University of California at San Diego: Unconstitutional Defunding of Student Media

On November 18, 2015, in response to a controversial article by satirical student newspaper The Koala, administrators at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) publically condemned the paper’s “offensive and hurtful” language. The same day, the UCSD student government voted to strip funding from all student press organizations, an unconstitutional action aimed specifically at censoring The Koala. This is the second time since 2010 that UCSD student government has tried to defund student media in reaction to The Koala; on the previous occasion, the student government ultimately restored funding. FIRE and the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, both of which also wrote to UCSD concerning the 2010 case, have written to UCSD’s administration and student government demanding they restore the student media organizations’ lost funding.