EDITORIAL: The value of independence, Freedom Forum prevents prior review

Think twice before reading this newspaper.

Because, the content inside its pages and the paper it’s printed on would not be possible without the Freedom Forum and what it stands for.

While the University of South Dakota holds a long list of notable and prestigious academic programs, the idea that it is able to house a campus newspaper independent of itself is something The Volante is proud and grateful of.

This is all thanks to the efforts made by the Freedom Forum, for without them, we would not be the paper we are today. Confident in the content we create, and never-ending in our effort to serve readers.

Each year, stories come out about college newspapers around the county being shut down or censored by university’s administrators.

Take the Pleiad of Albion College, which was forced to halt publication after the university cited “content verification” over a story revolving around the death of an Alma College student.

Vice President for Student Affairs Sally Walker banned the paper from printing Feb. 2, pending the review of the Pleiad’s fact-checking process.

Albion College is a private institution, meaning the Pleiad is not granted the same First Amendment rights as even public university ran student newspapers.

While that may be true, according to the Student Press Law Center, the Albion Media Board has the enacted power to suspend or withdraw student media that violates publication guidelines — but the dean has no such power.

Therein the issue lies.

The Pleiad resumed operation on Tuesday

False content or not, college newspapers should not be halted from powers outside their doors. The Volante has had it’s own shares of misconduct in the past, but the job then should be to own up to those mistakes, fix them and continue telling the news.

Editor of the Pleiad Nick Diamond pled a similar argument during the paper’s nine day suspension, citing that news organizations around the county make mistakes on a daily basis, but aren’t shut down for them.

Campus newspapers, including the Pleiad deserve the right to fix its wrongs without administrative scrutiny, just as much as it deserves the right to publish independently.

The Volante has been fortunate enough to publish not only with the full freedoms guaranteed by our U.S. Constitution, but the freedom granted to us by the Freedom Forum.

The freedom to produce content decided by students, created by students and for the students is essential on any university campus, and that has been granted to The Volante for over 25 years.

The spirit granted to us by the Freedom Forum will not be quick to vanish.