Duke Student Government debated The Chronicle’s editorial pages policy at its Wednesday night meeting, at which Student Affairs Senator George Fleming brought a resolution to the floor that underwent lengthy debate but ultimately failed.
The bill “Concerning the Content of The Chronicle” called for “The Chronicle to take greater care in choosing its editorial columns” and stated that “while controversial articles are fine, blindly printing a submission without scrutiny is a problem.”
Fleming, a sophomore, proposed the resolution in response to recent Chronicle columns, including senior Philip Kurian’s column “The Jews” and junior Joost Bosland’s column “Raping Grannies with Broomsticks,” both of which have been deemed hurtful to certain members of the University community.
The resolution originally failed in the Student Affairs Committee, but Fleming said he decided to present it to the Senate for consideration. It was voted down by a 25-9, with eight abstentions.
Fleming expressed frustration with DSG’s reluctance to address issues of a controversial or political nature. “Many people say we’re ineffective—that we don’t accomplish anything significant,” he said. “To be honest with you, the events of the past weeks give me little reason to disagree with these charges.”
Junior Corinne Low—a writer for Recess, The Chronicle’s arts and entertainment section, and a member of the Freeman Center for Jewish Life’s student board—defended the resolution and expressed the Freeman Center’s concerns regarding The Chronicle’s editorial page decisions.
“There are no specific guidelines in place at The Chronicle about what is appropriate to publish and what is not,” Low said. “They have absolutely no guidelines about what should go in their publication.”
Responding to Low’s assertion, junior Karen Hauptman, editor of The Chronicle, said after the meeting that the newspaper evaluates each column using “the ethics of good journalism” and ensures that every column is well-reasoned and not libelous.
“You can’t make black and white guidelines that this is okay, this isn’t okay. It’s a judgement and a way of reading things that develops,” Hauptman said. “If I were to make a list and say, ‘These are things that are okay for the editorial pages and these are things that are not okay,’ I would paint myself into a corner.”
While Fleming gained support from senators like junior Chris Chin, who said The Chronicle must be held accountable for its actions, the dominant opinion was that DSG does not have the jurisdiction to advise an independent publication on what it should or should not publish.
“It’s not the role of any government—ever—to say anything about what its news media publishes and what it decides to cover, what it decides to say,” said Senator Tyler Green, a sophomore.
DSG President Pasha Majdi said DSG has the right to comment and represent the voice of the students through resolutions. Majdi said he felt the main reason the resolution did not pass was Fleming’s failure to consult with Chronicle staffers, and an overwhelming consensus that the resolution was deeply flawed.
Despite the resolution’s failure, Fleming said, “I’m actually surprised that it was actually allowed to be brought up. I felt that was a victory in itself.”
In other business
DSG approved charters for three student groups: Free Culture @ Duke, the Duke University Linux Group and the Hong Kong Student Association. Some objections were posed over the approval of the Hong Kong Student Association, particularly by Fleming, who stressed that DSG should pay more attention to fiscal responsibility. “We need to start showing a bit more restraint about which groups we charter,” Fleming said.
A resolution passed requesting that the University administration inform student leaders at least two weeks prior to the approval of contracts for major events, despite senators’ concerns about not consulting the administration about the contents of the resolution before its presentation.
“You have to consult the parties involved, because we’re passing a resolution and we want it to have authority,” said sophomore Joel Kliksberg, vice president of community interaction.
The Inter-Community Council by-law, which is modified yearly, was also approved last night. This year’s by-law included the addition of the president of the International Council to ICC and changes to the student leader organization’s attendance policy.
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