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Saint Louis U. student journalists now operate under more restrictive guidelines, editors say
Administration changed paper's charter, requires approval of section editor hirings and more advising
June 7, 2007
The nine-page charter, which replaces the one drafted in the
late 1990s, requires an administrator to approve the hiring of all section
editors and gives the university president control of approving all amendments
to the charter.
"It's prior restraint if ever I've seen it," said Avis
Meyer, longtime adviser for The University
News.
University officials say the charter was created to
improve the quality of the University News and to ensure that the
publication offers a "respected, responsible voice to SLU students, faculty and
staff."
"Some people suspect it had to do with control," said Clayton
Berry, the director of university communications. "It didn't."
But
incoming Editor in Chief Katie Lewis said the private school is trying to
control the newspaper.
"What [administrators] were wanting to do was to
hire and fire editors," Lewis said. "But really, they were just picking people
that say nice things about the school."
Lewis also said university
officials are trying to pressure Meyer, a tenured professor of journalism, to
leave the paper. He and Saint Louis University President Lawrence Biondi have a
history of conflict, she added.
"They do not get along," Lewis said.
"Everyone knows it."
Meyer said the conflict exists because, while he has
been adviser, the newspaper has printed several articles that have upset the
administration, including an editorial
that accused Biondi of plagiarism.
"They want to get rid of me," Meyer
said of administrators. "They canceled my stipend: $1,500 a year. They've
replaced me four times with 'official advisers.'"
Spokesman Berry said no
one from the university administration was available to comment on Meyer. He
also said he did not know whether the newspaper production adviser, which the
charter calls for, had been named or whether Meyer was a candidate.
"The
university's only intent was to revitalize the newspaper so that it can become a
publication of which all SLU students, faculty and staff can be proud," Berry
said. "The new charter will help accomplish that."
Student Government
President Andrew Clifton, who worked with Lewis and the administration to write
the charter, said it was clear, based on the quality of the newspaper, that the
students in charge needed more guidance from professionals.
"No one
blames the students," Clifton said. "They weren't getting the resources they
needed or deserved."
The charter requires the newspaper have a media
adviser and a newspaper production adviser, who will guide students and
ultimately help the paper, Clifton said.
Lance Speere, president of the
College Media Advisers, said the charter gives too much power to the president,
who has sole control of amendments to it.
"You've created the illusion
that [students are] in control, but they are operating knowing full well that
the administration is in charge," Speere said.
Student editors first
learned that administrators wanted to update the charter during an April 30
meeting in which the provost and the vice president for student development met
with the editorial board. Meyer said the announcement came nine months after the
university cut in half the editor in chief's tuition remission.
At the
meeting, the provost presented a charter that gave school administrators,
instead of the paper's editorial board, control of hiring the editor in chief,
Lewis said. Editors at the paper were not consulted before the policy was
written, she added.
Meyer said the
students were furious and considered moving off campus to become completely
independent from the school, thus avoiding the charter. But editors soon
realized the newspaper could not afford an off-campus office and they would have
to accept a new charter, he said.
In a closed meeting May 5, the
university's Board of Trustees was scheduled to approve the charter that
administrators had written. Lewis said several newspaper staff members gathered
outside the meeting to protest.
Feeling pressure from the editors and
other students including the student government association, the board did not
vote but instead announced a 10-day period during which students could make
comments, suggest changes and lodge complaints about the charter, Lewis
said.
But this 10-day period was bad timing for students, Lewis said,
because it was during finals week. The chaos of trying to study and draft a
charter at the same time caused her to give in more easily than she would have
otherwise on certain issues, such as the president's sole power to amend the
charter, she said.
"I had four [two-hour] meetings with the incoming
student government president and the provost during finals week, which is
terrible timing," she said.
President Biondi signed the final draft of
the charter May 16, but administrators have agreed to revisit the policy in one
year if students are unhappy with the results, Lewis said. The final draft
allows the editorial board to appoint the editor in chief and requires a
two-thirds vote of the board to fire the editor, according to the
charter.
"The charter we've ended up with is something that I think we
can work with," Lewis said. "But it's not perfect. It was a collaboration
between the two sides."
By Jenny Redden, SPLC staff writer
© 2007 Student Press Law Center
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