Florida A&M Student Newspaper Delayed From Publishing & Staff Ordered to Reapply for Positions

Staffers at The Famuan, the student newspaper at Florida A&M University, will not publish their first issue of spring semester early next week as planned.  Instead, on administrative orders, editorial operations at the paper have been delayed until the end of the month.  The adviser of the paper at the Tallahassee school has also been removed.  And Famuan staff have been told they all must reapply for their positions and “undergo training in media law and ethics . . . [and] more general journalism principles.”

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The decision by Florida A&M School of Journalism & Graphic Communication dean Ann Kimbrough comes roughly a month after a student filed a lawsuit against the paper alleging defamation.  The suit contends the Famuan mishandled a portion of its reporting surrounding the November 2011 hazing death of Florida A&M music student Robert Champion, an incident that has placed the university in a harsh, prolonged national spotlight.

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As Sara Gregory reports for the Student Press Law Center about the content under contention, “The December 2011 article incorrectly stated that Keon Hollis, a fellow drum major, had been suspended in connection with Champion’s hazing death.  No disciplinary action was taken against Hollis, according to a correction published by the paper in February 2012.  The original article has been removed from the paper’s website.”

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According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the suit’s specific argument: “[T]he student newspaper failed to ‘exercise ordinary care’ [when reporting on the Hollis allegation], lacked a credible source for its information, and failed to investigate what amounted to ‘nothing more than unverified and unsubstantiated rumor and gossip.'”

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Along with the pending lawsuit, there have apparently been issues concerning the eligibility of students involved with the Famuan and other student media and journalism organizations.  According to Kimbrough, a sizable block of students in the past have not met basic enrollment or GPA requirements, a shortcoming current Famuan editor-in-chief Karl Etters acknowledges but says was fixed this past fall.

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Meanwhile, the timing of Famuan adviser Andrew Skerritt’s removal is apparently “just a coincidence,” according to Kimbrough.  It is tied to a “personnel issue” no one is speaking about publicly so far.  Skerritt is also a journalism prof. at Florida A&M.

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Etters told the Tallahassee Democrat yesterday about the pub’s postponement: “It kind of takes the wind out of your sails. . . . It will help show the public we are taking strides to be a more solid publication.  Ultimately, I think it will be a good thing to see more people trained, but it hurts a little bit.”

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140 Days Later, Georgia College Paper Celebrates (Partial) Press Victory

It took more than four months and a fair bit of squabbling, but The Collegian at Georgia Perimeter College has finally begun receiving a set of records its staffers first requested from the school’s overseeing body in late July.

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As I previously posted, since late last semester, the Collegian has been investigating a $16 million budget deficit at GPC that was accompanied by the controversial removal of the school’s president.   Over the summer, the paper filed a standard open records request with the University System of Georgia (USG)– GPC’s administrative overlord– to obtain documents related to the budget turmoil.

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The USG countered that the request would cost close to $3,000, an amount Student Press Law Center executive director Frank LoMonte deemed “excessive” and outside counsel representing the Collegian called “arbitrary, capricious, and deliberately designed to obstruct access to public information of obvious critical concern.”

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Amid these publicly-stated concerns, the school first lowered the fee to a still outlandish $1,900, and most recently to $291, which Collegian EIC David Schick confirms is “a 90 percent reduction from the original estimate.”  Speaking of capricious…

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Yet, as Schick told me recently, “[E]ven after they agreed to lower the cost, they [were] delaying giving them to me by claim[ing] that every document has to be reviewed for ‘proprietary information,’ which ‘might be’ a part of an ‘open investigation,’ unrelated to the budget deficit I’m investigating.  Suspicious?”

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Yes.  As the Collegian’s counsel wrote to the USG last month, “Frankly, from my vantage point it seems like pertinent, newsworthy information is being deliberately witheld under pretext and I respectfully request that you please offer a cogent explanation or release the records as promised with all deliberate speed.”

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It ultimately wasn’t speedy, but now, at long last, there has been a bursting of the obfuscating-overcharging open records bubble.  Schick: “So far, we just have a partial amount of the total request, since they were told by our lawyer to release us information on a rolling basis.  But I’d say we can definitely mark this one as a win for the college journalist.”

