When alumnicriticized Langston University for allowing Black Entertainment Television totape its reality show “College Hill” there, the Langston Gazette wrote a story,but newspaper adviser Chaz Foster-Kyser had concerns. She was cautioned byfellow faculty and staff members at the Oklahoma campus that the presidentwouldn’t want the story in the publication, so she went to see him.
“To mysurprise, he spent the first 30 minutes talking about how much he loved thepaper,” she said.
PresidentErnest Holloway did have some concern about how the article would be perceived,but he reassured her that he didn’t want to censor the paper and trusted thatthe students would be fair in covering the issue.
Administrativesupport of this kind is almost vital for the survival of a student newspaper,especially if it is not independent.
At manyhistorically black colleges and universities, there has instead been a constantbattle between administrators and campus newspapers. Some administrators,feeling battered and bruised by the outside media, say it is the studentnewspaper’s responsibility to print solely positive and uplifting news, saidValerie D. White, an assistant professor of journalism at Florida A&MUniversity and the chairwoman of the Black College Communication Association.BCCA, whose members are newspaper advisers, identifies resources to strengthencommunications programs at historically black colleges.
The view thatonly uplifting news should be published thwarts the student journalist’seducation, she said.
“Administratorswant to give students practical training in every occupational field exceptstudent media,” White said. “Biology and nursing majors are given opportunitiesto treat human beings, but student journalists are not afforded opportunitiesto practice their craft. This is a lopsided and warped ideology or practice. Weneed to get more students of color in the newsroom, but this is a daunting taskwhen students aren’t receiving the proper training.”
She added thatthe responsibility for building and maintaining a free press on campus does notfall only on college presidents and administrators, but said, “they create theenvironment in which the students have to work.”
Among theblack college journalism programs, censorship attempts occur just often enough,and are so widely publicized, that when black college journalists attending arecent national convention were greeted warmly by the host university’schancellor, their jaws dropped.
EdwardJackson, chancellor of Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., held areception for students and newspaper advisers and pledged support for hiscampus newspaper, the Southern Digest.
His statementstunned many student editors who have not known administrators who claimaffection for their student press. But it came as no surprise to Digest editorJanene Tate.
“Ouradministrators are never the ones to sweep anything under the rug,” Tate said.”They understand that publications on campus aren’t their public relationspieces.” University officials, including the dean of students, the chief ofuniversity police, and faculty and staff members often offer the newspaper scoopson campus happenings, she said.
“We continueto give out information no matter if it’s positive or negative because we knowthey’re going to print it as is,” said Robert Bennett, Southern’s dean ofstudents, who said that outside media too often are biased or unfair in theircoverage of black colleges. “We don’t pull any censorship games on what theysay. It’s a great vehicle for student information and keeps you in tune towhat’s going on.”
It tookSouthern time to develop that relationship between the campus press andadministration.
“When I firstcame to Southern in 1999, the administrators didn’t even talk to us and didn’ttake us seriously,” Tate said.
There wastroubled history: In the past, Southern University had been sued by a studentover pictures published in the newspaper, according to Derick Hackett, directorof student media. In order to better understand the role of the newspaper andits responsibilities, the administration created a student media office tooversee the newspaper and the yearbook, the Jaguar. Since then, Southern hasplaced a link to the Digest’s Web page on the university’s home page, and thenewspaper has published twice a week.
There areplans to develop a magazine as well, Hackett said.
Hackett andother newspaper advisers acknowledged that students are not getting enoughtraining in the classrooms to do more in-depth stories, which often irkadministrators. For now, said Hackett and Foster-Kyser of the Langston Gazette,challenges to the status quo usually come in editorials or commentary.
Whenadministrators have a healthy relationship with the newspaper, that’s OK, saidHackett. At Southern, key administrators sometimes respond to criticism bywriting letters to the author of the story (the author’s e-mail is publishedwith the article) saying how they will address the issue of concern.
“Having asupportive administration can be beneficial because it opens up dialogue andgives students a chance not to fear authority,” Hackett said. “It allows themto be more well-rounded journalists and get the same experiences as the localpaper’s journalists are getting. This type of journalism experience is morerealistic of what it’s like in the real world.”
At theLangston Gazette, one of the first changes made by newly assigned adviserFoster-Kyser was to its mission. When she became adviser, she said, themasthead defined the paper as a teaching instrument and public relationsvehicle for the university.
Since then,Foster-Kyser has encouraged students to use the paper as a forum.
“I’m not sureif we’ve written anything challenging enough to really make the school angry,”she said, but now the student journalists recognize their rights.
“We are astudent-run paper,” said Kevono Hunt, a senior broadcast major and editor ofthe Langston Gazette. “The administrators have no say in what goes in thepaper. We report the news as is.”
Holloway, theLangston president, said, “The student newspaper can assist the administrationby being a voice, and (provide) information about events, activities andexpectations.”
“The storiesshould be of value to students and the entire community of scholars, includingparents and our public,” he said. “The coverage should involve factual issuesthat are important and sensitive to the mission of the institution.”
Having apresident who understands the newspaper’s mission helps student journalistsbecome well-prepared and employable, said White, the BCCA president.
“Black collegejournalists need to be able to have a free and responsible press so that theycan compete with students at traditionally white institutions who are affordedthese freedoms,” she said.
Sometimes, anincident involving censorship at one college prompts open discussion atanother.
In 2003, when the acting president atHampton University confiscated more than 6,000 copies of the student newspaper,Lincoln University’s then-president David B. Henson approached Mark Nordstrom,adviser to the Lincoln Clarion. They discussed the newspaper’s role on campus,Nordstrom said.
“There wouldnever be a time that I would interfere with what’s said in the paper in anyway,” the president told him, Nordstrom recalled. Henson said he would lose hisjob before he would allow that to happen.
“It flooredme,” Nordstrom said. “He actually pledged his job in defense of the freedom ofspeech on the part of the student newspaper. If you can’t speak freely on acollege campus, where can you?”
DaarelBurnette II is a student at Hampton University.
