The Collegian AIG strongly objects to Penn State’s removal of all 35 Daily Collegian newspaper racks on Sept. 18 in a dispute over ads atop fewer than 10 of the racks.
In addition, the AIG believes the Penn State administration should have given The Collegian an opportunity to remove the ads from the campus news racks. The university failed to do that. The university’s actions were unnecessarily rash. The actions were an overreach because in addition to nine offending news racks, the university took newspapers and racks that did not violate any policy. And the university stepped on the First Amendment rights of The Collegian staff and the Penn State community. In addition, if any other individual or organization had taken these boxes, it might be considered theft.
The university returned the racks, with the ads stripped off, on Sept. 20, but Amy Schafer, Collegian editor-in-chief, said that it is not clear that all of the newspapers they contained were restored.
The university objected to ads for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on three of the racks and ads urging students to register to vote on another six racks. The university contends the ads violated two university policies forbidding commercial advertising on campus.
The university said in a statement that it removed the racks “to quickly rectify the situation and ensure that all advertisements in violation of University policies were removed.”
Wayne Lowman, general manager of The Daily Collegian, has said that the university contacted him about the ads before taking the newspaper racks, but the university did not give The Collegian a deadline for removing the ads.
The Collegian AIG has written PSU President Neeli Bendapudi explaining AIG’s objections to the university’s actions, and has submitted a letter to the editor of The Collegian. The AIG is urging Collegian AIG members to write the Collegian and PSU administrators detailing why this action by the university is problematic.
Here is a link to the letter to the editor form used by The Collegian. Here is PSU President Neeli Bendapudi’s email: [email protected].
