To the administration of The University of Alabama, this is a new low.
We, the Editorial Board, are deeply saddened by the University’s decision to suspend Alice Magazine and Nineteen Fifty-Six, our sister student publications.
The University cited a memo from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi advising against so-called “unlawful proxies” for illegal discrimination by federal funds recipients. But it’s hard to see how two magazines, geared toward women or Black students but who have had staff members who are not women or Black, are discriminating.
The University’s hand was not forced here — far from it. The non-binding memo’s discussion of “unlawful proxies” pertains to advantages or disadvantages to individuals based on protected characteristics, but the publications were equally accessible to all students. Furthermore, Steven Hood, vice president for student life, told students that in the four months since the memo’s issuance, there were no complaints about the publications. The decision to censor was preemptive.
The University laughably asserted in a statement to our newspaper that students’ First Amendment rights “remain fully intact.” Take it from the experts: The University’s silencing of students was a blatant First Amendment violation.
As experts noted, no amount of assurances that students could still publish the same content elsewhere changes this fact.
This suspension censors more than the content of the pages — it censors the specific editorial vision and mission of Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six to serve women and Black students, respectively. These visions cannot be replicated in another publication.
The replacement publication the University has proposed, a new magazine that would feature “a variety of voices and perspectives,” would compel students to adopt entirely different, more generalized editorial visions.
In electing to censor its students, the University does a great disservice to them. Students volunteer and devote their time to award-winning publications like these to launch successful careers in journalism. The University also deprives the student body of the unique perspectives that professional reporters removed from college life can’t provide.
This is but the latest in a series of major instances of the University spinelessly kowtowing to conservative politicians at students’ expense.
Just this year, a conservative student group complained about being required to include in its constitution language barring discrimination against potential members based on gender identity and sexual identity, even enlisting the help of the state attorney general. Ironically, the group argued on free speech grounds. But as to be expected, the University not only gave in and granted the group an exception — it went even further, changing its nondiscrimination statement altogether to not mention any protected characteristics.
When UA student Alireza Doroudi was detained for weeks this spring by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement even though his attorney said he was present legally in the country, the administration did not so much as release a statement expressing sympathy for him. The administration never answered The Crimson White’s repeated questions about whether it had provided any support to Doroudi. By contrast, Tufts University expressed support for an international student arrested there, showing the courage our University couldn’t.
Instead, the University opened its doors to the man whose administration was responsible for Doroudi’s detainment, President Donald Trump, rolling out the red carpet for a tasteless commencement address weeks after Doroudi’s arrest.
The message sent is clear: The University will cherry-pick whom they deem worthy of the protections of the First Amendment. If you are an immigrant, like Doroudi, or someone who supports diversity, like the staff of Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six — your voices are viewed as less than.
So much for institutional neutrality.
This is how mass censorship begins: slowly, almost as a whisper, often undetected by the majority until it is too late. The silencing of Alice Magazine and Nineteen Fifty-Six is a worrisome indicator that further steps may be pursued until students no longer have a platform at all.
If our University’s administration won’t muster the courage to defend all its students’ rights equally, then we as the University community must compel them to. A recent example shows just how we can.
In 2022, the UA System Board of Trustees voted to rename what was then known as Bibb Graves Hall to “Lucy-Graves Hall,” coupling the name of the University’s first Black student, Autherine Lucy Foster, with Graves, a Ku Klux Klan member.
In response, students formed an organization with a website, action plan, petition and open letter. Faculty members wrote and signed an open letter sent to the University and media. The Student Government Association unanimously passed a resolution calling for Graves’ name to be removed. Following the outcry from the UA community and national media attention, the trustees relented, removing Graves’ name.
We call upon students and faculty members to follow the example set a few years ago and on the SGA to pass a resolution condemning the censorship.
Read and share these journalists’ work. Sign the petition. Protest the censorship. Write to UA President Peter Mohler demanding the publications be restored. Exercise your right to free speech, and don’t let the University take it away.
Have the backbone that the University doesn’t.
The Crimson White editorial board consists of Editor-in-Chief Maven Navarro; Managing Editor Jacob Ritondo; Engagement Editor Emma Brandenburg; Opinions Editor Ella Seaton; and Chief Copy Editors Lauren Chumbley and Rachel Talley.
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