Follow up on last week's cover

Last week the Journal decided to run an e-mail from the Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Gary Dukes, on the cover of the issue with an Editor's note. Dr. Dukes wanted to talk to the Journal's interim Adviser concerning a statement that was printed on the cover of the last issue. The statement read, "student owned and operated, printing the unabashed truth," in reference to the Western Oregon Journal. The e-mail outlined all of the reasons why the statement was incorrect and instructed that, "the statement needs to be removed or changed."

In the e-mail, Dr. Dukes claimed that the Journal was not the property of the students but of the university, since "they also use the university network, university staff for accounting, fall under and use the university insurance, utilize the university's tax exempt status, and many other aspects that don't make [the Journal] student owned."

These are facts that the Journal is not disputing. The Journal currently uses the university network for the production of the paper, but only for the remainder of this academic year. Editor in Chief, Gerry Blakney, explained that, "the Journal is in the process of switching all our files to an off-campus site, that will protect the university, and more importantly the Journal, from incidents such as when the University administration and Campus Public Safety broke into the Journal, after hours, to search our files."

Blakney continued by saying, "the Journal does fall under the university's tax exempt status, but that is not a 'Western only' thing; all public universities are protected under federal guidelines, but the Journal would still be tax exempt because of our not-for-profit status regardless of Western," Blakney said. "What I am more concerned with is who actually 'operates' the Journal. And the answer to that, my friends, is students."

According to Darin Silbernagel, Director of Business Services, Student Media provides 89 percent of the Journal's funds, through the Incidental Fee Committee (IFC). The other 11 percent is raised by the Journal through advertising.

The IFC is comprised of nine students, three appointed by the university president, three appointed by the Associated Students' president and three additional students are elected at large during Spring term. The monies collected by the committee become university property in that they are stored and allocated through university bank accounts.

Western Oregon Journal Managing Editor, Ashley Erb says, "Regardless of where [the funds] are stored; the students, and not the state, actually pay the fee and, in turn, pay for the Journal. The majority of the university is student owned."

Interim Student Media Adviser Dr. Curt Yehnert had the following comments about the issue, "This is a problem of semantics with the word 'own.' Ownership implies control, and I believe that the Journal should be fully controlled by the students. On the other hand the administration has a point in that they own the computers and facilities where the Journal works. They own the enterprise, without the university there would be no Journal. Their point is that the Journal is a place for students to learn and practice journalism. My main concern is for an unfettered and uncontrolled student press." Upon viewing the cover, Dr. Yehnert's primary concern was that it was not accompanied by an explanatory article.

This past summer Governor Ted Kulongoski signed House Bill 3279 (HB3279) which protects journalists at the high school and college levels. Subsequently, the bill went into effect on July 18, 2007. HB3279 provides that:

"All school-sponsored media produced primarily by student journalists at a public institution of higher education are public forums for expression by the student journalists at the institution. Student media, whether or not school sponsored, are not subject to review by school administrators prior to publication. Student journalists are responsible for determining content of school-sponsored media."

The Student Press Law Center legal consultant, Mike Hiestand said, "Western Oregon administration obviously need a lesson in free speech rights. They don't seem to get it. [The university] owns it, in the sense that they own the building where your Geogpraphy class is, but they can't sell that building tomorrow to put up a McDonald's for extra profit. They can't control it. Inaccuracy is not a reason for censorship," stated Hiestand.

The only response that the Journal received about last weeks cover was an e-mail sent to the Editor in Chief, from Tom Bergeron, the Creative Arts division chair arguing that "[the] front page display this week feels to me like a cheap shot regarding a technical legal issue hardly warranting full front-page coverage."

Blakney had this to say in response, "attitudes like that are why the administration feels they can trample on students' rights. It is your classic, 'give them an inch and they'll take a mile' story. If we let the administration walk on a small right on Wednesday, they'll just find another that we'll let slide on Thursday. It needs to stop."

"School officials need to keep their hands off the student paper," says Hiestand.

Dr. Dukes and Dr. Minahan were unreachable for comment before this story went to press.•