Student Press Law Center (SPLC) reports another student newspaper theft, this time at University of Tulsa.
Copies of The Collegian were taken from newsstands and then redistributed with unauthorized inserts. The additions to the paper included a picture of the paper’s managing editor extending her middle finger, as well as the website address of her online journal.
Thursday Bram, the managing editor, said she believes fliers were put in about 700 copies of The Collegian’s 4,000 total distributed issues.
Bram contends that the incident was retaliation for an article she wrote about allocation of students, in which she said student groups with close ties to student government may have received special funding in violation of school policy.
The university appears to be taking the matter under serious consideration, and has already identified suspects and instituted disciplinary proceedings against them. Their names have not been released, however.
Unfortunately, this report comes on the heels of a recent increase in newspaper thefts on campuses across the country. As Will, Tara, and Samantha have blogged about recently, students are using this underhanded tactic to deprive students and faulty of information. Inside Higher Ed reported earlier this week that already this academic year, twelve incidents of student newspaper theft have been reported to the SPLC, compared with nineteen total cases last year. We only hope that this trend is a waning one, and that administrators continue to treat newspaper thefts with the gravity they deserve.