Ballsy Friday: Censorship at Flagler College
Briefing:
The Gargoyle is Flagler College's newspaper. They ran a fair article about Club UNITY, which is a club aimed at uniting all students and giving them representation regardless of sexual orientation. Club UNITY has tried for a second time to get approval from the administration and has failed, and the article explored the fight to get approved without really portraying any bias and representing all sides, including quotes from the administration themselves, and everything was factual.
Because this article was of a "controversial" nature, the administration asked to review it before it went into print. They have the right to do that because The Gargoyle is not independent. They returned the article so edited with quotes taken out of context and things reworded so much that the original article was basically torn to pieces. And about 300 words were cut out.
The reason Club UNITY has not been approved is because it is contradictory to the conservative values Flagler College was built upon. I think this is ridiculous. To my knowledge, and this may be an assumption and a stereotype, but it's mostly true, generally religious people, or people affiliated with Judeo-Christian religions, are opposed to homosexuality. Flagler College is NOT affiliated with any religious sect. It's part of why I CAME here. Whether you advocate homosexuality/transgender/bisexuality or not, there is a population of them here, and they deserve the same representation everyone else does, and an opportunity to build awareness and breakdown stereotypical barriers. But that's not what this morning protest was really about...sorry for the schpiel.
What I Did:
There was a small peaceful protest against the censorship issue this morning. It was organized by those outside of The Gargoyle staff and seperate from Club UNITY. It was organized by students who care about our student body and feel like we should have a voice. That's why I went out and participated. I could only stay a few minutes because I had other things I had to go do, but if I'd had more time I also would have protested for saving the darkroom as well. Because we are losing our darkroom here on campus, and we had a campaign going for a while but it died out, so if this protest was about having a voice on campus, I would have protested for:
-the darkroom
-tuition being raised
-all the spending the school is doing
-being forced to have more roommates so the school can have more on campus students and therefore more $$$
As one girl put it, even though one of the things Flagler claims when they're trying to get you to attend is that you're not treated like a number here, well, we're actually one step below, "we're treated like a dollar sign"
If it wasn't for my friends, the beauty of this place, and the academics (because the Comm department is really great), I would leave tomorrow.
So that was my Ballsy Friday....in a very big nutshell.
The Gargoyle is Flagler College's newspaper. They ran a fair article about Club UNITY, which is a club aimed at uniting all students and giving them representation regardless of sexual orientation. Club UNITY has tried for a second time to get approval from the administration and has failed, and the article explored the fight to get approved without really portraying any bias and representing all sides, including quotes from the administration themselves, and everything was factual.
Because this article was of a "controversial" nature, the administration asked to review it before it went into print. They have the right to do that because The Gargoyle is not independent. They returned the article so edited with quotes taken out of context and things reworded so much that the original article was basically torn to pieces. And about 300 words were cut out.
The reason Club UNITY has not been approved is because it is contradictory to the conservative values Flagler College was built upon. I think this is ridiculous. To my knowledge, and this may be an assumption and a stereotype, but it's mostly true, generally religious people, or people affiliated with Judeo-Christian religions, are opposed to homosexuality. Flagler College is NOT affiliated with any religious sect. It's part of why I CAME here. Whether you advocate homosexuality/transgender/bisexuality or not, there is a population of them here, and they deserve the same representation everyone else does, and an opportunity to build awareness and breakdown stereotypical barriers. But that's not what this morning protest was really about...sorry for the schpiel.
What I Did:
There was a small peaceful protest against the censorship issue this morning. It was organized by those outside of The Gargoyle staff and seperate from Club UNITY. It was organized by students who care about our student body and feel like we should have a voice. That's why I went out and participated. I could only stay a few minutes because I had other things I had to go do, but if I'd had more time I also would have protested for saving the darkroom as well. Because we are losing our darkroom here on campus, and we had a campaign going for a while but it died out, so if this protest was about having a voice on campus, I would have protested for:
-the darkroom
-tuition being raised
-all the spending the school is doing
-being forced to have more roommates so the school can have more on campus students and therefore more $$$
As one girl put it, even though one of the things Flagler claims when they're trying to get you to attend is that you're not treated like a number here, well, we're actually one step below, "we're treated like a dollar sign"
If it wasn't for my friends, the beauty of this place, and the academics (because the Comm department is really great), I would leave tomorrow.
So that was my Ballsy Friday....in a very big nutshell.
