Last week, we ran a story on the Prospector's Web site and in the newspaper about the resignation of UTEP's homecoming queen. As the student voice of UTEP, we felt the student population deserved to know what happened. The publication of that issue in print and on the Web has generated an unusual spike in readers' reactions, which resulted in positive and negative comments about our journalistic integrity.
We decided to pursue the story because those who are part of the homecoming court become public figures. The application to compete for a position on the homecoming court states that a student "will attend any required events and be present at all the 2008 homecoming week long activities, and show decorum and represent UTEP."
The moment a student signs the application, he/she acknowledges the fact that he/she will be representing not only a university, but also a community.
Several students told The Prospector that the homecoming queen had worked at a gentleman's club as a stripper in the past. Although all of the statements were similar, none of the students would go on record. The Prospector decided to investigate these allegations. During the investigation, the queen resigned her position, which made this a hard-news story. We felt a duty to report this to the UTEP community.
These were the grounds that supported the running of the story about the elected homecoming queen resigning her position. The editors, adviser and director at The Prospector supported this decision, and we knew it was a delicate issue that involved a student, a Greek organization and the Student Government Association.
Although the story never asserts that the elected homecoming queen worked at a gentleman's club, some of the comments online, and some that have been made to staff members, suggest that our publication has become a tabloid, that The Prospector is placing judgment on this girl. Some have even gone so far as to say that The Prospector asked for her resignation-all of which is patently false. The story had balance, which was difficult to achieve since the people close to the queen-elect didn't want to talk to us.
We anticipated criticism, we anticipated ugly e-mails, but we never anticipated the heinous act of people taking the newspapers away from the stands and tossing them.
The Student Press Law Center, a national advocate for student free press rights, declares that besides campus disciplinary action, criminal prosecution, including charges of larceny, petty theft, criminal mischief or destruction of property and a civil lawsuit for damages, there's also a very important first amendment claim associated with these actions.
When we read that "newspaper theft is censorship" on SPLC's Web site, we began thinking about how some students' actions and comments were trying to send a message to The Prospector, that they should be able to control what is published in the student paper. Besides being an attempt at overt intimidation, the tossing of these newspapers are indeed a form of censorship since it limits the number of copies available to other students.
The Dean of Student Life Office and the UTEP Police are actively investigating this matter, and we hope that if they do find the culprits behind this action, they will seek, through the student conduct process, to make these individuals understand that their actions hurt not only the student newspaper, but the student body as well.
The Prospector, as UTEP's student-run newspaper, should always attempt to seek the truth and report it to students, no matter what the story is about. We would prefer that students would seek to be more engaged in stories related to the upcoming elections, increases in tuition and fees and the border fence, among other issues, but in the end, the ones who decide if a story is newsworthy are our readers. Judging by their reactions, this story was something The Prospector couldn't and shouldn't have ignored. If we had, we would not be doing our job, journalistically or as the Assayer of Student Opinion.
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