Union, A.S.I. reach deal

By Rick Alonzo, On-line Forty-Niner

May 7,1998

 

Long Beach Union editor in chief Aislin Ard on Wednesday said she has reached an agreement with Associated Students Inc. Publications Board officials and will not pursue legal action due to removal of this week's Long Beach Union from campus newsstands.

 

Ard said former Union editor Rebecca Nagel, who led the publication in the fall of 1993 and maintains a relationship with the newspaper's staffers, met with A.S.I. officials Richard Haller and Fred Sanchez and agreed the Union's working rules would be rewritten in an attempt to avoid censorship in the future.

 

Ard said a committee will be formed to write the rules, which will prohibit the removal of newspapers from newsstands and other forms of censorship.

 

Haller and Nagel met after a Senate meeting Wednesday during which A.S.I. Vice President Davian Freeman dismissed about two dozen students who had packed the Senate Chamber to voice opinions about the Union. The students did not get a chance to speak.

 

"We felt like we were being backed into a corner," Nagel said. "But now we feel like they understand they have a very hard case to arUnion, A.S.I. reach deal gue in a court of law, and any rights they have would be questionable."

 

Nagel and Ard gave statements during the opening minutes of the Senate meeting. They said they felt their First Amendment rights were being violated.

This was a highly illegal act," Nagel told the Senate. "Your A.S.I. officials should not be exposing you to lawsuits."

 

The Union's final issue, the 28th of the academic year, was redistributed to the campus Tuesday night.

 

Ard said she asked officials for a written apology to students and advisers for removal of the newspaper from the stands.

 

The apology would have appeared in an extra Union issue.

 

Ard said officials would not fund another issue, citing budget problems. Haller and Sanchez were out of their offices and not available for comment.

 

Officials removed the paper from the campus due to comparisons of Adolf Hitler and student senator Robert Garcia which ran in the Grunion, the Union's satirical section. Just days before the issue was distributed to the campus, the publications board elected Leo Pedraza over Ard as editor in chief for the upcoming academic year.

 

In other action against the Union, Jason Reyes, chairman of Sigma Chi fraternity, organized an informal collective against the Union in March after disparaging remarks directed at Greeks ran in the newspaper.

 

"I'm not saying I agree with the decision to pull the paper, but I don't feel the paper should be designed to attack any one person," Reyes said. "This last issue was an attempt to lash out.

 

"It's wrong. It's too bad it's had to go as far as it has."