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After controversy, Hampton U. adopts policies ensuring free-press rights
© 2004 Student Press Law Center
January 5, 2004
VIRGINIA — The acting president of Hampton
University has adopted new policies that ensure the free-press rights of the
school's student newspaper.
The decision to adopt the policies was an
about-face for President JoAnn Haysbert, who confiscated the entire press run of
the Oct. 22 edition of The Script in a dispute with editors over
editorial control.
Editors and school officials hope the new policies
will end a contentious battle between the students and Haysbert and between the
school and national journalism groups, which attacked the school and even pulled
funding from it for censoring the newspaper.
"I was very happy with the
results," said Talia Buford, editor of The Script. "We were able to gain
editorial control, and that's what is most important. Now, we have the framework
in place to make The Script better."
Haysbert accepted the
recommendations of a task force created to determine the role of the student
newspaper at the private university in Hampton, Va. The 11-member task force,
comprised predominately of faculty and students with a journalism background,
met over six weeks last fall and recommended that:
• Student
journalists at The Script should "have the right to a free press in order
to practice their craft in the unfettered fashion envisioned by the framers of
the First Amendment of the Constitution;"
• No administrator, faculty
member, student or university-affiliated organization will confiscate and/or
halt the distribution of the newspaper;
• The newspaper's advisers must
have adequate knowledge of journalism;
• An advisory board made up
of faculty and students should be established and empowered to resolve issues
between the editors and advisers.
Haysbert adopted the policies on
Dec. 19, almost two months after the controversy over the student newspaper
began. Hampton officials seized thousands of copies of the newspaper's
Homecoming issue in October after editors denied Haysbert's request to publish
her letter to the editor on the front page. Haysbert's letter, which addressed
the university's response to health-code violations at a school cafeteria,
appeared instead on Page 3.
After Haysbert ordered the confiscation of
the newspapers, editors agreed to print the letter on Page One in exchange for
Haysbert's promise to appoint the task force and abide by its recommendations.
In November, Hampton University lost a $55,000 grant from the American
Society of Newspaper Editors because of the incident.
Buford said
Haysbert has not apologized for confiscating the newspapers, but both Haysbert
and Buford agreed that the incident was a learning experience for all.
"I have learned a great deal from this experience in regard to freedom
of the press, especially as it relates to student-managed newspapers," Haysbert
said.
Earl Caldwell, a journalism professor at Hampton who led the task
force, said the new policies will strengthen The Script.
"Now we
have clear policies, which require that advisers have adequate journalistic
knowledge so they can provide expert training and place responsibility on
students who practice high standards of professionalism," Caldwell
said.
For More Information: Read previous coverage
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