The American Society of Newspaper Editors retracted a $55,000 grant to Virginia’s Hampton University Nov. 11, after administration shut down a student newspaper that did not give front-page precedent to a letter administration wanted there.
The letter, written by HU Provost and Acting President Dr. JoAnn Haysbert, explained the steps HU took in the wake of more than 100 health violations in the school’s cafeteria.
The Hampton Script published Haysbert’s letter on the third page of its Oct. 22 edition, while running a story about the cafeteria passing a recent city health inspection on the front page.
Peter Bhatia, president of ASNE and the executive editor of The Oregonian, felt the grant was undeserved after administration seized the newspaper.
“Confiscation of the newspaper is, in our view, an affront to the First Amendment, and to the principles of free expression and free press,” he said. “I think it’s important, whether it’s a college or anyone, that people understand the important freedoms our Constitution guarantees us, such as the freedom of press.”
Bhatia wrote a letter to Haysbert canceling the grant, identifying the reason as a First Amendment violation by HU’s administration that he felt was shown by Haysbert’s decision to confiscate copies of the Oct. 22 issue of the Hampton Script.
“ASNE is devoted to a clear and important agenda of working to make sure people appreciate why and how we have those freedoms, and what they represent in society,” Bhatia said. “It’s ultimately about the First Amendment — everyone should be concerned.”
ASNE’s grant was intended to establish a High School Journalism Institute at HU’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communication next fall.
“The institute is a summer program we run that trains high school teachers in teaching journalism,” Bhatia said. “This coming summer will be our fourth summer of the program.”
The program will take place in 2004 at South Florida University, the University of Texas at Austin, Winthrop University, Kent State University and the University of California at Berkeley. ASNE will fund over $700,000 in grants to the schools.
“ASNE is an organization that exists in service to newspapers and the first amendment,” Bhatia said. “We didn’t feel comfortable putting money in for [the High School Journalism Institute] into a university where the leadership, in this case the acting president, shows a disregard for them,” he said.
The editors of the Hampton Script redesigned the Oct. 22 issue with Haysbert’s letter on the front page, and distributed the reordered newspaper at HU’s Homecoming game on Oct. 25.
Chris Campbell, Director of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications, said that in addition to the re-issue of the Oct. 22 edition, Haysbert appointed a task force headed by Scripps Howard Endowed Professor of Journalism Earl Caldwell to ensure free press within the newspaper.
“The task force was created to deal with student newspaper construction. It will essentially give students a free press newspaper,” Campbell said.
Other members of the task force include Talia Buford, a junior print journalism major, Daarel Burnette II, a sophomore print journalism major, three faculty members, three advisors to the student newspaper and Campbell himself.
“The task force is expected to recommend guidelines for roles of editors and advisors, and once that work is done, hopefully that will resolve the situation,” Campbell said. “The task force will make recommendations [to the newspaper], and those may end up leading to further change.”
Campbell said the timeline of the task force was unclear at this point.
“We’re meeting a few times this week, it’s hard to say exactly,” he said. “But I hope it’s quick.”
