OPINION is the section of the paper where it's OK, even expected to make people angry. What we don't want to do is offend people with prejudice. I hope that if I submitted something that could be construed this way, my editor would pull it. My editor - not the administration or an outside watchdog.
Student groups at Texas A&M University have responded to an insensitive political cartoon by urging administrative regulation of a student paper - a bad idea. While outsiders should feel free to criticize the paper, student newspapers lose their value if they give up control of their paper.
On January 14, Texas A&M University's student paper, The Battalion, published an editorial cartoon by "the Uncartoonist" with a caricature of a woman yelling at her son, whose failing report card is in her hand. The woman says "If you ain't careful, you gonna end up working in airline security." Pretty funny, except that the cartoonist uses racial caricature of a black woman. This is not the first time that "the Uncartoonist" has drawn charges of stereotyping.
However, this is the first time that the NAACP has gotten involved. On January 28, the paper published an apology, but the NAACP sees this only as a first step. The group wants the paper to require diversity training for staff and increase minority representation on staff.
While diversity training might be a bit extreme for college students, working to increase minorities on staff is a good idea. The Cavalier Daily is working on that goal as well, and while it is easier said than done, we have found that it helps expand coverage of issues and thus makes the paper interesting to more people.
However, one request of the A&M NAACP goes too far: Asking administrators to regulate the paper to make sure it doesn't publish offensive material. Besides the fact that it isn't their responsibility, administrative control is against the point of a student newspaper and it could even backfire on minority groups.
The Texas A&M University president rightfully has stated that the paper enjoys First Amendment protection. The president of the Houston NAACP, however, claims that administrators can't "let a campus newspaper run wild to cause controversy" ("AASC accepts apology, demands changes," The Battalion, January 30).
But that's the entire usefulness of a school newspaper. Although newspapers report plenty of uncontroversial things, like whether admissions are up or down and what musical artists perform at the university, the point of a student newspaper is to have a forum to deal with controversial issues as they come up. Many of these issues are things that the administration doesn't want to see come out.
This particularly is important when it comes to minority viewpoints - whether they be racial or ideological minorities. Blacks, in particular, have benefited from student speech in the past - it was student publications, not administration press releases, that called for integration and more racially liberal policies at universities.
This isn't to say that administrations act in bad faith. But it's usually inappropriate for them to become involved in controversy. And when an administration reviews content, then a certain amount of endorsement is implied by allowing things to run. This obviously is a position they want to avoid, and student groups shouldn't force it on them.
Students who have a problem with other students need to deal with them personally. Protesting content is fine. Sending angry letters to the editor is good too. If the NAACP wants to make someone available to The Battalion when it is unsure about whether material is offensive, that probably would be useful.
But while getting administrators to censor poorly-done cartoons might suppress insensitive content, it will do nothing to increase coverage of minority interests, such as cultural or intellectual events. Only student dialogue will do that.
The Battalion can do one important thing to lessen support for outside interference: Stop taking school money. The paper gets 98 percent of its funding from advertising. The other 2 percent, though, comes from student fees. The small financial benefit of this money does not outweigh the negative effect of leaving the door open to outside interference, and it holds the paper back from the credibility that comes with true independence.
Students should feel free to criticize what they see as insensitive material in student newspapers, but they do not have the right to impose on a paper's independence. Student papers are an important forum for airing controversy. If the NAACP doubts this, they should consider that it was The Battalion, not the University Press Office, who covered their protests. Those who live by the sword of censorship will suffer from it too.
(Elizabeth Managan's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at emanagan@cavalierdaily.com.)
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