For more than a century, the Oregon Daily Emerald and other student publications have served students and the University community well, both as vibrant contributors to the campus and by providing important learning experiences for student journalists. It is my general policy to stay out of public debates about funding student publications on campus, in order to protect the independence of the publications and of student government. However, as both a journalism educator and as a member of this community, I am deeply concerned about recent actions of the Programs Finance Committee toward the Emerald and the Oregon Commentator.
Independent student publications make it possible for student journalists to serve the campus community by acting as watchdogs for the public interest. At the same time, independent student media are all to some degree dependent on the financial support of the organizations and individuals whom they must aggressively investigate. This ambiguous position — true of independent student media on every campus — requires that funding sources take special care to avoid even the appearance of censorship. Even when we do not approve of the content of their speech, we must continue to uphold and protect students’ right to speak.
The cutting of the Emerald’s budget and the continued challenging of the Commentator’s mission statement appear to be based on disagreements over the content of the publications. If this is the case, the PFC is acting in clear conflict with established
legal principals.
These publications do not have formal ties to the School of Journalism and Communication, yet the opportunity to work on publications that are truly student run is for many of our students a defining part of their experience at the University. Taking full responsibility for the content of independent student publications is an important lesson for student journalists. They must understand journalists’ legal and ethical obligations and expect to be held to high standards.
When student journalists fall short of our expectations, readers and advertisers must hold them accountable by means other than content-based funding cuts that have the real potential to chill all student speech on campus. To do otherwise threatens the existence of independent student media at the University.

Tim Gleason is dean of the School of Journalism and Communication