The Iowa State Daily Publication Board voted Friday to uphold the editor in chief’s authority to hire and fire editorial staff.

The board, which usually meets on the fourth Wednesday of every month, held a special meeting Friday afternoon to discuss the status of three former Daily editors – Sara Tennessen, Wendy Weiskircher and Valerie Dennis – who were fired Feb. 10 after appearing in the cartoon newspaper Toons.

“The board upholds a policy we have that gives the editor in chief full authority to make decisions regarding editorial staff,” said Elena Lopez, chairwoman of the publication board and senior in journalism and mass communication.

Sue Ravenscroft, faculty member for the publication board, said the vote was unanimous.

“We looked at the bylaws and what they said about responsibility and we talked for a long time about the board’s responsibility and what we are authorized to do,” said Ravenscroft, associate professor of accounting. “We decided that the issue was if we were willing to change [the bylaws], and we weren’t.”

Ravenscroft said the existing bylaws give the editor in chief the right to determine editorial personnel issues.

“[Hauser] hired them without any intervention from the board and the same authority gives her the authority to fire them,” Ravenscroft said.

Before the meeting, professor of journalism and mass communication Tom Emmerson resigned from the publication board. Emmerson was the representative for the Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Emmerson said he wrote a letter to the editor about the issue for the Daily and was told that as a member of the publication board he could not print it.

“I resigned from the board because the lawyer for the board sent out a memo saying the board should have one decision,” Emmerson said. “My choice is to say nothing or resign my position from the board.”

Emmerson said he supports the board’s decision, however, and resigned in good spirits.

“It’s what I had to do to reserve my right to have an opinion that might differ from the board,” he said.

Emmerson also said he thinks Hauser was within her rights as editor to fire the three editors.

“The editor’s job is to run the paper,” Emmerson said. “Andrea runs the newsroom. I don’t agree with her, but I respect her right to make the decision.”

Tennessen, former university editor of the Daily and senior in journalism and mass communication, said she wasn’t surprised by the decision. She also said she doesn’t plan to appeal to the publication board to get her job back.

“I think that anything else that we do would hurt the Daily if we succeeded, and I don’t want to hurt the Daily,” she said. She plans to re-apply for a position at the Daily next year.

Andrea Hauser, editor in chief of the Daily, declined to comment.