Education: the good news and the bad news

1. College newspapers to be protected!

Looks like the law in this state might soon protect college newspapers. In this morning’s LA Times (Bill Would Protect College Newspapers), we learn:

Without debate, the state Senate on Thursday sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill that would make California the first state to prohibit college and university administrators from censoring student newspapers.

Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) said the bill would give college journalists the same free-press rights as high school reporters and their professional colleagues. Schwarzenegger has not taken a position on the measure, a spokeswoman said.

The bill came in response to a ruling last year by the U.S. 7th District Court of Appeals in Chicago. The court said administrators at Midwestern universities could review student articles before publication if their student-run newspapers were published under the auspices of the college.

The California Newspaper Publishers Assn. and free-speech advocates said college administrators might try to apply the ruling to campuses in other states. Bowen referred specifically to a memo from Christine Helwick, general counsel for the California State University system, suggesting that campus presidents may "have more latitude than previously believed to censor the content of subsidized student newspapers."

In 1992, California adopted a law protecting high school students from censorship, except for material that is obscene, libelous or slanderous.

Anyone who's followed the sorry college newspaper saga of Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College knows that this new law could come in pretty handy!

IVC once had a student newspaper. It was called the Voice, and, in its early days, it did some good work. For instance it broke the story concerning Trustee Steve Frogue's alleged Holocaust denial. (See Is Trustee Frogue a Holocaust denier?.)

I recall that, when now-Chancellor Mathur became President of IVC, he eventually took control of the Voice and used it as a house organ for the college. Faculty were appalled.

Back in about 1997, when the advisor for the Saddleback Lariat, a part-timer, allowed students to write stories critical of the board, her dean was ordered to relieve her of her duties. Here's how Peggy Goetz reported the situation at the time:

Saddleback College cans newspaper adviser [LARIAT? 6/5/97]
Student paper has been critical of district board

Kathleen Dorantes received word May 20, without warning that she would no longer be the adviser to the Saddleback Valley College newspaper, The Lariat.

She was told the decision came from the office of the college president, Ned Doffoney, and Doffoney had given no reason, Dorantes said last week from her home in Riverside.

Some sources at the Mission Viejo college , governed by the same board as Irvine Valley College, say the move was politically motivated. The student paper has been critical of the majority of the college district's board of trustees since the election in the fall.

The faculty member appointed to take Dorantes' place as adviser, Lee Walker, is an outspoken supporter of the board majority.

Dorantes was adviser of the paper for two years on a part-time contract with the district. According to other employees as well as students who worked on the paper, Dorantes was respected by the students and worked well with them.

"Kathy has done a good job. Advising a student publication is a difficult educational task," said Mike Reed who leads the journalism program at the college.

During one of the years she was the adviser, 1996, the paper won one of the top awards in the state for community college newspapers, the General Excellence Award from the California Journalism Association of Community Colleges.

Dorantes said she was told by humanities dean Daniel Rivas that Doffoney had said she should apply to teach English classes at the college and that it was the college paper advisory position that would no longer be open to her.

Doffoney said in a telephone interview that the decision had been a "contractual" one. He said that any full-time faculty member can bump any part-time faculty member at any time. Doffoney said that Walker had approached him and indicated that he wanted to advise the newspaper.

Walker could not be reached for comment.

Journalism program head Reed said that he had been asked recently to take over the paper as well.

Doffoney said in the telephone interview that Reed could have had the position if he wanted it.

When asked about reasons for the change or reasons that the college president, rather than an immediate supervisor, would make a decision about a faculty teaching assignment, Doffoney said, "I think this conversation has gone about as far as it can," and indicated he did not want to comment further.

I recall Ned telling me--and telling numerous others--that the board had ordered him to fire Dorantes. He was plenty pissed, boy.

2. Are college students learning enough?

This morning’s San Diego Union-Tribune reports on a federal commission’s new report on higher education (U.S. panel endorses standards for colleges):

A federal commission approved a final report yesterday that urges a broad shake-up of U.S. higher education, calling for public universities to measure student learning with standardized tests, for federal monitoring of colleges' quality, and for sweeping changes to the financial aid system.

The panel also called on policy-makers and higher education leaders to find new ways of controlling costs, saying that college tuition should grow no faster than median family income, although it opposed price controls….

Eighteen of the commission's 19 members voted to sign the report, which assails rising tuition costs and points to signs of complacency on some campuses.
…..
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings established the panel a year ago, drawing members from various sectors of higher education – community colleges, for-profit trade schools, liberal arts colleges and large research universities, public and private – as well as from the ranks of executives at IBM, Boeing, Microsoft and other companies….

Spellings urged the commission to examine access, affordability and accountability in higher education, to determine whether colleges and universities were turning out students qualified to compete in the global economy.

The answer in too many cases, the panel said in its report, is no.

“Too many Americans just aren't getting the education that they need,” the report said. “There are disturbing signs that many students who do earn degrees have not actually mastered the reading, writing and thinking skills we expect of college graduates.”….