NORTHFIELD, Vt. — This semester, student journalists at The Guidon, Norwich University’s student newspaper, have wanted to publish news stories about a variety of topics: university events, features, film and TV criticism, profiles of campus figures.
But The Guidon, which is online-only, has gone months without posting a story — first because of a suspension from the Norwich administration, and now because students are refusing to restart the paper unless the university fulfills certain conditions.
In a statement published on The Guidon’s website last week, titled “Why We Won’t Work,” students outlined a list of requirements, which include the elimination of all oversight of the news outlet and a statement from the administration affirming the paper’s independence.
The statement highlights a standoff between student journalists and the Northfield military university, prolonging a dispute that has kept the more-than-century-old student newspaper from publishing for months and drawn criticism over what many see as censorship of a student press.
“This is the first time that The Guidon has been suspended in its entire 100 and some-odd year history,” Bennett Oakes, a Guidon reporter and junior, said in an interview Monday. “We’re vying for The Guidon’s independence.”
Publicly, administrators have said that The Guidon was suspended this semester because student journalists were unprepared for the task of reporting and that the paper’s standards were not rigorous enough.
“At this time, students do not have to take journalism courses to work on or publish in the paper and they do not have the training and mentorship we feel is necessary to educate and prepare them for this important responsibility,” Norwich Provost Karen Gaines said in an Oct. 10 message to the campus community.
But students and faculty members said that some of the paper’s recent reporting — particularly stories about sexual assault on campus this spring — appeared to rankle the university’s administration.
“There’s a lot of heavy-hitting articles that we had written towards the end of the year,” Kerry McAuley, a second-year Guidon reporter, said in an interview. “And I think obviously the school doesn’t love when the school isn’t spoken about in a great manner. But at the same time, bad things are happening. We report both bad and good. We’re just reporting the facts.”
The suspension had drawn criticism that university leaders were censoring the newspaper. After VtDigger reported on The Guidon’s suspension, Norwich President John Broadmeadow, a retired lieutenant general, issued an Oct. 14 statement saying that the paper would soon be able to resume publishing.
But, Broadmeadow said in the statement, the paper would still be under some administrative oversight. Broadmeadow said that he was ordering a code of journalistic ethics “be drafted for my approval” and that academic advisers to the paper would provide supervision as well.
Such oversight would be unusual among student newspapers at Vermont institutions of higher education.
“The Guidon has the go ahead to begin publishing without any restrictions, requirements, or oversight from administration, that is the most important thing to know,” Kolb said in an email. “We hope they choose to publish soon. There are multiple advisors to offer a wide variety of perspectives and students can avail themselves of the expertise of their advisors as they see fit.”