October 09, 2008 11:23 pm
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By Greg Grisolano
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com
Student journalists with Missouri Southern State University’s campus newspaper said they believe their First Amendment rights were violated when an administrator barred the paper from being displayed and distributed at an enrollment event Wednesday.
Alexandra Nicolas, editor in chief of The Chart, said a communication department faculty member was asked by Derek Skaggs, director of enrollment services, not to distribute copies of the Oct. 3 issue of The Chart because it carried a front-page story that noted MSSU had marked a decline in enrollment for the fall semester.
“It was a recruiting event, and he didn’t feel like a story about a drop in enrollment was appropriate,” Nicolas told the Globe on Thursday.
The university was the host of a regional college fair from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. Representatives of area colleges, universities, and trade and technical schools met with students from area high schools.
“Our biggest issue with it right now is we’re concerned it sets a dangerous precedent, just letting it lie,” Nicolas said. “We feel that leaving this be and ignoring it puts us on a dangerous slippery slope.”
Attempts to reach Skaggs at his office and at home were unsuccessful Thursday. Skaggs was quoted several times in the enrollment article.
Jean Maneke, a lawyer with the Missouri Press Association, said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon that case law suggests that Missouri courts view college newspapers as having First Amendment rights.
She said that based on her research, she believes that any attempt to limit distribution of a college newspaper would be a violation of First Amendment rights.
MSSU President Bruce Speck said he had received calls from Nicolas and from Chart adviser T.R. Hanrahan, and that the university would investigate the matter.
“Ultimately, I think we’ll probably have a meeting where we talk with Derek and the students, and try to work through it,” he said.
Hanrahan, who advises the students on libel issues but does not have control of the paper’s editorial content, said he believes the story was topical and timely.
“The news story in question was pretty boilerplate,” he said. “It mirrored the information in the university’s own press release and in other newspapers. We didn’t think it was anything unusual.
“The story was fair and accurate, and we stand by it. It reflected the truth.”
Hanrahan also said The Chart over the years has enjoyed a track record of support from the university administration.
“Whenever we’ve had a question, the administration has been great to us,” he said. “I’ve been here 3 1/2 years as adviser, and we’ve never had a problem. This is why this took us by surprise.”
In addition to talking with Chart representatives, Speck said he spoke briefly with Skaggs on Thursday but did not discuss the specific events of Wednesday.
Speck said he had read the enrollment story, and that he believed the reporting was fair.
“As far as I know, nothing was taken out of context,” he said. “I didn’t infer from anything that there was misreporting.”
Speck said enrollment had declined by 329 students compared with the total for the fall semester of 2007, and that the enrollment decline is something the university staff takes seriously.
“I think there is a kind of spotlight on the negative enrollment,” he said. “I’m not saying that’s inappropriate. All of us are concerned that we increase our enrollment, because that’s a major source of funding.”
The Chart receives a significant portion of its operating budget from the university, but Speck said he does not advocate administrators trying to control the paper’s content.
“It’s a student newspaper,” he said. “I don’t believe we should tell them what to print, what not to print. I don’t have any intention to intervene with what The Chart does.”
Speck declined to comment on whether the action constituted a First Amendment issue.
“Since it’s risen to the level of a legal question, I think it’s a matter for legal interpretation,” he said.
A lawyer for the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit legal assistance service for college and high-school journalists, said colleges have a right to censor content from college papers, but only in extreme situations — such as a report that would tell students how to set a false fire alarm or hack into a school’s computer system.
“That’s a very high threshold,” said Frank LoMonte, executive director for the Arlington, Va.-based center. “It’s not in the least bit satisfied by saying your newspaper will make the university look bad.”
LoMonte said the general legal rule is that students are entitled to the full benefit of the First Amendment, even when their publications are under the auspices of a college or university. He said interfering with a paper’s ability to distribute can qualify as censorship.
“Certainly, moving newspapers out of a distribution point is a form of censorship,” he said. “It’s one thing to take a stack of papers that’s blocking a fire exit, but as long as they are in a place where they can be displayed, removing them because of their editorial content is a form of censorship.”
Opinion sought
In the wake of the incident, Alexandra Nicolas, editor in chief of The Chart, said the newspaper’s staff has asked a lawyer with the Missouri Press Association to investigate whether the paper’s First Amendment rights were violated.
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