Virginia Tech threatens school paper over web comments

A Virginia Tech committee has threatened to recommend that the university cut funding to all student media on campus if the student-led newspaper, the Collegiate Times, continues to allow anonymous comments on its Web site, according to documents released by the newspaper's parent company Friday morning.

At a meeting of the University Commission on Student Affairs last week, representatives decided to recommend the university stop its annual $70,000 contribution to Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech Inc., an independent entity that oversees campus media, including the newspaper, radio station, television station, yearbook and literary magazine. The commission is made up of students, faculty, staff members and administrators, according to its Web site.

The story was first reported by The Roanoke Times.

"The consensus of the Commission has been that the commenting system is irresponsible and inappropriate because it lacks accountability resulting in, among other things, countering the Principles of Community," Michelle McLeese, the commission chair, wrote in a letter to the media company on Monday. While the issue has been discussed at length, she wrote that nothing has changed and "individuals and groups are continuing to be victimized verbally by individuals enabled by the commenting system."

The commission is also considering a recommendation that the university ban student organizations from using university funds to purchase advertisements in the newspaper, which could put the Collegiate Times out of business.

Both actions are "clear violations of established First Amendment case law" and the media company will take "aggressive legal action to defend the free speech rights of students," said Kelly Wolff, general manager of the media company, in a letter to the commission on Thursday. Wolff added that while the media company receives funding from the university, the student newspaper does not receive any of the university money, although it does receive free office space in the student union.



"As attempted punishment for content decisions made by the editors of the student newspaper, [the commission] has threatened to harm the financial and institutional support resources for the diverse co-curricular student media activities that hundreds of students choose to join each year," Wolff wrote.

Like nearly all student and professional newspaper Web sites in the country, the Collegiate Times allows readers to post comments at the end of stories. Often these comments contain racist, profane, inappropriate or offensive language or ideas. The paper uses a filter that screens profanity, pornography and spam. Readers can also flag objectionable comments for editors to review.

The university review began two years ago after some incidences of violence on campus led to racist posts on the student paper's web site, Wolff said.

The commission is scheduled to meet again on Feb. 18 to discuss a possible advertising ban.

Follow Campus Overload all day, every day at http://washingtonpost.com/campus-overload.

Check out our new Higher Education page, follow me on Twitter and fan Campus Overload on Facebook.