Letter to the Reader: regarding ASUWT’s presidential removal

A message to the UWT community from The Ledger’s editor-in-chief.

By Michaela Ely

Dear readers,  

My name is Michaela Ely and I am the editor-in-chief of The Tacoma Ledger. I’d like to discuss our coverage of the conflict over the removal of former ASUWT president Elias Feleke, and shed some light on the challenges that journalists face when reporting on complex topics.  

The Ledger previously reported on the removal of Feleke in opinion articles published Nov. 24 and Dec. 15 of last year. Our latest article, published today, and written, researched and extensively edited by myself, attempts to provide a clearer picture of the removal, as well as what has resulted from it. 

Since the beginning of January, I have spent many hours researching, writing and revising this article. I want to express my gratitude for your patience in our reporting on this topic and apologize for the delay in coverage. I am a full-time graduate student with student teaching obligations and classes on top of my role leading The Ledger newsroom. I am also limited in the amount of hours I am allowed to work in a given week. The work that this article required took a lot of time, and there are only so many hours in the day.  

Information must be obtained through careful interviews and public records requests of credible sources, and even then must be vetted carefully. A topic such as this one requires the team and myself to pay even closer attention to detail to avoid reporting misinformation. 

The more I researched and worked on the article, the more I realized how critical it was to inform the student body with credible information. Due to the magnitude and seriousness of the issue, it was to be expected that this reporting would invite criticism. Prior to and throughout my work on this week’s article, this publication’s reporting and journalistic ethics have been attacked repeatedly on social media and in public ASUWT meetings. While I do not have a habit of scrolling Reddit, I was made aware of a thread that referenced reporting by The Ledger on this situation in a way that twisted personal stories of The Ledger’s current and past employees. 

Users in the Reddit thread circulated an assumption that The Ledger’s former editor-in-chief, Jamenson Aleman, was removed from his position. This is flat-out wrong. Aleman was not removed from his position; he graduated at the end of fall quarter. This inaccurate assumption made its way back to me again during my email correspondence with Feleke, who at one point asked: “I pray you remember our previous exchanges about your removed editor-in-chief?” He did not clarify what he meant by this.  

The Black Student Union at UWT (BSU) made a public Instagram statement on Feleke’s removal in collaboration with both the Somali Student Association and Feleke. While it has since been removed, the statement that the BSU made criticized The Ledger for keeping the removal of other ASUWT executives “off the record,” as well as for the overlapping roles that Rae Watkins and Conor Leary either have or have had with The Ledger. 

Reporters are people too, and student reporters are busy people who are often members of multiple school organizations. It would be unfair to eject Watkins from our staff merely because they are also in another organization which happens to be in the news spotlight. In situations like these, news outlets ensure that the reporters do not cover any matters related to their outside interest, and that they have no input into, or ability to read a draft of, any article involving them or their organization before it publishes. It is no different here with Watkins. 

Leary, meanwhile, has not advised The Ledger since 2025. A new hire took over that role starting in January. Furthermore, even when Leary was supervising The Ledger, he had no control over  what was published, nor could he be a source of any relevant information to reporters when he held that role. 

The Ledger has not kept the removal of other ASUWT executives “off the record.” For example, the January removal of Director of Legislative Affairs, Ben Brown, while not previously  mentioned in The Ledger’s reporting, occurred for reasons that were not initially available to the public. His removal was also irrelevant to our previous reporting. 

Brown has since published a statement of his own on Instagram Feb. 26 in which he details the exact reasons he was removed from ASUWT: He became ineligible for the position after his GPA fell below 2.5.  

“I was required to leave ASUWT because of my grades. Cut and dry, that was all. This decision was made by, and only ever required to be made by, the advisors and myself. It was legally required to be kept confidential, unless I gave my consent to disclose the information,” Brown wrote in the statement.  

I have attempted to communicate with Feleke on several occasions regarding the article I was writing. While he has responded to my emails, he would not consent to a formal interview unless the opinion articles regarding his removal from Nov. 24 and Dec. 15 were removed. As we did not find any errors of fact in these pieces, I declined this request. 

I provided a list of questions to Feleke to answer on Feb. 26 so he would have the opportunity to share his perspective and respond to other sources in the article. Though he has not responded since, I remain eager to share his thoughts with readers if and when he chooses to do so. 

The Ledger has always aimed to deliver important information that impacts our community – both the good and the bad. We will continue to do so, and we appreciate your support.