BC proposes new, strict conditions on student newspaper

In what a national advocate for student journalists is calling an attempt at censorship, the university is proposing a new lease that also calls for the newspaper to establish an advisory board of BC faculty and staff, comply with a code of ethics, appoint an ombudsman, and maintain a board of directors. The proposed lease also calls for The Heights to offer a half-price advertising rate to BC departments and student organizations, according to a copy of the document obtained by the Globe.

Shocked by the provisions of the contract, Heights editors hired a lawyer and last week sent BC officials a letter rejecting most of the provisions.

"We just don't want a lease that compromises our independence," said Nancy Reardon, a senior and editor of the weekly paper. "We highly cherish the values of a free press and free speech on a college campus, and we want to make sure we protect that."

Jack Dunn, a spokesman for the Jesuit university, said BC made the requests as part of annual lease negotiations because "there have been a lot of complaints [from students and faculty] this year that didn't exist in previous years" about fairness and accuracy in Heights stories and about sexually explicit advertising for alcohol. The proposed ban on tobacco ads came because BC recently banned smoking in dormitories, Dunn said.

These issues "were raised in a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation," said Dunn, who criticized The Heights for speaking to the media during negotiations. The dispute was first reported yesterday on Boston magazine's website.

Reardon's assertion of a violation of freedom of the press is "a fictitious account of self-victimization that has no basis in truth," Dunn said.

The administration may be upset with the newspaper because it has become more aggressive about pursuing controversial topics, Reardon said, pointing to stories about sexual assault and legacy admissions to BC, in addition to a regular features column called "Sex and the Univer-city."

But Reardon also wondered about the timing of the university's new requests, just as a conservative student newspaper, The Observer, had incorporated and requested to lease on-campus space. She says she suspects BC wanted to put some checks on The Observer and needed to appear even-handed.

Dunn denied that the conservative publication factored into BC's actions toward The Heights, but said The Observer agreed to most of the provisions, as did a Catholic student paper, Crossroads.

Mark Goodman, a national advocate for student journalists, said the university is embarrassing itself by making requests that amount to assuming editorial control.

"It's outlandish and completely unacceptable in this day and age that a college or university of any reputation would even suggest that it should be determining the content of a student publication," said Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va. "It's censorship pure and simple."

The Heights is still willing to abide by the ban on abortion-related ads "out of respect for the Catholic identity of Boston College," Reardon said, but editors don't want to see the scope of the ban expanded.

In addition, the newspaper already established a board of alumni and student directors over the summer, she said, and has a longstanding code of ethics. But editors object to the idea that these would be mandated.

Because the lease calls for The Heights to "adopt and comply with" the ethics code and a grievance procedure, Heights editors argued "the language as written would appear to give the administration the ability to find The Heights in breach of the lease agreement if it considers the Code of Ethics to have been breached," according to a letter to BC signed by the approximately 30 members of the editorial board.

The suggested advisory board, which the lease said "shall meet not less than once in each semester," would "dismantle the wall of separation between The Heights and the administration," according to the letter.

Reardon also said the paper would lose 13 percent of its ad revenue if it gave half-off discounts to campus groups. Student organizations already pay $8.50 per column inch, compared with $9.50 for local businesses.

Despite signs of an impasse, both sides stress that they hope for a compromise. Dunn said the proposed lease was just a starting place for negotiations, and that only the ban on abortion ads is non-negotiable. "We're open to discussion," Dunn said.

Marcella Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@globe.com.