College newspaper adviser leaving LWC over 'prior review' issue

By Sharon Burton
Adair County Community Voice

The faculty adviser Lindsey Wilson College’s student newspaper won’t be returning to campus in the fall following a disagreement he considers a First Amendment issue.

Assistant Professor of Journalism Tom Winski chose not to renew his contract after language was inserted that would require him to review articles for The View prior to publication.

“Prior review” is prohibited by the courts for public universities and is not a common practice for private colleges, according to Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate with the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va.

“When so many public schools, all of which are prohibited from having that type of rule that requires prior review of the content, most private colleges follow that model,” Goldstein said. “There’s no organization that deals at all with student journalism that endorses prior review as an educational method.”

A clause was added to Winski’s contract that would require him to provide feedback to students on their writing and to review the form and structure of the writing in the newspaper before publication.

After receiving the new contract, Winski met with Dr. Bill Luckey, Lindsey’s president, to ask why the changes were being made. He said Luckey did not point to any specific article in prior editions of The View or point out any errors that caused concern.

“He said the kids are doing a good job, he just thinks they could do better,” Winski said.

Currently, the adviser only reviews articles upon requests by the students. It is the editor’s job–a student–to review articles before they are published.

“If the story is bad, the editor gives it back to them beforehand and tells them to rewrite it, but he sits and goes through it with them. That’s the editor’s job,” Winski said. “I give advice when I’m asked for it. The kids are free to take or leave my advice. That’s the role of an adviser.”

President Luckey said he is not attempting to censor students or control the content of The View.

“What I am interested in censoring is bad grammar and misspellings,” Luckey said. “We have reached a point that that needs to be addressed and we have not seen the improvement in that area we would like to see.”

Luckey said he quit reading The View because it is filled with errors.

“You get to the point where you are no longer relevant. I hope what will happen is people will begin to read The View again,” Luckey said.

Luckey was not totally critical of the school paper. He said it has improved since Winski became adviser.

“We were publishing two newspapers a semester,” he said. Students now publish five issues a semester.

“I think they do some things very well. It’s much better than it was four years ago,” Luckey said.

Winski said he decided not to renew his contract after it became clear that he and Luckey could not come to an agreement.

“He thinks it’s a methodology issue. I think it’s a First Amendment issue,” Winski said, adding that he made the decision to leave “as a matter of principle.”

“If I were to do what the contract stipulates, that would be as if I was editing the paper,” Winski said. “But it’s not my paper, it’s the students’ paper and the students should be editing it.”

Luckey said the college is not trying to “trample on students’ constitutional rights or censor what they are doing.”

“We are trying to help them be better writers and journalists and that’s all we are trying to do.”

Sean Hitchcock, editor-in-chief of The View, said he knew that Lindsey, as a private college, had the legal right to invoke prior review but was surprised by the decision.

He said he and other students interact with Winski on a regular basis and get advice about their articles.

“I think he goes beyond the call of duty,” he said.

Hitchcock did say that computers used in the journalism program do not include spell checking and are out of date.

“We’re working with Windows and Pagemaker and other students are working with Macs and InDesign,” he said.

In the past four years, The View has gone from a four-page, black-and-white publication to a 12-page color publication, Hitchcock said. The View just recently earned three first-place and four second-place state collegiate journalism awards from the Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association.

Position now available

Winski has taken a position with Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas and LWC is currently seeking someone to fill the vacancy.

Goldstein, the attorney advocate with the Student Press Law, suspects it will be difficult for Lindsey to fill the position with the prior review restriction. He also believes it could have a negative impact on drawing students to the journalism program.

“When you are trying to be a competitive private school, obviously you look and say, ‘well if all public schools are doing this and the best private schools are doing this, this is the model I want to be in,’” he said.

Luckey, however, said he does not believe prior review will be an issue when filling the position.

“We’ve already got resumes from people who are standing in line to teach the program,” Luckey said.

But Luckey would not say that prior review will be a stipulation in a contract for a new newspaper adviser.

“No. I can’t guarantee that will be a provision of someone else’s contract. I don’t know that it is a concern. I did know that with Tom, we felt like this was an area he needed to address and do better,”

Luckey said, adding that they were not unhappy with Winski “and he was welcomed to come back.”

Hitchcock, who will graduate this semester, said the prior review issue did not change his feelings about Lindsey, which he called a great place to get an education.

“Lindsey has a motto of ‘Every Student Every Day,’ and I can only hope that is what they are going in making these decisions, that they feel that ‘whatever it is’ is important enough that it outweighs freedom of speech,” Hitchcock said.