A lot of school newspapers are given the freedom to write what they want without interference from the administration...free press and all. It's a bad look when admin comes down on student writers for something they don't like. In my experience in higher ed, it's the adviser to the paper that bears the brunt of the responsibility for not checking the story, pushing for more objectivity vs personal opinion and grudge, etc. While the student writers are pretty much free to write what they want, the adviser is the one the admin goes after if they don't like it. There are places that have a little tighter control and the adviser(s) are the ones that keep it in check....call it censorship if you want. Baylor is such a place. However, there is an unofficial student group called "The Noze Brothers" who put out their own "paper" every couple of weeks. Most of the pieces in the paper are satirical and parodies of articles in the actual student paper BUT every now and then they put out a hit piece on the admin. The admin always tried to shut them down but they never could figure out who the group was. They would distribute their papers around campus in costume and disguises because they weren't officially sanctioned and could be disciplined by the university if they were ever found out.
Boston University had their Daily Free Press, put out every day M-F. That paper frequently put out articles harsh on the administration, especially the President at the time, John Silber (remember he ran for governor of MA). They put out articles blasting MLK, Jr. and the suspected plagiarism of his PhD thesis at BU. They were critical of companies BU did business with if they were seen as socially unjust (this was the early 90s). BUT, the articles in the FREEP were less opinion and more actual journalism in terms of researched and verified info. When I transferred to TU, I was shocked the student paper only published on Wednesday and contained more whine than journalism (sorry if anyone on this board was part of the Collegian back then). And it always seemed that Collegian was more a vessel for jaded writers to bitch about how they perceived TU did them wrong. Except the sports section...but then again they bitched about Tubby and about TU not giving Tubby a bigger contract, and about Donaldson ending HPER and that being the sole reason Rader couldn't win.
But it doesn't shock me that the writers at the Collegian are still bitching about everything. For some reason there is a pretty common attitude of students at TU that the university is out to screw them for some reason. The # of students who I heard say they would never give another dime to TU after they graduated was staggering. I don't know what the reason was behind their jadedness towards TU. Maybe they felt TU was the best they could do or that TU owed them more than an education and a degree. It was just an odd grudge to hold IMO.
