By Stephen Cooney
When I first heard rumors that The Chronicle was being pulled from distribution racks around March 31, I laughed at the assumption. Why would anyone remove The Chronicle from distribution racks? This definitely is not soviet Russia- too many dining options- and I haven’t been sipping any victory Gin, so this isn’t 1984.
I assumed like any hopeful young editor that students on campus were actually interested in what The Chronicle had to say. Our columnist started a war with the student section; people must be reading, so if there was a shooting near campus of course the paper would be gone. Hell, one of our cartoonists helped push change in Memorial Hall and his cartoon is displayed on the student accounts desk as if it were a piece of art in a museum. People have to be reading. I brushed it aside as did everyone else in the office and packed my bags to leave Hofstra for a much delayed and much needed spring break.
Unfortunately, when I returned to campus one of the first things I heard was that Pride Guides-admissions’ poorly paid propaganda machine-had been ordered to remove the threat to prospective students who would be parading around campus like oysters following the Walrus and the Carpenter.
If this had happened then the entire staff had wasted countless hours of their lives and were forced to function an entire day on little to no sleep just because we felt it necessary to make sure the rest of the student body was informed about the shooting. For selfish reasons I was highly offended. Our staff was proud of the job it had done, we were the first news source to reach the scene and we were there to hear the first theories about the shooting. Our News Editor called public safety to make sure students knew and to find out why there was no CANN alert close to an hour after the shooting. We felt we did everything right and the whole time had the idea of campus safety on or minds.
None the less, none of this matters because according to Admissions Director Sunil A. Samuel and Vice President of Enrollment Jessica Eads they did not tell any of their guides to remove the paper and they are supportive of the papers work and the asset it is to the campus. We appreciate the support, it is truly an honor and an accomplishment that people especially administrators are reading the paper and we can affect what happens on campus.
I beg you to dip your head beneath the surface a little bit here and realize what the real issue is. Media outlets all across this campus function under their freedom of expression and what would have been being censored was not expression, it was sheer fact. This was not an opinion on the cover of the paper but a solidly reported story of an incident around campus. Even if The Chronicle was not ordered to be removed, the rumors that they were are enough to make people wonder that they could have been.
What if they were?
Do students not have the right to know what is happening on campus? Do prospective students not deserve the ability to step outside of the guided tour and look around the campus and decide if the University is the right fit for them? Should they not know where they are going and how the school operates?
No, the paper was not removed, no WRHU was not shut off and Dempster Hall still cranks out Hofstra TV shows on their own accord but if they didn’t wouldn’t everything seem a little off. I know I would feel a little uncomfortable in that environment. I studied and have read about what happens when individual groups lose their voice and the students should never lose theirs. The idea that students could have possibly obliged that order and believe that they were acting accordingly boggles my mind. I understand that every student is not a journalist but we all do understand the importance of the media.
Yes, these students could have believed they were doing their job but sometimes it is okay to question those orders.
To be completely honest I do understand why admissions or an administrator could do this in order to make sure there was a constant stream of students coming into the university and maybe The Chronicle could affect their decision but do they not have the right to that information?
No, this didn’t happen and as far as we know The Chronicle was not ordered to be removed from the racks. Hopefully it never will be. The staff and I appreciate your readership and your support of The Chronicle we hope that if you ever hear of anything along these lines you would bring them to our attention.