Dear Editors,
We are proud of the job you have been doing so far this semester in fairly and accurately reporting the news for our campus community. At the same time, we are distressed that you have encountered so many obstacles in obtaining information from the campus administration. We know how frustrating the process of obtaining information of concern to students has been for many of your reporters, and can only say that their perseverance and determination will pay off for them in their future careers as journalists.
We were especially disturbed when you were told this week that you could not run lawfully obtained, accurate information from a reliable source with a responsible position in the campus administration because he was not authorized by the Public Relations office to speak with you. The campus administration should realize that it is inappropriate to interfere with the First Amendment rights of student journalists. Where better for students to learn about the rights they have as Americans than on a college campus? We hope that in the future, the individuals who tried to persuade you to withhold your story will remember those rights, and realize that your job is to gather and report the news and that a student newspaper is still a legitimate newspaper. In our view, your paper reflects how well you are doing your job of providing an important source of campus information to all our students.
Sincerely,
Professors Barbara Fowles and Carolyn Levin
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