Outrage over dean altering story in Santa Clara campus paper

Student journalists and alumni of the private Santa Clara University are expressing outrage that administrators have forced students to remove a section from a published story after a dean objected to the content.

The portion deleted on Feb. 9 included criticism of the dean by a wealthy donor to the university, raising questions about why censorship that would be illegal on public campuses is acceptable at private colleges.

California is the only state that extends First Amendment protections to private colleges, universities and high schools under the 1992 “Leonard Law,” named for its author, then-state Sen. Bill Leonard.

[...] at Santa Clara University, students said they didn’t know about the Leonard Law and said faculty told them they had to comply with what the campus lawyer called a “request” to alter the article.

The students complied, but also posted an editorial called “Censored But Not Silenced” in the student newspaper, the Santa Clara.

By censoring the article, administrators “prioritized their own interests at the expense of honoring the values of free speech and journalistic principles,” the students wrote.

The paper’s news editor, Jenni Sigl, 21, who studies journalism, said she learned a different lesson from the experience.

The university’s objection concerns a story about a $100 million gift from alumni John and Susan Sobrato to help pay for a new engineering building.

“If the university gave us reason to believe the article was factually incorrect or misquoted, I would feel the university would have more of a right to step in,” said Sophie Mattson, 21, the paper’s editor in chief.

The current version of the story includes a note saying the newspaper staff remains strongly, vehemently opposed to removing sections of the original article.

“The university administration’s heavy hand runs afoul of the ethics that our professional jobs, in journalism or public service, require each day,” the alumni wrote.