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- " ,.-,. .; . '. � �' .. 1 , '." j<',KUM TH� Ul.KJ!A.:IUK: ;c',;({t , :: ':', < :< EDITOR'::" ,;, , : " " :, R. The Student Press Law Center turns ten years old in :i::. � ,C '�staj Chlssell Hovvard Un,vers,ty October. - WRITERS . � :- ,: ; : A decade is a long time. Kevin Chandler Jane Hess The SPLC has seen its share of lean times in that CatholIc U Law School T mple U Law School .' . decade. We've had seven Directors. We lost track of the Hayden White J. Marc Abrams C:: , addresses we've had a long time ago. We had two years Student Pro Law Cen� :r· l' when the magazine you now hold - the SPLC Report COVER ART " .. ,"';- . - did not get printed. Bruce Tobin David Br<;> ' In all the shuffling, some of you may have fo rgotten director SPLC. But we never fo rgo t you. And through that J Marc Abrams '�S �;" decade we've been there all the time, helping over 3000 Corporate Board of Directors ;.t; , , .::; " . of you wi th your legal problems one-on-<>ne. We enjoy getting to know people all over the nation and help them with their fights fo r a free scholastic press. But as it was once said that the ultimate honor we can pay the unknown soldier is not to have any more like him in the fo reseeable future, the ultimate honor that can be paid to the SPLC would be to not have any more censorship. ;-� That's not going to bappen until we can educate an entire generation of students, advisers, teachers and administrators at thousands of colleges a'nd secondary schools in the United States. We can't do that one-on Knlflhr R<ddeI '" VI one. We can make a good start with the Report, It is Christopher Fag r. Esq much more than a magazine; it is a preventive legal F&gIIf oS Songow W4JI1 Ton. DC tool. It can teU you how to avoid trouble before it Nancy Green happens through responsible journalism, model publi. r; Srtldllnr �� Vn/Y'etC ry T_., A Idl• cation guidelines., how-to lessons in copyright law and s e Davtd HackeTt SO much more. And one is u of the Report reaches YOUlh PoIocy �I"ul' ·4 more people than we can help personally over a period Carol Ann Hall of years. ScttnoIJourn 01 ),.,., OhllOS/ttr U", ry We have a lot to catch you up on, and we won't be Dr. Louis E Ing/ehan �r 0'JournMI.m able to do it all at once. We can't tell you about every Bn SI4 U" fY case fr om the past two years here, and we won' t try. We ).-: Richard .Johns. wi ll let you know about the major trends in the law - o Mel St:n:1IIS ,< ':i,. and about the major cases - and we promise that we Of will be helping you fo r a long time to come. You can help too. We need people in every state to . The SPLC Reporr let us know when censorship occurs. You can be our eyes and ears. Because we're not AP or UPI; we're one Director and a small band of interns. As much as those of us in Washington, DC, you are the SPLC. And we never forget that. ; Th e Student Press Law Center The Student Press Law Center is the only national organiza tion devoted exclusively to protecting the First Amendment rights of high school and college journalists. The Center is a national legal aid agency providing legal assistance and '/ 0 information to student journalists and fa culty advisers expe riencing censorship and other legal problems. ':, . - 2 SPLC Report WINTER t 983-84 The Student Press Law Center Rep 0 rt VOLUME 5 - NUMBER 1 WINTER 1983-84 CONTENTS: Cover Story ...............................................................................27 SPLC looks at studentpublication guidelines with the help of two scholars SPLC Model Guidelines for Student Publications ...•............29 CoIJeges ............ .. ......... ...........4 • Howard students support editor • Minnesota Daily victorious • 'Taking the Pledge' offends IlIini editors • Schools fue editors in Michigan, Washington • Meetings opened at Portland State Advisers .... ............................ 10 • They've got trouble, and not just in River City Libel . .. ..... .. ............. .............. 12 • Singing and dancing at Dartmouth • Barking up the wrong tree in Georgia Advertising & Economics ...... 14 • Problems are spreading over whether dollars equal control High Schools ......................... 