> so does the administration have the right to moderate a campus newspaper. Nobody disputes that. At the end of the day, the university has the right to do as

> so does the administration have the right to moderate a campus newspaper. Nobody disputes that. At the end of the day, the university has the right to do as it wishes with its college newspaper. It can discipline or threaten student reporters, it can close the paper, it can do as it likes. In my mind, the issue is: should universities exercise those legal rights? Would it be right, according to the standards they claim to uphold? Liebson was reporting on a faculty senate meeting. Since I've served on my own university's faculty senate, I can tell you what they're like: they're boring, there are lots of people there (who usually aren't paying close attention), the doors will be unlocked and no one is paying attention to who is going in or out. In other words, what Liebson learned was more or less public information. Now, to Stony Brook's credit, it doesn't seem like they went nuclear. Someone in charge of PR tried to silence her, but failed, and apparently didn't follow up in any serious way. Indeed, Liebson reported not only on the senate meeting, but also on her own experience with Stony Brook's PR: https://www.sbstatesman.com/2019/04/28/ive-spent-the-past-four-years-covering-stony-brook-their-media-relations-is-a-nightmare-for-student-journalists/ https://www.sbstatesman.com/2019/04/28/ive-spent-the-past-fo... They could have coerced her silence, and didn't. (It may be that Media Relations tried, and didn't get the backing of others in the university.) So hats off to them -- at least in part. I apologize for being so negative. But, at the end of the day, I confess to having very little sympathy for universities fretting so much about "liability and risk". A lawsuit is very unlikely, and if one does occur, then Stony Brook has a nine figure endowment in the bank. (And big university lawsuits generally involve grossly unethical and/or wantonly stupid behavior on the part of somebody powerful. The recent Oberlin lawsuits, as well as the Sandusky and Nassar cases, seem to be representative examples.) Stony Brook runs a journalism school. They should have the courage to allow their students to practice journalism.