The Seventh Circuit may have ruled that public colleges and universities can restrict the content of school-subsidized student publications, but a community college in North Carolina has--with the prodding of FIRE--reaffirmed the importance of a free and uncensored student press. When the Craven Community College paper, The Communicator, launched a sex column, the college considered requiring the paper to submit its content to editorial review by administrators. After exchanging letters with FIRE, however, Craven administrators dropped the notion of vetting the paper's content, and even agreed to rewrite other campus policies that restrict student expression.

FIRE was involved in the Governors State case that has resulted in the disturbing Seventh Circuit ruling. You can read FIRE's amicus brief here, and you can read an article on the unsettling state of the collegiate student press by former FIRE executive director Erich Wasserman here.

I think Lederman misread the opinion. The revised article is better, but the title, lead, and second paragraph are still misleading.

Sherman Dorn is still misreading the Hosty decision, along with many others. It's a disaster for freedom of the college press. See my website on the case, www.collegefreedom.org/gsu.htm
including my recent op-ed at insidehighered.com.

John Wilson
coordinator, Campus Journalism Project