Houston, We Have A Problem

For nearly a month, Mount President George Houston, an M.B.A. from nearby Georgetown University, debated back and forth on whether he would back his hand-picked Provost or stand up for press freedom.

After all, just two-and-a-half years earlier he got an angry letter from one of Mother Angelica’s EWTN minions who was "scandalized" by something he read in The Mountain Echo. Advised by a competent PR adviser, a veteran newsman, President Houston thanked the disgruntled visitor and reminded him that "we do not censor students here."

That was 1997. This is year 2000. Things change. The Mountain Echo ran a lengthy feature, based upon an exclusive interview, on how President Houston took Redux and shed half of his poundage. The reporter received the Flanagan Prize, the highest honor the College can give to a student. I was fined $3,806 until I learned to bring The Echo under control.

As faculty adviser of a venerable prize-winning college newspaper, I had three choices: fight, flight, or negotiate. In the past I would seek to negotiate. For example, I could meet privately with them, ask for two years of salary and bennies, let someone else come in and censor for them, and I could go out and "get a real job," as my wife would say. Win-win. I would win, the college would win… but the student journalists would lose.

I also considered "flight." Who needs all the grief that comes with college media advising anyway? After all, it was obvious "they" did not want me. But who are "they"? The President and the Provost? I recall an embroidery my wife gave me years ago that read: "The rat race is over… and the rats have won." If I walk away from this now, the rats would take over, my friends and colleagues would be more subject to untold brutalities, like mine, and student journalists would learn nothing but tyranny and subjection – not very good civic lessons.

A funny thing about rats (and snakes): they thrive and prosper in the dark. But when a journalist comes in, flips on the light and shines a flashlight on the critters, they flee!

Fight, flight, negotiate. I decided to fight, even though I realize I may, most likely, lose. Their pockets for lawyers are deeper than mine.

Yet, I have to fight because this is my "final exam." All my students – past, present, and to come – are looking at me, and they will learn lessons of valor, courage and integrity. Or they will learn lessons of disgrace under pressure, stupidity and compromise.

How lucky I am to have a good cause to fight (for a free press, due process and truth), good adversaries (control freaks) and good allies (students, alums, friends). I am blest.

My Adviser Advocate from College Media Advisers, Inc. is none other than the legendary Kathy Lawrence of U. Texas-Austin.

Next Issue: "You Are What You Teach"

Diane Everson Ascends to Presidency

NNA Seeks Closer Ties to Student Journalism

A longtime friend of SCJ and college journalists became only the second woman to head up the nation’s major trade association for community newspapers.

Diane Everson, co-publisher of the Edgerton (Wisconsin) Reporter, was elevated to the presidency of the National Newspaper Association at their 115^th annual convention in Louisville, Kentucky.

As she accepted the NNA gavel, Everson committed herself to the three C’s of grassroot journalism: Content, Commerce and Community. "The readers want honest, fair and well-written stories that affect their lives." she said.

NNA is currently facing serious fights for fair postal rates, an equitable estate tax program in Congress and "attacks on open records and open meetings under the guise of protecting privacy."

SCJ President William M. Lawbaugh joined Dr. Clyde Bentley of U. of Oregon and Dr. Lin Hansen of Eastern Kentucky U. in discussing "Recruitment, Retention and Retraining" with the NNA Leadership Council. Hansen complained about high fees for college students attending NNA functions, and Bentley warned them to look out when new hires buy a car. Council members broke into district groups and came up with the following ways to attract and keep good employees for community newspapers:

President-elect Everson promised to consider these and any other efforts to strengthen the ties between NNA and student journalists as the organization tries to deal with recruitment, retention and retraining.

I'm Jeff Harman, new first vice president of SCJ.

I'm a professor of speech communication at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio. I've been teaching radio/TV production and electronic journalism here at Muskingum since 1984. Before that, I was employed in several different positions in radio news and programming and public relations in western Pennsylvania.

According to our SCJ National Constitution and Handbook, Muskingum's SCJ chapter is one of the oldest in the organization, dating back to 1923. Like many chapters, we've probably had our share of inactivity, but we now have a young, energetic, and growing group of students involved and interested in journalism.

