The Voice

Last week, six members of The Colonnade staff traveled six hours by Suburban to Nashville Tennessee for the annual College Media Adviser’s conference.

We learned about student media management, how to organize ourselves more effectively, and most important, how to produce a better newspaper.

There were sessions on advertising, newswriting and all sorts of related topics, but in each meeting, regardless of subject matter, one topic seemed to surface over and over again: the undeniable differences between public and private schools.

Back when the name change issue first hit the table, there were rumors about how the new name could make our school sound more private.

There’s been talk about how an outside graduation with a well-known speaker would supplement the ceremony with the prestige of a small, private college.

GC&SU is essentially a private liberal arts college with a public liberal arts price.

Why are the powers that be striving so hard to give our public school a private edge?

For a newspaper, First Amendment rights are invaluable, even in everyday functioning. It gives us the right to publish pretty much whatever we want as long as it’s true and not obscene.

Student media in private schools is not protected by the First Amendment.

According to the Student Press Law Center “Because private colleges and universities are not government agencies, they are not limited by the First Amendment in their ability to censor.”

That means if we were private, Dr. Leland, University Communications or any administrator could read our newspaper before it’s published to ensure there are no stories that could damage the school’s reputation, even if they were true.

Can you imagine studying at a university without free press? The administration could have stopped us from printing anything about the name change, or the changes in graduation. They could have even halted the presses on the Mexotica scandal last year–and who knows how that would have changed things.

Bottom line? Be thankful.

The next time a decision is made in an effort to add a private prestige to our public university, think about how great it is to be able to express ourselves without censorship. Professors are free to teach us what they feel is appropriate, and the newspaper, radio station and television station are all free to report whatever they feel is important to the students, even if it means dirtying the administration’s reputation.

It’s our right, and we’re going to enjoy it.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 12 2004. Filed under Our Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry