The College Fix

Maybe there’s a convincing explanation for why the University of Redlands’ student government benched its student newspaper after a story about a giant scholarship donation, but I’m not seeing it in the Redlands Daily Facts report:

The Associated Students of the University of Redlands (ASUR) cut the Bulldog Weekly’s funding and placed the newspaper on hiatus Dec. 10. The move came after a story ran in the Nov. 10 issue that portrayed a $35 million scholarship donation by the Hunsaker family in a negative light. A student was quoted as concerned that the fund was for “rich, white males.”

There’s a real matter of journalism ethics in here – the reporter admitted to “feeding the part about ‘rich, white males’ to the student” – but this misstep appears to be the excuse the student government was looking for to cripple the paper:

Char Burgess, U of R’s vice president and dean of student life, said that the paper was placed on hiatus for a multitude of reasons, not because of one quote.

“(The ASUR) took action based on their overall concern for a lack of journalistic quality and the fact that they did not see the paper reflected the student voice,” Burgess said. “Their vote on that was 13-2, and again that’s all students.”

Denise Davis, the ASUR council adviser who oversees student activities, agreed.

“There were a number of other concerns, specifically that we spend nearly $40,000 a year in student activity fees publishing a paper that very few people actually read.” [sic] Davis said.

The administration also faulted the paper for not getting quotes from officials in the story, but the paper’s editors said the reporter tried multiple times to get administration comment.

Meanwhile, never fear! A committee with purse-string representatives is coming to the rescue:

Read the Daily Facts story.

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