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STATEMENT OF BC PRESIDENT JUDITH SHAPIRO Tuesday, February 24, 2004 A free student press is central to a healthy academic community. The consequences are that students will sometimes publish things that are not merely unpopular, but also offensive - and in this case, stupid, racist, and disgusting. The response must be to make the student journalists aware of what others think of their actions. The Fed's journalists are going to catch a lot of flak, which they deserve. They are going to learn about being accountable for what they have done. One flyer with an apology is not likely to cut it. They will probably become an object of contempt and ridicule on the part of the majority of their fellow students for some time to come. They have printed something that one might expect from an all-white fraternity in the south in the 1950's; to have it appear on Morningside Heights in 2004 was truly appalling. A word to the editor-in-chief of The Fed, who is a Barnard student: It is totally inappropriate to publish material with the disclaimer that it is not policy to "censor" what goes into one's publication. This is a misuse of the concept of "censorship" as anyone with an understanding of journalistic responsibility should realize. Would any respectable newspaper or magazine publish racist material with the comment that it does not "censor" what goes into its pages? Would any responsible editor fail to understand the message conveyed so famously by former President Harry S. Truman when he said: "The buck stops here"? |