Unbelievable University of California San Diego Case

The University of California at San Diego is currently trying to suppress a student-published satire newsletter in a case that is truly unbelievable.

At UCSD there is a nutty extremist Hispanic group called MEChA. In 1995, MEChA was involved in a bit of a free speech controversy involving its newspaper, Voz Fronteriza. After a Latino officer with the Immigration and Naturalization Service was killed in California, MEChA ran an editorial about the case called “Death of a Migra Pig.” Among other things, the editorial said,

We’re glad this pig died, he deserved to die . . . All the Migra pigs should be killed, every single one…the only good one is a dead one…The time to fight back is now. It is time to organize an anti-Migra patrol…It is to [sic] bad that more Migra pigs didn’t die with him.

That drew nationwide coverage and calls to censor MEChA. UCSD Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Joseph W. Watson said at the time that MEChA was protected by the First Amendment. In a letter Watson said that students have

. . .the right to publish their views without adverse administrative action….Student newspapers are protected by the first amendment of the U.S. constitution.

Switch to 2002 and it turns out that what Watson meant to say was that MEChA has the right to say what it wants, but no other student newspaper at UCSD does.

The Koala is a student-run satire newspaper. In November it sent a reporter to an open MEChA meeting. Later, another student who was at that same meeting approached the editors of The Koala and sold them some photos he had taken at this open meeting. The Koala ran a story making fun of MEChA accompanied by one of the photos.

In February 2002, UCSD formally charged The Koala and two students who attended the MECha meeting with student code violations for “obstruction or disruption of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures, or other UCSD or University activities.” According to Watson, taking photographs at an open meeting of a student group is unconscionable. Watson issued a statement saying, “We condemn The Koala’s abuse of the Constitutional guarantees of free expression and disfavor their unconscionable behavior.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the Student Press Law Center are helping out The Koala folks though, as is typical with such cases, the trial of the students will take place in a secret Star Chamber environment.

Not that I’d urge you to contact him or anything but Joseph W. Watson, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs can be reached at 858-534-4370; [email protected]

Sources:

Student Humor Magazine Prosecuted for Parody at UCSD University Decision Expected This Week. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, June 18, 2002.