Barnett story hits national news outlets
Since the Collegian published “TU suspended student without hearing” and “TU suggests Collegian investigation may result in disciplinary action,” a number of media organizations and national media outlets have published stories on the Barnett case and the resulting Collegian investigation.
Stories have appeared from the Huffington Post, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the Student Press Law Center, Reason and Inside Higher Ed.
SA’s investigative committee to host open session
The SA Senate Student Investigation Committee (SIC) will be hosting a special open session in the Fish Bowl this Tuesday at 5 p.m. to discuss both TU’s harassment policy and freedom of speech at TU in light of the Barnett case.
“The (SIC) listens to student wishes and concerns, researches potential solutions, and authors legislation” to go before the SA Senate, said Senate President Pro Tempore and Senate Parliamentarian Rob Egan.
If the legislation passes in the SA Senate it will be presented to the university administration for consideration.
All students are invited to the session.
Reporters to face no disciplinary action, according to administration
A press release from the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) reported that Director of Marketing & Communications Mona Chamberlin said that the university does not plan to pursue disciplinary action against Editor-in-Chief Kyle Walker or Managing Editor Conor Fellin for reporting on the suspension of George “Trey” Barnett.
“No one threatened Collegian staff in any way,” she said. She also said that she did not know what university policy the Collegian could have broken by publishing the article.
While Walker and Fellin were gathering evidence for the Barnett article, Chamberlin had told them that if “anything that the university deems to be confidential” is “published or shared, (that) could violate university policies.”
Collegians go missing prior to Tulsa Time
Student Writer Olivia Blankenship was working her desk shift at Lottie Jane Mabee this Thursday when she discovered that there were no Collegians in the Lottie Jane lobby. The papers, she soon discovered, had been ripped up and were sitting in a recycling bin.
Student Miranda Wolf reported that, while she was on a 5–7 p.m. desk shift at Fisher West Suites this Friday, someone took all copies of the Collegian from the front desk. She said this person “looked like a college student with blond hair in a ponytail.”
Friday evening and Saturday morning, the Collegian staff examined eleven buildings and found that nine of them (Fisher West, Fisher South, the Pat Case Dining Center, ACAC and Keplinger Hall) contained no copies of the most recent issue on their news stands.
There were still Collegians in the Mayo SAC and Stephenson Hall.
The Collegian distributed its remaining copies of the most recent issue on Sunday to fill in for those that had gone missing.
The Collegian has reported the missing papers to Campus Security, and an investigation is ongoing.
Commentary Editor Giselle Willis contributed to this report.
