Press Release: Legal Action Pursued Against the University of Missouri-Rolla by Campus Newspaper for a Content-Based Funding Cut
This is the actual press release sent out by the Missouri Miner staff. I have reproduced it here verbatim with their permission. -Randal
ROLLA, MO. --- *The Missouri Miner*, the student newspaper of the University of Missouri – Rolla (UMR), is pursuing legal action against UMR for first amendment violations due to censorship and cutting one-third of the newspaper's annual budget.
On November 7, 2006 UMR's Student Council voted to cut funding to *The Missouri Miner*, citing grammatical errors, opinionated content, and asking that the paper does not print as many copies.
"This cut has the potential to be extremely crippling," says Christopher Stryker, the Editor-In-Chief of *The Missouri Miner*. "What's more concerning is that they made it clear the cut was to encourage us to alter our content to fit their standards for what Student Council and the administration thought a student newspaper should be producing."
The Missouri Miner was given less than 24-hours to prepare before the Student Council meeting in which Student Activity Funding was decided. Michele Martin, then Editor-In-Chief, and Wendy Moore, Business Director, were each only allowed the opportunity to speak for four minutes opposition to the cut.
The vote was not in the newspaper's favor.
After Student Council voted on the funding cut, it was later approved by UMR administration including Vice Chancellor Debra Robinson and Chancellor John F. Carney III.
"We knew all along that this was a threat to our freedom of speech," says Michele Martin current Advertising Director of *The Missouri Miner*. "Though we have been laughed at, we have been attempting to deal with this internally in order to reach an amicable solution with the administration."
Since the approval of the cut, Christopher Stryker has taken over as Editor-In-Chief.
"We have been trying to work with the administration to resolve things but it has begun to feel like we were negotiating with a gun to our head," says Stryker. "It doesn't seem like we were going to resolve anything with the processes we have been going through. While we have tried to avoid it, legal action is the only recourse we see left."
An ultimatum has been sent to the University of Missouri President Elson Floyd, the Board of Curators, Chancellor Carney, Student Council and other involved parties asking for full restitution of funds and a signed agreement stating that all future funding of recognized media organizations will be carried out constitutionally. This letter requires the issue to be resolved by 5 p.m. on Monday, February 19, 2007, or legal action will be further pursued.
"It is our hope that the university resolves this issue before next Monday," says Stryker. "It is the right thing to do."
*The Missouri Miner* exists in the 8th district where cases such as Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth, et al., 529 U.S. 217 (2000), Rosenberger v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819 (1995), and Stanley v. Magrath, 719 F.2d 279 (8th Cir. 1984) have laid the way for their action.
ROLLA, MO. --- *The Missouri Miner*, the student newspaper of the University of Missouri – Rolla (UMR), is pursuing legal action against UMR for first amendment violations due to censorship and cutting one-third of the newspaper's annual budget.
On November 7, 2006 UMR's Student Council voted to cut funding to *The Missouri Miner*, citing grammatical errors, opinionated content, and asking that the paper does not print as many copies.
"This cut has the potential to be extremely crippling," says Christopher Stryker, the Editor-In-Chief of *The Missouri Miner*. "What's more concerning is that they made it clear the cut was to encourage us to alter our content to fit their standards for what Student Council and the administration thought a student newspaper should be producing."
The Missouri Miner was given less than 24-hours to prepare before the Student Council meeting in which Student Activity Funding was decided. Michele Martin, then Editor-In-Chief, and Wendy Moore, Business Director, were each only allowed the opportunity to speak for four minutes opposition to the cut.
The vote was not in the newspaper's favor.
After Student Council voted on the funding cut, it was later approved by UMR administration including Vice Chancellor Debra Robinson and Chancellor John F. Carney III.
"We knew all along that this was a threat to our freedom of speech," says Michele Martin current Advertising Director of *The Missouri Miner*. "Though we have been laughed at, we have been attempting to deal with this internally in order to reach an amicable solution with the administration."
Since the approval of the cut, Christopher Stryker has taken over as Editor-In-Chief.
"We have been trying to work with the administration to resolve things but it has begun to feel like we were negotiating with a gun to our head," says Stryker. "It doesn't seem like we were going to resolve anything with the processes we have been going through. While we have tried to avoid it, legal action is the only recourse we see left."
An ultimatum has been sent to the University of Missouri President Elson Floyd, the Board of Curators, Chancellor Carney, Student Council and other involved parties asking for full restitution of funds and a signed agreement stating that all future funding of recognized media organizations will be carried out constitutionally. This letter requires the issue to be resolved by 5 p.m. on Monday, February 19, 2007, or legal action will be further pursued.
"It is our hope that the university resolves this issue before next Monday," says Stryker. "It is the right thing to do."
*The Missouri Miner* exists in the 8th district where cases such as Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth, et al., 529 U.S. 217 (2000), Rosenberger v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819 (1995), and Stanley v. Magrath, 719 F.2d 279 (8th Cir. 1984) have laid the way for their action.
Labels: Attack on Free Speech
posted by Randal A. Burd, Jr. at 6:40 PM
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