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Student papers at four colleges reported stolen within the last week

April 14, 2008

Newspaper thefts occurred at four college campuses last week, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand missing copies. Controversial articles may have been behind the thefts at Ball State University, Loyola Marymount University and the University of New Orleans.

The Student Press Law Center previously reported on the April 8 theft of about 2,500 papers at Kent State. The Daily Kent Stater issue had no particularly controversial articles, its editor said.


Ball State
INDIANA — Vince Filak, adviser for the Ball State Daily News, got a notice Friday morning that every copy of the paper was missing from some of the major campus drop-points. The papers, totaling more than 8,000, went missing before distribution was completed, Filak said. The Daily News typically prints 14,000 copies per issue.

The front page of Friday's paper featured an article about the arrest of a Ball State soccer player, which garnered negative feedback from some students, Filak said. Dozens of readers commented on the story on the Daily News web site.

"The Ball State Daily News should focus more on bringing the university together through positive articles rather than publishing negative articles, especially those constantly about the Athletic Department," wrote one reader.

Robert Fey, assistant chief of Ball State university police, said police have one witness to the theft but declined to comment on what the witness had seen. The theft was the third in a year and a half for the Daily News.

Filak said the cost of printing one issue is about $1,000. The Daily News reprinted the entire Friday issue as a section in today's paper.

"Stealing papers isn't only illegal and stupid, but you're not going to stop us from getting the paper out," Filak said. "It's ludicrous that people believe that in the day and age of the internet, that you can censor the media simply by running around and grabbing as many copies as you can and stealing them."

Loyola Marymount
CALIFORNIA — Early last week, entire stacks of the Loyolan disappeared from newsstands across the Loyola Marymount University campus. About 300 papers were found in a campus recycling bin on April 9, Loyolan Editor in Chief Nader Alsheikh said. The paper prints about 5,000 copies per issue.

The bi-weekly paper typically has several hundred copies of an issue left over, but there were no copies left on newsstands by the middle of last week. The April 7 issue featured two columns that could have upset some students, Alsheikh said. One column referred to a pregnant Oregon transgender male as a sign that civilization was ending. Alsheikh said he received multiple letters in response to the column. The other column criticized fraternity philanthropies.

The Loyolan filed a police report and turned in the name of a possible culprit to the university's Department of Public Safety. Alsheikh declined to commment on why that particular name was turned in.

"It's terribly disheartening to see the newspaper just disrespected," he said. "We're going to do everything we can to rectify the situation, if at all possible. "

University of New Orleans
LOUSIANA — Over 300 copies of the weekly University of New Orleans Driftwood were found in trash cans near three newspaper racks on April 8. The papers were found after a student government meeting where members said "firm words" to Driftwood staffers, Editor in Chief Rebecca Barker said.

The issue had an article reporting on a student criticizing the student government president and treasurer at an open forum with the university chancellor. Driftwood staffers took some clean papers out of the trash and put them back on the newspaper racks.

The Driftwood filed a report with the university police department last week. Barker said it costs about $600 to print an issue.

"Really it's such an unimpressive attempt at censorship," Barker said. "Everyone condemns it as immature, which is right."

By Emilie Yam, SPLC staff writer

© 2008 Student Press Law Center
 
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