Tale of Woe: A suicide, accusations of bullying rock esteemed UVA literary journal
Tale of Woe: A suicide, accusations of bullying rock esteemed UVA literary journal
On John Casteen’s last official day in office as UVA president, a tragedy unfolded...
Tale of Woe: A suicide, accusations of bullying rock esteemed UVA literary journal
The Hook - “Virginia Quarterly Review has become one of the most widely admired magazines in the country,” said Sid Holt, chief executive of the American Society of Magazine Editors. "From 2005 to 2011, VQR received 25 National Magazine Award nominations in categories ranging from fiction to multimedia."
Unfortunately, the accolades accompanied the depletion of the literary journal's financial reserves and a human toll– including the 2010 suicide of managing editor Kevin Morrissey. The following stories I wrote detail what unfolded:
Tale of Woe: The death of the VQR's Kevin Morrissey
August 18, 2010 - On John Casteen’s last official day in office as the president of the University of Virginia, a tragic story, one fit for the pages of the award-winning literary journal that he nurtured, began to unfold.
That Friday, July 30, the managing editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, 52-year-old Kevin Morrissey, took his own life. Since then, UVA has shrouded VQR behind a wall of silence, changing the office locks, launching an audit, and even routing all incoming telephone calls to the University's public relations office.
A Hook investigation reveals that behind the staid, Thomas Jefferson-designed exterior of VQR's headquarters swirl allegations of financial recklessness, conflicts of interest, and a bizarre pattern of management-by-email that drove a staffer to quit. Some say there was also a pattern of bullying that may have pushed a fragile man into tragic oblivion.
What’s more, according to a former VQR employee, University officials have known about some of the personnel problems for at least five years. Read More…
The story quickly attracted national attention:
ABC News - Staff of Virginia Quarterly Rebel in Wake of Editor's Suicide
Today Show - UVA Suicide Story
LA Times - The Virginia Quarterly Review, part 1: A suicide rocks the esteemed literary journal
The New York Times - A Suicide Leaves a Literary Journal and Its Editor in Limbo
Slate - Tragedy at the Virginia Quarterly Review
The Observer - From Tragedy to Trend Story: In Defense of Virginia Quarterly Review Editor Ted Genoways
Sullivan announces 'thorough' investigation of VQR operations
August 19, 2010 - With the story behind the suicide of the Virginia Quarterly Review's managing editor Kevin Morrissey making national news today, new UVA president Teresa Sullivan has released a statement addressing the long-term future of the magazine, UVA's response to concerns from VQR staff prior to Morrissey's death, and with the story behind the suicide of the Virginia Quarterly Review’s managing editor Kevin Morrissey making national news today, new UVA president Teresa Sullivan has released a statement addressing the long-term future of the magazine, UVA's response to concerns from VQR staff prior to Morrissey's death, and has ratcheted up the internal probe–- previously confined to finances–- by announcing that she will be undertaking a “thorough review of VQR's operations.” Here’s the president's statement below: Read more.
VQR: Genoways in charge, staffers pull names, winter issue canceled
August 24, 2010 - Virginia Quarterly Review staffers were stunned by the news that University officials had allowed editor Ted Genoways, whom they accuse of bullying managing editor Kevin Morrissey before he took his own life on July 30, to take control of the fall issue of the magazine, which was just recently sent to press. In addition, there was also some unsettling news for VQR fans: the winter issue of the magazine has been canceled.
“I never could have forecast that the University would allow us to remain in this situation,” wrote VQR online editor Waldo Jaquith on his blog last Friday. Read more.
Conflicting tales: The unfolding tragedy at the VQR
October 21, 2010 -
"911," the dispatcher says.
"Hi," says the male caller. "You need to send a police car and an ambulance to the dirt road that runs off Water Street."
"Okay, what's going on?"
"Ah, there's been a shooting," says the caller.
"Okay, how many people are shot?"
The caller hangs up. The dispatcher calls back, gets an answering machine.
"Hi, this is Kevin Morrissey. Leave a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can..."
–Transcript of Kevin Morrissey's July 30, 2010 911 phone call.
****
Nearly three months after Virginia Quarterly Review managing editor Kevin Morrissey took his own life, stories are still being penned about what the tragedy revealed about the troubled inner workings of the award-winning magazine: charges of favoritism, spiraling spending, poisonous tensions between staff members, and the hot-button suggestion that the magazine's editor, Ted Genoways, bullied the 52-year-old Morrissey in the last few weeks of his life.
Documents recently made available to the Hook show that Genoways was burning through VQR's endowment, hiring an intern for a key office role without going through the usual state procedures, and–- perhaps most surprisingly–- planning to take advantage of the intern-turned-employee's million-dollar-plus donation to another program to save his own struggling enterprise. Read More.
Genoways stays: UVA's VQR investigation a whitewash?
October 21, 2010 - The same day the Hook published a cover story [Conflicting Tales: The unfolding tragedy at the VQR] on the conflicting tales surrounding what went on at the Virginia Quarterly Review before the July 30 suicide of its managing editor, UVA released an anticipated audit report (with responses written by UVA President Teresa Sullivan) on the magazine's finances and management that presents even more conflicting information.
While editor Ted Genoways and other staff members will not be losing their jobs, unspecified "corrective action" will be taken regarding Genoways' handling of VQR finances, his poor management style, his failure to provide his staff with the information they needed to do their jobs, and his failure to adhere to UVA policies in the treatment of his staff.
While Genoways hasn't yet responded to the Hook for comment, he told the New York Times that the report lacked "a clear statement of the facts."
“I suppose they don’t want to state my innocence too plainly, because it makes their actions – cleaning out my office, canceling the winter issue – look panicked and ill-considered,” Genoways told the Times. “But I think moving on will require greater honesty.”
