Attempts to mediate the dispute between the student newspaper and the student government at Montclair State University have failed, and the institution’s president said on Wednesday that the university would work with both groups “to achieve a formal separation of the two organizations effective no later than July 1.”

The student government, which provides a large portion of the budget for The Montclarion, temporarily froze the newspaper’s funds last month after the paper hired a lawyer to challenge the government’s tendency to meet behind closed doors. The government later restored the funds pending mediation of the dispute. Those talks broke down this week.

The president, Susan A. Cole, stressed in a written statement that the decision to separate the two groups was “not an admonishment of either organization or any individual students.” She added that the university would “assure that The Montclarion has adequate funds to publish for the remainder of this academic year,” regardless of any action taken by the student government. —Charles Huckabee