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Related

Student Newspaper’s $16 Million Investigation Hits $3,000 Wall

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Student Newspaper’s $16 Million Investigation Hits $3,000 Wall

David Schick spent months on a $16 million story— before hitting a nearly $3,000 wall.  In Schick’s words, “The wall took the form of exorbitant Open Records Act costs.”

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Since late last spring semester, the editor-in-chief of The Collegian has been investigating a $16 million budget deficit at Georgia Perimeter College and the accompanying controversial removal of the school president.

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Over the summer, a new number entered– and has continued to partially hold up– Schick’s investigation: $2,963.39.  GPC administrators initially charged the Collegian that amount to fulfill a standard open records request for documents related to the budget turmoil.  The sudden, extreme fee was a gigantic deviation from GPC’s response to three previous Collegian requests.  For those requests, the school supplied more than 1,200 pages of documents, which required 39 hours of staff work to ferret out and compile, for FREE.

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So, to review…

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First three requests over the summer: handled for free.

Fourth request, very similar to the first three: Close to $3,000.

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In a letter to the school, Student Press Law Center executive director Frank LoMonte called the fourth request charge “excessive.”  After the SPLC intervention, GPC dropped the fee to a still seemingly egregious $1,900.

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Local legal counsel assisting the Collegian– obtained through the SPLC referral network– described the latter amount as “arbitrary, capricious, and deliberately designed to obstruct access to public information of obvious critical concern.”

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According to the counsel’s separate letter to the school, the paper “is willing to pay $100 . . . to obtain the documents requested.”  Schick is hopeful for a resolution soon.

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My Take: GPC officials, a bit of free advice.  You cannot erase a $16 million deficit by over-charging people who are requesting the truth.  Your school’s obviously in trouble.  The student paper simply wants to help, in part by providing answers about how you got into this mess and how you can clean it up.  Obstructing their efforts just seems lame, and out of step with the transparency needed to right your revenue ship.  As anyone who’s followed Wall Street knows, moral and economic deficits often run together.

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Related

A 20-Cent Public Records Fight Pits Cal Poly vs. Student Newspaper

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Stony Brook Student Magazine’s Funny Football Tweets Lead to Censorship Threat

Late last month, athletics officials at Stony Brook University threatened the press credentials of a student magazine in response to a staffer’s comedic live-tweeting of a football game.  It is one of the stranger student press censorship cases I have come across.

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The needed backdrop: Along with a terrific journalism school, there are three major student media outlets at SBU.  The Statesman is the fantastic longtime student newspaper.  The Stony Brook Independent is a respected independent online news source.  And The Stony Brook Press is an established biweekly alternative known for its mix of serious and satiric content.

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The 30-second gist: The Press recently covered SBU football’s one-point Homecoming win over Colgate University.  A pair of photographers captured shots from the sidelines.  A reporter worked on a serious recap from the press box.  And a separate staffer sat in the stands, live-tweeting the action on the field in humorous fashion.  As the Press explained, “His objective was to live-tweet the game, while making references to any sport but football. . . . If anything, we were poking fun at our lack of knowledge when it comes to sports.”  SBU officials were apparently not amused, threatening to revoke the magazine’s press credentials for the rest of the year unless it started tweeting correctly.

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The tweets at the center of the odd uproar are quite funny, and seemingly harmless.  Here is a sampling featured in a Storify created by the Student Press Law Center, along with a rebuke tweet from SBU Athletics:

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According to Press managing editor Tom Johnson, as paraphrased by the SPLC, following the warning tweet shown above, “the athletics department sent the magazine a direct message: ‘I strongly suggest you come up to the press box to discuss your inability to tweet the correct way.’  Later in the game, an athletic official approached one of the magazine’s photographers, telling her that if the tweeting didn’t stop they would take away the paper’s credentials.”

