Indianapolis, Ind. – The latest issue of the Butler Collegian was defaced last night on campus.
Individuals took papers from the racks across campus and drew the transgender symbol in the design, wrote “TRANSformBU” and some had “we fixed it for you.”
The article on the front page was about the university’s gender inclusive housing policy in all residence hall options, except Ross Hall.
In no way was the article’s purpose to cause any pain or harm to anyone.
We recognize – and embrace – the right to free speech. However, defacing property is not free speech; the damage done to the copies of the Collegian is financially significant. It costs about $700 to print the approximately 850 Collegians that were damaged.
The Collegian pulled the damaged issues and will redistribute the remaining clean copies on campus on Friday in hopes they will not be defaced again.
The Student Press Law Center was consulted for legal advice and guidance before taking the next steps.
“The Collegian has been built upon a model of strict separation between the expressive freedom of administrators, faculty and staff and the editorial freedom of student journalists, and I am steadfast in my obligation to maintain that separation and preserve The Butler Collegian as the voice of the students.” – Nancy Whitmore
It is on RELEASED copy(ies?) of the Collegiate. I FAIL to see how this defacing property, and am disheartened that the Collegiate would not support these students instead of perpetuating the culture on this campus that clearly sparked their need to cry out. By stating that this is vandalism, instead of a correction you are saying that transgender/transexual/queer/etc. people on campus are not their gender and not worthy of the “gender inclusive” experience this campus is attempting to offer.
What they wrote is not offensive. What they wrote is not true. What they wrote was an attempt to spark some small amount of TRUE gender inclusivity at this university.
I am extremely disappointed in you, Collegiate.
*Collegian.
Wow. Really? The “defaced” issues are still legible and readable. They were not stolen or left littering campus. YOU are the ones wasting the money it cost to print them. Do your research and practice responsible journalism. Then maybe TRANSform BU will not have to “fix it for you.”
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