ON CAMPUS

University of Minnesota ecologist David Tilman, who appeared in Troubled Waters — and had publicly doubted that the university bowed to outside pressure in its pulling of the film — told me when I asked him about Karen Himle’s resignation:

I envisioned we’d be hearing something like this. I’m not surprised this happened. Troubled Waters showed there was a bit of trouble with the fit of personalities (at the university).

It’s a tradition at universities for incoming presidents to change at least some of their senior staff, he said, “and I’d imagined there would be a change no matter what.” Himle’s bumpy ride over the past few months probably just made the scenario a little more likely.

He declined to say much more on the matter. But in any case, he told me:

I feel sympathy for anyone looking for work in this economy.

I think it’s appropriate.

– Rep. Jean Wagenius (DFL), co-chair of the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, a legislative body that oversees close to 70 percent of the funding of the film.

Wagenius had criticized the U’s handling of Troubled Waters, saying that it damaged its reputation, and had called on President Bob Bruininks to step in and take control.

She expressed concern over whether the U suffered from self-censorship, and said it needed an agricultural ethics group, similar to the one in it has for biomedical ethics.

Yet she remains — as she has all throughout the affair — hesitant to discuss Himle’s position specifically. She told me its “not really a legislative thing to weigh in on.”

She said she’s unsure whether Himle’s departure signals any real change:

That really depends on the new president. I am sure that as part of his preparation to come to Minnesota, he will be looking at what happened and understanding it. I would expect no less.

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LCCMR

After the news of the resignation of Karen Himle, the University of Minnesota official in the middle of the Troubled Waters documentary flap, I talked to Brian DeVore, communications coordinator for the Land Stewardship Project.

The nonprofit environmental organization has been perhaps the most vocal critic of how Himle and the U have handled the pulling of the controversial documentary, and called for her ouster when it happened. It also archived many of the documents and e-mails released by the U under a data release request.

Himle has denied that she resigned over the fiasco. And Bruininks said Himle’s resignation was due to the impending arrival of the new president, Eric Kaler, and that she’d always had the aim of going back into the private sector.

You could debate whether that’s just a face-saving move. DeVore told me:

It’s a good step. We wanted the person ultimately responsible for the decision to yank the film to be held accountable.

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MPR reporter Tim Post reports that Karen Himle, University of Minnesota Vice President for University Relations, has resigned today at a regular Board of Regents meeting.

Bruininks said Himle’s resignation was because of the impending arrival of Eric Kaler, who will be the university’s new president next year. He said she had always intended to return to the private sector.

Update with background:

Himle was at the center of the controversy over the Troubled Waters documentary, an environmental film that asserted that agricultural methods were polluting the Mississippi River and causing a “dead zone” where nothing lived in the Gulf of Mexico.

Himle pulled the film earlier this fall after questioning its balance and scientific rigor. But after it was revealed that Himle had ties to agricultural business interests through her husband, critics claimed she suffered from a conflict of interest, and that her move constituted censorship that risked the university’s academic freedom.

The university subsequently released 2,500 internal e-mails and other documents, some of which showed Himle’s opposition to the film.

More background is available here.

Note: For clarity, a list of tweets reporting details of Himle’s resignation have been crossed out.

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Read for yourself

Unsatisfied with the investigation into the internal emails behind the University of Minnesota‘s Troubled Waters mini-scandal?

Now you can look into it yourself.

The Land Stewardship Project, an environmental nonprofit that has been one of the biggest critics of the U’s handling of the film controversy, has posted a database of what it considers the juiciest of the 2,500 pages recently released by the U.

The organization has organized them chronologically and also by selected topics — such as those involving President Robert Bruininks, VP of University Relations Karen Himle, etc.

All are Adobe Acrobat documents that are capable of being searched by keywords or phrases.

LCCMR

What you should know

Both the Land Stewardship Project and the Minnesota Daily have reported on an e-mail that reflects outsider input — if not influence — from an agricultural interest into the editing of Troubled Waters, the controversial environmental documentary on agricultural pollution of the Mississippi River.

As you’ll remember, the University of Minnesota last month canceled its debut, and after a public outcry, went ahead with it. Some have speculated whether agricultural influence — or mere fear of it — might have prompted the original cancellation.

According to the two reports above, Kristin Weeks Duncanson, vice chair of the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council’s board of directors, wrote Bell officials in April after reviewing a copy of the film she’d received from U of M ag Dean Al Levine. (She had not been on the original list of reviewers, but may have been part of the university’s damage control plans that included informing the ag community.)

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