I bring two perspectives to the position of first vice president: as a representative from a small college and as an electronic journalist. I've seen first-hand how an SCJ chapter can be particularly beneficial to a small school journalism program. Muskingum's SCJ chapter provides a bridge between the print journalism area administered by the English department and the radio/TV journalism area in the speech communication and theatre department. SCJ provides an opportunity to bring students working on the two sides together. This cross-fertilization is especially important now as digital technologies and changes in media regulation blur the lines between print and electronic media. The professional opportunities for our journalism graduates will not be exclusively print or broadcast. Our campus media, both electronic and print, need to be migrating to the web. This is an exciting time to be involved with journalism and the media. SCJ can help enhance the experience.

Jeff Harman

SCJ Sponsors ‘Our First Freedoms’ at Mount St. Mary's College

For two hours in October, Mount Saint Mary’s College in Maryland became the epicenter of free expression in the free world.

The Society for Collegiate Journalists sponsored a celebration of the First Amendment, the first of its kind, on the campus of the oldest independent Catholic college in America on October 18, 2000. "Never before," said rally organizers, "has so many distinguished lawyers and freedom experts gathered to discuss the role of a free press at a private college."

Paul McMasters, former president of the Society of Professional Journalists and now The Freedom Forum’s ombudsman, called it "a teachable moment." He said that the college administration’s efforts to silence the student newspaper and punish its faculty adviser "has put Mount Saint Mary’s on the map."

Nick Hentoff, Legal director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, praised Dr. William Lawbaugh, faculty adviser to The Mountain Echo and third-term SCJ president, for his courage under fire. Mount officials fined him $3,806 for refusing to censor the paper in February, and they still show no signs of relenting.

The symposium was moderated by Echo editor Justin Moor, a Mount senior from Bowling Green, Ohio, graduating in December. Junior Kelley Wilson, Echo news editor, assembled the media kits and is compiling a booklet of speeches and articles relating to "Our First Freedoms," to be printed by and available from SCJ Headquarters in Clarion, Pa., for member colleges and those private, church-related colleges who request one. Logistics and hospitality were provided by SCJ chapter members Maribeth Baynes, LaShana Kinsey and Candace Keegan. Students and faculty from nearby colleges, including Western Maryland College, Hood, Montgomery College and Frederick Community College, were offered campus tours and dinner in the college dining hall.

"Our First Freedoms" symposium began with a rousing talk by Rev. John Michael Beers, Ph.D, S.S.L., on the Establihment Clause. The director of the newly formed Annecey Institute for the Promotion of Virtue and Liberty in Washington insisted that the First Amendment calls for freedom of religion, not freedom from religion as some church vs. state advocates interpret it erroneously.

Dr. Martin Snyder, Associate Secretary for Academic Freedom and Professional Standards at the American Association of University Professors, gave a brilliant exposition of First Amendment protections for academic freedom beginning with a U.S. Supreme Court case in 1957. As a result of an historic recent meeting of AAUP and the Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO, the Newspaper Guild is about to issue a joint statement on freedom of expression and First Amendment rights with the AAUP. This pact could have enormous implications for collegiate journalists and their advisers.

Litigation Attorney Rosemary McDermott provoked the audience of more than 50 people with a questionnaire on "freedom of expression at a private college." She asserted that students at Mount Saint Mary’s College do indeed enjoy contractual and common law rights to free speech and free press. By implication and guarantees in official mission statements, governing documents, student handbooks and college catalogs, so do most if not all other private and church-related colleges in America.

In a spirited, lively discussion period, a Mount student drew wild applause for her insightful reply to a reporter who wondered why prior review was not acceptable. "Because it short-circuits the learning process and denies students of their right to free expression." She compared prior review to a professor who corrects a paper before grading it and one who gives out the answers to a test ahead of time. The Chair of the Mount’s communications department claimed she had information challenging the speakers’ assumptions of censorship but said she could not talk about it.

Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, closed out the symposium with a plea to college administrators to disregard the legal implications of First Amendment protections for student journalists in a private college "and do what is morally right – recognize their basic human rights to free expression."

* Courtesy of SCJ's Mount St. Mary's College chapter.

Next week the SCJ National Council will meet in Washington DC.

One outcome will be an announcement of the plans and mechanism for the 2000 Recruitment and Retention effort. I want our SCJ chapters to contribute to our development.

Congratulations To Our Newest Members

© 2000
Clarion University of Pennsylvania
Adam C. Earnheardt, Web Master