The story behind this is that there was a controversial fee increase up for an Initiative Referendum.

The fee was favored by the University President and he was saying what ever he needed to in order to sell students on the idea, even if he statements were a constant contradiction. Finally, after three years of the same fee increase with different names, a few athletes picked up the cause with hopes of gaining funds for their teams. To keep this part of the story short I will cut to the chase and explain that most people thought that it would not go where it was said it would go.

Where the problems come in to play is there is a campus policy and a state law that bars campaigning and solicitation for petition signing on state property and in the dorms. One of the athletes worked in the dorms and gathered signatures at her work place and on the clock. These signatures by all ethical grounds should have been thrown out. Another sheet of signatures was turned in by the Presidents office and had signatures from Chinese students who were here just to study. We let these go for the most part, not by my choice.

I was contacted with information that needed to be spread to the students and the paper was already at press with the last issue of the semester. I took the information and validated the information given and started a student body email chain with the following article and asking for students to continue spreading the word. (The university name has been removed since this is being displayed to a larger audience.)

"A breaking news edition of “State of the Campus”

Signs of Corruption and Voter Intimidation at ###U

At this late hour, with the close of the Special Election on the Athletic Fee Increase just hours away, rumors of misconduct are rapidly spreading.

Members of ###U Student Government Association (SGA) serving at the voting booth in the Memorial Union have stumbled on to, what may be indications of a greater and more alarming problem.

As is usual practice during elections, SGA members working the voting booth were stopping students and asking them if they’ve voted. What made this election unusual is the response received from more than a few ###U Athletes.

According to the statements of these athletes, they were being instructed that they were to vote in the presence of their coaches. One of these athletes even responded to questions by SGA staff, saying that they “didn’t even care about this (Athletic Fee Increase) and it is the coaches that are all behind this.” Other statements surfaced as well indicating that the petition, which called for this election, was passed around by their coaches during practices and/or meetings with the teams.

Along with these statements, other students have reported that their classes were rescheduled to computer labs for the election days and were told they would receive extra credit if they voted.

Members of SGA have notified Student Affairs of the situation and have attempted to contact the Athletic Director. As of now the Athletic Director has been unable to be reached and has not yet returned a call to the SGA office.

Other questions are being raised in regard to signatures gathered by the office of President ###. The sheet was signed exclusively by international students. Coincidentally, members of SGA have observed numerous international students being completely uninformed and unaware of the election or the issue it is deciding. This has begun to generate further curiosity as to whether signers of the petition were signing the petition completely voluntarily and with necessary knowledge of what they were supporting.

Again, the whole situation is being evaluated by SGA and no allegations are being made at this time. If you have information on any of the issues mentioned here, or have had any other experiences that you felt were meant to be intimidating or suppressive in regards to your vote, contact the Student Body President (###) or Vice President (###). You can contact them by emailing them: sga@###.edu or calling the SGA office at (###)###-####.

For further information on this, tune in to #### (#### Cable Channel 67) Thursday Night at 7pm, or view the archives online by clicking on the SGA Live link on the SGA Website. ##############
Randy Leer
OP/ED Columnist
The University #######

Believe it or not that is what cause me to be dismissed as a writer. I had written much, much, more controversial articles besides that. I gave no specific names and reported it as an ongoing investigation. The paper dismissed me as violating the Libel policy.

I hear this term Libel thrown around a lot and almost always it is used in a context or accusation that is far from the correct meaning of the word. Most of the time I've seen it as a catch-all for saying

I got caught doing something stupid and I don't want anyone to know so I am threatening to sue, even though I have no intentions to, so that I can act tough and hopefully get an apology printed so I can say it was all a lie, even though it wasn't

The simplest definition of this commonly misused word is as follows

libel per se
n. broadcast or written publication of a false statement about another which accuses him/her of a crime, immoral acts, inability to perform his/her profession, having a loathsome disease (like syphilis) or dishonesty in business. Such claims are considered so obviously harmful that malice need not be proved to obtain a judgment for "general damages," and not just specific losses.

a more detailed definition is available by clicking here.

Apparently the fall out was that some coaches were mad and accusing libel and lawsuit against the paper and the paper folded like a house of cards and dismissed me. I'm sure it was completely coincidental that I had been rallying against the fee increase for two years and they lost the election.

They call it libel, I call it the pound of flesh they needed to exact as a consolation prize.

That brings me to a major concern, if even our press sources are willing to cave under slight pressure, what could happen if we ever get another Bush as President?

How much of our civil liberties were taken despite our fighting....how much will we loose when the watchdogs lack fortitude... I don't mind losing the spot, as I said it didn't even pay, what I do mind is that the editors were so quick to tuck tail and run.

[Editor's Note: It is the policy of this website to allow our readers to speak their minds and to freely offer comments. In that spirit, several comments were left here by a handful of readers. However, the editor of this site has made the decision to disallow comments on this post, after much consideration and deliberation. It is this editor's belief that the writer of this post, Randy Leer, was careful to avoid mentioning specific names or pointing fingers at any specific entities in his post. However, at least one anonymous commenter persisted in using the names of the university, the newspaper and the columnist in his comments even though the commenter himself would not provide his own name. It is this editor's belief that if Mr. Leer took extra pains to keep from criticizing individuals by name, commenters on this particular post should be expected to do the same.]