A new study from the Student Press Coalition shows that an overwhelming majority of school publications affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities have received pressure from their college or university to censor their content.
According to the survey, 76 percent of respondents stated that “I or my school’s publication have faced pressure from university personnel to change, edit, or remove an article after it’s been published.”
The Student Press Coalition explains, “At least 84 percent of CCCU publications are university-owned and university-funded. Partially because of this, many university personnel (advisers or other university employees) have the ability to supervise publication staff activity, control published content, supervise finances and/or manage the tip line”.
It continues. “Yet only 56 percent of advisers have experience in mainstream news, according to their university publication’s student editors. However, there is promising news: 88 percent of respondents said their advisers support journalists, even if the administration is upset.”
While student journalists seem to have positive feelings towards their faculty advisers, the frustration lies with the university administration. Three key statistics stand out.
First, 49 percent of respondents agreed, “It is safe to say my student publication is censored by someone who is not a student at some point during the print or online publication process”.
Secondly, the survey found that 48 percent of respondents said that “University personnel have asked me or other students to stop pursuing an article while it was in the research or writing process.”
Third, roughly 20 percent believe that “the Christian culture at their school immensely affects which stories their publication chooses to cover. More than one-fourth of editors don’t pursue stories because they are loyal to their university and don’t want to make it look bad”.
Those who participated in the survey were asked to submit anecdotes about their personal experiences.
Abby Peterson from Bethel University told the Student Press Coalition that there is “constant pressure from administration and/or faculty not to pursue stories that are controversial or would make the university look bad.”
“Many people will try to convince us not to publish a story by saying that it is not Christ-like to do so,” Peterson said.
One such case at Eastern University revolved around the school forbidding a student paper from running a quote from a former employee.
“The Waltonian editor-in-chief and managing editor were explicitly told we could not publish a statement from an employee who resigned last semester, but claimed that she was forced to resign,” SaraGrace Stefan from Eastern University explained. “Our investigation into the procedures taken was impeded by many university staff members, and we were ultimately contacted by members of the board of trustees to discuss the events”.
The survey contacted 136 editors from the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, and 49 total schools responded to the survey. The Student Press Coalition “promotes a free press in higher education through research and advocacy on issues related to media censorship in Christian colleges and universities.”
