Last weekend I attended the Associated Collegiate Press summer journalism workshop in muggy Baltimore. More than 150 college newspaper editors and advisors met with professionals to discuss industry trends and explore ways to improve collegiate journalism.

Many of the newspapers were from smaller universities and community colleges that had very different publishing procedures, but some of the most significant comments came from the editors of these organizations who were trying to resurrect their newspapers. They shared stories of censorship by their university or disagreements between their publication and the student government over the allocation of funds.

According to the Student Press Law Center, “state and federal courts have decided over 60 cases in the last three decades directly involving censorship of the public college and university press.” There have also been several cases involving private universities. Last December, we editorialized on an incident that threatened the independence of the Daily Trojan.

On July 26, 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the ruled that a suit by two editors at Kansas State over a fired advisor was now moot because the students had graduated. Many fear this decision will limit an editor’s ability to sue because cases often linger past a student’s time in college.

The Daily Californian is fortunate our major experience dealing with preserving free press was handled more than 30 years ago. Since then, we have been completely independent of the university and the student government, fully supporting ourselves through advertising revenue generated by our business department. It is a distinction few papers can claim and a fact we are very proud of.

Many speakers at this weekend’s workshops stressed the preservation of first amendment rights and independent student press, and it is important for us to be aware that this is still a problem many publications face.

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