Last October, a CSU Dominguez Hills administrator directed that the 12-page online issue of The Bulletin, the university’s student newspaper, be taken down after offensive words on its cover led to outrage from students and staff.
When Is It OK For University Administrators To Intervene With A Student Publication?
Within an hour of the issue going out to the university through a link in an email, CSU Dominguez Hills students and staff — it’s unclear how many — urged faculty and university leaders to act.
“The racist and xenophobic slurs that were on the cover were extremely harmful, and we wanted to prevent more harm from being done,” Timothy Caron, the interim dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at CSU Dominguez Hills, told LAist by email.
“No one from within our campus community has criticized or challenged the decision to take down the October issue, including The Bulletin student staff,” he said.
Federal and California law limit how school administrators and faculty can step in to change the content of student publications. To do so is censorship, but the recent case of The Bulletin at CSU Dominguez Hills is not clear cut.
Student Media Needs To Be Independent
Did Caron censor The Bulletin? Southern California college media advisers have mixed views.
“In my opinion, it appears to be a case of censorship,” said Walter Baranger, the former senior editor for news operations for The New York Times, who is now the faculty adviser for The Daily Titan, the student newspaper at Cal State Fullerton.
Baranger read the LAist story about The…
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