Anyone who came to college expecting it to be the comfortable, protective bubble it looks like on television must have been awfully disappointed.
That is because college life is not a practice run. It is, indeed, real life.
An anonymous student drafted, and a senator has introduced to the Student Senate, a resolution that says Western publications must remove content from their websites in cases where students in that content claim harm — no concrete proof required.
The statement of context to the resolution reasons that because Western’s publications have large, high-traffic websites, if a student is featured in a publication, this will likely be the first result of an Internet search and could influence that student’s chances at employment. The resolution acknowledges that retraction of true statements “does not happen in ‘real-world’ publications” but goes on to suggest that “by design, student life is not ‘real life.’ It is more of a Petri dish or practice run.”
The law is on our side
Removal of content is indeed rare in professional publications. Student publications are, and should be, held to those same standards.
Many Western publications, including The Western Front, are independent and student-run, and, like any other organization at Western, they all operate in the real world.
This is not the first time a student publication has been asked to remove its content from the Internet. In January, a man sued Rajesh Srinivasan, the editor-in-chief of the University of California-Berkeley’s independent student-run newspaper, The Daily Californian, for not removing a story and two blog posts about the man’s deceased son, who was a student. He claimed the content that included details about his son was hostile and painful, given his son’s death.
Srinivasan responded with the same reasoning we use here at the Front: the newspaper would only remove content from its website in extreme cases, such as if a story was fabricated.
The law sided with Srinivasan. As much as everyone sympathizes with a grieving father’s loss, hurt feelings are not a premise for deleting or changing a well-reported, factual story.
Some assume journalists only want to scrutinize people. But don’t forget that campus publications also often highlight student achievements and amplify student voices. We are not out to get anyone. We have no interest in trying to make anyone seem unintelligent. Our goal is simply to find and tell true stories.
Removing our content would be altering the truth, which is the opposite of a journalist’s purpose. If something was newsworthy and accurate when it was first published, its value and accuracy remain. Precedents in media law are clear that embarrassment alone does not equate to harm. Facts are not made false simply by someone’s regret about divulging them.
The statement of context for the Student Senate resolution talks about helping students who are seeking jobs. What it seems to ignore is that student publications are produced by, well, students. Many employers no longer accept hard-copy work samples; they want links to the published material.
If the Student Senate passes the resolution, the Associated Students Board of Directors would still have to approve it. But even then, it holds no weight. The resolution attempts to assert control over student-produced content, but student government has none. Western’s Student Publications Council oversees the majority of student-run publications (The Western Front, Klipsun Magazine, The Planet, Jeopardy) and reports to the university president and board of trustees. The council adheres to the Student Publications Charter, whose freedom clause states, “No one outside staff shall delete, dictate or revise the content of a student publication.”
That is where this Senate resolution loses all footing.
Actions without repercussions
The resolution suggests student indiscretions have no real consequences. The editorial board is shocked to hear such an immature view of college coming from a member of student government, who asserts his own level of impact on students’ lives (and wallets). Did whoever penned the words “student life is not real life. It is more of a Petri dish or practice run” think critically?
Maybe the problem is just that: lack of critical thought. If you can open a bank account without a parent’s permission, buy cigarettes, vote for president or enlist in the armed forces, you’d better learn to think critically and present yourself in a way that won’t embarrass you in a few years. The resolution also fails to consider older students to whom “typical” college life doesn’t apply.
If you want to test out the Student Senate’s “not-real-life” theory, try telling your property manager you refuse to pay next month’s rent because, hey, you take a few classes at the local university. Or, try convincing a police officer to erase a minor-in-possession charge from your record because this is only a “practice run.”
As hefty as tuition is these days, it still doesn’t buy students a ticket out of the real world.
Get in the driver’s seat
As much as this resolution tries to undervalue students’ mistakes, it equally discredits students’ achievements and professional endeavors. The journalism department, for instance, prides itself on giving its students opportunities to work — not play pretend — as journalists.
Western students in all departments are talented young professionals who are already shaping the world, not waiting for a diploma to give them the go-ahead.
What happens in college has tremendous impacts on people’s lives. Our years in college are not a TV show. Here in the real world, you carry the baggage you accumulate. That goes for the staffs of publications as well as the people quoted in them.
A college degree isn’t the ticket to real life; we’ve all been living it since the minute we were born.
The Editorial Board is Editor-in-Chief Gina Cole, Managing Editor Paige Collins and Opinion Editor Olena Rypich.
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