MISSOURI — Staff members of a studentnewspaper at the University of Missouri at Kansas City filed a complaint withcampus police April 17 because a building manager at the university removedalmost 450 copies of the publication from distribution racks oncampus.According to an April 19 article in the University News,James F. Byland, the building operations coordinator in Swinney RecreationCenter, removed newspapers from the building and unplugged the newsstand, whichhas a scrolling marquee, because he did not want incoming students to see thefront page article “Sex at Swinney.” The article discussedsexual activity taking place in the men’s locker room sauna in the studentrecreation center.Byland removed the papers during freshman orientationwhen university officials were conducting tours of theuniversity.According to the University News article, campuspolice Officer Chris Cobb spoke with Byland, who admitted to having the papersremoved. Cobb said the building manager had the right to remove the papersbecause “it’s his building.”School administrators wereinitially unaware of the decision to remove the papers and said they willdiscuss the building manager’s authority with Byland. Vice Chancellor PatLong said it is not university policy to censor the studentnewspaper.Some of the papers were returned to the distribution rack, butnewspaper staff members do not know why all of the papers were notreturned.Byland and Fatimeh El-Sherif, the newspaper editor, did notreturn requests for comment.
Read the University News article “Sex at Swinney.”