AROUND HIGHER EDUCATION: Black students hold sit-in at newspaper

Black student protesters are continuing their sit-in at the Weekly DePaulia, the DePaul University student newspaper, in response to an article the paper published in February which the protesters believe was racially offensive. Although DePaul officials have offered to increase recruiting of minority faculty and students, members of the Coalition for Concerned Black Students said they will not end the sit-in until they receive an apology from the newspaper, which is funded by the university. The article at the center of the controversy quoted a police report about a fight that happened at dance sponsored by House Call, an African-American student organization. The report referred to male African-Americans as "M-B's" which the protesters say perpetuates a negative stereotype of blacks. But Weekly Depaulia Editor-in-Chief Zack Martin said House Call did not respond when asked to comment on the fight. The paper did print all of the letters written in response to the article, Martin added. Student protesters have met with administrators several times this past week. The protesters have asked that the paper's student editor be fired but administrators said they would not consider it. The Weekly DePaulia will soon resume operations at another location, DePaul administrators said in a statement. This is not the first incident of this kind to receive national attention. In April 1993, 14,000 copies of The Daily Pennsylvanian were stolen from distribution points by students calling themselves the "Black Community." The theft was in response to pieces written by then-DP columnist Gregory Pavlik, which the protesters viewed as being racist. The destruction or theft of newspapers by students is not uncommon. Twenty-four such incidents have occurred so far this year and 38 cases occurred in 1993-94, according to the Student Press Law Center. Two years ago, the student newspaper of Northern Illinois University was stolen by students protesting the paper's coverage of the Rodney King Trial. But not all newspaper thefts involve racial issues. Last fall, a student at Briar Cliff College in Iowa stole copies of the student newspaper because he did not want other students to know he was involved in a traffic accident. The Chicago Tribune and The Washington Times contributed to this article.