Journalism Students Bolster Press Freedom

Research
Humboldt State journalism students collaborated this semester with the Student Press Law Center, a national legal assistance agency that supports high school and college press freedom, on records requests that tested the responsiveness of more than 100 colleges and universities. HSU was one of three schools—the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and the University of North Texas were the others—that sent letters to 95 public and 20 private institutions seeking documents on student disciplinary complaints and cases.

The requests were transmitted in mid-February and approximately a month later, 27 of the 95 public schools, including Humboldt State, had supplied all or most of the information. The Student Press Law Center, founded in 1974 and headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area, initiated the exercise in connection with ‘Sunshine Week,’ led by the American Society of News Editors (until recently the American Society of Newspaper Editors) to promote freedom of information.

Lumberjack staff who participated in the project were Ashley Bailey, Leigh Lawson, Mark Farias, Octavio Raygoza, Sara Wilmot, Karina Gonzalez, Torrey Hartman and Lou Sherry. A related display is on view in the HSU Library lobby and a law center article about the background and findings is posted at https://www.splc.org/newsflash_archives.asp?id=1884&year=2009.