EDITOR’S NOTE:
Association of Black Communicators members Monique Green and Walter Gabriel are also on the staff of The Daily Reveille.
In the wake of controversy surrounding University control of the Black Student Union’s newsletter, the editors of the publication announced Wednesday after a meeting with Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs officials that they will continue to produce an independent newsletter for black students.
A dispute arose last November after OMA administrators read a sex column on the entertainment page of the newsletter and demanded that from then on OMA approve the publication before students printed it. But newsletter editors said they did not want University control, and they started their own publication to avoid it.
The three mass communication students who wrote the sex column told The Daily Reveille they thought it was funny and that the new entertainment section would bring a new dimension to what they said was a bland organization publication.
But OMA administrators said the newsletter is a recruiting tool for black high school students, and the sex column was inappropriate.
Tiffany Charles, editor of the newsletter, told The Daily Reveille she understands why OMA was upset with the sex column. But she also said the office should not have complete oversight of the newsletter’s content.
Charles, who is also president of the Association of Black Communicators and BSU communications chairperson, said the BSU newsletter developed into a multi-section publication after ABC took over the newsletter last year.
She also said BSU and ABC want to continue to provide an independent voice for black students on campus, while giving communication students some practical experience.
The newsletter staff, made up mostly of ABC members, writes stories, designs pages and sells ads for the publication. Before ABC was involved, the BSU communications chair, who often was not a mass communication major, put out a shorter version of the newsletter.
Charles said OMA does not control BSU, although they give the organization $80 per issue for printing costs.
ABC has decided not to accept OMA’s money.
“They are our advisers,” Charles said. “I truly believe this [newsletter] is up to the students.”
Charles also said the rest of the BSU executive board agreed with her position and supported her idea to make the Union’s publication free of University control.
“We chose to go independent because the regulations they set up for every issue,” she said. “Dr. [Katrice] Albert requested that every newsletter had to be reviewed by OMA.”
Charles said that in addition to what she says is her organization’s right to free speech, it was also too hectic to try to get OMA to approve the newsletter because the administrators’ schedules were too busy.
She said she had to get the November issue approved after OMA officials requested it be reprinted without the sex column, but it took months.
The sex column co-authors, Monique Breaux, Kristy Davis and Monique Green, said Albert was upset by the sex column.
Green is a member of The Daily Reveille staff.
“I got a phone call from someone in OMA asking, ‘How could you print this?’” Davis said. “It was entertainment. But then I found out that they were using the newsletter as a recruitment tool. Nobody knew.”
Davis, Green and Charles said they did not know the newsletter was used as recruitment tool for black high school students. They said they never saw the newsletter before they came to the University.
Albert said Wednesday she understands why ABC wants to have editorial control. She also said she understands that the students and administrators may have different motivations.
She said that as BSU communications chair, Charles must fulfill her duty to put out BSU’s traditional newsletter, The Last Word.
Albert said the ABC newsletter cannot take the place of the BSU newsletter.
Charles said that after Wednesday’s meeting, she had not decided if she will continue to put out the BSU newsletter, and she will discuss it with other BSU executive board members.