"The question is who has the right to pull a publication, thus censoring, stopping the dissemination of information." Jill Nunokawa UH Civil Rights Counselor

Two attorneys have told the University of Hawaii's Board of Publications that suspending distribution of the 1997 Student Handbook was a violation of the First Amendment.

Students have not received a handbook for the last two years. No handbook was published in 1996 because the editor failed to turn anything in. While 14,000 copies of the 1997 handbook were printed, the BOP -- citing numerous grammatical, spelling, and factual errors -- did not distribute them.

The board recently shredded the handbooks, after spending at least $11,000 in student fees to produce them.

Henry Iwasa, a staff representative on the board, said the handbook was "atrocious."

Despite the mistakes, however, UH attorney and UH civil rights counselor Jill Nunokawa said the handbook should not have been pulled.

In addressing the board Thursday night at its regular public meeting, Nunokawa said the board's expectation of quality and accuracy may infringe on the rights of students.

"Although there might be errors here and there and it may not be of the highest quality... the question is who has the right to pull a publication, thus censoring, stopping the dissemination of information," she said. "The publication has the right to say what it is going to say."

Citing the history of problems with the handbook program, Iwasa asked Nunokawa if she understood the board's point of view.

"We all agree in this room that we want the best quality handbook -- error free, punctuation's there, all those things," Nunokawa replied. "That's why when you pick your student editor, you've got to pick well. You have to trust your editor to make the right decisions."

Nunokawa said the BOP should examine the purpose of the student handbook. She said if the board decides to continue funding it and appointing a student editor to produce it, it is a free speech forum.

Attorney Michael Hiestand of the Student Press Law Center, an advocacy center for student journalists, agreed.

"The current student handbook, paid for and published by students, belongs to students," he stated. "If University of Hawai'i officials want to produce and pay for their own student handbook, more power to them," Hiestand stated. "Until that time, they should respect the boundaries established by law."

"It seems the university is trying to have it both ways," he stated. "They want to control the content and style of the publication--they just don't want to pay for it."

Hiestand's comments were presented at the meeting by Cora Iezza, who was selected as editor for the forthcoming 1998 handbook. Iezza said the board's actions against Joshua Cooper, the previous editor, were illegal.

In his handbook, Cooper -- a doctoral student in political science -- highlighted student activism and the "power of protest." It suggested a boycott of Marriott Educational Services, the UH food service contractor, and said students could protest tuition increases by not paying.

The handbook did have errors. One conspicuous factual error repeatedly cited by BOP members was listing the Hawai`i state motto as the university's motto.

However, Hiestand also maintained that "poor quality" was not sufficient grounds to suspend the handbook.

"Courts have been steadfast in holding that administrators cannot censor a publication merely because they are unhappy with its content, be it for reasons of political views, physical appearance, or in this case, a fear of 'inferior quality,'" Hiestand said.

Hiestand cited legal precedents established by similar cases.

"In Schiff v. Williams, for example, the court said firing student editors of a college publication for poor grammar, spelling errors, and language expression was a clear violation of the First Amendment," he said.

Iezza said Cooper was not the only victim in the controversy. She told the BOP that the First Amendment rights of every dues paying student on campus had been violated.

Journalism professor Thomas Brislin, a faculty representative on the board, said Iezza may have a legitimate claim.

"It does tend to focus the argument on who wants the student handbook to be what, and perhaps destroying the handbook was ill-considered," he said.

Brislin said while the BOP "can't unring that particular bell," a possible form of recourse could be to allow Cooper to publish his essays on student activism in Ka Leo O Hawai`i, the official student newspaper that the BOP also oversees.

"I can't mandate that Ka Leo do that, since it is up to the editor of Ka Leo," he said. "I think we can still work on it, even though the handbook is no longer available."

"The board acted with good intentions, but as you know, the path to hell is paved with the same," he said.

Cooper could not be reached for comment.

The BOP is the student, faculty, and staff body that governs UH-Manoa's student-fee funded publications. These publications include Ka Leo and Hawai`i Review, a quarterly literary magazine.

In August, the 'Venue was the first to report on First Amendment concerns when distribution of the handbook was suspended. Coverage of free speech issues will continue in future editions.

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