FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, writes:
Southwest Missouri State University (SMSU), a public institution bound by the First Amendment, is investigating the faculty advisor and student editor of its campus newspaper, The Standard, for publishing an editorial cartoon that a Native American group found “offensive.” SMSU has refused to rule out a formal hearing on the matter, has requested that Standard faculty advisor Professor Wanda Brandon and editor-in-chief Mandy Phillips attend “mediation” to discuss the issue, and, according to Philips, has contacted The Standard to “advise” it that even reporting on the administration’s intervention in this case could violate university policy.
“SMSU’s attack on free speech, freedom of the press, and due process must end immediately,” said Greg Lukianoff, director of legal and public advocacy for FIRE. He added, “If publishing an innocuous satirical cartoon is sufficient to set off secret investigations and proceedings, then truly no speech is safe on America’s college campuses.”
The cartoon in question, printed in the November 21, 2003, issue of The Standard, was entitled “The 2nd Thanksgiving.” It depicts two Native Americans meeting a Pilgrim woman with a gift of canned corn. The Pilgrim responds, “Gladys, the Indians are here and it looks like they brought corn . . . Again . . .” The cartoonist, who is not being investigated (and who is, himself, of Native American descent), later explained, “The point of the cartoon has nothing to do with Native Americans or Pilgrims . . . I was trying to reflect a common Thanksgiving tradition of a host griping about what their guest has brought to the dinner.”
On the evening of December 2, 2003, three members of the student group American Indian Leaders of Today and Tomorrow came to The Standard’s office. They complained about the cartoon to editor Mandy Phillips, who became nervous due to the level of anger the men displayed. The following morning, Phillips and Brandon filed a report with the Springfield Police. According to that report, the “very angry” men “threatened to have her [Phillips] fired as well as having the entire Navajo Nation rally against her and The Standard.”
On December 5, Jana Estergard of SMSU’s Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) contacted Professor Brandon to request a meeting about a complaint regarding The Standard. At the time, Estergard would not say who was a target of the investigation, nor would she provide further details. Brandon pointed out that The Standard’s bylaws expressly prohibit her from controlling the content of the paper, but neither this fact nor the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press persuaded the OEO to drop its investigation. It was not until mid-January that Estergard gave Brandon even a brief summary of the charges against her. The complaint absurdly alleged that The Standard had violated a religious freedom law, a civil rights act, and university policy — all simply by publishing a cartoon.
Estergard ominously drew Brandon’s attention to an OEO regulation that prohibits the target of an investigation from even divulging the fact that he or she is being investigated. This regulation not only prevents the subject of an investigation from getting advice on how to proceed, but also ensures that questionable OEO activities will not be exposed to public scrutiny. Standard editor Mandy Phillips states that the OEO attempted to use this policy to prevent the newspaper from printing an article about the investigation.
Professor Brandon refused an OEO proposal of “mediation” to settle the issue. According to Brandon, “I decided this was not right and that it was in fact illegal for the OEO to attempt to put me and the editor through a process that could result in punishment.” When asked about the free speech controversy, SMSU President Keiser told a local newspaper that he thought that the cartoon was “dumb” and said, “This is not a free speech issue. It’s an education issue.” . . .
FIRE requested that the OEO’s investigation cease immediately and that SMSU reassure its students and faculty that it respects the Constitution and freedom of the press on campus. A day later, SMSU’s general counsel replied, insisting that “Dr. Brandon has not been subjected to an investigation.” He claimed, “the issue is education, not free speech.” . . .
This is obviously just one side’s perspective, but I’ve found FIRE to be quite trustworthy in the past (and a news account in the March 5 Springfield News-Leader confirms many elements of FIRE’s press release). If their statement of the facts is correct, then SMSU’s actions are quite troubling.
If the newspaper is indeed set up as independent of the administration and the faculty advisor, then any attempt to constrain the newspaper via “university policy” would likely be unconstitutional; and even setting aside the legalities, it would be wrong as a matter of academic freedom. Likewise, if the professor isn’t allowed to control the newspaper, it’s hard to see how SMSU can properly go after the professor. (If the newspaper were an official curricular project, for instance one for which students got journalism course credit, and the professor taught that class and got teaching credit for that, then the university administration could, I think, in considerable measure control how that class is taught — but that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening here.)
And they’re especially troubling given how innocent the cartoon is (not that it’s very funny, but it’s surely not some sort of racist slur). Even genuinely offensive cartoons, of course, are constitutionally protected. But when something like this causes such a stir, then it shows a lack of perspective and common sense as well as a lack of respect for the First Amendment.
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