Student newspapers pulled
10/04/07 04:12 |
News
Student newspapers
pulled
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
By Chad Livengood
clivengood@citpat.com -- 768-4918
For weeks, officials at Spring Arbor University have hoped the story about a fired transgender professor who filed a discrimination claim would go away.
Last month, the administration took matters into their own hands, removing from racks about 500 copies of the Crusader, a university-funded student newspaper. The issue included a story about the university's settlement with Julie Nemecek.
The papers were confiscated on the morning of March 23 -- a day after being placed at sites around campus.
Five days later, administrators gave the student editor-in-chief the option of getting the papers back -- but only if the Nemecek article was cut out. Rebecca Eve Schweitzer complied, taking the scissors to 75 copies for redistribution. The rest were thrown out voluntarily.
"It was frustrating," said Schweitzer, a Sterling Heights senior. "But I was happy to get the rest of the issue back because there were a lot of good articles."
University officials declined to answer questions about their action, but issued a statement saying Laniaya Hoofatt's article, "Settlement reached in Nemecek issue," contained inaccurate and incomplete information.
"The student newspaper is a legal entity of the university and as such has an obligation to adhere to the highest standards in reporting and journalistic integrity," the statement read.
The statement did not specify what was deemed inaccurate.
The article reported a settlement had been reached in Nemecek's equal employment opportunity complaint and that the terms were not disclosed.
It also included statements from the former John Nemecek that appeared on a blog posted by her son, myfathershe.blogspot.com.
The student editors acknowledge the story misidentified Nemecek's wife as Pam. The former professor's wife's name is Joanne.
That error could have been corrected in the next edition, said Mike Hiestand, attorney and legal consultant for the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va.
"That's why you have correction space in a newspaper," Hiestand said. "You do mess up on occasion."
But pulling the paper off the racks and ordering a student editor to self-censor seems to cross the line of ethical treatment of the press, he said.
"It may be legal, but it certainly is not the right thing to do," said Hiestand, who deals with similar issues at private colleges across the country.
It particularly rankled the student editors that Crusader stories on Feb. 8 and 15 about the Nemecek issue and the national press attention it has received were never called into question.
"We didn't get in trouble for that at all," Assistant Editor Aaron Mueller said.
The university has never had a prior-review policy, where administrators review material and have the right to edit and pull stories before publication. Such policies are common at other private colleges and high schools.
"It really is unclear to us what we can get away with and what we can't," Mueller said.
The Crusader's media board of directors -- consisting of students, professors and other campus constituencies -- will meet later this spring to discuss the issue, said Wally Metts, co-adviser of the newspaper and chair of the communications and media department.
"They're a great group of kids and they care about the community," Metts said.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
By Chad Livengood
clivengood@citpat.com -- 768-4918
For weeks, officials at Spring Arbor University have hoped the story about a fired transgender professor who filed a discrimination claim would go away.
Last month, the administration took matters into their own hands, removing from racks about 500 copies of the Crusader, a university-funded student newspaper. The issue included a story about the university's settlement with Julie Nemecek.
The papers were confiscated on the morning of March 23 -- a day after being placed at sites around campus.
Five days later, administrators gave the student editor-in-chief the option of getting the papers back -- but only if the Nemecek article was cut out. Rebecca Eve Schweitzer complied, taking the scissors to 75 copies for redistribution. The rest were thrown out voluntarily.
"It was frustrating," said Schweitzer, a Sterling Heights senior. "But I was happy to get the rest of the issue back because there were a lot of good articles."
University officials declined to answer questions about their action, but issued a statement saying Laniaya Hoofatt's article, "Settlement reached in Nemecek issue," contained inaccurate and incomplete information.
"The student newspaper is a legal entity of the university and as such has an obligation to adhere to the highest standards in reporting and journalistic integrity," the statement read.
The statement did not specify what was deemed inaccurate.
The article reported a settlement had been reached in Nemecek's equal employment opportunity complaint and that the terms were not disclosed.
It also included statements from the former John Nemecek that appeared on a blog posted by her son, myfathershe.blogspot.com.
The student editors acknowledge the story misidentified Nemecek's wife as Pam. The former professor's wife's name is Joanne.
That error could have been corrected in the next edition, said Mike Hiestand, attorney and legal consultant for the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va.
"That's why you have correction space in a newspaper," Hiestand said. "You do mess up on occasion."
But pulling the paper off the racks and ordering a student editor to self-censor seems to cross the line of ethical treatment of the press, he said.
"It may be legal, but it certainly is not the right thing to do," said Hiestand, who deals with similar issues at private colleges across the country.
It particularly rankled the student editors that Crusader stories on Feb. 8 and 15 about the Nemecek issue and the national press attention it has received were never called into question.
"We didn't get in trouble for that at all," Assistant Editor Aaron Mueller said.
The university has never had a prior-review policy, where administrators review material and have the right to edit and pull stories before publication. Such policies are common at other private colleges and high schools.
"It really is unclear to us what we can get away with and what we can't," Mueller said.
The Crusader's media board of directors -- consisting of students, professors and other campus constituencies -- will meet later this spring to discuss the issue, said Wally Metts, co-adviser of the newspaper and chair of the communications and media department.
"They're a great group of kids and they care about the community," Metts said.