An administrator at the University of Hawaii at Hilo admitted to ordering the removal of the student-run campus newspaper from a rack at an April 20 event welcoming prospective students and their parents to the campus.
The editor-in-chief of Ke Kalahea, Pualani Ovono, called the action by Kati McGinnis, UH-Hilo’s director of Admissions, “a form of censorship.”
“I was quite shocked, at first,” Ovono told the Tribune-Herald last week. “I did expect some action from the administration regarding the article and we did receive a letter from the vice chancellor about it. But I hadn’t expected them to go around taking issues because I had thought it was not necessarily illegal, but definitely against the rights of the student newspaper to do so.”
McGinnis said in a statement to Ke Kalahea that was provided to the Tribune-Herald only five issues of the April edition were removed from a temporary rack adjacent to the Housing table at the Accepted Student Reception. McGinnis said she ordered their removal by a student worker to allow campus Housing officials “the opportunity to field questions from prospective students and their parents” without the students and parents seeing what she described as a “one-sided feature on housing.”
“In doing so, I did not take your viewpoint into consideration and for that, I apologize,” McGinnis said. “I acknowledge the importance of the publication and respect Ke Kalahea’s rights as an independent student-run news organization on campus.”
McGinnis said Ke Kalahea had its own table at the event and April’s issue was available there, as well as “on several racks adjacent to the event in the Campus Center.”
“There was never an intent or effort to prevent current or prospective students from having access to copies of Ke Kalahea on campus,” she said.
McGinnis said she would welcome an opportunity “to sit down with the editorial board to talk about ways we can partner and work better together for UH-Hilo moving forward.”
The article at issue centered around a Feb. 15 Board of Regents meeting on the UHH campus. Students registered complaints during the meeting on “black mold and/or mildew growing in the dorm bathrooms, rusted pipes and kitchen appliances, power outages, gender equality issues concerning the rights of LGBTQ+ students, flooding in the dorms from sinks or toilets, and broken laundry units,” the article stated.
The article included anonymously submitted photos that purportedly depicted the conditions in student housing the regents heard complaint about.
“The April Ke Kalahea edition at the center of the dispute described and included photos of mold and the generally degraded conditions of the campus dorms, an embarrassment for sure for an administration trying to woo new students in a time of decreased enrollment at college campuses nationwide,” said Nancy Cook Lauer, Ke Kalahea’s editorial advisor, a retired newspaper reporter who most recently covered government for West Hawaii Today.
The article touched a nerve with UH-Hilo administration prior to the publication’s removal from the reception.
Chris Holland, UHH vice chancellor of student affairs and McGinnis’ supervisor, sent an email April 17 to the student newspaper, saying the article lacked “fair journalistic practices, particularly in presenting a balanced perspective on the matter.” Holland said neither his office nor the Housing office were contacted “for additional information or to address concerns raised regarding student room selection processes and maintenance protocols.”
“Additionally, I want to clarify that while communal living inevitably involves facility issues like mildew and plumbing, any concerns related to mold, particularly black mold, prompt immediate testing to ensure safety. Notably, no black mold has been detected as a result of these tests,” Holland wrote.
Holland said the school “is dedicated to fostering welcoming and supportive environments for students of all gender identities, expressions, and sexual orientations. Gender-inclusive housing is available to students exploring their gender identity or those who prefer not to identify by sex or gender.”
Holland acknowledged challenges in dormitory maintenance, saying “things will break, electricity will go out, and mistakes will happen.”
“Once issues are identified, we work diligently to address them,” he added. “However, solutions may not always be immediate and may involve following state procurement rules and relying on contractors from across the islands.”
Ovono said in her own statement, which was published in the May issue, “Ke Kalahea is paid for by student fees, and therefore, published issues belong to the students who have the right to access them.” She said the removal of the newspapers “violates our rights as a student-run news publication, as it can be interpreted as a form of censorship.”
Michael Phillips, president of the Big Island Press Club — a watchdog organization dedicated to openness in government, freedom of the press and the public’s right to know — described the flap as “a First Amendment issue.”
“While news stories can be embarrassing to the administration, especially in a time of decreasing college enrollment, there is no First Amendment exemption for embarrassment,” Phillips said in a statement.
”The courts have held that student-run newspapers on college campuses cannot be censored by university administration. Removal of student newspapers from racks is a form of censorship that runs afoul of court rulings.
“In addition, in Hawaii, student publications are paid for from an earmarked account of specific student fees, making those publications a property of the students and not within the purview of campus administration to deny access to students.”
Disclosure: John Burnett is a 1994 graduate of UH-Hilo, the immediate past president and a current board member of the Big Island Press Club.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.