Responses
Laura, 5/13/2003, 10:12:49 PM
I'm the new EIC of the student-run newspaper of the Florida Institute of Technology, a small private school in Melbourne, FL. We have a contract with an outside publisher, but the university does have the right to block or censor any story they wish, or even shut the newspaper down. I have never seen the university do so, however, because we practice self-censorship, cutting and editing stories that we know the administration wouldn't approve of. We are funded by the school, but the once we are fully financially independent (funded by advertisers), the school will have no say about the policies and content of the paper.
April Wooster, 5/14/2003, 9:44:01 PM
I am the editor of a private Christian school newspaper in Minneapolis, called North Central University. The school acts as our publisher, and thus the president has the right to censor us. Nevertheless, he has promised never to do so.
We have printed some commentaries and investigative news pieces that really irked our president, and we had some pretty intense conversations with him. He kept mentioning his promise not to censor the paper (which seemed like an implied threat). Yet I feel that regular communication between issues of the paper with him and other officials has been enough to keep the administration from cutting our funding. We still print stuff they disagree with, but we are honest about our news value differences and communication about those has helped ease the tension. As long as we make decisions about controversial articles in a thoughtful way, and are willing to provide reasons for our choices, our relationship with the school's officials remains functional. A tension will always exist, but that's healthy and natural if a publication is doing it's job.
I can't say that there isn't a potential risk that we could get shut down. But the editors have a good sense of what's considered taboo or touchy on our campus, and so we put more mature, sensitive, fair reporters or commentary writers on those topics.
There's a lot of give and take, and it's not like we can just say whatever we want however we want, but you can't really do that in any mainstream publication. We have been given the freedom to cover news that clearly reflects poorly on the university, but we have worked very hard to do that well and fairly. Had we not, we may have been censored. This year, there has been no requests from officials to proof-read articles, but last year we did have one. I hope that never has to happen again.
Not sure if that helps, but if you have any questions, feel free to email me:
april.wooster@mail.northcentral.edu
I would be interested to know how your situation turns out.
Cory J. Frieberg E-I-C City College News, Minneapolis MN, 5/15/2003, 11:35:38 AM
We are a newspaper funded by students through an activity fee, which also covers the basketball and golf teams and our student governement. Our administration has no right at all to touch us (financially or censorship). Our student government has tried to cut our budget this year because we wrote some articles that showed how bad the student government has screwed up this year. But from a legal standpoint, in cases of the first amendment, student government is looked upon the same way as school administration. check out www.splc.com find out your rights, it doesn't matter if you are a private college funded by the schools president themselves, they do not have the right to censor you...if they do, take em to court, and you will win everytime.
Christopher Nooney, CoEIC Manhattan College Quadrangle, 5/15/2003, 11:13:31 PM
At Manhattan College (which despite the name is located in the Bronx, NY) is a LaSallian Catholic school run by the Christian Brothers. Our paper is funded through a Student Activity Fee which is administered by our Student Government. We had previously had a publications review board consisting of faculty and admin which could not touch content prior to publishing, but could levy penalties after the fact if we were negligent. However, that group has ceased to exist over the last 8 years. All content decisions are ultimately up to myself and the person with whom I share editor's rights.
Kole Ade Odutola, 5/18/2003, 11:12:31 PM
Hello All,
I'm interested in working on Student-run media organizations. Can Mary Chauvin please get in touch with me? I'll like to share what I already have with you.
Kole
<odutola@scils.rutgers.edu>
Jared Novack, 5/20/2003, 9:30:27 AM
At Syracuse University, a medium sized private school in Central New York, the Daily Orange has run totally independent of the University for the last decade. At our founding in 1903 we were the official paper of SU, produced and supported by the school. In 1971 we became an independent paper, though still supported by the Student Activity Fee, we rejected all funding beginning in 1991. Through a dedicated buisness staff and seeking revenues beyond display and classified advertising (through web, archive and book sales) we have been able to remain both editorially and financially independent of SU. I've been reading about the troubles you guys have been having down at Loyola and wish you the best in coming out of this on top.
Jared
jnovack@syr.edu
April, 5/22/2003, 9:36:31 PM
I was just wondering if someone could clarify some questions for me on this topic, or perhaps point me in the right direction. I commented above on how my school's administration thinks that it has the right to censor us. Officials state that because the school partially funds the paper, they could halt our work at anytime. If we failed to let them do so, they could pull our funding.
So my first question is, at a private school, does the administration have the right to censor the student press it helps fund? (Part of our money comes from student fees, but the administration can redirect the funds elsewhere.)
Secondly, if the definition of illegal censorship at a school like mine includes the administration pre-reading articles to demand changes, breaking into our offices to sabatoge our work, preventing us from sending material to the printer or expelling from the school those who fail to comply with their censorship efforts, then would an administrative decision to pull the newspaper's school funding also considered an act of illegal censorship?
Thirdly, is there any sort of legal censorship possible at a private school newspaper?
Fourthly, could we operate a paper without censorship at a private school, using our own equipment and our own ad revenue, when that school has a very explicit rule stating that students who distribute materials not approved by school officials can be disciplined or expelled from the university?
I guess I am just really confused about censorship/funding rights at a private university. My school's president seems to think that college newspapers do not have First Amendment rights when they are partially funded and technologically supported by the school. He says if I started my own newspaper and distributed it off campus to students, then I could do whatever I wanted. Is he wrong?
Thanks for any help anyone could provide!
april.wooster@mail.northcentral.edu
