6. Censoring the Student Press

All too common today are efforts to intimidate student newspapers which print articles deemed "offensive" by the self-appointed media critics on campus who express their opposition by throwing out newspapers, filing charges of harassment, or even occupying offices.

The most egregious violation of free press rights occurred in 1995 at DePaul University. The controversy began after the Feb. 17 DePaulia reported on a fight that broke out at a Feb. 10 dance sponsored by House Call, a primarily African-American student group. Black students complained that the article relied solely on police sources, and quoted security reports which identified disruptive individuals as "M/Bs" -- shorthand for black males. Protesters took copies of the free newspaper from the racks and ripped them up.

On April 5, the black students began a sit-in at the student newspaper office, shutting down production. President Rev. John Minogue did not take action against the sit-in, but ordered the suspension of the. Minogue met several demands, including retaining an African-American consultant to provide sensitivity training; requiring the newspaper to devote one issue annually to concerns of students of color; including minority faculty and staff; establishing a student mentorship program; increasing internship opportunities; improving retention and recruitment of minority students; allocating $70,000 to multicultural programs; and not taking disciplinary action against protesters because they were peaceful. (Chicago Tribune, 4/9/95; Chicago Sun-Times, 4/15/95)

It's one thing to hold a sit-in on an administrative building to protest university policies; it's quite a different story to occupy a newspaper office in order to shut it down. The students' behavior was appalling enough, but DePaul University's official response was even worse. The Student Press Law Center reported that it was the first time in the 1990s that a campus newspaper was not printed due to a student protest.

For the administration, censoring the DePaulia not only appeased the African-American students on campus, but it also ensured that the newspaper would be compliant in the future and unlikely to cause controversy. Newspaper editors at DePaul know all too well the danger they face if they dare to publish anything potentially offensive to anyone -- especially if it's an article critical of the administration which now holds absolute power over the student newspaper.

A similar assault on the rights of a newspaper occurred at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1992, where 200 protesters twice vandalized the offices of the student newspaper, the Collegian, damaging equipment and threatening staffers. The protesters demanded more minority control of the newspaper, and the editors ended up taking their newspaper underground to avoid attacks.

Cases like this are rare, but the failure of administrators to half such attempts at intimidation raises serious concerns about the freedom of the press. A more widespread problem, however, is the thrashing of student newspapers and direct censorship of these papers in an effort to suppress controversial views.

One way to suppress views is to file a harassment charge. Although this rarely leads to a guilty verdict, it can have a powerful silencing effect on the student press.

At Marietta College, a student writing in the school newspaper who called lesbians "deviant" was accused of sexual harassment; the Marietta Board of Trustees intervened tonsure that the student was not sanctioned. The student editor of a conservative newspaper at Oberlin College was accused of harassment and abuse for an article in the paper, and was exonerated after a hearing before the school's judicial board. (USA Today, 3/95)

These are cases where conservative views have been censored, and they should be condemned. One case is the UCLA Daily Bruin, which ran a cartoon where a rooster was asked how he got admitted on campus and the rooster replied, "Affirmative action." For this cartoon, the editor and art director were suspended for violating the policy against using derogatory stereotypes. At California State University at Northridge, the editor of the campus paper wrote an editorial criticizing the decision, and also reproduced the offensive rooster cartoon -- as a result, the paper's faculty advisor gave a two-week suspension to Taranto for printing "controversial" material without permission. After ACLU intervened, a settlement was reached.

These examples of censorship must be strongly opposed, as should be the theft of newspapers. Many of these newspaper trashings have been widely publicized. On April 15, 1993, a group of black students at the University of Pennsylvania threw away the 14,200 press run of the Daily Pennsylvanian because it included a column written by conservative student Gregory Pavlik, who had criticized affirmative action and Martin Luther King, Jr.

