Fairfield U. Student Newspaper Faces Harassment Claims

By Stephanie Reitz

Associated Press

HARTFORD — A satirical column that uses derogatory language to mock women for one-night stands has prompted harassment claims against a Connecticut college newspaper that published the piece.

Student editors at The Fairfield Mirror are concerned the controversy could affect the paper’s $30,000 funding stream from Fairfield University and jeopardize its editorial independence.

The dean of students at Fairfield, a Jesuit university with about 5,000 students in southwest Connecticut, has told the paper the column violated the student newspaper’s ethical and procedural guidelines.

And now, officials at the Catholic university want the paper’s editors to appear before a student conduct board, which is reviewing complaints from four female students who say they felt harassed and offended by the column.

The October 1 piece by a staff columnist advises male students how to navigate “the road to pleasure town” and share details afterward with buddies to ensure that “her walk of shame is an induction into your hall of fame.”

It also tells the men to “be ruthless” to avoid getting diseases from “that hood rat” and to get “an entertaining story that is both hilarious and humiliating” at her expense.

The newspaper later published an apology for the column and updated its procedures, including editing standards to tighten the rules on language that could be considered divisive or offensive.

Editor-in-Chief Thomas Cleary, 21, said November 12 he does not think the paper’s funding is in jeopardy, but did not know for certain. He said the student journalists also worry that the conduct board proceedings could have ramifications if the Mirror’s independence is compromised.

“I think we’ve realized how much of an effect the columns have on people on campus,” he said, adding they thought before publishing the piece that it was satirical enough to be viewed as “close to the line but never really crossing it.”

Thomas Pellegrino, the university’s dean of students, said the complaint was the first directed at an organization rather than an individual under the campus antiharassment policy, according to the Connecticut Post newspaper.

Pellegrino did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press, but told the Connecticut Post that administrators do not want to take over editorial control of the Mirror.

He would not say whether the paper’s $30,000 stipend or its use of office space on campus could be rescinded. Pellegrino is also reviewing the newspaper’s updated procedures.