Auburn U. officials defend doctored photos (Auburn U.)
By Scott Parrott
The Auburn Plainsman (Auburn U.)
10/12/2000

(U-WIRE) AUBURN, Ala. -- Auburn University officials say they will
continue using doctored photo illustrations, but will include an
explanation of the process in future publications.

The doctoring, which set off ethical debates last week, was not meant
to misrepresent Auburn's ethnic proportions, University Relations
officials say.

Former employees for University Relations and its publication partner
the Admissions Office have also stepped up this week and accused
their administrators of forcing the inclusion of more blacks in their
publications.

Richard Albee, art director for University Relations from 1986-96,
said after having proposals for applications packages rejected by
Admissions Office administrators, he and co-workers set up
photographs that pictured more minorities.

"We set up photos to have minorities in them because the
administrators wanted them in the pictures," said Albee, who now
works as a Web developer for Infotrax.

"It always came down from the administrators. They wanted photos with
minorities in them," Albee said.

"I worked with the Admissions Office and they pushed that. It was
either from the director of Admissions or the associate director (who
demanded minorities in photos).

"We usually got students from Admissions and the theater department,"
Albee said. "All the cover pictures were posed.

"They said putting blacks in the photos was to show diversity. We
used to have a brochure called 'Black Students at Auburn,' but then
changed it to 'Diversity at Auburn,'" Albee said.

Karen Sharpless, acting director of Admissions during some of Albee's
employment period, denied ever having sent proposals back to him
demanding more blacks be included.

Bickers also said he has never sent a brochure back to University
Relations to include more blacks.

"I insisted upfront (to have minorities in pictures), so it hasn't
been a problem," he said.

Charlie Reeder, who also served as director of Admissions during
Albee's employment period, was unavailable for comment.

The photo manipulations ranged from officials inserting identical
photos of black students into different campus backgrounds to asking
black employees to pose as students.

Simone Wells-Heard, a black female, is pictured on four different
University publications, in five different photos and in three
different environments. She no longer attends Auburn.

University Relations officials said they never asked Wells-Heard if
they could use her image for publications.

Because Wells-Heard's photo was taken on public property and not used
for commercial profit, University Relations officials said they did
not need to get her permission.

"We never intended to mislead or misrepresent," said Pete Pepinsky,
executive director of University Relations. "We plan to include
explanations of the processes as appropriate in future publications."

University Relations works in collaboration with the Admissions
Office in the publication of student recruiting material and has
numerously doctored photographs without the addition of a disclaimer.

The two offices, however, differ in their explanations of the motive
for the doctoring.

Last week, Pepinsky told The Auburn Plainsman the motivation for the
doctoring was to create "pleasing compositions" and not to display
diversity on campus.

Pepinsky said what makes Auburn's photo doctoring different from that
at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is that UWM officials were
trying to show campus diversity when they transposed a picture of a
black man on a crowd of white students for their admission's brochure.

However, Auburn Admissions Director Doyle Bickers said the
photographs were doctored to exhibit diversity.

"Obviously, multiculturalism, diversity and recruitment of minorities
is important on this campus," Bickers said. "I would never support a
situation in our literature that did not at least represent the
campus' diversity and the positiveness of that diversity to the
world."

Bickers said Auburn is "trying to get a picture showing students an
idea of what the life is like at Auburn University."

While Bickers said he insists on having minorities in Admissions
Office brochures, he does not think placing minorities in photos is a
misrepresentation.

"It's not as if 50 percent of the students are minorities," Bickers
said. "We are attempting to put together a picture that represents
the University in an honest manner."

This week, Pepinsky withdrew his previous statement, saying that both
creating a pleasing image and showing diversity were important.

In addition to doctoring photographs, officials have at times asked
employees of the University to pose as students in photographs used
for publication in student recruiting material.

One employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she stood in
as an extra student in one photo shoot. Pepinsky said he did not
recall University Relations asking a faculty or former faculty member
to pose as students.

"However, I can conceive of a publication production problem --
needing an image to complete a project during finals or between terms
-- that could lead a designer to recruit non-students," Pepinsky said.