However, on the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 23, on the sidewalk outside The Brass Cafe, 128 S. Main St., Ross informed me that he would not openly communicate with me if I published dishonest information about him. He also told me, if I had written what I had at a professional newspaper, I would have been fired.

This all stems from a Sept. 13 editorial in which the editorial board of this newspaper said George Ross was not visible on campus or involved with students. He had promised to regularly meet and have lunch with students and we said he had not done that.

He waited 10 days to call our newspaper out for saying so, in front of other media after the Sept. 23 board of trustees meeting. He said we printed things that were untrue and we should have corrected them. He said nobody tried to contact him before printing the editorial.

The most interesting part of this episode, to me, was Ross saying “I typically don’t read your editorials, because those are your opinions.” That suggested both that somebody showed this editorial to Ross and it was decided not to contact us immediately to correct it. Also it gives some insight as to what regard Ross holds the opinions of his students.

This was the university president confronting my peers and coworkers about a piece that my desk, and ultimately I, was responsible for. If he wanted to discuss the piece, I wanted to give him a fair shake at doing so. So I directly called the office of the President.

“If you’re trying to contact the president, you need to go through Steve Smith,” the receptionist told me, referring to the Director of Public Relations with University Communications. I left my phone number and personal e-mail address with the receptionist.

Not an hour later, I received a call from Associate Vice President of University Communications Renee Walker, the university’s head public relations honcho. She reiterated Ross’s points about the factual error we were accused of and that the university’s PR officials were simply trying to make sure we were getting the proper information, not trying to impede us or keep us from Ross.

Shortly thereafter, we got word that Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Brenda Lawrence, who was in town on a campaign stop, was having lunch with students at The Brass, and Ross was there. Getting down there as quickly as I could, I sat down at a table with other media folks in the corner. Ross sat at the main table, pushed away, leaned back in his chair, not interacting or participating.

Shortly thereafter, he excused himself and started to leave. I caught up with him and introduced myself.

I told him who I was and that I was responsible for the editorial. I wanted him to know he was always welcome to contact me, air his grievances, arrange meetings and write response letters and guest columns for publications.

As I said this to him, we walked out the door of the cafe to the south end of the block on the sidewalk, which is where we were for the statements described at the beginning of this column.

After my experiences trying to get a hold of our president, I spent the next day calling the offices of the presidents of 12 other public universities in Michigan (all of them save for the University of Michigan satellite campuses). I intended to ask their opinions and experiences regarding interacting with students.

Five university presidents spoke with me that day. Eastern Michigan University President Sue Martin contacted me Sunday. Only four universities directed me through public relations.

These are my experiences and findings.

Is Ross visible or approachable to the people on this campus?

Decide for yourself.