The report concludes that while complaints were received about Genoways' management of the magazine, no "specific allegations of bullying or harassment" were made before Morrissey's death. However, as the report later recommends, "the current structure for receiving employee complaints needs to be re-evaluated by the University."
In addition, what was revealed about the inner workings of the magazine has prompted the creation of a University-wide "task force" to "strengthen the institution’s policies and structure with regard to acceptable workplace conduct," which includes "developing a structure within Human Resources in which employee complaints about their supervisors can be taken, registered, and followed up."
Essentially, the report appears to have ignored the numerous complaints made after Morrissey's death, as well as charges of harassment made by one former VQR staff member, 30-plus-year veteran Candace Pugh, in 2005. However, as UVA spokesperson Carol Wood points out, the audit report covers operations at the magazine only during the last two years. Read More.
Final days: Emails show VQR's 'awkward workplace scenario'
January 20, 2012 -
"At this point, frankly, I feel I have little protection offered by the University, and I see little or no evidence of any oversight of Ted [Genoways] by the University." – Kevin Morrissey in an email to officials in the UVA President's office, July 21, 2010.
"There were reports through the years of the Editor not being courteous or respectful with some contributors and colleagues, as well as problems with certain employees, but none ever seemed to rise to the level of a serious, on-going concern." --UVA investigation of VQR operations, October 20, 2010
****
Just days after a new publisher and deputy editor joined the staff of the Virginia Quarterly Review, emails between former VQR managing editor Kevin Morrissey–- who took his life on July 30, 2010–- and high-level UVA officials arrived in the Hook office in an unmarked envelope.
Until now, accounts of the events that unfolded that summer came not from Morrissey, but from co-workers, UVA officials, enterprising journalists, and even VQR editor Ted Genoways himself, whose email just two days after Morrissey's death characterized Morrissey as someone whose work was suffering because of internal demons and defended himself against accusations of being a "workplace bully."
While the 52-year old Morrissey's suicide note was too brief to provide much insight into reasons, the leaked emails show he had plenty to say as his life careened toward its tragic end. Read More.
Washington Post - Leaked e-mails reveal tensions before U-Va. editor’s suicide
Bully buster? VQR spurs UVA launch of 'respectful workplace'
February 22, 2012 - A year-and-a-half after the suicide of the Virginia Quarterly Review's managing editor Kevin Morrissey launched a national debate about whether it was the scene of workplace bullying, UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan has launched the Respect@UVA program, a comprehensive workplace initiative designed to promote "kindness, dignity and respect."
But one workplace bullying expert thinks the reforms announced February 15 don't go far enough.
Gary Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, contends that bullying should be put in the context of real violence to avoid letting programs like this get "shackled by all its shortcomings."
In addition to educational resources, the UVA program includes a new complaint reporting system designed to allow employees to air grievances without fear of retaliation from their superiors, as well as a commitment to follow up within two business days.
"As president, I will hold myself accountable to the Commitment to a Caring Community," Sullivan says in statement, "and I will expect all leaders at all levels of the University to do the same. We will not tolerate retaliation against an employee who reports an incident."
As the Hook recently revealed, Morrissey expressed frustration about an alleged lack of oversight over his boss, VQR editor Ted Genoways, and reached out several times to UVA officials, including those in the President's office. Read More.
Closing chapter: VQR's Genoways resigns, Waldo celebrates
April 4, 2012 - After serving for nine years as the editor of Virginia Quarterly Review, Ted Genoways has stepped down to "concentrate on his own writing," according to a midnight UVA press release. Recently appointed deputy editor Donovan Webster will serve as interim editor until a national search for a new editor is launched in July.
"Ted has been an outstanding editor," said Thomas Skalak, UVA vice president for research, who took over operation of the magazine following an internal investigation in 2010. "Under his direction, VQR built a devoted following and an unparalleled record of recognition."
"I look back on my nine years as editor with pride, but I also hope that the new staff will not feel in any way encumbered by that legacy," said Genoways. "VQR is theirs to steward and re-imagine now, and I hope they will be able to build on and exceed past successes."
Judging from the UVA press release, Genoways single-handedly transformed VQR from an obscure college literary magazine to one that could compete with the likes of National Geographic and the New Yorker.
"Under Ted Genoways, Virginia Quarterly Review has become one of the most widely-admired magazines in the country,” said Sid Holt, chief executive of the American Society of Magazine Editors. "From 2005 to 2011, VQR received 25 National Magazine Award nominations in categories ranging from fiction to multimedia."
However, in a recent post on his local news blog, former VQR web editor Waldo Jaquith offers a candid assessment of his time at the VQR that calls into question the official UVA take-away on Genoways' tenure:
“A subsequent investigation by the university found Genoways lacked the capacity to supervise employees, demanded that his inappropriate financial practices be ended, and called for an investigation—which apparently has not happened—into his use of university funds to publish his own book of poetry. The university’s response to their own investigation was not to fire Genoways, but to retain him.
After Genoways took over as editor, the 87-year-old’s publication’s focus gradually narrowed, being written for an audience of Genoways’ fellow National Magazine Awards judges, until every issue was dedicated to wars and various types of misery. Circulation shrank accordingly; the most recent published numbers indicate just over 1,700 subscribers (or two days of unique visitors to cvillenews.com).
Genoways is on a five-year contract that doesn’t expire for another couple of years, so presumably the university has bought out the remainder of his contract in exchange for his departure. UVA is left to rebuild the publication…”
Continuing coverage:
Washington Post - VQR editor Ralph Eubanks out by summer
The Chronicle of Higher Education - Family of Journal Editor Who Committed Suicide Sues U. of Virginia