Editors at Bridgewater State University say the Massachusetts school's president is seeking the ouster of newspaper adviser David Copeland because of controversial articles published in the April 12 edition of The Comment.In an article posted Thursday on The Comment's website, along with an accompanying opinion column, the newspaper reports that President Dana Mohler-Faria is asking the college's Board of Trustees -- who meet Friday -- to approve a policy disqualifying part-time faculty from advising student organizations -- a change that would apply only to Copeland.The April 12 issue of the paper contained two articles that drew college administrators' ire.A student-authored opinion piece questioned the need for a proposed $500 hike in student fees, arguing that the college's budget should be going down because some 200 jobs have been left vacant as a result of a freeze.
Author: Frank LoMonte
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: We shouldn’t need to explain this, but… the ADA isn’t an excuse to conceal public records
Colleges are nothing if not laboratories for experimentation with out-on-the-edge ideas. No thought is too wild, no notion too extreme, that it cannot be tested in the intellectual marketplace of the college campus.That certainly is true of the alibis that college administrators give for refusing to honor requests for public records.
Federal appeals court will not reconsider Eastern Michigan case applying Hazelwood to college students
A federal appeals court Thursday refused to reconsider a January ruling giving colleges expanded latitude to punish students for the content of their speech.In a brief order, the 6th U.S.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: An EZ story 4 u — who’s texting on the taxpayer’s dime
The outcry over lavish spending on a General Services Administration retreat, where federal bureaucrats enjoyed $44 breakfasts, is a reminder that few things get readers more incensed than learning that government employees are treating themselves to luxuries that budget-strapped citizens are forced to scrimp on.That's why it's an especially good -- and easy -- public-records story to take periodic stock of how employees at your college or school district are using government-issued cellphones and other communication devices.It's been estimated that the average American spends $635 a year on cellphone service, one of the highest rates in the Western world (and since that estimate comes from 2008, before data-gulping smartphones were in universal circulation, it almost certainly is low). Because it's one of the biggest bills consumers pay every month, knowing that a state or city official is abusing a taxpayer-subsidized cellphone provokes special outrage.Last summer, the Nashua Telegraph published an examination of four months' worth of bills from phones issued to local government officials.
Watch where you chalk, ’cause the courts might balk — is sidewalk graffiti protected speech?
Watch where you walk 'cause the sidewalks talk.
And you can't keep a secret from the ground beneath you.
Step very lightly on the earth below.
Or before you know it everyone will know.
--"Sidewalk Talk," Madonna (1984)
If you're arrested for chanting a political message on a public sidewalk, that's a slam-dunk violation of your constitutional rights.Scottie Pippen libel suit tests colleges’ responsibility for content of student-authored blogs
Scottie Pippen, the seven-time all-star who played on six NBA championship teams, wants the world to know that he is not broke.
In “Making Progress” report, education leaders call for a reboot of schools’ restrictive technology policies
Most K-12 teachers have experienced the impediment of blocked websites and denied access to tools (Gmail, Twitter) they use everywhere else in their lives, and the frustration is doubly acute for those teaching journalism, for which social media increasingly is indispensable.This week, a coalition of education and technology advocates -- including the Student Press Law Center -- set forth a series of conversation-starting recommendations aimed at rebooting school technology policies.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Indiana court ruling further strengthens case for disclosure from private-college police
A federal court's recent ruling that Notre Dame police are subject to civil-rights lawsuits as "state actors" helps bolster the case for journalists to obtain access to records from police agencies operated by private colleges.In Torres v.
Annals of SPLC’s Report magazine — now readable online — are a chronicle of progress, retrenchment
The first known issue of what has since become known as the SPLC's Report magazine featured the following news item:
In November 1975, the Daily Princetonian, the campus newspaper at Princeton University, carried a story alleging that a University employee had been stealing food, furniture and appliances from the school over a ten-year period.The Board of Trustees of the Daily Princetonian called the story 'extremely irresponsible' and expressed concern that the story had not been shown to them prior to publication.
The joke is on these college editors — offensive April Fool's humor can backfire, badly
T.S. Eliot was right. April is the cruellest month -- if you're the editor of a college newspaper.
Like the blooming of cherry blossoms and the return of the robins, April reliably brings the painful and entirely unnecessary self-destruction of some student journalists' careers, when attempts at April Fool's humor go horribly wrong.
Each year, parody editions of campus newspapers push the boundaries of good taste -- and occasionally, good judgment.