On Tuesday of last week, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals heard a case involving student free speech and administrative censorship. Three students at Governors State University in University Park, Ill. filed a lawsuit - Hosty v. Carter - on Oct. 31, 2000 after the school's dean of students, Patricia Carter, discontinued further publication of the school's student newspaper, the Innovator, pending an agreement from the paper's staff that the administration be allowed to review its content.

The administration's announcement coincided with a front-page feature about the administration's dismissal of the Innovator's faculty advisor. Governors State Administrator Roger Oden claims the article was written "with the intent and purpose of damaging my reputation."

Governors State University's actions in that article's wake have been wholly inappropriate. Censoring the newspaper is an infringement of First Amendment rights of expression. If the court rules in Carter's favor at the appellate level, college and university administrations in the states of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana would have the authority to exercise censorship rights over their respective campus newspapers. Such a ruling could also potentially empower schools to control any school-sponsored activity involving freedom of expression.

The appellate court in this case should find for plaintiffs. A ruling permitting administrative censorship would leave student media in the affected states open to a host of arbitrary and capricious attacks from heavy-handed administrators. Censorship severely damages the free exchange of ideas that makes university life intellectually stimulating.

Many universities - like the University of Wisconsin - located within the jurisdiction of the court have already asserted that they feel no need to censor student publications. Still, a finding for Carter would set a dangerous precedent. A judicial precedent granting administrative censorship would remain standing long after any current administrators have retired or found work elsewhere.

Student expression must continue to be characteristic of every college campus if we are to continue living in a democratic society shaped by unrestrained discourse. Throughout their history, student publications have exposed malfeasance at the highest rung of university leadership, This assault on the freedom of the journalistic institution threatens the free exchange of ideas within institutions of higher learning and the important lessons of citizenship that free speech inculcates in the nation's youth.