Complaints about allegedly inappropriate content in the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center’s student newspaper The Civilian prompted the school’s Diversity Task Force to include recommendations for the publication in its recently released report.
Andrew Hairston, a third-year law student and member of the now-defunct Diversity Task Force, co-authored an October 2014 Huffington Post op-ed piece with fellow student Kyle Alagood on racial issues and a lack of diversity in the Law Center. Then-Chancellor Jack Weiss quickly assembled a team of students, faculty, alumni and community leaders dedicated to examining the matter.
In the course of the Diversity Task Force’s investigations, it received complaints of alleged sexism and racism in the Law Center, including The Civilian.
Then-Professor Emeritus Kenneth Murchison released an earlier report on the Law Center’s cases of alleged demeaning speech in May 2015.
Murchison wrote many of the reported terms brought to his attention in the publication demeaned women, particularly female professors. While none of the reported terms he saw violated strict constitutional standards for obscenity, according to Murchison’s report, they were offensive and should be dealt with by setting higher journalistic standards for The Civilian.
“I doubt they would have been deemed acceptable journalism in any publication other than a sexual tabloid,” Murchison wrote.
The Diversity Task Force mirrored his sentiment, issuing recommendations that The Civilian “adopt standards of professional journalism.” Hairston said a November 2014 Civilian article by former Editor-in-Chief Julie Faulk criticizing the accuracy of the Huffington Post Op-Ed and The Daily Reveille’s coverage of Law Center diversity played a role in the Diversity Task Force’s recommendations.
“From my perspective, that piece in the November 2014 issue … kind of unfairly characterized what Kyle and I did in terms of bringing the diversity issues to the forefront of discussion,” Hairston said.
Hairston said he was pleased to see The Civilian improved in covering such topics.
The Diversity Task Force also recommended a faculty adviser be appointed to assist the publication. Civilian Editor-in-Chief Mallory Richard said an adviser was recently hired and has benefitted the paper.
“[Faculty adviser professor Christine Corcos] has already become an invaluable asset to our team and continues to offer us much-needed guidance in navigating through our recent expansion,” Richard said.
The Diversity Task Force’s recommendations raised concerns that The Civilian is subject to press censorship, with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education describing the proposed measures in an article on its website as being “… hallmarks of censorship that too often target the free press on America’s campuses.”
Richard said Law Center faculty and administration have supported and cooperated with The Civilian to help them “tell the important stories of this community.”
“In no way have they infringed on our ability to function as a press entity,” Richard said.
The Civilian implements Diversity Task Force recommendations
By Trent Parker
October 21, 2015
More to Discover