The Student Media Operating Board terminated Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez as editor-in-chief effective immediately, after alleging three bylaw violations

Maria Shaikh, Kavya Racheeti, Paola Martinez, Aimee Morgan | Editorial Board

In a three to one vote, the Student Media Operating Board — a committee made of faculty, students and administrators which oversees Student Media at UTD, including The Mercury — voted to terminate Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez as The Mercury’s Editor-in-Chief, effective Sept. 13. Director of Student Media Lydia Lum initiated the SMOB meeting on the 13th to discuss three bylaw violations she claimed Olivares had committed. Of the seven voting individuals on the SMOB committee, only four were in attendance for the meeting and vote BAHT professors Janet Johnson and Kevin Sweet; Avery Bainbridge, a math senior and Student Government senator; and business analytics graduate student Yash Bharat Tshakkar. One graduate and two undergraduate voting members were not in attendance. The ex officio members representing AMP, RadioUTD and UTDTV were not in attendance. 

On Sept. 13, Lum sent a letter to Olivares outlining the three bylaws she believed Olivares violated, explaining each violation, concluding that Olivares’ behavior is “willful” and will not be improved through “additional intervention attempts” and recommending his immediate termination.   

During the Sept. 13 meeting, Lum said Olivares had violated Section 2.4(b) in the Student Media bylaws by holding multiple stipend student employee positions on campus. Olivares simultaneously held positions as a peer adviser with UTD Housing and as Editor-in-Chief for The Mercury. Olivares said that before he took the PA role, he had discussed cross-departmental stipends with Huffenberger prior to receiving the offer from Housing. Olivares said Huffenberger did not say cross-departmental stipends were impermissible, only that receiving multiple internal stipends for multiple Student Media management positions was impermissible. Olivares also said UTD’s policies have a technical legal definition of “student employee,” which differs from a “student role,” which is what his PA position falls under. The SMOB bylaws do not define what is and is not considered a “student employee” at the university.  

Lum said Olivares had also violated Section 2.9(c), (e) and (f) of the Student Media bylaws 

because he caused budget overruns by ordering 2,600 print issues of the Sept. 3 issue instead of 2,000, Lum said Olivares ordering excessive issues had put The Mercury in the red. SMOB members disputed the veracity of the violation because The Mercury has a yearly budget, which Lum had split into twelve equal monthly budgets for her financial calculations, while Olivares said he was taking the dynamic approach taught to him by former Editor-in-Chief Fatimah Azeem and former Distribution Manager Andre Averion to fluctuate the number of issues throughout the year based on engagement. Olivares said he had requested budget information from Lum numerous times and had not received it; Olivares said he ordered extra issues based off the record-breaking print readership The Mercury was experiencing at the time, with the understanding that print numbers can and have fluctuated in the past to meet both budgetary constraints and student demand. He said The Mercury’s previous leadership team did not, to his knowledge, have to contact the adviser regarding issue size and number of copies to be purchased for every new print issue. 

Finally, Lydia said Olivares had violated Section 2.9(a), (c), (e) and (f) by interfering with Lum’s ability to successfully advise The Mercury due to Olivares prohibiting her from attending certain meetings and viewing The Mercury’s content prior to publication. After Lum’s meeting with Mercury management Aug. 23, the only meeting Lum cannot attend is the biweekly pitch meeting. Olivares said he does not allow Lum to look at The Mercury’s content prior to publication because that would constitute prior review, which is against The Mercury’s policies and those of most student press groups across the U.S.  

After Lum explained her reasoning behind each violation to the SMOB members in attendance, Olivares was given ten minutes to provide a defense and argue for his continuation as Editor-in-Chief. After his defense and further discussion, SMOB moved to vote on whether to remove Olivares from his position. SMOB did not vote on whether or not Olivares violated any bylaws. After the termination vote, Lum said the board should consider instituting rules to permanently ban students from participating in leadership roles in Student Media. 

Olivares is currently proceeding with an appeal process. Stipulated in the Student Media bylaws, the editor-in-chief has two class days following the board’s decision to submit an appeal. The board then has two class days to review the appeal. Should the board not be able to come to a decision within those two days, the verdict is at the sole discretion of Huffenberger. Until a new editor-in-chief is appointed by SMOB, the Managing Editor, Maria Shaikh, will serve as acting editor-in-chief and the editor-in-chief’s responsibilities will be divided among the rest of Mercury management.  

Editor’s Note: For full transparency, The Mercury has decided to publish Lum’s letter to SMOB and Olivares outlining the bylaw violations; Olivares’ rebuttal presented during the SMOB meeting; and a copy of the current Student Media bylaws. See below for all relevant documents.