Tech may cut campus newspaper funding for comments policy

By Tonia Moxley

The Collegiate Times will pursue legal action if Virginia Tech's Commission on Student Affairs goes forward with plans to cut university funding to the newspaper and related student media products, according to a letter released today by the newspaper.

The CT is the student-led campus newspaper for Virginia Tech, but is owned and operated by Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech Inc., an independent entity.

The commission notified the newspaper Monday that it had been deemed in violation of the university's "principles of community" for allowing anonymous online comments to be posted to the paper's Web site.

In a letter dated Feb. 8, officials laid out a plan to cut university funding to the paper, the yearbook and other publications owned by EMCVT and ban student organizations from using university funds to buy advertising in the CT, a move that could shut down the paper.

Officials have asked the newspaper to disallow anonymous comments on stories at its Web site, saying that staff, students and some faculty had objected to comments they characterized as racist or otherwise offensive.

The paper has so far declined to change its comment policy or ban anonymous comments from the site, pointing out in a response letter to Tech officials that most newspapers across the country allow anonymous comments on their Web sites.

The move is "completely unconstitutional, as well as breach of contract," CT General Manager Kelly Wolff said Thursday.

The commission is scheduled to meet on Feb. 18, according to Wolff.

The paper will "wait to hear what the commission says. If they are going to pursue this course of action, then we will take legal action," she said.