Quinnipiac U. Backs Down From SPJ Ouster Threat

Embarrassed by truckloads of bad press, Quinnipiac University has backed down from its threat to ban the school’s chapter of The Society of Professional Journalists, the Yale Daily News reports.

Jaclyn Hirsch, president of Quinnipiac's SPJ chapter, said Quinnipiac bigwigs sent her a letter last week retracting the threat. They also struck down a rule that had barred reporters from the Quad News, an independent student website, from interviewing administrators, coaches and athletes.

Quinnipiac officials backed down only after being embarrassed by an Oct. 28 New York Times editorial blasting the university's strong-arm tactics.

The ruckus started earlier this fall when a group of student journalists left the Quinnipiac Chronicle, the school's official student newspaper, to start the Quad News. The students said they bolted from the Chronicle when Quinnipiac officials started trying to control its content.

So Quinnipiac muckety-mucks responded by trying to bully the students even further, slapping the draconian interview ban on Quad News reporters and threatening to oust the SPJ.

In a letter worthy of the red-scare era, Quinnipiac flack Lynn Bushnell called the Quad News a blog that “aggressively sought to undermine the continued existence” of the Quinnipiac Chronicle, “a University-supported newspaper.” She accused the Quad News of using the school SPJ chapter as a “cover for their activities.”

But then the story was picked up by the Yale paper, The Associated Press, a bevy of bloggers and The Times, which wrote: "Such intimidation does not speak well of Quinnipiac’s commitment to freedom of speech, open-mindedness or academic inquiry. Instead of encouraging the students for their remarkable initiative, the school tried to retaliate against them for resisting its control and not toeing the line."

This is a great example of the press standing up for constitutionally guaranteed rights, but it raises a question - if newspapers fade into the haze of history, who will speak out when others try to trample on the First Amendment?