BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The Virginia Tech administration has
rejected recommendations to cut funding or ban student organization advertising
in the student newspaper resulting from the paper's refusal to eliminate
anonymous comments from its Web site.
The recommendations, made Feb. 8 by the Commission on Student Affairs
threatened the funding of the Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech (EMCVT)
and the Collegiate Times. The commission was responding to the
paper's policy that allows readers to comment anonymously about news
articles without a username or e-mail.
The Associate Vice President of University Relations, Larry Hincker, said
that the university is not prepared to take away media funding and renegotiate
the terms of its contract with the EMCVT. The editorial staff of the
Collegiate Times will maintain control of content, Hincker said.
"This decision shows that, as a whole, the university understands the
importance of student media – not just the paper, but all of the divisions
on campus," said Sara Mitchell, editor-in-chief of the Collegiate
Times.
The commission will meet tonight, Feb. 18, to decide whether to continue to
pursue a dialog with the student paper about anonymous postings, said Michelle
McLeese, chairwoman of the Commission of Student Affairs. Discussions between
the commission and the student paper have been held for the past three
semesters.
The recommendation to revoke funding was an attempt by the commission to
voice its concerns and to get the newspaper's attention, McLeese
said.
"The concern is not so much about an anonymous system, as much as it
is [about] a lack of accountability," McLeese said.
When there are "breaches in law, such as libel, such as threat [or]
harassment," the commission wants a system to identify the commentator as
well as potentially preventing future postings from that person, McLeese said.
Kelly Wolff, general manager of the EMCVT, said that the commission may
want the paper to eliminate offensive commentary from the Web site, but harmful
and controversial speech is still protected under the First Amendment.
"It is not the paper's responsibility to whitewash things for a
public relations mission. I think they are asking the paper to be a gatekeeper
to protect the university's image from that [offensive commentary] and
that is obviously not part of our mission," Wolff said.
By Laura Dobler, SPLC staff writer
