‘Student Union forces UNBC Paper to Recall Issue

Jonathan Woodward, CUP British Columbia Bureau Chief

VANCOUVER (CUP)—A student
newspaper in Prince George, BC,
removed its papers from campus and
faced the freezing of its bank
accounts in a fight with its student
union over an opinion piece that sug-
gested men should be made into
“novelties for the super rich.”

Now the University of Northern
British Columbia newspaper, Over the
Edge, can publish again, but only with
a disclaimer distancing the student
union from the paper’s opinions and
an agreement to run any controversial
content by a university-appointed
harassment officer.

The article, entitled “Men in the
Modern World” and published under
a pseudonym in the opinions section
on Sept. 15, blamed men for the
development of destructive technolo-
gy, stating only men would need

“dangerous phallic symbols like guns,
rockets and submarines.”

Now, more than ever, a woman
feels “the need to build a 700-mega-
ton explosive penis extension and
point it at someone else,” the
article said.

The article raised the ire of at least
one student, who complained to the
Northern Undergraduate Student
Society that it had gone too far.

The student union asked Over the
Edge to remove all copies of the issue
from off-campus locations on Sept.
18. The newspaper voluntarily
removed its on-campus copies as well.

The student union executive met

the following week and passed an
interim motion to freeze the newspa-
per’s funding, saying the article
violated the university’s harassment
and discrimination policy.

“Some of the ideas expressed in
the article create a hostile, intimidat-
ing, and offensive environment and
are directed at individuals on the
grounds of their sex,’ said Cindy
Hardy, UNBC harassment officer.

Most of the article was funny, she
continued, but it crossed the line
when it said that when genetic tech-
nology allows it, “men should be
forced into non-existence for the safe-
ty of the entire Earth. Maybe one or
two could be kept alive as novelties
for the super rich.”

“If we make pets out of people,
then we're not treating them with
respect and dignity as humans,” said
Hardy.

The author’s other phrases were
“so flagrantly ridiculous” they could-
n't be found offensive. But the article
should be dealt with before similar
articles targeting other groups appear,
she said.

There is no chance the article was
heading down a slippery slope, said
Over the Edge Managing Editor
Stephanie Wilson.

“It was originally intended to be
satire, an amusing comment on socie-
ty,” she said.

Editor-in-Chief Carolynne
Burkholder said threatening the paper
with a loss of funding was the student

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union’s “way of asserting editorial
control over Over the Edge.”

The newspaper will look into gain-
ing financial and editorial autonomy,
she added.

The editorial board decided the
article was fit for print, at least in part
because the author was a man. The
author wrote under the pseudonym
Sera N. Noosbig, an anagram of his
name, because the article would be
better received that way, she said.

But some readers harassed the
head of the UNBC women’s centre,
whose first name is Sarah, because
they thought she might have written
the piece.

Any resemblance was accidental,
said Burkholder.

It was contradictory that a man
could pose as a woman in writing an
anti-male article, and then be accused
of discrimination against
she said.

The student union acted quickly
because Over the Edge is a service it
provides, said student union president
Jeremy Belyea.

It might have appeared to readers

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the anti-male opinion expressed
belonged to the student union,
he added.

Funds were thawed when Over the
Edge agreed to print a disclaimer on its
opinion pages disavowing any con-
nection to the student union.

The paper will apologize for the
use of the name Sera, will publish an
article by Belyea, and will refer contro-
versial articles to the
officer.

While this settlement allows the
paper to publish again, it doesn’t satis-
fy Chris Dinn, the president of
Canadian University Press, a national
student-newspaper organization.

“T don’t think that’s their role to
make decisions on what’s acceptable
for publication and what’s not,” he
said. “If they’re worried about being
responsible for what they’re printing,
then it would be better just to let (Over
the Edge) be autonomous.”

Other campus newspapers of sim-
ilar size have become autonomous
from their student unions, he said,
through student levies that provide
core funding.

harassment

 

Hey Prince George: Lick Our Balls, Man

Brandon Ferguson, News Editor

“Remember son, driving is a privilege
and not a right.”

My pops told me that shortly after,
and just before, I added another ding
to his 1988 Taurus. It’s the only time
I’ve ever given thought to a privilege
versus a right—well, that and maybe
the whole “is it privilege or right to
harass your girlfriend for drunken
middle-of-the-night sex?” debate. We
as post-secondary students are privi-

i | OUnEFPPeSs

leged enough to be on the precipice of
higher learning, but we reserve the
right to speak our minds and have a
sense of humour about it.

Not so in Prince George (see
“Student Union Forces UNBC Paper
to Recall Issue” article in this section).

If you are a regular reader of The
Other Press, or even a casual observ-
er, you will see many inflammatory
things. Curse words, political activism,

antagonistic goading, mayhem, mis-
chief, and midgets. All thoughts and
words ate put together with good
intentions to amuse both you and us.
Any problems? You’re encouraged to
respond. Really pissed? You're
encouraged to write.

So when the UNBC student union
retracts funding from the student
paper, Over the Edge, for what is a
minor, barely funny infraction of

good taste, it makes me mad and I’m
both entitled to that opinion and
allowed to express it. It is my right to
think it and my privilege to write it.
You the reader, in turn, have the right
to feel however you want to. I love
you for reading, but you love yourself
by thinking.

But could something like that hap-
pen to the OP?

Well, no—short story: we’re

OCuober = G/A0Ow