Protecting feelings are more important than protecting freedom of the press at the University of California-San Diego.
The Koala, a satirical student newspaper, was defunded after the university received complaints, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
The College Fix reported that The Koala was the subject of several bias response incidents, which have been criticized for infringing on First Amendment Rights.
Complaints came after the publication published a November article, “UCSD UNVEILS NEW DANGEROUS SPACE ON CAMPUS.”
The ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties recently filed a suit in federal court asking for a reversal in the council’s decision, which it asks to be declared unlawful, and a restoration in funding for all campus publications.
The council’s decision also affected Fashion Quarterly, The Muir Quarterly, and The Saltman Quarterly.
The council violated the First Amendment because it “targeted the student press by stripping it of revenue that remains available to support other student speech” and “it retaliated against the editorial viewpoint of The Koala, an action that is not immunized by inflicting collateral damage on all student media,” an ACLU news release said.
A vote to defund came from the Associated Students Council the same day UC San Diego administrators called The Koala “profoundly repugnant, repulsive, attacking and cruel.” The council said the timing was coincidental.
“University officials had the right to speak out against The Koala by releasing a statement denouncing the publication,” the ACLU said. “But the student government, endorsed if not encouraged by administrators, crossed the First Amendment line by deleting all funding for the publication of student print media.”
Legal Director David Loy emphasized that The Koala was offensive, but that the answer is not to take away the First Amendment rights of the publication.
“Trauma is real,” Loy said, who “sympathizes with students who are concerned about the reactions to The Koala’s content.” He added that “censorship is not the cure, because it inevitably blows back on those it purports to protect.”
A June 1 article from The Koala describe the lawsuit as “THE KOALA VS. UCSD ADMINISTRATORS: ‘THE TRIAL OF THE FUCKING CENTURY.’”
