If you are a student journalist at a private college or university and want access to campus police records beyond basic log information, you must first determine if the campus police have law enforcement authority. If so, the campus police might be subject to your state’s open-records law. Each state’s open-records law is different, so you must research the relationship between your campus police and state law.
Tag: Spring 2004
Taking out the Trash
In the past five years, more than 120 college student newspaper thefts have been reported to the Student Press Law Center.
W.Va. university retaliated against officers, jury rules
A Monongalia County jury in February ordered West Virginia University to pay $868,000 in damages for retaliating against three campus police officers who tried to report the school for allegedly falsifying campus crime statistics.
Six college papers fall victim to thieves
When free student newspapers are stolen on university campuses, campus and city police often do not believe it is a crime because they say there is no law under which to prosecute the theft. This spring, six student newspapers experienced that questionable line of thinking first hand.
Thirty years later, SPLC still working to help
This fall, the Student Press Law Center will celebrate its 30th anniversary. For those not familiar with the SPLC's origins, the story of how an organization devoted to defending the student media and educating young journalists about their free-press and freedom-of-information rights came into existence and continues to serve after three decades is an interesting one.
The beginning of the SPLC is most directly attributed to a group formed in 1973 to examine the state of youth media.
Student editor sues board over closed meetings
The editor of a student newspaper at Mesa State College sued the college’s Board of Trustees in March, claiming the board failed to hold open meetings — as required by state law — during its controversial search for a new college president.
One student disciplined for theft, others go unpunished
While journalists at six student newspapers expressed frustration over unresolved and unsolved cases of newspaper theft, at least one newspaper theft incident ended in punishment this spring for the student found responsible for the theft.
Restraining student media
Student journalists across the country complained of administrative censorship this spring, from students being punished for protesting prior review of their student newspaper to school officials confiscating a publication that published editorials critical of the school.
Texas university finally hands over security camera records
After more than a year, an ongoing legal battle and the passage of a new law, a student newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin finally got what it asked for in an open-records request — or at least some of it.
Student challenges criminal libel law
A student at the University of Northern Colorado is challenging the state’s criminal libel statute, saying it is unconstitutional after he was almost charged with the crime for comments he published in his satirical online publication.