But in most cases, newspaper thefts have nothing to do with "political correctness." Newspapers are usually trashed when they report crimes or criticize student government. On April 21, 1994, the California State University at Fullerton's Daily Titan had half of its 6,000 papers trashed because of a lead article on a student election. On April 26, 1994, 7,000 out of the 9,000 copies of the California State University at Northridge's Daily Sundial were stolen by a student body presidential candidate's supporters because the newspaper endorsed another candidate. (Los Angeles Times, 4/28/94)

Most papers are not taken for ideological reasons, and there is no sign that conservative papers are specially targeted for censorship. At Brandeis University, for example, a Holocaust revision ad (although printed with a disclaimer and with the revenues donated to the Holocaust Memorial Museum) led to 2,000 copies of the Justice being stolen. After the Georgetown University's Voice ran a similar ad in October 1993, the staff was forced to publish a retraction and a letter of apology, donate the money from the ad to the Holocaust museum, and visit the museum. In April 1994, the University of Miami's student newspaper, the Miami Hurricane, sparked campus protests after it published an ad denying the Holocaust: 4000 students condemned the ad in a rally, and a wealthy donor withheld a $2 million donation to the university. In response, the board of trustees ordered the newspaper to prohibit all ads that are "hateful or misleading." (Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, July 1994)

But it is not true, as Lynne Cheney claims, that "campus newspapers have been removed or destroyed at over 70 colleges... and we didn't find a single case where a student who has stolen a newspaper has been punished." (Washington Times, 3/22/95)

At the University of Maryland, bundles of the November 1, 1993, issue of the campus newspaper were taken because of charges that the newspaper was racists. However, black leaders on campus, including two black editors of the paper, quickly denounced the theft, as did the university president. The students responsible were put on probation, forced to perform 16 hours of community service, and required to write a paper on student press censorship.

At Penn State University in April 1993, some feminist students stole 4,000 copies of the right-wing student newspaper, the Lionhearted. That same night, protesters burned hundreds of copies of the newspaper in front of the law office of a trustee who had supported the newspaper. The protesters were angered by the Lionhearted's attacks on feminism, including a full-page picture of a female columnist from the student newspaper, with her head pasted on top a bikini-clad body. In July 1993, university police charged two recent graduates with theft, receiving stolen property, and criminal conspiracy for taking the newspapers.

At Duke University in 1993, a member of the Black Student Alliance took 100 copies of the conservative Duke Review. He was strongly condemned by Duke President Nan Keohane, and was placed on probation after being convicted of theft by the Undergraduate Judicial Board. However, the conviction was overturned on appeal because the student was denied due process when a new definition of theft was applied retroactively.

Nor do Cheney and other conservatives mention the fact that progressive newspapers are frequently the victims of official censorship. The Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom (11/94) has reported that many progressive weekly papers have been targeted by right-wing groups, with threats, newspaper trashings, and attempts to cut off advertising with boycotts.

While conservative columns are more likely to spark trashings than liberal ones, administrative censorship is more common among liberal papers. In 1989, the editors of the Marquette University Tribune were suspended and the business manager was fired because the newspaper had published an ad for an abortion rally, even though it ran a disclaimer nothing that Marquette was not supporting the rally. Under intense media scrutiny, the university finally reinstated the student journalists. In March 1993, the university refused to allow the paper to publish an unsigned editorial on abortion pill RU-486 which contradicted the university's position, claiming that it might be misinterpreted as Marquette's views.

Faculty adviser Bill Blanton has since resigned, saying that it was "not a good atmosphere to teach or practice journalism." Rev. John Patrick Donnelly, the new director, declares: "Freedom of the press belongs to those who own it. This being a Catholic institution, we don't expect the paper to run editorials that contradict church positions." The Tribune is under orders to inform administrators about any stories with "controversial material" before publication.

At Viterbo College in 1992, President William Medland fired the faculty advisor, the editor, and the entire staff of the student paper after it published an article on condoms.

In 1991, the editor and managing director of the student newspaper at Palm Beach Atlantic College were fired for insubordination and lost their scholarships after attempting to publish an anonymous letter and an editorial questioning the school's ban on homosexual activity. The issue, despite being heavily censored, was criticized by several students who threw away about half of its 1,500 copies.

At Wheaton College in 1992, the committee on student publications at the conservative Christian college forced the editors of the literary magazine Kodon to remove two nude sketches of a man and a woman before it could be published. Elgin Community College school officials tried to censor the Observer and threatened to close it down because the student magazine ran stories about gay organizations on campus.

At Millsaps College, the campus Purple and White newspaper was shut down for 10 weeks by administrators after an opinions columnist jokingly suggested group sex as a way for people to transcend their differences. When alumni and trustees threatened to withdraw money from the school, the administration condemned the column as "poorly written, tasteless, offensive, and unworthy of publication anywhere." The Purple and White was allowed to resume publication only after adopting standards for taste and decency and requiring a five-person editorial board to unanimously approve each story before publication.