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In an editorial about the incident– headlined “Don’t Censor Me, Bro!”— the Press clarified that the tweeting staffer had not attended the game using an SBU-issued press pass.  As the editors noted:

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“In many ways, the Athletics Department was overstepping their boundaries by doing this. First of all, under the First Amendment, we have the right to publish anything we want, even tweets. . . . If the person live-tweeting had been in the press box, preventing another reporter from factually covering the game, their request to stop would have been justified. If any directly offensive references had been made in the tweets, their distress would have been understood. But the fact is, the person live-tweeting the game was simply a student sitting in the stands, which is in no way violating any rules. . . . Did the Athletics Department have a right to threaten revocation of our press credentials? Simply put, yes. Technically, if we don’t cover a sporting event in a manner that the Athletics Department deems appropriate, it has the right to take back the press credentials they issued to us.  But that doesn’t make it right.”

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My Take: I agree with the editorial.  Threatening the student press in any way for coverage you simply don’t like or don’t understand is never right.  It’s also almost always an overreaction.  Seriously, SBU Athletics, just enjoy the win.  Respect the press, and the Press.  And get a sense of humor.  I mean, c’mon, if nothing else, that sand trap/power play tweet has to make you giggle, at least a little, right? :)

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Memphis President Orders Investigation Into Helmsman Newspaper Funding Cut

University of Memphis president Shirley Raines has called for an investigation into the sudden, dramatic funding cut to The Daily Helmsman student newspaper.

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As I recently posted, a Memphis student fees allocation committee overseen by a small group of administrators and undergraduate leaders slashed Helmsman funding by $25,000 for the upcoming academic year– a full third of the usual fees assistance the paper receives.  Some current and former Helmsman staffers and Memphis alums view the cutback as possible retaliation for its no-holds-barred editorial content.

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This outlook has been emboldened by the public and private grumblings of Memphis officials and student government members toward the paper’s recent reporting– including stories rightfully attacking the admins. and SG– and a perceived lack of coverage that “promotes student activities.”

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Now, according to a Student Press Law Center report, Raines has requested an internal review of the matter.  In her words, “Even though it is my understanding that the committee’s initial decision to cut the Helmsman’s funding was not based on the content of the newspaper, I want to be sure that this is the case.”

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The Commercial Appeal also weighed in with an editorial headlined “Stifling the Press?“:

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“An independent press is essential, even on a college campus.  College newspapers like the Daily Helmsman at the University of Memphis provide a valuable resource for reporting happenings on university campuses– the good and the bad; the controversial and the benign. . . . Besides being an objective news voice about campus issues and events, the Helmsman serves as a real-life training ground for journalism students. The Student Government Association and the allocation committee apparently would like to see the Daily Helmsman become more of a fluff sheet.  But responsible, independent journalism in cities and on university campuses is about reporting on a wide range of issues, and not just being a bugle call for organizations that think coverage of their events should be a priority.”

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UW-Milwaukee Campus Newspaper Plans to Sue Former Student Government President for Halloween Theft

During an organized caper earlier this semester dubbed “Operation Boston Tea Party,” a small group of student government members at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee allegedly stole and trashed 800 copies of The UWM Post.

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As the Post and the Student Press Law Center report, the group carried out the campus newspaper theft on Halloween– with one participant donning a costume involving a gas mask that he later wore to a party.  Among those implicated in the planning, swiping, and ultimate dumping of the papers: the student government president.  For those scoring at home, that’s one word, two syllables: Uh-oh.

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The group’s apparent motivation: retaliation for a Post editorial critical of a poorly-run, sparsely-attended campus event organized by the student government vice president.  The VP has since stepped down amid separate allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment.  Double uh-oh.

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Now, the twist.  As the SPLC confirms, Post staffers are currently considering suing the student government president and another student government executive board member allegedly involved in the theft.  They argue that “because they were both acting as representatives of the state, as per Wisconsin State Statute 36.09(5), they should be held accountable under applicable civil rights law.”  (Both the president and the other exec. have since resigned from their positions due to other misconduct allegations.)

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Does the paper have a case?  Its legal counsel admits to the SPLC he is unsure. The main area of confusion: When a student government president at a state school commits a crime off-the-clock is he still a government representative or just an asinine undergrad?

