Law-Defying SDSU Editor Barred From Job for a Day

The editor-in-chief of San Diego State University’s campus newspaper was suspended from the position for one day by President Thomas Day on Tuesday for publishing unsigned political editorials.

Day’s action against R. Andrew Rathbone was apparently the only punishment imposed by a school president on at least 11 California State University campuses where student newspapers have recently published endorsements of candidates or propositions on Tuesday’s ballot.

Day emphasized that he suspended Rathbone because the Daily Aztec openly defied rules prohibiting editorial endorsements and said he did not consider the sanction a comment on whether the ban is unconstitutional.

“When I looked at the circumstances, I came to the conclusion that the editor was taking it upon himself to defy board policy,” Day said. “That’s quite a different thing than the question of the right to write an endorsement about somebody.”

CSU regulations prohibit the system’s 20 campus newspapers from endorsing candidates and ballot issues because they are considered auxiliary organizations of the state if they receive funds from the university. The regulations are contained in the California Administrative Code and have the weight of state law.

The Daily Aztec supports itself almost entirely from advertising revenue but receives free office space and help with utility payments from the SDSU student government. Day took no action against the paper for endorsements published in 1984 and 1985.

Rathbone called the punishment, which prohibits him from serving as editor for 24 hours starting at 12:01 a.m. next Tuesday, “symbolic” and promised to appeal to the vice president for student affairs, Daniel Nowak--an appeal that Day suggested in his suspension letter.

Rathbone also raised the possibility that the newspaper would file a lawsuit and said he wanted to consult with an attorney before deciding whether to serve the suspension.

“It’s unconstitutional for them to punish me for making the endorsements,” Rathbone said. “They’re infringing upon our rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.”

Attorney Charles Bird, who successfully defended editors of an underground newspaper at Fallbrook High School after their suspension for publishing material considered obscene by the school’s principal, said that the Daily Aztec’s link to SDSU makes the First Amendment issues less than clear-cut.

“It sounds to me as if there’s certainly legitimate grounds for the students to pursue their legal rights, if only to establish a precedent for others to live by,” Bird said. Rathbone said the sanction “could be a lot worse” and agreed that Day is required to uphold the CSU policy.

“I can see President Day’s point,” Rathbone said. “He pretty much was bound to follow the Board of Trustees’ policy. That’s his job.”

Day said he deliberately imposed a light penalty on Rathbone, which he said was commensurate with the Daily Aztec’s infraction. The endorsements were “somewhat in the nature of civil disobedience. I felt it should be a civil penalty.”

The endorsements came a day after the Daily Aztec published an editorial urging other CSU campus newspaper to defy the ban by publishing their own endorsements. Both carried a disclaimer noting that the editorials represented only the opinions of the editorial board.

In his suspension letter, Day cited both editorials and suggested that the Daily Aztec should have taken the matter to court before defying the regulations.

“Defiance of this policy when routes of redress are possible is inexplicable,” he said.

Rathbone may have forced Day’s hand, however. In remarks to The Times on Monday, Rathbone said Day had told him that he would not enforce the rules because he believes they are unconstitutional.

Day denied that Rathbone’s comment was the reason for the suspension, and Rathbone said any pressure on Day was inadvertent. “I didn’t mean to put him in the box,” he said. “I didn’t mean to corner him.”

On the advice of CSU lawyers, presidents of other CSU campuses delayed taking action against editors of newspapers that wrote endorsements, CSU spokesman Jeff Stetson said. An out-of-court settlement in a 1984 lawsuit by the fired editor of the Humboldt State University student newspaper, The Lumberjack, is expected to set guidelines on this issue for other campuses, Stetson said. The settlement is expected in coming weeks.

“We’re not planning on taking any action until we’re aware of what settlement is reached” in the Humboldt case, Stetson said.

“We’re optimistic that there will be a revision,” he said. “The bottom line would certainly be some kind of disclaimer or specific reference within the editorial that suggests that the views expressed in the editorials are the views of the editors and not necessarily the views of the students or the institution.”

Student newspapers at CSU campuses in Northridge, Long Beach, Fresno, Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Humboldt, Pomona, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo and Sonoma also have published unsigned endorsements of political candidates recently.