Sun staff kicked out of ‘white dialogue’ meeting

Protecting the press is in the First Amendment of the Constitution, but journalists are often treated as second-class citizens.

Jamal Khashoggi was killed for his journalism.

He was harassed online, censored by the Saudi government, blacklisted and now that he is dead the enemies of the free press seek to ruin his reputation.

President Trump has called the news media “the enemy of the American people.”

On June 28, five employees of the Capital Gazette, a newspaper in Annapolis, Md., were shot and killed.

Journalists are an important check on the balance of power of the government, even at a community college like Southwestern College.

When administrators refuse access to The Sun, they are contributing to a toxic culture that puts the lives of journalists at risk.

Barring student journalists from public meetings at SWC reignites memories of the corruption that plagued past administrations. Death threats, harassment and intimidation were aimed at journalists at The Sun for doing their job. When members of the administration work to prevent The Sun from covering important events and issues on campus, it is a giant red flag to the community that something is seriously wrong.

Recently, reporters were barred from public meetings explicitly for their connection to The Sun.

Following the release of USC’s Racial Climate Report, an invitation was sent out to many people on President Kindred Murillo’s email list. Administrators, faculty, current and former governing board members and student employees were among those invited.

Professional Development Program Coordinator Patricia Hinck barred Katy Stegall, The Sun’s editor-in-chief, from attending the “Improving our Racial Climate: The White Dialogue” meeting regarding the Racial Climate Report.

In an interview with the The Sun’s editorial board the next day, Murillo said the student was barred from the meeting because she was a journalist.

More meetings were held on campus for non-white groups. Six Sun reporters were not allowed to attend any of these meetings.

The initial email invitation sent to Murillo’s current and former employees made no distinctions on who would be allowed to attend.

USC Race and Equity Center Executive Director Dr. Shaun Harper reported that SWC had one of the worse climates of anti-blackness he had ever seen.

Investigating the issue of anti-blackness is incredibly important to The Sun. The Governing Board is emblematic of the problem, it has never had a black member.

Arbitrarily blocking journalists signals hostility from the administration.

There is a long history of SWC administrators removing journalists from public meetings.

In 2014, Dean of Academic Services Mia McClellan had campus police chase journalism students out of a grievance hearing they were invited to by one of the parties involved. Even though the meeting was not private, McClellan cited a non-existent policy that said grievance hearings were private.

In the Southwestern Community College District Procedure No. 5530 AP, both parties involved in a grievance procedure can call for witnesses. They may also wave any confidentiality if they so wish.

In this case the student who filed the grievance invited journalists to witness the meeting. McClellan later amended her story to say that the policy was vague and that she had the power to interpret it.

Despite the ways the college has improved since the fall of the Raj Chopra administration in 2010, many in the community still remember the rampant corruption. In the minds of many people, not much has changed except for a few new buildings.

Chopra and his inner circle of crooks were removed from office after years of misconduct, but their actions still stain the college.

Governing board members have since campaigned on promises of transparency, but other administrators’ intentions are not so clear.

Administrators should treat faculty, students and media as allies, not enemies.

It falls upon the Governing Board to make certain that promises of truth and openness are actually reflected by the actions of the administration. Despite the names the president of the United States may call the press, the work of The Sun speaks for itself. The Governing Board must reign in administrators who still pick fights with The Sun and play games with policy and rules.

If The Governing Board wants to associate themselves with free speech and transparency, they should consider responding to some of the many unanswered FOIA requests that The Sun has submitted over the years.