After almost 20 years at The Baltimore Sun, Andrew Green joined Hopkins as vice president for communications on Oct. 1.
In this role, Green will manage the University’s news media, marketing and media relations. As a member of University President Ronald J. Daniels’ cabinet, he will also advise senior administrators on policy and decision-making.
In an interview with The News-Letter, Green emphasized his commitment to promoting transparency with students, noting that it was “too early” to specify ways in which he intends to achieve this goal.
Green succeeds Susan Ridge, who left the University in August. He hopes that the understanding of Baltimore that he has acquired as a journalist will enable the University to communicate more effectively with students, community members and other important stakeholders.
“I want to do what I can to try to continue the improvement of Hopkins’ relationship with the community, which has been mostly on the upswing for the last number of years, with some ups and downs along the way,” he said.
In May 2019 The Sun’s editorial board, on which Green served as opinion editor, called on the University to stop suing its poorest patients over unpaid medical bills. In March 2018 the board criticized the University for requesting legislation to create a private police force without consulting the community.
Green believes that the University’s relationship with the rest of Baltimore has improved in recent years, citing the University’s endeavors in nearby schools and its contracting with local businesses. He highlighted the opportunity for community involvement in the planned private police force’s accountability board.
Editorials to which he contributed during his tenure at The Sun, Green noted, do not necessarily reflect his own views but instead those of The Sun.
“There were issues that came up dealing with Hopkins fairly regularly that we would write about — sometimes in ways the University liked, sometimes not,” he said.
Green reflected on managing The Sun’s opinion section for the past decade.
“It was a terrific job and a really great opportunity to... try to do our little bit to make things better,” he said. “I entered the opinion world to be able to hold institutions and powerful people accountable.”
Although he acknowledged that he is now spokesperson for an institution, he does not believe that his current position contradicts so much with his previous one.
“This role is not all that different from the role of a reporter in that The News-Letter asks me questions and I try to find the answers,” he said. “What I’ve seen my job as so far is — when there are issues of public concern or potential public concern, finding out what’s really going on in this very big, complicated place.”
He further elaborated on this goal.
“One of the things I want to be able to do is to clearly convey the University’s values and its motivations behind whatever decisions, big and small, or news it may make so that people can put it in a little better context or understand why things happen the way they do,” he said.
Green was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing in 2016 for his coverage of the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death in 2015, which he said illuminated underlying systemic inequality throughout the city.
Gray died from a spinal cord injury sustained while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), sparking the Baltimore Uprising, a series of peaceful and violent protests.
“It really laid bare things people had known intellectually about the city for a long time, about the divide between communities. This wasn’t news to anyone, I think, but those events really forced us to confront that reality in a way that we hadn’t before,” Green said.
Green and other Sun writers demanded accountability for Gray’s death and also offered potential solutions to Baltimore’s socioeconomic and educational disparities.
Before being promoted to opinion editor in 2009, Green was The Sun’s city and state editor. He first joined the publication as a reporter in 2001, covering state and local government.
He explained his decision to pursue a career in journalism.
“I really liked being able to get at the truth of things when people may not want you to,” he said.
Green recounted working at a newspaper in small-town Illinois the summer after his freshman year at Harvard University. One afternoon, Green said, someone arrived at the office, hoping to speak with a reporter about his ambitions to build an ethanol plant.
“I’m talking to him and asking him a few questions, and he seemed kind of full of it to me. So I asked about some of the numbers, and he said, ‘Oh, you’re going to be a good journalist some day,’” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘Maybe today will be that day.’”
Green observed that the man did not dial “9” — a step needed to reach outside phone lines — when he called someone to verify the numbers.
He spent the next week trying to prove that the man was lying about his plans. His efforts, he said, were successful.
According to Green, fact-checking is particularly important in today’s media landscape.
“In a world where so many people are ready to dismiss media as being all fake news or opinion masquerading as journalism, you really need to be more careful and more diligent than ever,” he said.
In addition, Green sympathized with student journalists. While he was an undergraduate at Harvard, Green served as the managing editor for The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper.
“I understand that you’re trying to learn the craft at the same time that you’re really trying to perform a service for the community. I understand that it’s a difficult thing and you can feel like a David in a world of Goliath’s sometimes,” he said.
He remarked that his counterpart at Harvard took The Crimson’s role seriously and understood that moments of disagreement between administrators and editors were at times inevitable.
Green expressed his aspiration for a cordial and professional relationship with The News-Letter.
“I understand, obviously, that the campus newspaper’s job is not to support everything that the University does,” Green said.
He stated that he will strive to maintain relationships with employees of The Sun.
“They’re incredibly dedicated to getting the truth and to covering this community thoroughly, fairly and critically when necessary, and I would view my role as helping them do that,” he said.
He also plans to remain in touch with contacts throughout Baltimore.
Although sad to leave The Sun, Green is excited to develop new skills at the University. He mentioned a challenge that he will aim to address in the short term.
“This is just a really big place, and it’s a little hard to figure out who everybody is and how everything works,” Green said.
He affirmed that he will do his best to acquaint himself with students, faculty and staff.
Green stated that he will listen to what they have to say, and described voicing their ideas to University leadership as an integral aspect of his position.
“I intend to be an avid reader of The News-Letter, but beyond that... I’ll develop networks of people I talk to here, much like I would have in covering a new beat as a journalist,” he said. “I’m really excited to be part of this community and look forward to getting to know it better.”
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