In recent collegiate news, Grambling State University’s student newspaper, The Gramblinite, has been involved in a strained feud with the university’s administration over their right to publish in spite of a temporary publication suspension placed on the staff by Grambling’s Provost and Vice President of Student Affairs Robert Dixon.
After speaking with members of The Gramblinite’s editorial staff, it was revealed to us their administration has pegged them as poor journalists after the newspaper was nearly sued for plagiarism of an article which had originally run in Monroe’s daily newspaper, The News-Star. Dixon also charged the newspaper for failing to show a lack of improvement in quality over time since his appointment as Vice-President of Student Affairs, giving him motive to inflict the paper’s suspension and delivery on campus.
The administration’s actions are clearly a violation of first amendment rights, and have many of us in the student press circle fuming with disgust. The Editor in Chief of The Gramblinite, Darryl Smith, took the necessary actions in dealing with the plagiarist actions of his careless reporter by firing him, which, according to precedent, usually concludes matters of this nature. But what has us most disturbed here at The Southern DIGEST is the lack of support their administrative officials have shown them in this entire ordeal.
It got us to thinking how lucky we have it here!
In the wake of their struggle to just be, we have come to realize just how lucky we have it because unlike most universities, like Grambling, we are afforded the full support of our administration, especially from our chancellor, Edward Jackson. So often, when we are out of town for journalism conferences that connects us with other student journalists in the country, we are approached and awed because we have articles that are satiated with quotes and the insightful opinions of our university’s administration, faculty and staff. To this praise, we often shrug our shoulders and reply, “Well, yeah,” because to us, articles and features about the university can only be fair and accurate with insight from the officials who shape its curriculum and programs. What we hadn’t realized is many university administration staffs do not share our views and shut the doors on their student journalists who are only doing their job.
After visiting Southern for the joint Bayou Classic Edition of our papers in the fall, Smith was astonished by the expedite response he received from Chancellor Jackson after telephoning him for an interview only 30 minutes prior to the chancellor’s return call. To this we replied, “He always does that. Sometimes our chancellor even calls us with the news.” To that, Smith was dumbfounded. He expressed to us how uncooperative their administration was with he and his staff, which has been made apparent in light of the recent events.
Our prayers and support now lies with our rivals and friends at The Gramblinite who, no matter what their administration says about them, are some of the most talented journalists in the arena. This is a battle you can clearly win so don’t give up! If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. Refuse to fall to an administration who does not even have the common courtesy to support the staff of its university’s student publication by picking up a phone or returning a call when all you want to do is ensure your articles have merit and justification.
To Chancellor Jackson, and members of Southern University’s administration, faculty and staff, thank you for your support. When we call, you guys answer, whether the topic is positive or negative, and offer us your words for all to see, read and judge. Because of you other universities and institutions envy us. Because of you our articles are given the opportunities to be two-dimensional compositions of the students’ voices and yours. Because of you we are given the opportunity to publish and know you’re reading for understanding of the world we are living in.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
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Words can’t express how much we thank you…
January 30, 2007
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