The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has extended university administrators’ power to censor college and university student newspapers.

In the decision made June 20, the court ruled that the Supreme Court’s 1988 Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision, permitting censorship on high school student newspapers, applies to public university and college publications.

The Hosty v. Carter case was first heard in 2001, giving rise to uncertainty over collegiate journalists’ First Amendment rights. In the case, student editors at Governors State University in Illinois sued their university after a dean told the newspaper’s printer to stop printing future issues until a university official had examined and approved the paper’s content. The paper was being censored because the editors had printed editorials and news stories that were critical of the administration. The dean’s restrictions were done despite the university’ standing policy, which allowed the newspaper’s editors to determine the content without outside approval.

Because of the controversy behind the issue, it made its way to the 7th Circuit Court, where Illinois attorney general defended the school’s right to censor its campus newspaper. In Hosty, it was requested by the university’s attorney that the Hazelwood decision be extended to public college publications.

While the decision in Hosty should technically affect only public colleges and universities that fall in the 7th Circuit — Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin — many fear that a precedent has now been set by the court, which could potentially limit the rights of all student publications.

David Adams, a professor of journalism at Indiana University and a member on the Student Press Law Center board of directors, said that Hosty could even affect independent, or “free” student publications because of the almost inevitable connection that the publication would have to the university.

“Probably 99 percent of all public college student media (publications have) some connections with their university, funding-wise,” Adams said.

Student-run publications can be connected to their university in a variety of ways: they can be housed in a university building, receive money from student fees, have electricity or other utilities paid for by the university, or their business operations may have to comply with university guidelines to avoid theft and fraud, Adams said.

For this reason, all public college and university student publications have been urged by the Student Press Law Center — which has been developing a campaign in response to the Hosty decision — to work with their university administrations to immediately declare their student media as “qualified public forums.”

“A qualified public forum is when the student publication or media has been set up to provide a ‘forum for discussion of ideas on a wide variety of topics and issues’ and that duly appointed student editors make final content decisions (not an adult, faculty or administrative staff member at the university),” Adams said.

The question of whether or not this “qualified public forum” status is applicable to student groups has been raised. If so, then most students groups, which are funded by the universities and colleges, may be vulnerable to censorship or regulation.

Michigan Student Assembly President, Jesse Levine stressed that the Hosty decision would not affect how student groups at the University were funded, despite their lack of a “qualified public forum” status.

“The decision in Hosty v. Carter does not, and will not affect the way that MSA funds student groups. MSA has and will continue to fund student organizations in a viewpoint neutral manner, supported by the Supreme Court,” Levine said.