FACULTY BACK MAGAZINE STORY
San Francisco State University unanimously decided to distribute [X]press Magazine, a student publication, after department Chairman John Burks yanked copies of the latest issue from news racks around campus in mid-December.
He pulled the copies because of a cover shot he called “a field of waving penises,” but which were actually dildos.
The cover highlighted what the magazine staff believed to be an exclusive story on Vixen Creations, a women-owned and operated dildo factory near 3Com Park. However, the company already had been featured in the magazines On Our Backs, Bizarre and Diva, among others, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
When Burks raised the question of whether the magazine should be banned, everyone came down on the side of circulation rather than censorship, according to the Chronicle.
“The censor’s role gives us the creeps,” Burks said. “Who wants to do that? I think it’s really poor judgment. I’m disappointed in it. But the students decide the content, and we stand by them.”
Burks said he was only “calling a timeout,” or putting a halt to distribution, so the faculty could debate the issue.
About 3,000 copies were printed and distributed, the Chronicle reported.
THEFT OF NEWSPAPERS LEADS TO SUSPENSIONS
The University of Miami suspended two members of Alpha Epsilon Pi and placed a third on probation for stealing 9,000 copies of the campus newspaper that carried a negative story about the fraternity.
After the fraternity learned of a story that said its pledges made anti-Arab comments in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks, most of the Oct. 5 editions of The Miami Hurricane were snatched from the campus, said Jordan Rodack, the editor in chief of the student newspaper.
“What would you do about these goddamned Arabs?” one pledge yelled into a video camera recording students’ reactions to the attacks, according to The Miami Herald.
The Hurricane’s story was based on a complaint filed against the student who made the slur and a subsequent investigation.
Upon learning about the negative article, several fraternity members decided to steal copies, which were valued at $5,000, the Herald reported.
