Grambling Imposes “Prior Review” by Adviser
Grambling State University lifted the ban on its student newspaper on Thursday, but imposed a requirement that all of its copy be edited by a faculty adviser, a mandate considered an infringement on the students’ free speech by experts in the field.
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The lifting of the ban meant the students at the historically black public Louisiana institution went back to work putting out an edition for Friday.
Provost Robert M. Dixon had sent out a memorandum Jan. 17 suspending the newspaper for the rest of January “or until administrators are content with greater ‘quality assurance’ of the paper,” as the News-Star in Monroe, La., put it. It followed complaints about a plagiarized story that the university said was not met with strong enough sanctions. Editors defied the order and published on Jan. 18.
Dixon and Anita Fleming-Rife, who heads the school’s Department of Mass Communication, did not return calls from Journal-isms about their suspension of the weekly paper, but student editor Darryl D. Smith talked freely with reporters, and news stories alerted the public. Calls for the university to rescind its action began.
On Thursday, Dixon and Fleming-Rife delivered a memo titled “Measures to Improve the Gramblinite” that included 15 points, including one that said of faculty adviser Wanda Peters, “Mrs. Peters will edit every story for spelling, punctuation, style and grammatical errors before they are published.” The words “Mrs. Peters” and “edit every story” were in boldface type.
In addition, faculty members are to require a style book in their courses, a copy editing course is to be offered, “all editors of the Gramblinite will be required to take a style, grammar, spelling and punctuation test before they are allowed to assume duties as editors,” a graduate student is to work with students, and “the Department will seek out practicing journalists to come in as visiting professors to work with our students in The Gramblinite.”
The memo emphasizes as its last point, “It has been made clear to Mrs. Peters that she has the ultimate authority in the newsroom and that she is to make sure that we have a quality student newspaper.”
Cain Burdeau of the Associated Press quoted Dixon as saying, “We’re not asking them to abridge, or change anything that the students may do, but we’re asking that the students not use plagiarism or poor grammar.”
Smith said Thursday night, “They established prior review. I’m not happy about it.” Yet he said he would work to put out the paper.
Valerie D. White, who advises the student newspaper at Florida A&M University and chairs the Black College Communication Association, an organization of newspaper faculty advisers at historically black colleges, agreed with Smith that, “This is prior review, which is a form of censorship.”
She said the university might not realize that if an error occurs in the newspaper, the university now becomes liable, instead of the students.
“This is a public institution — the students can say their First Amendment rights have been violated,” White said.
Last year, in discussing a case in which administrators at the University of Louisiana at Monroe moved the student newspaper from the communication department to the English department and instituted a prior review policy, Lance Speere, president of College Media Advisers, a larger national group, said it was important that students remain alert to any possibility of censorship.
â??I think that the students just have to understand what type of power does rest with the First Amendment,â?? Speere said, according to the Student Press Law Center.
â??Independent of the educational and ethical implications of prior review, the courts have consistently declared it unconstitutional,â?? Mark Goodman, executive director of the center, said then. â??Itâ??s one thing for student editors to request an adviser to look over their story. But when that prior approval is required by the school, the First Amendment simply doesnâ??t allow it.”
- Cain Burdeau, Associated Press: College wrestles with paper’s suspension
- Nick Todaro, Monroe (La.) News-Star: GSU stops the presses
- Jared Taylor, Student Press Law Center: Grambling State student paper elects to shut down for fear of adviser termination
