SLU Threatens Student Press
A move by St. Louis University to exert a greater degree of control over its student-run newspaper has many current and past SLU journalists worried.
University officials met with the student staff of the University News on April 30 to present a new version of the newspaper’s charter. The new charter would give an administration-appointed board control over candidates for editorial positions, including the power to both hire and fire editors.
Student staff and editors feel that the proposed changes would give the administration too much control over the publication’s content, but school officials maintain that the proposed changes are about improving the quality of the paper’s content and providing oversight in cases of student misconduct.
A vote on revoking the existing charter is expected within the week.
St. Louis University’s Student Government Association will meet tonight at 5:00 in the Pere Marquette Gallery to pass a resolution on the situation of the University News.
Check back later for PubDef’s video report.
UPDATE: Here is our interview with Diana Benanti, the paper’s editor.
About This Author: Antonio D. French is a writer, political consultant, and newly-elected Democratic Committeeman living in north St. Louis, Missouri. If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Go to dangerousintersection.org an see the blogpost on “Death of the First Amendment at SLU” for details. Also there’s an article in today’s Post-Dispatch by Kavita Kumar
This is nothing new at SLU. The administration put pressure on the University News when the paper came out against the hospital sale several years ago.
kjoe: Burke cannot have anything to do with this. The Archdiocese has zero control over the Jesuit-run SLU. Moreover, SlU and the Archdiocese have been at odds with each other for quite some time.
It is not just about the UNews reporting “bad press” about the University or administrators. There was a great deal of student misconduct that may include financial mismanagement (like buying personal stuff with UNews funds) as well as inappropriate behavior by the students. This is NOT just a case of Fr. Biondi wanting his way though let’s be clear the paper does serve at the President’s pleasure…however other “things” made the ball start rolling.
The paper is chartered by act of the Board of Trustees. The paper does not serve at the pleasure of the president. Nor does it even serve at the pleasure of the trustees. It operates under the charter. The trustees may amend the charter, however.
(As an aside: did “Aninnymouse” borrow her/his rhetoric on this issue from Alberto Gonzalez & Tony Snow?)
“Aninnymouse” also prefers to deal in innuendo here: “misconduct … that may include financial mismanagement” and “inappropriate behavior.” Strong assertions backed-up with well-founded facts!
atfifsz
To those of us on the outside, the first suspicious names to reflexively pop into mind are Biondi and Burke.
Sometimes, these reflexes are off-base, but not always. Anyone better informed care to shed more light?