Campus Newspapers: Who Is Ultimately in Charge?

Today's medianote discusses a recent article about student suicides in the El Vaquero, the student newspaper at Glendale College. The article precipitated a stormy confrontation of the newspaper's faculty adviser by the college president and the head of the college's nursing department. It also led to the story briefly being taken off the newspaper's web site. The remaining paper copies of that issue of the El Vaquero--about a thousand copies--mysteriously disappeared from the newsracks. This led to a story about the controversy in the Glendale News-Press, the local daily. In addition, a report has been filed with campus police over the theft of the papers.

As this controversy plays out, a bill is making its way through the California Legislature (AB2581) that strengthens First Amendment protections for student publications on college and university campuses.