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2017 BULLETIN | 25

Threats to the Independence

of Student Media

(DECEMBER 2016)

A committee composed of representatives from the American Association of University Professors, the College

Media Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and the Student Press Law Center formulated this

joint statement in fall 2016. The document received the endorsement of all four sponsoring organizations.

In 2015, the Black Lives Matter movement spawned

presidents stepping down.

The movement also shone light on the status of

student journalists and their faculty and staff advis-

ers, as demonstrated by an incident involving a faculty

member and a student videographer at the University

of Missouri and by one involving the student news-

paper at Wesleyan University.

1

While unusual for the

attention they garnered, these incidents were by no

means unique or even rare. It has become disturbingly

campus journalism to public relations are inconsistent

with the mission of higher education to provide a

previously shared their stories reported suffering some

degree of administrative pressure to control, edit, or

censor student journalistic content. This pressure was

reported from every segment of higher education and

from every institutional type: public and private, four-

year and two-year, religious and secular.

instances because the advisers feared for their jobs,

regardless of whether the adviser was a staff or faculty

For example, administrators at one four-year public

university demanded that the adviser begin conducting

prepublication review after the newspaper published a

story about the “top ten places to hook up on cam-

pus.” And it is not only administrators who apply

this pressure. In the 2016 survey, one media adviser

reported that a representative of graduate student

government threatened to cut the newspaper’s fund-

ing if the newspaper did not cover more graduate

student events. In some cases, advisers were told that

Wesleyan, see Tara Jeffries, “Op-Ed in Wesleyan Argus Sparks

Outrage, Petition to Defund Newspaper,” September 23, 2015,

http://www.splc.org/article/2015/09/op-ed-in-wesleyan-argus-sparks

Student publications and the student press are

valuable aids in establishing and maintaining an

atmosphere of free and responsible discussion

and of intellectual exploration on the campus. They

and legally separate from the college or university.

Where financial and legal autonomy is not pos-

sible, the institution, as the publisher of student

publications, may have to bear the legal respon-

sibility for the contents of the publications. In the

delegation of editorial responsibility to students,

the institution must provide sufficient editorial

freedom and financial autonomy for the student

publications to maintain their integrity of purpose

as vehicles for free inquiry and free expression in

“As safeguards for the editorial freedom of student

publications,” the Statement continued, “the following

provisions are necessary”:

should be protected from arbitrary suspension

istration, or public disapproval of editorial

policy or content. Only for proper and stated

to removal and then only by orderly and pre-

be the agency responsible for their removal.

c. All institutionally published and financed

expressed are not necessarily those of the

college, university, or student body.

public-relations program.

Candid journalism that discusses students’ dis-

satisfaction with the perceived shortcomings of their

institutions can be uncomfortable for campus authori-

ties. Nevertheless, this journalism fulfills a healthful

civic function. A college or university campus is in

many ways analogous to a self-contained city in

which thousands of residents conduct their daily

lives—drawing on the resources of the institution for

an “information lifeline” for the entire community. In

2012, the Knight Foundation and other philanthropic

funders of journalism challenged universities to rei-

magine themselves as “teaching hospitals” for news,

satisfying the public’s critical information needs just

as traditional teaching hospitals fulfill urgent medical

3. While a disclaimer is recommended as a potentially helpful clari-

fication for the benefit of the audience, the decision whether and how

to disclaim affiliation with the institution is, as with all editorial content

2017 BULLETIN | 27

needs.

This evolution was already well under way

but has accelerated with the rapid erosion of staffing

at professional news organizations; the Pew Research

Center reports that 14 percent of all journalists

responsible for covering state capitals are students.

When they are not financially or legally indepen-

university but run entirely by students, often being

designated as a student club, with a skilled adviser

who offers education and counsel but takes no part in

editorial decisions. In both arrangements, professors

or advisers, whether they are members of the faculty

college and university administrators to avoid topics

or stories that the administration finds objectionable.

in print, on air, or online.

Recent years have brought an increasing diversity

of online publications and “media laboratories,”

which can provide student journalists with the

opportunity to disseminate their class-produced

work to a public audience. These publications

make a significant contribution to the community’s

journalistic ecosystem. Nevertheless, they are no

substitute for independent, student-run media. Few,

frequently signify deeper institutional mismanagement

that administrators may seek to downplay or

conceal. In one especially egregious example, the

administration of California’s Southwest College

mounted a campaign of intimidation and bullying

harassment campaign, Raj Chopra, was forced out

of office soon afterward as part of a wide-ranging

“pay-to-play” corruption scandal encompassing

members of the college’s board of trustees and

contractors. The scandal resulted in criminal charges

ended up accepting a guilty plea and serving three

years’ probation.

4. Eric Newton, “An Open Letter to America’s University

Presidents,” August 3, 2012, http://www.knightfoundation.org/articles

/open-letter-americas-university-presidents.

journalistic publications to sue their institutions to obtain access

supervised by a faculty instructor would be in a position to bring such

less-protected constitutional status by virtue of the Supreme Court’s

ruling in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988).

The Hazelwood ruling diminished the constitutional protection of student

speech in school-supervised media and, while its applicability to the

postsecondary level is disputed, at least some judges have found its

reasoning applicable to the speech of college students. See, for

7. The punishment inflicted on the students and their adviser is

Bay Cases,” The Daily Transcript, April 7, 2014. Illinois’s corruption-

riddled College of DuPage likewise harassed and intimidated student

journalists and fired a twenty-year-veteran adviser in 2011—after

of adviser Cathy Stablein is described in Seth Zweifler, “Ill. College

Journalists, Administrators at Odds over Adviser’s Removal,”

June 3, 2011, http://www.splc.org/article/2011/06/ill-college-journalists

Freedom of expression and debate by means of a

free and vigorous student media are essential to

staff beliefs or opinions as well.

Student media must be free from all forms

of external interference designed to regulate its

content, including confiscation of its products or

broadcasts; suspension of publication or transmis-

sion; academic personal or budgetary sanctions;

arbitrary removal of staff members or faculty; or

threats to the existence of student publications or

broadcast outlets.

they are not producers of college or university jour-

nalism and should not be expected—or allowed—to

interfere in the editorial process. An adviser who

writes for the student newspaper without attribution

or who rewrites material in the student newspaper is

akin to a professor who rewrites an essay for a student

instead of offering suggestions for improvement. An

administrator who demands control of student media

content is akin to a college or university official who

dictates the content of a student essay.

to control content, and administrators should never

attempt to dictate what these classes can and cannot

cover, no matter how objectionable they might find the

content to be.

Students learn by doing: by reporting and writ-

ing, by photographing, or by making video or audio

mandates that advisers must always “defend and teach

without censoring.” Regardless of the type of institu-

tion or adviser, the Code asserts, “There should never

be an instance where an adviser maximizes quality

by minimizing learning. Student media should always

consist of student work.”

III. Cases

Many college and university authorities have

disturbed by aggressive student journalism, faculty

advisers sometimes pay with their jobs. Examples

abound in public and private institutions alike. The

following incidents have occurred since the beginning

of 2015 alone:

• At Fairmont State University, a public insti-

2017 BULLETIN | 29

and provost of the university explicitly told

student editors that they wanted a less contro-

versial newspaper with more positive stories.

Kelley was the third journalism adviser in a row

to leave Fairmont State under circumstances

indicating retaliation over editorial content.

a dispute over whether she breached protocol

by sharing an e-mail about impending insti-

tutional budget cuts with the student editors.

McKown had clashed with college administra-

tion on multiple occasions over news coverage

the university’s reputation, including a 2013

article bringing to light past criminal charges

• Mount Saint Mary’s University in Maryland

fired newspaper adviser Ed Egan on the

grounds of “disloyalty” after his students

published an article describing conversations

in which the university president told faculty

members in graphic terms about his plans to

cull underperforming first-year students. (“You

just have to drown the bunnies . . . Put a Glock

to their heads,” the newspaper quoted him

Demillo, an Emmy-nominated broadcast jour-

nalist with extensive experience in nearby New

York City, was removed in 2016 after students

of the newspaper she advised published a Valen-

tine’s Day issue that included frank discussions

of sex. Provost Gerald O’Sullivan sent an e-mail

to Demillo, a full-time tenured professor who

advised the paper on a part-time basis, in which

ment), and removed the student-elected leader-

ship of the organization. University officials

claimed that they removed the student leader-

ship not because of newspaper content but

because the organization’s governing documents

by their peers.

