Colleges and universities all over the world have clear regulations to enhance certain behaviors within their premises. This involves setting certain standards that would govern or control: interactions between students; interaction between the students and teaching staff; and finally, the interaction between the students and the institution’s administration.
The code of conduct should always be in line with the provisions in the constitution of the country especially in areas where the rights of the students are likely to be affected or are threatened. It should be noted here that even with this code of conduct in place, situations always arise such that conflicts occur as a result of contradiction between the wishes of the students and the provisions in the school regulations. This occurs when students feel that a certain provision in the institution’s regulations contradicts a given provision in the country’s constitution (Kaplin & Lee, 2007).
In order to enhance cooperation between the students and the administration, institutions such as Gromble State University (GSU) have made provisions in their regulations which authorize the formation and existence of students’ organizations that are usually headed by elected student leaders.
These organizations may be given freedom to perform functions on behalf of the students or the administration (Kaplin & Lee, 2007). The student organizations may at one point act in a manner that contradicts the code of conduct in the institution. This might force the administration to come up with mechanisms to ensure that someone takes responsibility for the damage done (Coleman, 2006).
In GSU the weekly newspaper has a large following because information is reported authoritatively without fear. The development of an oversight committee is therefore aimed at ensuring that the students’ organization does not overstep its bounds even as they enjoy their freedom of speech.
This, the university administration feels, could easily destroy the institution’s reputation and image in the society (Coleman, 2006). Different people in the administration would play different roles during the oversight. This paper presents the role that would be played by the Career Center manager that is closely working with the student editors of the newspaper.
The university newspaper has an obligation to inform the students just as the other state newspapers have the obligation to inform the masses. With this in mind, it is important to note here that most of the student editors and journalists have the ambition to join the developed media houses as part of their career advancement in journalism. It is important, therefore, for these students to be exposed to the various regulations in journalism.
Their rights and freedoms are protected by the famous First Amendment which prevents any person or government from interfering or intimidating a media house or its journalists. The constitution also has provisions that can be used in the regulation of journalists as they go about with their daily duties (Byrne, 2001).
The constitution stipulates how newspapers editors should be handled. The editors are allowed to carry out their duties independently in an ethical manner. The ethics in writing is the issue that generally results in conflicts between governments and newspaper publishers in most countries, and between campus newspaper publishers and the administration.
In order to graduate with the deserved competence, student editors should be given the freedom they deserve to successfully carry out their duties. Any interference, therefore, is a threat to the future of the students as far as their careers are concerned (Coleman, 2006).
It is totally against the provisions in the constitution for the administration to meditate of gagging the campus media such as Weekly Vu in GSU. Editors of newspapers in public universities such as GSU are protected by the constitution and may sue the administration whenever they face harassment or intimidation through threats or suspensions.
The university administration has the right to ensure that it is not maliciously portrayed negatively by the student editors who may fail to uphold the ethics as is expected of them. In this case the university administration reserves the right to suspend or completely expel such students according to the schools’ regulations or clearly stipulated codes of conduct. This suspension should however not be as a result of the fact that some people in the administration dislike an editor’s opinion (Kaplin & Lee, 2007).
The administration should therefore organize for a consultative forum in which representatives from both the administration and the students’ organization converge to discuss various ways that could be employed in the effort to come up with policies to act as guides to the newspaper editors.
The policies formulated should be in harmony with the constitutional provisions especially in as far as the journalists’ freedom is concerned. Such a move would reduce cases of protests against the administration as has been previously witnessed in GSU. In addition, this would result in nurturing upright and ethically sound journalists who would add value to the country’s newspaper journalism (Coleman, 2006).
References
Byrne, J. P. (2001). Racial Insults and Free Speech within the University. Georgetown Literature Journal, 12(52), 399-405.
Coleman, A. L. (2006). Beyond Speech Codes: Harmonizing Rights of Free Speech and Freedom from Discrimination on University Campuses. Journal of College & University Law, 23(91), 67-89.
Kaplin, W. A. & Lee, B. A. (2007). The Law of Higher Education, Student Version. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.