News

TEXAS -- A medical school student who wrote a weekly column for The University Daily has filed a lawsuit in state court challenging his expulsion from Texas Tech University.

In the lawsuit, Sandeep Rao alleges that a Jan.

RHODE ISLAND -- Journalism student Jason Turcotte learned a few things at Roger Williams University this spring although they were not the kind of lessons he had expected to be taught.

In late February, Turcotte submitted an article he had written in the journalism class for publication in the campus newspaper The Hawk's Eye, only to find out later that administrators had pulled the piece.

The article was a breezy feature about an unofficial nickname for the Bristol school's student body, "Rich, White Underachievers." The piece focused on student reaction to the nickname and was mostly their opinions.

"When I first read the story I didn't even think it was controversial," editor Sarah Clarke said.

Newspaper thefts continue to plague campus publications even as the spring semester comes to a close.

INDIANA -- For the third time this spring semester, an editorial cartoon in a college newspaper upset students who complained that its contents were racially insensitive.

INDIANA -- Ball State University has threatened a former student with legal action for using the university's logo on his Web site.

In a letter dated April 18, attorneys for Ball State asked alumnus Michael Mullen to halt operation of his Web site, BSUpolice.com, which uses the university's official logo.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Eleven schools from across the country were chosen today to participate in the First Amendment Schools project, an initiative designed to transform how students are taught about the First Amendment and democracy.

Five high schools, three middle schools and four elementary schools were selected as the first project schools based on their size, student demographics and curriculum structure as it relates to the First Amendment.

"When it comes to freedom of speech, students are often shortchanged," said Ken Paulson, executive director of the First Amendment Center, a sponsor of the initiative.

TEXAS -- The University of Texas at Tyler today reinstated Vanessa Curry as the student newspaper adviser, two weeks after she was told her contract would not be renewed.

The university's decision followed efforts by the national Society of Professional Journalists and the Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication to restore Curry in her position as adviser and journalism lecturer.

CALIFORNIA -- Student journalists at Claremont High School fear self-censorship will mar their reportage after their principal began a practice of prior review because she felt "blindsided" by an article on masturbation in a features spread on sex-related stories.

Community members who objected to references to masturbation -- including slang euphemisms -- and jokes about Vice President Dick Cheney's first name in the Feb.