16 • Principal saves kids from themselves • Unusual tree bears interesting fruit • Montana satirist censored • School roasted at Senior Day barbecue • Pa per makes a federal case of Missouri c�nsorship " W"LL, ME. LOO,." OkAY WM£r-J WE &OU.,." � '"�. WINTER 1983-84 SPLC Report 3 College Student Editor Battles Howard U. Howard University has had more had previously attended Syracuse Uni reinstated McKnight until a trial could than its share of controversy in the versity in New York.. The administra be held. The judge staled that because past, including a student takeover of tion maintained that its decision was of McKnight's "failure to disclose" on the institution in the late sixties. So it not connected at all to her editorial her college application, any contract does not seem strange that 1983 will go practices and that it was common pro with the University was voidable. down as another year marred by con cedure to order withdrawal under these As to he press claim, the court flict, as administrators and the student circumstances. t fr ee suggested that the First Amendment newspaper editorclashed over the issue: McKnight's expUlsion set off angry play this case, "First Amendment protection fo r protests on campus, as students called would not come into in since McKnight was "not persuasive in whom?" fo r her reinstatement and Cheek's resig her allegation that Howard . was a state The difficulties experienced at How nation. To express their demands fo r . ard, a predominately black. school lcr "free speech at Howard," students agency." cated in Washington, D. C. have served marched on the ad ministration build Just a fe w hours after McKnight was as a focal poiDt fo r debate over the ing, ronducted a sit-in and burned denied the injunction, Cheek reinstated extent of constitutional protection en Cheek in effigy. her as a student, 5ayin& only that "it joyed by private school students. Ever Meanwhile, McKnight too� her case was in the interest of all parties con since 1969, students attending public to D.C. Superior Court. Judge John cerned." Two later, the board schools and state-ehartered or state Goodrich issued a temporary re weeks that oversees publication of the Hilltop fu nded colleges have been protected by straining order effectively reinstating voted unanimously to rei nstate her as the First and Fourteenth Amendments. her as both a student and editor until a editor. However, since the guarantee of these hearing fo r a preliminary inj unction freedoms serves as a lim it on govern could be held Calling the dismissal a . But somehow it just didn't seem ment interference, a linding of govern "mighty strange coincidence" in light of desti ned that McKnight and the Hilltop ment or "state ac i n t o " must be made her articles, he ordered the administra would Jive bappily ever after. On e court in rde an by th o r to bring tion to "cease and desist from interfer MaTCh 22, the Hilltop board voted to ostensibly private institution under the ing" with McKnight's "exercise of free suspend publication of the newspaper, restrictions of the Bill of Rights. The press rights guaranteed by the First citing an approximate deficit of $25,000 courts u thus far have been rel ctant to Amendment...and her contracts with that could not be erased even if all adm n o ard lindthat the actions of Howard i H w University." advertising fe es were coUected. The attributabl to the State. istrators are e Goodrich's mention of the First board ordered the Hilltop to shut down a co mp ica ed e n s In l t chain of ve t A mendme nt raised the expectations of immediately, pending an audit to detet nning in e i begi October 1982, HillTOp d press advoc.ates who fe lt that Howard's mine the paper' s financial status. tor Janice McKnight began publishing receipt of substantial fe deral funding, articles that detailed a sex discrimina coupled with the fa ct that the school In fact, when the audit by an inde tion complaint filed against Howard's was created by an Act of Congress, pendent firm was rompleted, it showed general counsel by an attorney working might lead to a finding that the Univer that the HjffTOP was actually running a in that office. McKnight said that she sity was a government instrumentality surplus. At the next meeting of the came under pressure from Howard subject to the limitations of the Bill of Hi//top board, a quorum was not pre President James Cheek and Vice Presi Rights. sent, and thus a vote to restart publica dent fo r Student Affairs Carl Andel"SOn That excitement was dampened two tion rould not be taken. The paper had to stop covering the story because they weeks later, however, when Judge Syl been effectively suspended fo r the re fe lt that some of the accusations made via Bacon refused to issue a prelimi mainder of the school year. It is now by the attorney were "potentially libel nary injunction which would have back in operation. ous:' Gi ven Howard's private status, the scnool-as publisher of the paper would be responsible for its contents. and therefore liable in any libel suit brought against the Hilltop.