SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Students and alumni of the private Santa Clara University are up in arms after the campus newspaper was forced to remove a section of a published story that administrators objected to.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports (https://bit.ly/2lc0UNj ) that administrators on Feb. 9 forced the student newspaper to remove criticism of a dean by a wealthy donor. Under California law, the newspaper did not have to change the article.
Campus lawyer John Ottoboni says the administration requested the change because the harm of the comment outweighed the benefit of keeping it in.
California extends First Amendment protections to public and private colleges, universities and high schools under the so-called 1992 “Leonard Law.” Santa Clara University students said they didn’t know about the Leonard Law and were told by faculty that they had to comply with the administration’s request.
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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, https://www.sfgate.com
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