Tribune editors were informed Thursday that passages in a story written by Sykes and published in The Tribune on Thursday contained language that was similar to phrasing in a story that appeared in The Daily Utah Chronicle on the day before.

After an investigation over the weekend by Lisa Carricaburu, an assistant managing editor at The Tribune and Sykes' supervisor, and a meeting with Sykes, The Tribune determined that the allegation was credible, said Editor Nancy Conway.

"We've addressed this situation with the reporter and her employment here has been terminated," Conway said.

Sykes stands by her reporting.

"I talked to everybody in that story, and that's what I told them. There's nothing untrue in that story. There's nothing false in that story, and I talked to everyone," said Sykes, who started at The Tribune in February 1993.

In a Tribune story about overspending by the University of Utah's student government, former student leaders and advisers defended spending more than $270,000 on a three-day music festival in April called the Kerfuffle.

"Former student leaders who were in charge of last year's event and their professional advisers said that while they didn't intend to go $66,000 over budget, they made the decision to 'go big' and make the event something students would remember," Sykes wrote.

A day earlier, Chronicle reporter Dustin Gardiner said almost the same thing in a copyrighted story.

"Former student officials who were in charge of the event and professional advisers in the Associated Students of the University of Utah said that while they didn't intend to go $66,000 over budget, they made the decision to 'go big' and make the event something students would remember," Gardiner wrote.

The Tribune investigation concluded that Sykes' story displayed other similarities with the Chronicle story.

Danyelle White, editor-in-chief of the Chronicle, said a copy editor told Gardiner that The Tribune had published "an eerily similar story" on Thursday. After comparing the stories herself, White contacted Jim Fisher, a professor of communication and adviser to the student newspaper. Fisher said she should inform The Tribune.

"I'm saddened. It's never a pleasant thing to see one of your colleagues go down like this," White said.

White said she has seen language in a second story written by Sykes that was identical to a story previously published in the Chronicle in May. She said the Chronicle is not investigating further.

"We have investigated," said Conway. "We've gone back and looked at past stories. There does seem to be another story with some similarities, although I have not received a complaint about any other story, other than the one the Chronicle raised on Thursday."

Fisher, a former executive graphics editor at The Tribune in the early to mid-1990s, said the incident was upsetting.

"I think it's just heartbreaking. It's just sad," Fisher said.