet had offices at The King's College in lower Manhattan. Our executive editor Paul Glader and senior editor Clemente Lisi were journalism faculty members at King's. In early 2023, the entire faculty of King's was taken off guard when the school announced it could be acquired or face closure. The announcement didn't match up with signal from earlier months that enrollment was increasing. As the saga wore on at this small Christian college, major religion news outlets and higher education outlets were not able to discover the true story of what was happening at King's. ReligionUnplugged.com executive editor wrote an open letter to the financier who had taken over King's, a man named Peter Chung in Vancouver. Glader's essay documented several uncomfortable truths about Chung's business history in the United States and Canada. It also pointed out several actions by Chung during his short-lived takeover of King's. The piece caused an immediate reaction and a meeting in which Chung promised to keep the school open till May so students could graduate and also guaranteed faculty pay until August of 2023. As the saga wore on, Glader let students in his business reporting class report a long-form explanatory feature about King's death spiral as their final project. Many faculty who were skeptical of journalism as a worthwhile endeavor realized that the student newspaper and ReligionUnplugged.com were two of the only outlets where truth and facts were being reported on the plight of their employer. These two outlets - The Empire State Tribune and The King's College -- with office space at King's continued to courageously report on the institution where they were housed. The ongoing stories included an interview with a former board member who gave an insight view of what had happened to King's. They reported on the devastation to students and faculty as a college closed. They reported without fear or favor on the demise of the institution where they worked and studied. Their stories gained large traffic from their audiences and were widely shared. Former presidents of the college reached out with thanks for the quality reporting these news outlets were performing. Several other news outlets such as MinistryWatch.com and The Roys Report republished some of these stories. And the collaboration in non-profit news and student news outlets allowed for a broader reach and a greater impact. In the end, all faculty at King's were laid off Aug. 31. The school lost its accreditation. The students either had to graduate or transfer to other colleges. But everyone involved learned a fuller picture of the facts and a more accurate version of the truth in this situation. |
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Religion Unplugged: Paul Glader, Mindy Huspen, Rafael Oliveira, Mandie-Beth Chau, Joshua Story |
