A shady attempt to hide an ongoing labor dispute has turned into an attack on student journalism.
Administrators at Pensacola State College are forbidding faculty members to speak with student reporters about the unsuccessful wage negotiations between the school and the faculty. The student newspaper published only one article about the dispute before the college intervened and attempted to silence any more coverage that might appear.
On the day the story was published, the college’s attorney contacted the faculty’s union and accused it of illegally exploiting students for personal gain, citing a state law that prohibits unions from using students to endorse union activities. Even though both a state and federal court previously declared this law unconstitutional, the college ordered faculty members to refrain from answering any questions from student reporters about the labor dispute.
This is a blatant attempt to crush student journalism and any more coverage that could result from it. Not only does it strongly suggest the college administration has something to hide in regards to the labor dispute and its treatment of faculty members, but it also shows just how little the school respects its students and its professors.
Ed Meadows, the college’s president, said the administration is simply trying to protect students from being taken advantage of by faculty members. He also expressed confusion as to why the labor dispute was important enough to be written about in the school newspaper, noting that not even local newspapers have reported on it: "If the local media doesn’t find it of interest, then why would students find it of interest, and of what benefit would it be for students to know?"
It is troubling that the leader of an educational institution has to ask how faculty pay and hours could affect students.
According to the Huffington Post, about two-thirds of college professors are hired on per-semester contracts and only work on a part-time basis, usually earning between $20,000 and $25,000 per year. Overworked and underpaid adjunct professors live paycheck to paycheck, and they often have to juggle multiple courses and even second jobs to make ends meet. When sleep-deprived professors do not have enough time or energy to perform their best in the classroom, both the professors and the students suffer.
Student journalists at any college or university have the right and the responsibility to report on matters that directly impact their peers, and that includes labor disputes that could result in unfair wages for faculty members. If Pensacola State College succeeds in stifling the ability of students to report on the issue, student journalists in colleges and universities across the state may also be vulnerable to censorship.
Ironically, despite the harmful consequences of his actions and the fact that he and his administrators are refusing to issue a statement to the student newspaper, Meadows seems to believe he is defending the integrity of journalism. Good journalism, he argued, requires "two sides to every story."
It is painfully obvious that Meadows has no idea what "good journalism" truly is, or what purpose it holds in our society.
Journalism, plain and simple, is about empowering people. It empowers them to know about the issues in their communities, in their countries and in their world. Educational institutions, recognizing this, should be proud of their student reporters and should help them become the most effective journalists they can be.
If colleges and universities decide, instead, to silence the voices of their student reporters, they are committing a shameful act against freedom of the press and everything it stands for.
Moriah Camenker is a UF public relations senior. Her columns appear on Tuesdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 11/18/2014]
