Email Article

Printable Page

Some HBCU Administrators Insist on Free Campus Press

Photo credit: Anthony Moore/Southern Digest The staff of the Southern Digest, at Southern University in Baton Rouge, enjoys a healthy relationship with the university administration.

By Daarel Burnette II
Black College Wire

Editor's note: Black College Wire is participating in Sunshine Sunday and Sunshine Week: Your Right to Know, which began March 13 and continues through the following week. The initiative, spearheaded by the American Society of Newspaper Editors with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami, is intended to open a dialogue about the public�s right of access to government information.

When alumni criticized Langston University for allowing Black Entertainment Television to tape its reality show "College Hill" there, the Langston Gazette wrote a story, but newspaper adviser Chaz Foster-Kyser had concerns. She was cautioned by fellow faculty and staff members at the Oklahoma campus that the president wouldn�t want the story in the publication, so she went to see him.

�To my surprise, he spent the first 30 minutes talking about how much he loved the paper,� she said.

President Ernest Holloway did have some concern about how the article would be perceived, but he reassured her that he didn't want to censor the paper and trusted that the students would be fair in covering the issue.

Administrative support of this kind is almost vital for the survival of a student newspaper, especially if it is not independent.

At many historically black colleges and universities, there has instead been a constant battle between administrators and campus newspapers. Some administrators, feeling battered and bruised by the outside media, say it is the student newspaper's responsibility to print solely positive and uplifting news, said Valerie D. White, an assistant professor of journalism at Florida A&M University and the chairwoman of the Black College Communication Association. BCCA, whose members are newspaper advisers, identifies resources to strengthen communications programs at historically black colleges.

The view that only uplifting news should be published thwarts the student journalist's education, she said.

"Administrators want to give students practical training in every occupational field except student media," White said. "Biology and nursing majors are given opportunities to treat human beings, but student journalists are not afforded opportunities to practice their craft. This is a lopsided and warped ideology or practice. We need to get more students of color in the newsroom, but this is a daunting task when students aren't receiving the proper training."

She added that the responsibility for building and maintaining a free press on campus does not fall only on college presidents and administrators, but said, "they create the environment in which the students have to work.�

Among the black college journalism programs, censorship attempts occur just often enough, and are so widely publicized, that when black college journalists attending a recent national convention were greeted warmly by the host university's chancellor, their jaws dropped.

Edward Jackson, chancellor of Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., held a reception for students and newspaper advisers and pledged support for his campus newspaper, the Southern Digest.

His statement stunned many student editors who have not known administrators who claim affection for their student press. But it came as no surprise to Digest editor Janene Tate.

"Our administrators are never the ones to sweep anything under the rug," Tate said. "They understand that publications on campus aren't their public relations pieces." University officials, including the dean of students, the chief of university police, and faculty and staff members often offer the newspaper scoops on campus happenings, she said.

"We continue to give out information no matter if it's positive or negative because we know they're going to print it as is," said Robert Bennett, Southern's dean of students, who said that outside media too often are biased or unfair in their coverage of black colleges. "We don't pull any censorship games on what they say. It's a great vehicle for student information and keeps you in tune to what's going on."

It took Southern time to develop that relationship between the campus press and administration.

"When I first came to Southern in 1999, the administrators didn't even talk to us and didn't take us seriously," Tate said.

There was troubled history: In the past, Southern University had been sued by a student over pictures published in the newspaper, according to Derick Hackett, director of student media. In order to better understand the role of the newspaper and its responsibilities, the administration created a student media office to oversee the newspaper and the yearbook, the Jaguar. Since then, Southern has placed a link to the Digest's Web page on the university�s home page, and the newspaper has published twice a week.

There are plans to develop a magazine as well, Hackett said.

Hackett and other newspaper advisers acknowledged that students are not getting enough training in the classrooms to do more in-depth stories, which often irk administrators. For now, said Hackett and Foster-Kyser of the Langston Gazette, challenges to the status quo usually come in editorials or commentary.

When administrators have a healthy relationship with the newspaper, that's OK, said Hackett. At Southern, key administrators sometimes respond to criticism by writing letters to the author of the story (the author's e-mail is published with the article) saying how they will address the issue of concern.

�Having a supportive administration can be beneficial because it opens up dialogue and gives students a chance not to fear authority,� Hackett said. �It allows them to be more well-rounded journalists and get the same experiences as the local paper�s journalists are getting. This type of journalism experience is more realistic of what it�s like in the real world.�

At the Langston Gazette, one of the first changes made by newly assigned adviser Foster-Kyser was to its mission. When she became adviser, she said, the masthead defined the paper as a teaching instrument and public relations vehicle for the university.

Since then, Foster-Kyser has encouraged students to use the paper as a forum.

"I'm not sure if we've written anything challenging enough to really make the school angry," she said, but now the student journalists recognize their rights.

"We are a student-run paper," said Kevono Hunt, a senior broadcast major and editor of the Langston Gazette. "The administrators have no say in what goes in the paper. We report the news as is."

Holloway, the Langston president, said, "The student newspaper can assist the administration by being a voice, and (provide) information about events, activities and expectations."

"The stories should be of value to students and the entire community of scholars, including parents and our public," he said. "The coverage should involve factual issues that are important and sensitive to the mission of the institution."

Having a president who understands the newspaper's mission helps student journalists become well-prepared and employable, said White, the BCCA president.

"Black college journalists need to be able to have a free and responsible press so that they can compete with students at traditionally white institutions who are afforded these freedoms," she said.

Sometimes, an incident involving censorship at one college prompts open discussion at another.

In 2003, when the acting president at Hampton University confiscated more than 6,000 copies of the student newspaper, Lincoln University's then-president David B. Henson approached Mark Nordstrom, adviser to the Lincoln Clarion. They discussed the newspaper's role on campus, Nordstrom said.

"There would never be a time that I would interfere with what's said in the paper in any way," the president told him, Nordstrom recalled. Henson said he would lose his job before he would allow that to happen.

"It floored me," Nordstrom said. "He actually pledged his job in defense of the freedom of speech on the part of the student newspaper. If you can't speak freely on a college campus, where can you?"

Daarel Burnette II is a student at Hampton University.

Posted March 16, 2005