Jill Nunokawa, attorney and UH civil rights counselor, tells the Board of Publications that students alone control the content and distribution of a student-funded publication.

The problem-plagued University of Hawai`i at Manoa Student Handbook is at the forefront of the free-speech battle once again.

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 UH-Manoa Board of Publications -- citing numerous grammatical, spelling, and factual errors -- did not distribute them.

The board recently shredded the handbooks, after having spent at least $11,000 of student fees to produce them.

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

HISTORY

The editor of last year's handbook was Joshua Cooper, a doctoral student in political science. Cooper and his staff turned the handbook in to Beau Press, the BOP's production division, in late May. Cooper left Hawai`i for France and Japan shortly after handing in the handbook's editorial copy, photos, and graphics.

In his handbook, Cooper 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.

According to official BOP minutes, on the morning of July 18, James Reis, coordinator for student publications, suspended distribution of the handbook after "noticing numerous problems with the publication." After noticing these mistakes, Reis and Henry Iwasa, staff representative on the BOP, examined the handbook page by page and noticed numerous grammatical, spelling, and factual errors.

Reis then contacted Barron Iwamura, BOP chairman. Iwamura agreed with Reis that distribution of the handbook should be suspended.

The problems with the handbook were presented to the BOP at a special meeting held on July 24.

Iwasa said he was concerned that Cooper used material from the 1995 handbook without updating or spell-checking it. He noted that the 1997 handbook contained many of the mistakes as the 1995 one.

Roger McCain, professional media representative to the BOP, said he was concerned the BOP would be embarassed by putting out a sub-standard product.

He said the handbook could not be distributed in its current form and a re-write was necessary.

However, Wayne Kawa-moto, staff representative to the BOP, said he could see trying to correct the spelling and typographical errors, but actually re-writing the editorial copy could be seen as censorship by the BOP.

Reis said since some of the editorial copy stopped in mid-sentence and did not make any sense, the BOP would be forced to make changes.

Jonelle Sage, BOP treasurer, made a motion "not to reprint the 1997-8 BOP Student Handbook and not to distribute any more copies." Sage's motion was seconded by McCain. A vote was then called, with seven votes in favor of the motion. There were no votes against the motion and no abstentions.

As earlier reported by University aVenue, Jan Javinar, director of Co-Curricular Activities, Programs, and Services, supported the BOP's decision to suspend the handbook. CAPS is the UH department that oversees organizations like the BOP.

Last summer, Javinar said although the handbook is paid for with student fees and overseen by a student editor, suspending distribution of the handbook did not constitute a violation of press freedoms.

"What case law do you know of that exists that talks about college handbooks?" he said. "What kinds of freedoms have been guaranteed to college student handbooks under the case law that you know of?"

Javinar also said students may not be necessarily entitled to a refund. Every year, UH charges full time students with a $13 BOP fee.

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