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In the lawyer’s words, “If a cop is out drinking at a bar and gets in a bar fight with somebody and beats the hell out of them, it doesn’t necessarily give rise to a civil rights action.  He’s on his own time.  Here it’s arguable, I hope, [the student government president] was acting under color of law, but it isn’t necessarily so.”

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College Media Hall of Fame, Class of 2011: Frank LoMonte, Executive Director, Student Press Law Center

The College Media Hall of Fame is a digital enshrinement of individuals, news outlets, and organizations who have made a lasting impact on collegemediatopia or greatly contributed to it over the past year.  Much like last year’s inaugural batch (known as the CMM 10), this year’s inductees include standout student journalists, innovative student media entrepreneurs, and impassioned advocates of campus press 2.0.  With a hat tip to the annual Time 100, many of the posts announcing each honoree include a few words of adoration penned by a close friend or colleague. Next up…

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Frank LoMonte, Esq.

Executive Director, Student Press Law Center

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Frank LoMonte is a media law wunderkind.  He helps student journalists, their advisers, their professors, and their publications at a prodigious rate, daily. Make no mistake: LoMonte is the face of student press rights in this country.  It’s a smiling one.

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LoMonte has been SPLC exec. director since January 2008.

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His optimism is infectious.  His knowledge of the law is truly humbling.  During the conventions at which I’ve been lucky enough to catch him in action, he holds sway over a room with an unyielding zest and a tirelessness, literally (LITERALLY) speaking nonstop with a revival preacher’s flair, answering quick-fire questions smoothly without prep, and then jetting to his next session to start again.

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He is also among the most quotable men I know.  Among his gems was an aside this past spring referencing the sudden shady dismissals of two college media advisers. In his words, “There are two occupations in America that are more dangerous the better you are at them: journalism adviser and suicide bomber.” 

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For his impassioned defense of the student press, I am honored to name Frank LoMonte as an inductee to CMM’s College Media Hall of Fame.

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“Hardest-Working Man in the Free Speech Business”

By Adam Goldstein

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Frank LoMonte is the hardest-working man in the free speech business. He’s here when I arrive at the office in the morning and here when I leave at night. If it’s 7:30 p.m. on the West Coast, and you have a free speech question, you’ve got a 50/50 chance of reaching Frank in Arlington, Virginia, where it’s 10:30 p.m. on the East Coast. And it’s only 50/50 because half the time, he’s on the road, traveling to speak to students and other lawyers across the country, wherever the questions are or it might do some good forsomeone. If Xanadu is a real place, I’m sure Frank will be there sometime in the next three years.

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I’ve been tempted to stay at the office overnight to see if there’s an army of Franks, one of them punching in on a time clock to take over when the other one goes home. That would explain a lot. It certainly feels like he’s an army, waging a carefully coordinated battle in favor of student media on multiple fronts: legal, ethical, and practical. It’s not unusual to talk with him or get an e-mail late at night or on the weekend. I can’t rule out the possibility that he moonlights as the Energizer bunny.

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Frank is deeply committed and motivated to act to do what is right, and college journalists will probably never know how much he does on a daily basis to help them. There’s no fanfare when someone spends his overnight hours to draft comments on federal regulations; almost no one will know you did it, and absolutely no one would know if you didn’t. But representing the voice of college media to government agencies is the right thing to do, and that’s enough for Frank.

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What’s astonishing is what Frank is doing when you don’t see him. When he’s not on the phone with you, answering your legal questions; when he’s not filing briefs on your behalf; when he’s not visiting with your staff in a town on a corner of the map that, presumably, was named after one of the six people that lives there; when he’s not writing op-ed pieces to defend student journalists when local newspapers get cold feet on First Amendment issues; when he’s not speaking to groups of lawyers to convince them of the importance of your civil rights.

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Whether he visits your small township or your major metropolitan city for a media conference, he is an incredibly dynamic and popular speaker. As he’s speaking, the students are tweeting his talk, divided into t-shirt ready quotes. Once his presentation is over, he has a huge line of students waiting to ask him questions and barely has time to make it to his next presentation.

