Sex Column at So. Miss. Raising Some Hackles
by Jim Brown
September 13, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Some faculty and staff members at the University of Southern Mississippi are raising objections to a vulgar sex column in the student-run newspaper on campus.Last Thursday The Student Printz published a graphic "how to" article on oral sex titled "Pillow Talk: College a Time to Experiment." The paper's executive editor, David McCraney, says "Pillow Talk" will be a regular column and "will probably get racier by degrees each edition."
Although the column was rated the most popular article on the newspaper's website, it is not sitting well with everyone on the Hattiesburg campus. Cheryl Burnette, an account specialist in the Music Department at USM, says she was offended by the content of the article.
"I'm aware that most young people do experiment with sex," Burnette acknowledges, "but when you print it on a university campus, you're just opening the doors to so much more." She says college students already have enough issues to deal with. "They don't need the pressures of sex involved; they need to concentrate on education," she says. "I mean, there's too much sex in today's world anyway. That's not what life is all about."
The account specialist believes USM President Shelby Thames needs to intervene. "I would like for him to sit down and have a discussion with the executive editor to see where he thinks this may be going," she suggests.
"I feel that if some parents get hold of this and read it, it could maybe affect enrollment here on campus, especially with what we just went through with [Hurricane] Katrina last year," she continues. "Our enrollments are down just a little bit, and you don't need something like that giving the campus negative publicity."
Burnette says she understands there is freedom of the press, but believes Southern Miss administrators need to exercise some control over what is printed in a newspaper bearing the university's imprimatur.
School Should Take Action
Meanwhile, a constitutional attorney says it is incumbent upon the USM officials to take action regarding the column. Steve Crampton, chief counsel for the Mississippi-based Center for Law & Policy, says although the article itself is not obscene, it is clearly inappropriate for a college or local newspaper.
Crampton believes President Thames and USM administrators should condemn the article and ensure the executive editor's plan to publish even racier material is short-circuited.
"If they don't take action, I suggest that we need to take our concerns to the State Legislature," says the attorney. "There are ways to curb this sort of action short of trying to shut it down with kind of a heavy censor's hand. The long and the short of it is, it's not good for the university." And it is also not good for the students, Crampton adds, "however much they may enjoy being the little rebels for the moment."
Crampton also notes that although the newspaper received its funding from advertisers, it still has a responsibility to reflect the mores and values of the community.
"Even that advertising policy specifically states that the newspaper reserves the right to reject any advertising copy based on the guidelines adopted for advertising by the University of Southern MS Board of Publications," he points out. "So the University can't have it both ways. [The paper] is connected to the university, and consequently, I think the university needs to be held responsible for this baseless and offensive sort of material."
Advertisers for The Student Printz include campus ministries such as the Presbyterian Fellowship, the Reformed University Fellowship, the Wesley Foundation, and St. Thomas Catholic Church.
Calls to President Thames' office and USM's public relations department have not been returned.
Jim Brown, a regular contributors to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
