Thousands of student newspapers were stolen from three collegecampuses recently, and although the incidents are unrelated, allthree issues contained articles that upset a campus group.
Campus security officials are still investigating two of thethree thefts.
About 1,000 copies — out of a 3,000-paper press run — ofthe student newspaper at Iona College in New York were taken fromcampus distribution bins on April 26 and later found in the trash.
Ron Minkoff, adviser to the Ionian, and editor AlexMalecki both said members of the women’s soccer team threatenedto steal copies of the issue before it was published because itcontained an article about an alleged sexual assault on one oftheir teammates at an off-campus party. The Ionian spentapproximately $2,500 to reprint the issue.
Student Development Director Charles Carlson said the collegetook disciplinary action against five students who were believedto be responsible for the theft. But Carlson said the collegeprohibits him from disclosing the names of students in disciplinaryproceedings or the nature of sanctions taken against them.
Malecki said college officials told him shortly after the incidentthat an administrative hearing would be held once those involvedhad been identified, at which point the cost of the reprint likelywould be divided among those named in the theft.
Also on April 26, an unknown number of copies of Temple University’sTemple News were stolen from campus bins and thrown away.Temple News editors reported the incident to campus police,saying they suspected that an article alleging hazing within acampus fraternity prompted fraternity members to steal the papers.
A report filed with campus police states that the fraternity’spresident also threatened Mickey Minnick, the reporter who wrotethe article.
James Fitzsimmons, Temple’s associate vice president of studentaffairs, said an investigation into the incident is ongoing, althoughhe has not received an update from campus police in several weeks.Fitzsimmons said any students named in the incident would go beforea disciplinary panel composed of faculty and students.
On May 22, 7,000 copies of The Highlander, the Universityof California at Riverside’s student newspaper, were stolen fromracks and offices around the campus. Campus police detective SteveSmith said law enforcement officers are following several leads,but most are second- or third-hand information relayed to police.
Although they deny any involvement in the incident, membersof a fraternity on the campus reportedly were upset with an articlein that issue that described the arrests of two of their memberson drug-related charges.
The Highlander staff distributed 3,000 reprinted copiesof the issue several days after the incident.