• At Muscatine Community College, a public

against several college officials, but they did not

prevail in court, and Compton never returned

to his post as media adviser.

• At Northern Michigan University, adviser

Cheryl Reed was removed in 2015 and the

student managing editor was denied the

opportunity to serve as editor-in-chief follow-

ing attempts by student journalists to aggres-

sively cover the administration. The removals

-and-mistrust.

10. Scott Jaschik, “Turmoil at the Mount,” Inside Higher Ed,

February 15, 2016, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02

Committee.

12. The Student Press Law Center assisted students in their suit,

and the College Media Association issued a letter of concern as the

-administrators, and “College Media Association Questions Removal

of Iowa Student Newspaper Adviser,” news release, May 7, 2015,

http://www.collegemedia.org/news/cma_news/article_ea59c566

criticizing student news content regarding travel

expenses for members of the board of trustees.

• At Delta State University in Mississippi, media

adviser Patricia Roberts lost her job in 2014.

The following year the state’s higher education

governing board voted to cease university fund-

unanswered questions were raised about the veracity

of the institutions’ purported financial motivations,

because of friction with administrators over editorial

content and the apparent selective targeting of journal-

ism for elimination.

In addition to the aforementioned controversy at

age unflattering to those in authority. In California,

for instance, the University of Redlands stripped the

student newspaper of funding after publication of

an article that included comments critical of a major

donor who endowed a scholarship program.

known journalism programs long associated with

journalistic excellence, where it might be expected

been motivated at least in part by a desire to punish

unfavorable editorial commentary.

Opportunities for students to disseminate news

over the broadcast airwaves have declined precipi-

tously as well, primarily for economic reasons. Since

the 2007–08 recession, dozens of colleges and univer-

sities have closed or sold their licensed over-the-air

radio stations, including Vanderbilt University, Rice

University, the University of San Francisco, Southeast

continued erosion of outlets for journalists to reach a

mass audience does not bode well for the civic health

of campus communities.

-redlands-suspend-its-student-paper.

17. Sara Shepherd, “Kansan Funding Tentatively Reinstated; KU

and Newspaper Indicate Resolution of Lawsuit Is Pending,” Lawrence

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a journalism program, adviser, or publication may be

contingent on pleasing campus authorities imposes a

chill on the independence of journalistic coverage that

invariably will produce more timid journalism that ill

serves the public interest. Effective campus journalism

The growing tendency of college and university

administrations and their governing boards to conduct

business “behind closed doors” and thwart access

to critical information and documents has extremely

troubling implications for college and university

well as for the integrity of student media. Even where

student journalists are not directly barred from pub-

the following:

• At Louisiana State University, trustees resisted

complying with a state law requiring disclosure

of candidates considered for the presidency of

LSU, refusing to budge even when a trial-court

judge held the board in contempt and threat-

ened to jail its members.

18

LSU’s recalcitrance is

not an isolated occurrence. Kent State Univer-

sity delayed responding to student journalists’

19

• Trustees of the University of Michigan routinely

hold closed-door “pre-meeting meetings” at

which all meaningful discussion of agenda items

is conducted, rendering the actual public meet-

ings an empty formality at which all discussion

is perfunctory and all votes are unanimous.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

report that it is not uncommon to wait two

years or more to receive documents responsive

to open-records requests to their institution.

public-relations offices. While these offices can serve

a valuable role in facilitating requests for records and

of ideas and, at a public institution, impermissibly

restrict employees’ constitutionally protected freedom

of expression. Such policies also pose an inappropriate

obstacle to the work of student journalists.

