TAMPA — Not long before stacks of student newspapers vanished from the University of Tampa, the Minaret's editor-in-chief heard a student say, "We need to throw these all away."

Staffers think last week's front-page story referencing an alleged rape at a University of South Florida fraternity sparked the theft of $1,300 in papers.

A student turned himself in on Monday and admitted to taking the papers, UT officials said. His case was forwarded to the school's internal student conduct process.

The university said it cannot identify the student because of federal education law.

"So much work was put into these articles, and they're not being read just because a few guys got upset about what was on the cover," said Minaret managing editor Bianca Lopez.

Thursday is publication day for the Minaret. So at 1 p.m. on Oct. 20, editor-in-chief Tess Sheets stood at a courtyard table in Vaughn Hall, the hub of student life at UT, passing out papers.

Three male students came up. "Would you like a newspaper?" staffers asked.

The students walked away with a copy, glancing at the front page. Then, Sheets said, one slapped the paper out of the hand of his friend. She heard one of them mention Pi Kappa Phi, which was cited in the article and has a chapter at UT. Then she heard one of the students suggest throwing the papers away.

"I could tell he was angry," Sheets said.

She watched them whisper, then pull out a wallet. One of the students walked back over.

"How many papers will you give me for $2?" he asked, according to Sheets.

A copy editor told him the paper is free.

"No, you can't have any because I know you're going to throw them away," Sheets said. "And he was like, 'OK, yeah.'"

Soon, Minaret staffers walking around the building noticed empty newspaper racks, even in rarely visited corners. Then, Lopez said the Minaret booth got a surge of male students asking for multiple copies.

This was not normal.

Minaret staffers had a hunch that members of UT's chapter of the fraternity were culpable, since the students had seemed to react to the mention of Pi Kappa Phi.

They approached UT's coordinator of fraternity and sorority life, then talked to other officials, including campus safety and Tampa police. Since the paper doesn't require payment, police said they couldn't press charges, Lopez said. School officials studied footage of two men carrying a stack of papers, but the men were hard to identify.

The Minaret blasted the thieves in an online editorial ( tbtim.es/189y), paired with a photo of an empty newspaper rack superimposed with the words HAVE YOU SEEN ME?

They denounced the act as censorship and demanded repayment. And they pledged to keep reporting on salient issues "whether you like them or not."

"If these students are Pi Kappa Phi members, we'd like a public apology from the fraternity, which we are willing to publish," they wrote. "Instead of using this as an opportunity to speak out against sexual assault and distance UT's Pi Kappa Phi chapter from the incident, these students made a statement that symbolically endorsed an alleged rape."

UT's Pi Kappa Phi chapter advisor declined to comment on the Minaret's allegations. The national fraternity said it "expects personal responsibility from its members," and said any students found to be responsible will be held accountable through the fraternity's conduct process.

University sanctions could range from a reprimand to expulsion, UT spokesman Eric Cardenas said in an email.

The 1,400-word article in question ( tbtim.es/189z), written by Arden Igleheart, looks at UT's approach to sexual assault on campus, though a headline suggested a narrow focus on the alleged crime ("USF Fraternity Suspended for Sexual Assault Investigation").

Its first interview features UT Interfraternity Council president Brandon Williams, who said he supported the suspension of the USF fraternity and takes the issue of sexual assault within Greek life seriously.

"We don't want to fit that stereotype," Williams told the Minaret. "We don't want to enhance that stereotype. We want to combat the negative stereotype in a positive way."

Contact Claire McNeill at cmcneill@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8321. Follow @clairemcneill.