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For the approximately 25 minutes per week you don’t see Frank working to help student journalists, I assure you, he is still working to help them. This makes him an inspiration to all of us, and/or proof that we have perfected human cloning and picked the perfect person to clone. I admire Frank for his amazing dedication and tireless work to protect student journalists’ first amendment rights.

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Goldstein is the SPLC’s attorney advocate and a CMM 10 honoree.

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Other Class of 2011 CMM Hall of Fame inductees:

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Michael Koretzky

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Student Newspaper Sex Issue Disappears Across Campus

Hundreds of copies of a student newspaper’s sex issue quickly went missing last month from newsstands across campus.  Editors suspect their disappearance was due to an organized theft carried out in response to the racier-than-usual material.

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As the Student Press Law Center reports, The Ottawa Campus is the biweekly student paper at Ottawa University in Kansas, a conservative private school boasting a “Christ-centered community of grace which integrates faith, learning and life.” The sex issue was a Campus first, and included a cover image that apparently struck some at the school as overly sexualized.

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According to the SPLC: “The cover art of the sex issue portrayed naked Barbie and Ken dolls posed in a provocative position in front of a well-known university building. [The newspaper’s editor] said the cover was intended to show students that the issue was directed towards them, and was generally well received by the students, but several administrators and faculty members seemed angered by the photo and content of the issue.”

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After its Friday afternoon distribution, staffers quickly came across empty stands in numerous high-traffic spots, including the library, student union, and field house. The newspaper’s editor in chief confirmed that the campus is so small a single person or group of people could have stolen the copies “within a matter of minutes.” She estimates roughly half of the 1,200-copy print run was taken.

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The school is conducting an “internal investigation” into the alleged theft but seems more concerned about the sexual content that sparked it.  OU’s vice president and provost: “I think that we’re looking to prevent what we might consider to be material printed in the newspaper that’s inappropriate. We are looking to ensure that we’ve established a policy that is adopted by our board of trustees.”

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In an editorial addressing the incident, The Washburn Review, the student newspaper at Washburn University, noted:

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“The newspaper had received complaints from faculty, but having the papers lifted from the stands crosses a line.  Had the information been offensive and not factual, there might be a fair argument. However, despite raising eyebrows, the information could be of service to the students of the university. . . . Private universities seem to have a different set of rules regarding freedom of the press. . . . A school with a religious affiliation has a set of standards it’s often held to, but students should also be free to speak about subjects that may be considered offensive in order to help inform and educate students. The fact that stories also discussed the practice of not having sexual intercourse may lean the argument in the favor of the Campus staff.”

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Free Press Fights Continue in Los Angeles, Illinois

Spring semester is now upon us, and a new set of free press fights are in bloom.  First up: The Student Press Law Center has penned, signed, and sent a smackdown of a letter to the president of Los Angeles City College, outlining an array of dismaying administrative tactics aimed at controlling content in the Collegian student newspaper.

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By far the most uggh-tastic incident among those listed: a stiff-arming of a student journalist covering one of the university’s public town hall meetings to sign a waiver permitting her to use her recording of the meeting.

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The SPLC’s concerns about the “pattern of interference” follow the public squabble last September that erupted when LACC admins. sliced the Collegian‘s budget 40 percent allegedly because students “fought the institution’s president over press freedom.” (School officials ultimately settled for a 16 percent reduction.)  My eyes literally widened with admiration at the wording of part of the SPLC letter: “Finding a First Amendment violation at LACC is like looking for a needle in a needle stack.”

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Separately, a “coalition of journalism organizations” are publicly supporting j-students involved in Northwestern University’s famed and suddenly controversial Innocence Project (which investigates death row murder cases and occasionally sets a wrongfully convicted person free).  As part of the case recently launched against the Project, the state attorney in Illinois wants the notes, recordings, and other materials from the students who worked on it. The journalism community’s response is that these students were acting in a journalistic capacity, regardless of the fact that they were still enrolled in school. This means two words: shield law.

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Part of an SPLC friend of the court brief: “No matter how they are compensated and for what medium they write, when students perform reporting functions, they are entitled to protection against the compelled production of their newsgathering materials and fishing expeditions into their motives.”

