Newspaper Theft at Stetson University

The Student Press Law Center reported last week that a Stetson University sorority is suspected of stealing copies of The Reporter, the school’s student newspaper. SPLC staff writer Marnette Federis reports that members of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority allegedly stole around 700 copies of an issue of The Reporter. The issue in question contained a story detailing the relocation of some sorority members after university officials declared the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority house to be in poor condition. According to Federis, a formal apology from the sorority’s president is expected this week, as well as reimbursement of the roughly $2,300 worth of damages to the paper in lost advertising and republication costs.

While it seems as though the present case has been satisfactorily resolved, censorship of the student press is nothing new on Stetson’s campus, whether at the hands of fellow students or Stetson administrators. Almost exactly a year ago, FIRE intervened after Stetson administrators banned a student magazine for printing a Jay Leno joke and superimposing a question mark over a picture of a rainbow-colored flag covering a dorm window.