On Tuesday, CNM administrators, in a ruthless and authoritarian display of censorship, stripped students of some basic constitutional rights.
Tuesday’s issue of the weekly, student-run CNM Chronicle centered on sex. Chronicle staff members said their intention was to create a dialogue on the topic and educate students on safe practices. The administration didn’t see the value in this, and immediately suspended the staff and declared that it would halt publication of the Chronicle until the summer. A representative for CNM said students needed to be adequately “trained, educated and supervised” to responsibly produce content.
The college pulled Tuesday’s issue off the shelves and Chronicle staff members said college representatives even pried the issue out of students’ hands if they saw them reading it.
It goes without saying that this violates students’ rights to freedom of speech and of the press. The Daily Lobo enjoys complete editorial freedom, freedom that members of the UNM Student Publications Board value and work hard to protect. I’ve decided that we at the Daily Lobo have a responsibility to use that freedom to make a statement in solidarity with the Chronicle staff. In that light, the Daily Lobo will not publish printed issues of the newspaper until the CNM administration agrees to reinstate Chronicle staff members to their former positions at the paper and allow the newspaper to remain free of faculty, staff or administrative oversight.
The Daily Lobo will still be publishing content online at DailyLobo.com.
Elizabeth Cleary
Daily Lobo editor-in-chief
