As we recently noted, there seems to be a trend of attempts to censor student publications this fall. Fortunately, in the most highly publicized case, the Rocky Mountain Collegian, the Editor in Chief will not be removed over a controversial editorial. While the Board of Student Communications gave the editor a slap on the wrist, he will continue on in his same role.
Already this fall, at least three student newspapers (the University of
Virginia’s Cavalier
Daily, Central Connecticut’s The Recorder
and Colorado State’s Rocky
Mountain Collegian) are under heavy fire for their cartoon and editorial
content. In the Cavalier Daily and Recorder, student journalists came
under heavy fire for what were seen as racist and offensive editorial
cartoons. In the Collegian, the student
editor has been attacked for a recent editorial that read: "Headline:
TASER THIS. Body: F**K BUSH."
Of course, reasonable people may disagree with the editorial decisions made
by these students. That’s fine, and in
fact is part of the value of having student publications—the debates on campus
their articles and editorial content can create. However, in all three of these cases, campus
and community leaders have immediately called for students to be removed from
their positions and/or for the removal of funding for the student publications.
For example, within hours of the Collegian’s editorial, the paper and school
were inundated with angry comments and pressure to fire the Editor in
Chief. Over the next week, a formal hearing was held and there was an attempt
to remove the editor from his position with the paper. In Virginia,
the Cavalier Daily was persuaded to fire the cartoonist.
Even in the cases where attempts to remove student
journalists or remove funding for the papers because of their views prove
unsuccessful, the attempts will certainly send a message to other college
journalists and students to avoid controversial topics and statements.