Thank goodness we have organizations like FIRE to defend free speech on campus.

From the FIRE blog.

FIRE to UC San Diego: Reverse Unconstitutional Defunding of Student Media

This week, FIRE sent a letter to the Chancellor of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and its student government president, urging the reversal of a recent student council vote to yank funding from all student print media outlets. The vote came the same day UCSD administrators condemned the humor publication The Koala in response to an article mocking the concept of “safe spaces” and using racial slurs.

Apparently aware that they could not lawfully target The Koala by itself, student council members attempted an end-run around the First Amendment by simply taking away all of its funding to student media. Unfortunately for those favoring press censorship, punishing all media outlets to get at one is still unconstitutional.

On November 18, two days after The Koala published an article entitled “UCSD Unveils New Dangerous Space on Campus,” high-ranking university administrators including Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla released a statement denouncing the paper and the “offensive and hurtful language it chooses to publish.” The same day, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez attended a meeting of the UCSD Associated Students Council, where he read the statement for the record.

Shortly thereafter, the Council—which distributes funds drawn from mandatory student activity fees to student organizations—voted in favor of a proposal to end funding to all student print media groups. A writer present from the independent UCSD student paper The Guardian wrote that council members “explained that since Council cannot selectively discriminate against one publication (the Koala) without infringing upon First Amendment rights, Council should defund all publications currently receiving money from student fees.”