Author: A. Matthew Deal

An attorney's frustrating quest to obtain documents needed to defend her client has highlighted the difficulty that many across the nation experience in accessing police records at private universities and colleges.

Academia represents a special subset of society where, for a short time, collegians are allowed to flourish in knowledge, free expression and self-discovery, relatively free from "real world" worries and stresses. The idealistic promises of college, however, have been marred in recent years with spurts of violence.

Three states have passed significant pieces of legislation this semester affecting public access to government information. Some of these bills have increased access to information for high school and college journalists while others have decreased it.

High school students and administrators often have very different ideas about what kind of language is appropriate. On school grounds administrators usually have the last word, but questions are being raised when the speech occurs off campus and not on school time.

It is not unusual to hear stories about administrators in higher education censoring student media; what is strange is when the students ask officials to censor content.