Van Nuys : Underground Paper Surfaces on Campus

A dispute between the staff of Valley College’s student newspaper and its faculty advisor took a new turn Tuesday when an “underground” paper appeared on campus calling for administrators to investigate the recent cancellation of two campus newspaper issues.

The four-page newspaper, called the Valley’s Fallen Star--a play on the name of the campus paper--Valley Star--appeared on the doorsteps of campus buildings and offices two days before the final issue of the campus newspaper was to be published.

The underground paper led with an article about the cancellation of the Nov. 29 issue of the Valley Star. The article said that issue was canceled as a result of a decision by the publication’s faculty advisor, Joan Stuller, and cited complaints of student members of the newspaper’s staff who said Stuller called campus police to force students from class and killed stories planned by student staff writers.

Stuller said on Tuesday that the “cancellations were not an issue of censorship,” but declined to elaborate further on the record. She also disputed the accuracy of the reports published in the underground paper. “Just because they put it in print doesn’t mean it’s true,” she said.

The underground newspaper included an editorial appealing to college administrators to investigate the conflict.

“We urge that the circumstances surrounding the cancellation be publicly examined by an objective board of inquiry composed of representatives from [Los Angeles Valley College’s] shared governance structure and by two or more delegates of the Journalism Assn. of Community Colleges,” read an unsigned editorial in 2,000 copies of the newspaper.

Although Valley College President Tyree Wieder could not be reached for comment, Shannon Stack, director of media services at the college, said it was too early to say whether administrators would investigate the situation.

“This paper just came out today, and there has to be some evaluation of the [journalism] program,” Stack said on Tuesday. “But there hasn’t been any discussion yet about the ramifications” of the students’ request, she added.

Stack also said students across campus appeared to be reading the newspaper.