The Associated Students Inc. Senate passed a bylaw amendment to change the Student Media Board’s disciplines and responsibilities in an effort to prevent future controversy similar to the Union Weekly’s March 14 Pow Wow article.
The new bylaws passed on Nov. 2 include mandatory training, an approval process for content and a new code of conduct for ASI branches of media.
These branches include the Union Weekly, KBEACH and College Beat.
According to Senator-at-large Jason Neas, the bylaws were put into effect immediately after ASI’s approval.
“We felt we needed to have a more legally spelled out way of dealing with new issues and controversies that may arise,” Neas said.
Neas clarified that the new bylaws not only protect student media’s first amendment right.
He also defined what exactly those rights are.
“One of the things we did is that we made sure that the media board rules correlated well with existing laws, for journalistic integrity,” Neas said.
Controversy first arose when then-Union Weekly City Editor Noah Kelly published a review entitled “Pow Wow Wow Yippee Yo Yippy Yay” about the annual Pow Wow event on campus.
The review caused the American Indian Student Council to protest cultural insensitivity and rally for the termination of the Union Weekly.
At the previous Student Media Board meeting, John Trapper, KBEACH general manager, said the controversy attracted “Union haters” onto the Student Media Board by applying for student-at-large positions.
According to Neas, students who tried to apply as a result of the Pow Wow reception usually pressed for ASI to stifle the student media outlets, which is a basic violation of freedom of expression.
The new bylaws do not address this issue because the ASI student-at-large application process should filter any applicants that may have a grudge on any outlet, Neas said.
“They’re elected based on their qualifications and how well they present themselves, so I guess someone could come in and try and hide their true intentions … and get on the board, but it would be very unlikely,” Neas said.
The new bylaws also state that faculty directly employed by student media outlets are no longer allowed to vote in the media board. This is to avoid conflicts between faculty and student interests.
Furthermore, ASI has no jurisdiction to fire student media personnel unless they have broken any rules clearly written in the bylaws, such as malfeasance and misrepresentation.
According to Neas, if an editor of a student media outlet were to spark outrage amongst students for his or her opinion, that editor would not be recalled on those grounds alone.
ASI meets every Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in the Senate Chambers located in the University Student Union.
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