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Best College Media Quotes, Fall 2009

This is the sixth installment of a multi-post glimpse back at the highlights and lowlights of fall 2009 in collegemediatopia.

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Best College Media Quotes

“Besides being illegal, heavy-handed control of college student publications is widely recognized both as unethical and as an unsound educational practice that deprives students of valuable learning opportunities. . . . They [students] are old enough to drive cars, purchase firearms, sign contracts, get married, vote, serve on juries, and strap on rifles and die for their country. They are certainly old enough to decide which student would make the best layout editor.”

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– Student Press Law Center executive director Frank LoMonte, chastising Clark College officials for heavy-handed involvement in student newspaper staff selection

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“It would be the same as cutting chemicals from the chemistry budget. The paper provides a window into the college, not just for the 30 students who help produce it but for all the students and the community.”

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– Faculty adviser, The Collegian, LA City College, reacting to the newspaper’s budget cuts

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“Right before we came back, people started to realize the value of the student newspaper, because they didn’t know what was going on. We did our best to run stories online . . . but students don’t go online to read their campus newspaper. They might go online to read the New York Times or the Washington Post, but a campus newspaper is supposed to be there when you’re walking to your classes; it’s supposed to be there when you’re walking out of your dorm.”

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– Editor of The Hilltop at Howard University, about the paper’s reemergence on campus after a semester’s absence

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“We are surrounded by people who say that the world is coming to an end, but it is just beginning for you.”

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– A professor addressing j-students, referencing the rise in predictions about journalism’s demise

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Sex Column Controversy at Montana: Law Professor Wants it Stopped!

Kristen Juras, a law professor at the University of Montana, is currently on a sexual witch hunt so ludicrous it pains me to think she might have tenure.  Specifically, Juras is out to stop The Kaimin student newspaper from publishing a sex column begun this semester, the paper’s first since the column trend started in the late-1990s.

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According to a report in the Kaimin (via UWIRE), Juras has asked the paper’s editors to cease publishing the column.   As she stated, wait for it: “It’s embarrassingly unprofessional. It affects my reputation as a member of the faculty.” (No, I think you’re affecting your reputation just fine on your own.)

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She also believes the sex columnist position should be limited to someone with a background in sexology or other formal sexual expertise.  She plans to approach the university’s publications board to demand a stricter policy be put in place to this end- and depending on its response she will then seek out the board of regents and even the Montana state legislature (and then the White House, UN, and the ICC?).

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The problem with her argument: The feature is NOT labeled as an advice column.  It runs in the OPINIONS section.  And the writer, UM senior Bess Davis, has never claimed sexpert-status, mentioning in her debut piece that she’s simply a regular student who has “been at this [sex] for awhile now.” As Davis wrote, “I like sex. I like having it, talking about it, thinking about it, and now I’m writing about it.”

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Think of the professor’s argument with other topics: Should a student who is not a political expert or presidential historian be banned from publishing opinions about Obama?  Should a student who has no environmental science background be restricted from writing about worshiping Al Gore and saving the Earth?  And otherwise, let’s be honest: Sex is NOT like most other subjects.  It’s like driving- most of us do it; most of us learn by doing it; and most of us are entitled to share our opinions on it without needing to sport a related academic degree.

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The professor’s last argument is the scariest: According to her, because the newspaper receives some funding from university fees, it should be used primarily for educational purposes- and apparently only run content that professors like her are willing to approve.  (God help us all if her specialty is media law or if she teaches courses in any way connected to free press).  Check out the Kaimin piece to see how Student Press Law Center attorney advocate and all-around-great-guy Adam Goldstein shoots her argument down.

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Finally, her whole campaign makes me laugh.  When will the powers-that-be learn: Protesting something publicly and vociferously DRAWS MORE ATTENTION TO THE OBJECT OF YOUR IRE.  In this respect, Juras is giving the column exactly what it deserves: nationwide/blogosphere publicity, related debates about its purpose/significance in the student press, and subsequent dialogues about the sexual issues it has raised.  As one sex columnist wrote to her biggest detractors a few years back, “Thanks for the controversy.” :-)

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