University of Texas Dallas student journalists are “striking” because administrators fired their rogue Editor in Chief.
They claim it’s retaliation for the favorable coverage by the paper of the Palestine/Hamas agitators that set up encampments on campus.
Evidently these students don’t understand that their publication is part of a taxpayer-funded University.
Their First Amendment rights aren’t being infringed simply because university administrators don’t want to continue to fund Pro-Palestine/Hamas propaganda and agitators disrupting their campus.
The Dallas Observer has the story:
Student journalists at the University of Texas at Dallas are on strike following the removal of the paper’s editor-in-chief, Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez, by administrators. Staff members of the Mercury say that Olivares Gutierrez’s removal is the latest instance of what they see as a pattern of retaliation by administrators following the newspaper’s coverage of a pro-Palestine encampment that was set up on campus on May 1.
According to documents shared with the Observer, Student Media Director Lydia Lum called a Sept. 13 meeting with the school’s student media operating board (SMOB) to oust Olivares Gutierrez from his role, which he has held since May 1. Lum alleged Olivares Gutierrez has committed three violations of the bylaws during his tenure as editor-in-chief, including holding multiple student employee positions on campus, causing budget overruns and interfering with her ability to do her job.
Olivares Gutierrez told the Observer that his removal meeting was called with only a day’s notice, and six members of the operating board were not present. Conversations shared with the Observer show that multiple SMOB members — who Olivares Gutierrez believes would have supported him in the hearing — say they were told by Lum “they weren’t needed to attend” the meeting. None of the students were informed of the meeting’s purpose, and one never received a link to the virtual meeting despite asking to attend, the messages show.
Despite presenting evidence he believes contradicts Lum’s claims, Olivares Gutierrez was removed from his position in a 3–2 vote last Friday.
