Freedom of the Press Is Under Attack in Campus Culture Wars

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 3, 1999 | by Lisa Anderson

If America's colleges and universities are the training ground for our national media, they also are the test kitchens of liberal bias, where conservative students still are fighting for a place at the table. Word on the street is that if your name's connected with a conservative newspaper or magazine, you're on a censorship hit list that only is getting longer. Consider the following:

* In its efforts to register as a campus organization, the Village Alternative, New York University's conservative paper, was turned down on grounds of being a duplicate of an already-existing group (a Republican club) -- this despite the fact that the university has six Korean-student organizations, three Asian clubs, several black and Latino clubs and four socialist clubs.

* Cornell University's conservative tabloid, the Cornell Review, ran a nationally syndicated cartoon a couple of years ago that brought charges of racism against the paper even though the cartoon was commissioned by a black minister. Asking "Which one of these kills more blacks?," the choices depicted were the Ku Klux Klan, a neo-Nazi group and a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. Immediately following its publication, opponents held public burnings of the magazine on campus and blocked traffic -- both against school safety policies. Curiously, school administrators took no action. Some defended the protests and even joined in the harassments.

* Between 2,000 and 3,000 copies of the Georgetown Academy, Georgetown University's right-leaning paper, were stolen last fall in an effort to eradicate its presence on campus. When confronted, one offender explained his act of theft as a "general cleanup of the lobby area." Even more disappointing is the fact that the rest of the campus press chose to ignore the theft and instead printed editorials lambasting the Academy for its decidedly Catholic views.

The latest skirmish in the censorship war is being waged at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. Freedom magazine, a self-described "open forum" publication in its second year, became the target of student-government efforts to decharter and defund it. Student publisher Bryan Rudnick incensed his foes in the student Senate with two articles in the October/ November 1998 issue that criticized the Senate, saying it consists of students who "want to protect and promote only their personal interests" and, consequently, "does not serve a valid purpose at Brandeis." At the next Senate meeting (broadcast on campus radio), student senator Jonathan Heafitz went on what sources referred to as a "rampage" calling Freedom "fascist," "racist" "homophobic" and "anti-Semitic." Rudnick finds this last charge particularly appalling, as he and several members of the staff are faithful Jews. Copies of the magazines also were stolen and destroyed, and Rudnick was physically threatened by Heafitz, who since has apologized.

Upon reading the Brandeis magazine, one might ask, "What's the big deal?" Freedom is a journal of opinion, not an objective newspaper. The articles in question fall within the scope of what one would expect in a feisty college publication. I did not feel compelled to agree with their content; indeed, I didn't even feel compelled to believe their content. Though some Brandeis students don't agree with the message of Freedom, many are nonetheless quick to defend it. David Nurenberg of the Brandeis Media Coalition is a prime example. "Freedom publishes what I would call extreme, reactionary views," he told Insight, "but I argued against their decharterment because they should be able to print what they want."

Faced with decharterment, the Freedom staff, student Senate and others endured a three-hour meeting to decide the magazine's fate. Decharterment failed, but Rudnick's foes succeeded in defunding Freedom after another series of meetings and debates. Considering the multiple student meetings each week and the time consumed in discussions with the press and administration, one wonders whether these campus politicos find time to attend classes. In all likelihood everyone involved will have to make up lost time and grades in summer school.

Lisa Anderson is an editorial intern for Insight.