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Praise, Not Punish, Hampton Student Editors

By Pearl Stewart

Friends,

Pearl Stewart

The student editors at Hampton have stood their ground. The administration offered them the option of republishing the Oct. 22 edition of The Script with the acting president's letter on the front page -- or having no papers distributed at all. This week, Acting President JoAnn Haysbert had the 6,500 papers seized and held in storage because of her opposition to the placement on page three of a letter she wrote about health code violations in the cafeteria.

The students refused to move the letter, so there will be no homecoming issue of The Script.

These are unfortunate developments for a number of reasons. The most important, in my view, is that student speech has once again been silenced -- an all-too-common occurrence on campuses run by administrators who view student newspapers as their public relations tools. Although Hampton is a private institution, the spirit of free speech should apply to the student media if students are to be trained to function in the field of journalism.

It is also regrettable that the long hours the students spent working on this issue of the paper were wasted. The Hampton Script has done an outstanding job this year covering the news, including Hurricane Isabel. Some of the staff may turn away from journalism because of this experience, although it appears that the editors are much too dedicated to allow the actions of a few administrators to break their spirits.

I hope this experience, as unpleasant as it is, leads to dialogue and enlightenment about the rights of student journalists at Hampton and other institutions. I am encouraging my friends in journalism and academe to contact the acting president's office and register their concerns. It is time for colleges and universities, private and public, to support fair and balanced reporting by their students. When young journalists adhere to the tenets of sound journalism, as these students have, they should be praised, not punished.

Hampton's main number: (757) 727-5000
Web site: www.hamptonu.edu

Thank you.

Pearl Stewart is chair of the Black College Communication Association and founder of the Black College Wire.

Posted Oct. 23, 2003