Although the repression of progressive papers continued unabated, there has been some recent success in stopping trashings. In recent months, the number of newspaper trashings has sharply declined, with only a half-dozen incidents reported in fall 1995. According to Mike Hiestand, staff attorney for the Student Press Law Center, one reason may be that "schools are actually doing something about it." At the University of Texas, the district attorney is investigating charges related to a newspaper trashing in the fall of 1995. In 1995, Corrado Giovanella dumped 5,800 copies of the University of Texas Daily Texan in a recycling bin when it reported his attempt to forge an application as a transfer student.(Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/15/95) At the University of Virginia, 4,000 copies of the Cavalier Daily were hidden after an article criticized the food-service contractor, ARAmark, as "a hearty band of taste-bud impaired Visigoths." John Darmstadt, an ARAmark manager, admitted taking the papers because he thought the review was unfair.(Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/15/95) ARAmark apologized and donated $1,000 to a charity of the paper's choice.

Administrators at some schools also have the courage to refuse to punish newspapers for their views. The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee recently resisted student demands to shut down a student paper, the Times, after it printed a column calling O.J. Simpson a "nigger" and another column full of obscenities and insults such as "fag" and "bitch." Chancellor John Schroeder was hanged in effigy by protesters after he refused to disband the newspaper, although he criticized the editors. For administrators, it is often easier to silence an unpopular and offensive newspaper than to recognize the extreme danger that such interference poses to an independent press on campus.(Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/24/95)

When newspaper censorship is taken seriously, it creates a climate where students use the free exchange of ideas, and not trashings and occupations, to express their disagreement with the views that appear in student papers. Defending freedom of the press requires administrators to take action against newspaper thefts, and not to ignore such attempts at suppression or make efforts to silence the student press. Unfortunately, all too many colleges and universities prefer to have writers and editors who are fearful of suppression rather than a free press that may criticize the administration.  Recent thefts reported in the Winter 1994-95 Student Press Law Center Report

The Laguardia Community College Bridge was shut down by school officials while they investigated allegations that an anti-Semitic opinion piece was printed in October 1993. The College Association, which allocates student activity funds, ordered changes in the paper's governing document and demanded prior review of every issue.

At Western Nebraska Community College, administrators temporarily confiscated all copies of the student newspaper because a controversial column compared the academic performance of black and white athletes on campus. The papers were returned to bins the next day, but college officials maintain they have a "right" to "protect the best interests of all students involved."

At Monmouth College in New Jersey, vice president for student affairs Mary Anne Nagy temporarily removed 2,500 copies of The Outlook during parents weekend because it reported an assault on campus.

Reginald Butler admitted to stealing 800 copies of the Troy State University Tropolitan because it included an article about his arrest for credit card theft. Editors agreed not to press charges against in exchange for Butler paying $75 for the trashed papers, helping distribute 4,000 copies across campus, and writing for the newspaper about the track team for three quarters.

Unknown thieves took 5,500 copies of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Kaleidoscope because of an article about a former professor charged with sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. In response, the administration added a policy to university regulations that punishes students who steal newspapers.

At the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley, members of MEChA stole the print run of 7,500 newspapers and returned the copies to the newspapers's office in garbage bags. They were protesting two columns about the student elections. Police and administration refused to press any charges.

6,000 copies of the University of Buffalo's student magazine Generation were stolen for unknown reasons.

At Boise State University, 800 copies of the Arbiter were taken, possibly to protest a prior issue which included an editorial opposing a state anti-gay initiative and an interview with a gay professor.

At the University of Detroit Mercy, 1,400 copies of the Varsity News were stolen because a lead article blamed a campus political group for several acts of vandalism. In February 1994, 200 copies were stolen because of a story about a chemical spill on campus.

San Jose City College's City College Times had 1,000 copies taken because of an article about the campus radio station.

Clark University's student newspaper, The Scarlet, regularly is removed from bins during the biannual visits of the Board of Trustees.

A cartoon in the student newspaper of Salem-Teikyo College in West Virginia caused controversy in April 1995 because it showed a man with his middle finger pointing up. School officials demanded a public apology, and the editors were removed by student government leaders when they refused. (Ironically enough, the cartoon was titled, "Censorship.")