IV. The Legal Environment

Student journalists and their faculty advisers work in

a gray zone of legal uncertainty. While the Supreme

Court has been generally protective of First Amend-

18. Diana Samuels, “Judge Threatens Imprisonment, Suspension

of LSU Board of Supervisors in Presidential Records Case,” Times-

Picayune, September 9, 2013. The university ultimately released the

well beyond the college newsroom, is discussed in greater detail in

the AAUP’s “Statement on Presidential Searches,” November 3, 2015,

https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/AAUP_Statement_on

Michigan,” Ann Arbor News, March 7, 2010. At Michigan, Keeping

explains, “monthly public meetings are typically 45 minutes to two

hours long, following a full day of private meetings” at which the

Press, June 11, 2015.

21. The Daily Tar Heel student-run newspaper maintains an online

spreadsheet reflecting the age of its unfulfilled public-records requests

worthy of constitutional protection.

Where state laws protect journalism advisers

against retaliation, wrongfully discharged educators

can meaningfully vindicate their rights. At Chicago

State University, fired student media adviser Gerian

S. Moore won reinstatement after a US District

along with California and Maryland, with statutes

explicitly protecting college and university media

advisers against adverse personnel actions in response

to their students’ journalistic work.

Without statutory protection, advisers have

tion claims. In 2015, First Amendment challenges to

the removal of faculty advisers under circumstances

stantial contrary evidence that institutional decision

makers had expressed animus (at Northern Michigan)

over the aggressive use of public-records laws and (at

Muscatine) over coverage of an administrator’s threats

to a student editor in reaction to an unflattering pho-

tograph. The judges’ refusal to grant relief in either

case dramatizes the practically insurmountable burden

that a wrongfully discharged journalism adviser faces

in obtaining vindication through the federal courts.

State statutes can meaningfully advance the edito-

rial independence of student news media by protecting

the faculty advisers whose vulnerability can inhibit

students from pursuing news of community impor-

tance. Student press rights legislation (sometimes

referred to as “anti-Hazelwood” legislation) modeled

after the New Voices of North Dakota Act, which

was signed into law in 2015, has been proposed in a

25. Moore v. Watson, 738 F.Supp.2d 817 (N.D. Ill. 2010) (applying

2017 BULLETIN | 33

handful of states during 2016, including Maryland,

where a New Voices–based law took effect October

1. The higher education community should lend its

support to the New Voices movement and accept the

consensus of experts in the journalism education field

that the Hazelwood level of institutional control is

irreconcilable with the ethical teaching and practice of

journalism at the postsecondary level.

As the 1967 Joint Statement on Rights and

Freedoms of Students recognized, financial

distribution. Like other student-serving educational

and cultural activities, student media deserve funding,

either directly through institutional subsidies or

through student activity fees. Colleges and universities

should also work collaboratively with student media

to diversify sources of funding through foundation

faculty or staff to clear interactions with the student

media through an institutional public-relations office,

nor should campus public-relations offices obstruct

student journalists from gaining direct access to those

in positions of official authority. The community

public-relations offices that their obligation is to

facilitate maximum public access to records

and interviews.

conducive to substantive journalistic coverage requires

a significant cultural readjustment that begins with

affairs depends on well-supported news coverage with

meaningful and timely access to information. Few

colleges and universities are “walking the walk” of

civic engagement in their governance of journalism,

and too many are abandoning higher education’s

traditional commitment to free and independent

journalistic voices. n

26. See “Resolution of the Board of Directors of the American

Protection for Student Journalists and Advisers,” September 20, 2015,

http://www.spj.org/res2015.asp#9.

27. Francis X. Donnelly, “Northern Michigan University, Campus

MU,” Columbia Daily Tribune, April 13, 2012; Sam Friedman, “Appeal

Seeks Re-examination of Sexual Harassment Complaints against UAF

Student Newspaper,” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, November 11, 2013;

the civil justice system), as would be the case with a professional media

organization. In no event should campus disciplinarians entertain such

claims, which should be summarily dismissed to avoid the chilling effect