A victory for the college press

The only thing that separates many daily college newspapers from professional daily… The only thing that separates many daily college newspapers from professional daily newspapers is that cumbersome “college” label. It’s just one word, but it often carries significant weight, especially in regard to censorship. Many college papers, dependant on their school administrations for funding, must publish under the watchful, critical eye of their administrators, fearing censorship if they annoy or offend the wrong people.

But thanks to a recent court ruling involving Governors State University’s paper, The Innovator, the free college press has become a little bit freer, and appropriately so.

In October 2000, Patricia Carter, then dean of Student Affairs at Governors State, decided that The Innovator could not be published without the administration’s prior approval. When students responded by filing a lawsuit, Carter’s attorney cited a Supreme Court ruling from 1988, which granted administrators from a Hazelwood, Mo., high school the right to censor the school paper.

The students noted that the Hazelwood case is different than that of Governors State, because the former is a high school and the latter is a college. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, and ruled in a favor of the students.

The case has been hailed as an important victory for college press, a sentiment that Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, shares. “The college press has for decades been out there, kind of edgy, always stirring up things, always out there trying to raise some trouble,” she said. ‘This will further empower college journalists to get out there and do groundbreaking journalism.”

College papers should never be compared to high school papers because they operate on a different level, a level that is much closer to that of the dailies. Most papers are privatized, but it’s a rarity to hear that any given newspaper is having censorship problems with its ownership. The college press maintains a similar relationship with university administrators, but problems there are much more frequent.

Granted, there are exceptions to the rule. Florida’s Stetson University made headlines recently after closing its school newspaper in the wake of a profanity-filled April Fools’ edition that advocated racism and rape. While tasteless speech is still protected by the Constitution, members of the college press must still be responsible, and in this case, they were not.

But the Governors State ruling is a victory for most college papers, and it will help them to continue developing their autonomy. As university administrators begin to acknowledge school papers in a more professional manner, the papers will respond by publishing like professionals.