The War of the Words : Accusations Fly at College of the Canyons as Student Politicians Battle Journalists Over Fee Hike Issue

At College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, student journalists have a name for student politicians: newspaper thieves.

Student politicians have a name for the journalists, too: hacks. The politicians have taken to publishing their own protest paper. It’s called the Truth.

And you wondered why professional reporters and lawmakers can’t get along.

Here is a case study of the relationship:

Last fall, under cover of darkness, persons unknown stuffed an unsanctioned--and nearly unintelligible--insert into hundreds of copies of the Canyon Call, the campus newspaper, in response to an editorial the paper had carried.

The editorial included such words as “reprehensible” and “impeachable” in describing recent efforts by student politicians--especially Student Body President Allison Korse--to pay for an overhaul of the community college’s aging student center by raising student fees. The editorial urged students to vote against the proposed fee hike.

The insert was slipped into the papers after they were dropped off by the printer on the evening of Nov. 19 and before they were placed on the racks the following morning.

Aptly dubbed the Rapid Response, the flier accused the newspaper of bias and blindness over the student fee issue, and generally rotten journalism from “you Einstiens at the Canyon Call.”

Begrudgingly noting that the Call had won a recent series of collegiate journalism awards, the flier declared: “The competition must have been really weak.”

The fight was on.

Canyon Call Editor John Woods accused Korse of masterminding the illicit (and illiterate) insert. Korse denied any knowledge of the guerrilla-style caper. So Woods sought due recourse from Korse in Santa Clarita Small Claims Court--for $660, the price an advertiser would have paid to place an ad the size of the Rapid Response.

“I wasn’t going to settle out of court for anything less than an apology that we could publish in the newspaper,” said Woods, 26, who plans to transfer to San Diego State next year to study journalism.

“All we know is, the morning we got to school, some papers had [the flier] in and some did not,” said Korse, 23. The debate raged on over how to fund a renovation at the student center. The campus became increasingly divided.

Members of the administration and student government refused to do interviews with certain Campus Call reporters.

Then, on March 5--the week before the suit would be heard by a judge, and on the eve of a campus vote over the student fee increase--1,000 papers vanished with nary a trace, and with them another editorial urging students to vote against a fee hike.

Despite the fact that newspaper thievery is an unfortunate fact of life on college campuses, the journalists were up in arms.

“I’m not trying to compare it to Watergate,” said journalism advisor Jay Berman, “but stealing newspapers, vandalizing newspapers--I take that very seriously.”

The students begged Dean of Student Services Glenn Hisayasu to step in. He agreed.

As students cast their ballots, Hisayasu said he took the matter to the advisor of student government. A short time later, “students did come forward,” along with several stacks of the missing Canyon Calls.

Even with the newfound papers--containing another pointed, vote-no editorial--students passed the measure.

And then, last week, the case of the illicit insert went before the court.

The verdict came back late Monday, with little elaboration: Korse was not liable. She said she was thrilled. Woods and Berman, invoking the time-honored tradition of the political spin, said that they, too, were happy because the court commissioner stated that the facts were not in dispute, and that he was ruling on technicalities: one department of the college cannot sue another.

But it’s not over yet.

The newspaper alleges that the vote may have been influenced not only by the missing papers, but by the pencils handed to voters. According to several students, the voting pencils were stamped, “Vote Yes.”

Hisayasu, with characteristic restraint, said: “The relationship between student government and the student paper tends to be somewhat problematic.”