Hundreds show up to meeting over editor's future

FORT COLLINS – As many as 56 people, plus Collegian student staffers, signed up to speak before the Colorado State University Board of Student Communications Wednesday night.

The board was holding a meeting to discuss the future of Rocky Mountain Collegian Editor J. David McSwane. He came under fire after publishing the editorial, which read "Taser this... F--- Bush," on Friday.

Wednesday night's meeting started at 7 p.m. and the 310-seat room was filled to capacity. McSwane also spoke during the meeting, answering questions from the board.

"We expected a negative reaction, but we didn't think it would be as bad as it is," said McSwane.

It was the beginning of due process under the bylaws of the board, according to CSU. The nine-person board was to gather information and listen to public comment about the editorial before deciding whether to take further action.

The board has the ability to fire McSwane if they chose. They were not expected to make a decision Wednesday night, but one could come as soon as Thursday.

The board could dismiss the complaints, admonish, reprimand or dismiss McSwane.

"We want students to understand that they have the right and, you know, you shouldn't be afraid to stand up for things and start asking questions," said McSwane.

Some students showed up wearing expletive-covered shirts, and others carried signs supporting the paper. One man wore a shirt that says, "Save Dave." The Collegian and McSwane say they published the editorial to get students talking about the First Amendment and politics.

Assistant news editor Jessi Stafford asked the board to spare McSwane. "We were trying to do something powerful, different about what happened in the state of Florida," she explained.

During a public comment period, third-year graduate student Kristopher Hite defended McSwane, citing Vice President Dick Cheney's June 2004 use of the f-word on the floor of the U.S. Senate and future president and then-Texas Gov. George Bush's use of the expletive in a magazine interview.

"I'm here to tell you that the editor of a student newspaper should not be held to a higher standard than the president of the United States of America," Hite said to loud applause and cheers from the audience.

McSwane is not accused of any crime, and neither the BSC, made up of both students and faculty, nor CSU, have the power to censor McSwane. The BSC is essentially deciding whether he imperiled the Collegian, which has seen an estimated $30,000 loss in advertising. The paper supports itself through advertising, and is independent from CSU, although the BSC can hire and fire its editor

Student officials and faculty adviser Jeff Browne told the board that since the editorial ran, 18 advertisers have either called to pull their advertising or threatened to end their advertising in the newspaper, which could result in some $50,000 in potential lost revenue. Officials have said that staff would have to take an across-the-board 10 percent pay cut to make up for the losses, which cut into the $950,000 advertising budget. Browne said some staff members, including a photographer, have quit.

He added that one T-shirt manufacturer from Denver contacted the paper and bought $300 worth of advertising.

The College Republicans submitted a petition to the board calling for McSwane's resignation on Wednesday. Petitioners have gathered more than 500 signatures from students since Monday.

Crystal Korrey, executive director of the CSU College Republicans, criticized the editorial.

"We didn't need this `reminder' of free speech," said Korrey, a political science major in her senior year.

"I want to attend a university that is nationally renowned, but this is not the way I wanted us to have this status," she said.

"We are not attacking his first amendment rights. This has nothing to do with that. This has everything to do with the fact that that is just as an excuse to hide behind. This is entirely about McSwane's lack of journalistic integrity," said Chelsey Penoyer with the College Republicans at CSU.

Nick Hemenway, a senior and an engineering major, summed up the argument for many who spoke in opposition to the editorial:

"Although the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, nowhere does it claim to provide freedom of consequence," he said, adding that he wasn't sure what punishment would be appropriate for McSwane.

School policies governing student media state that students cannot publish obscene materials but that "indecent or vulgar language is not obscene."

James Landers, a journalism and technical communications faculty member on the board, said the same policy prohibits the use of obscene and vulgar language in editorials.

"You hear the F-word on campus all the time. We're a college newspaper and we're writing to college students... to get them thinking about issues that affect them," McSwane said, adding that he believed he was protected by school policies and the Constitution.

McSwane has refused to step down saying it would be an "insult to the staff who supported the editorial."

Landers said the board would meet behind closed doors Thursday morning to discuss whether to move forward.

McSwane has hired the attorney who represented former CU professor Ward Churchill. McSwane said Wednesday on the newspaper's Web site that he has hired attorney David Lane on the advice of professional staff.

"This fight is not about financial gain, but rather defending the Editorial Board's First Amendment rights," McSwane said in a written statement.

Lane did not attend Wednesday's meeting but McSwane said Lane planned to be at a later meeting where the board would decide whether to take action.

No Collegian editor has ever been fired in its 116-year history.