Several Johns Hopkins University students said complaints to administration officials regarding cover photos of classmates from the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance prompted the removal of the conservative, student-run Carrollton Record this month.
JHU spokesman Dennis O?Shea said last Friday that banning the newspaper from the residential halls was not related to the content of the newspaper, but simply in line with school policy designed to prevent cluttering. He added Thursday that student complaints about the photographs prompted the decision to enforce the policy.
Several students expressed a fear the published pictures, which Carrollton Record publisher Dan Simon said he took from the popular Facebook.com Web site, could open students to harassment on campus.
“It was never our intention to embarrass anyone or expose them to harassment,” Simon said. “These were all students who self-identified themselves as members of DSAGA, a number of whom were at the event we covered.”
The five-year-old newspaper, in a story by senior Jered Ede, wrote about gay adult film director Chi Chi LaRue?s address and Q & A in April, raising concerns identifications were not checked and objecting to the distribution of DVDs afterward.
The Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance, a campus group receiving funding from the university, paid for LaRue?s appearance.
The only publication with approval for residential hall distribution is the JHU News-Letter, the Homewood campus? official student newspaper.
Student publications, O?Shea said, are welcomed in other buildings. However, at Wolman Hall, a nearby residential building, a dozen copies of The Donkey, a publication associated with the student Democratic Club, were in a newspaper rack in the lobby Sunday alongside an assortment of pizza and sub shop advertisements.
“Lots of publications distribute in the dorms and the administration frankly hasn?t had a problem with that,” said Joshua Robinson, Class of 2007, and the Opinion editor for the News-Letter.
Robinson, who is not a DSAGA member, doesn?t support the Carrollton?s Record?s decision to publish the photos.
However, Robinson said, Carrollton Record complaints about not receiving funding may have some legitimacy.
“They have to go through several student boards to get approval and they?re not are popular with a lot of students on campus,” Robinson said. “And they have published a lot of articles, I personally have found, to be offensive and in an extremely bad taste. They could help their cause by publishing more legitimate journalistic stories.”
