Tag: Spring 2011

Right up there with insurance companies, drug manufacturers and utilities, colleges and universities are big players on Capitol Hill and in state capitols across the country. Colleges spend many millions hiring lobbyists to secure grants, to obtain relief from regulations, and to otherwise influence public policy. Federal law, as well as the law in many states, requires those who hire lobbyists to disclose who they hired, what they paid, and what legislation they tried to impact.

Tracking legislation in all 50 states

A gray area exists as to whether open records law should be applied to private university law enforcement. A private university may have its own police department with the same arrest powers as any public police department, but in many states it’s at the discretion of the department to release crime records when requests are made. A private university police department may respond to an open records request with the response that as a private institution, it is not governed by state open-records law.

Experts give advice on dealing with access to the athletic department

While press regulations exist at all levels of sports, from professional to college to high school, court battles over media ownership rights and press freedoms continue to arise, particularly at the high school level.

The increased use of private contractors on college campuses is regularly provoking disagreement over the ability of privatized bookstores, coffee shops and copy centers to declare otherwise-public property off-limits for newsgathering. The issue has become a point of frustration for student journalists who are welcomed as customers in their student role but may be excluded once their cameras come out.

The unique environment of a college campus means young journalists often have to take into account special ethical concerns. And while decisions on exactly how to cover your own newsroom may vary, the consensus seems to be, above all, not to ignore stories because they hit close to home.

Mass theft of newspapers is a consistently reoccurring problem college journalists around the country face. The motive behind each instance is different, but every year thousands of student newspapers are removed from the stands, keeping them out of public hands.

As school administrators work to reconcile their conductpolices with expanding technology, teachers have started to think twice beforeposting that rant to their blog or picture to their Facebook profile.

Besides being historical records for their schools, student newspapers and yearbooks serve as educational tools about the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and press. However, according to some journalism educators, many people within the educational system itself don’t always seem to understand or uphold these rights.