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The CNM Chronicle will resume its production and impounded newspapers will return to newsstands this week now that the CNM administration has backed down from its decision to suspend the student newspaper.
CNM President Kathie Winograd said at an emergency publication board meeting on Wednesday that the administration is pulling back the suspension and that the Chronicle will be allowed to publish again. She said the problem was in part CNM’s fault.
“I am authorizing the CNM Chronicle to continue operations immediately,” she said. “I believe as a college we have failed to provide the CNM Chronicle editorial resources and education that it needs and deserves. I hope the publication board will create … a more educational environment.”
CNM suspended the Chronicle on Tuesday after the student-run weekly newspaper published a “sex issue.” Hours after it was released, the administration deemed the issue inappropriate, then pulled all copies from stands and confiscated copies from students who read the issue in public.
The administration also stripped Chronicle staff members of their positions and asked them to leave the Chronicle’s newsroom shortly after. According to a statement issued by CNM, the college would re-evaluate “how students can be trained, educated and supervised,” and that the Chronicle would have been allowed to publish again by the beginning of the summer semester. CNM fully funds the Chronicle, which gives them power to suspend the paper.
Since CNM suspended the Chronicle, many have expressed concerns about the decision as well as support for the Chronicle. The New Mexico Compass published an article defending the Chronicle’s First Amendment rights. Also, a petition to reinstate the newspaper has been circulating in the website Change.org and by Wednesday afternoon it garnered about 400 signatures.
The Daily Lobo printed an editorial on its front page Tuesday saying it was suspending publication of the printed edition of its newspaper until the CNM administration reinstated the Chronicle. The Lobo printed black X’s on all of its inside pages in place of content.
Winograd said CNM condemned the sex edition because it involved an underage student. This allegation was not present in the statements CNM released on the same day of Chronicle’s suspension.
“The reason why we pulled this issue from news racks around campus was that a high school student was included on the issue,” she said. “We needed to check on the legal ramifications about the publication of CNM.”
The Chronicle’s Editor-in-Chief Jyllian Roach admitted that the newspaper interviewed a 17-year-old student for an article about abstinence. But she said the Chronicle received a letter of consent from the girl’s parents for the publication of the article and that the administration did not ask them about it before suspending the newspaper.
Although Roach said she did not expect the publication board’s decision to reinstate the Chronicle, she said she is “ecstatic” about it.
“We are all excited that we are going to continue our publication without any interruption,” she said. “We are going to continue to do what we have always done. We are going to continue to print whatever is important to our readers.”
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Roach said the suspension was simply an impulsive move by CNM’s administration.
“We all have moments when we react emotionally,” Roach said. “I feel that the administration here had a moment like that, and after they had a good night’s sleep on it, they reconsidered. I’m very happy that they did.”
Roach said the Chronicle will be published next Tuesday as scheduled.
At the meeting, the board also discussed the possibility of providing more resources for CNM students who want to pursue journalism.
Board member Patrick Houlihan said CNM has inadequate resources for student journalists, but that the college is making the most of what it has. He said he is excited to see the Chronicle back in action.
“In terms of training, we have a program that’s weak, that — and I don’t mean this pejoratively but literally — is the best you can get in terms of sophomore writing,” he said. “I’m actually looking forward to when it’s back on the racks.”
Houlihan said one of the ways CNM could prevent the problem from happening again is by establishing a four-year journalism program at the college.
“We don’t have that opportunity here,” Houlihan said. “In fact, we don’t even require that the people we hire take our introduction to journalism course.”
CNM Dean of Students Rudy Garcia said the board also hopes to provide further training to the Chronicle’s staff to help maintain the quality of the publication.
“I think there was a lot of emotion on what I heard, but at the same time we need to make it better,” he said. “The board is looking on to strengthening it.”
But Jack Ehn, the Chronicle’s faculty adviser, said giving student journalists further training does not guarantee a harmonious relationship between the publication and the college’s administration in the future.
“UNM has a four-year journalism program, but the (Daily) Lobo still drives the administration crazy,” he said. “I’m not sure how providing the Chronicle some training will suddenly make it not offensive to the administration. It’s not the way it works.”
Roach said that although the Chronicle already has its own training program for its staff members, she said she still welcomes help from the administration. She said she would appreciate the formation of a journalism program at CNM.
“I’d love to see a journalism program at CNM. Journalism has always been an underserved major on campus,” she said. “We have a lot of students interested at least in that. It’s an incredible skill to learn whether you want to go to professional journalism or not.”
