Okay, now I think I’ve heard of everything. Typically when student newspapers gets stolen its done by disgruntled students who are angry at the paper or don’t want people reading one story or another, but Editor & Publisher reports that Albright College officials seized copies of the student newspaper, apparently to keep visiting parents from reading a reprinted story about Albright College’s poor rankings in a Barron’s survey.
The seizure of the papers is insane for one very important reason — it actually increases any future liability of the school for any lawsuits brought by the paper. The college claims it was concerned the newspaper was violating copyright laws, but in fact the newspaper had permission to reprint the story about the Barron’s profile. The problem is that the college is setting a precedent that it is the final arbiter of content in the paper, which means if someone ever decides to sue the paper for defamation or whatever, they’ll have a strong case for going after the college’s deep pockets as well.
Most colleges and universities set up student newspapers as semi-autonomous units with independent boards of directors specifically in order to avoid such liability. Albright might want to think about such an arrangement.