Last week, Queen’s University took action against their school paper, restricting the paper’s right to write.
Earlier in 2014, Queen’s student paper, The Journal, ran a story highlighting concern surrounding awards decisions made by the university’s athletics department.
Traditionally, at the end of the academic year, the athletics department at Queen’s selects a school team to receive a ‘Varsity Team of the Year’ award. The team is chosen by a five-person voting panel, which includes a representative from The Journal.
The Journal’s current editor-in-chief, Nick Faris, was a sports writer for the paper at the time, and also the author of the article in question. He was present at the initial meeting in mid-March of 2014, where it was decided that the ‘Varsity Team of the Year’ award would go to the men’s rugby team. However, that decision was suddenly revoked approximately 10 days later, two days before the university’s athletic banquet.
“[The Journal] received an email from athletics telling us that the ‘Team of the Year’ vote had to be re-done, and athletics said it was done with a new voting panel, composed entirely of new voters. They said that women’s rugby had been named the new winner of the ‘Team of the Year’ award,” said Faris.
When the Journal staff applied for media passes to varsity games in August of this year, they were only allowed one reporter, and no photographers. Faris said that in a meeting between athletics staff and the Journal, the reasoning for this decision was a direct result of the publication of the ‘Varsity Team of the Year’ story.
The Queen’s University athletics department could not be reached for comment, but had previously declined to comment on the department’s decision to disqualify the men’s rugby team.
“A lot of people spoke out over social media disagreeing with athletics’ decision,” said Faris. “Principal [Daniel] Woolf was informed, actually over social media, that the situation was occurring. So he said on Twitter that he would be looking into the situation.”
Queen’s athletics responded with a tweet last Thursday confirming that the Journal would receive their requested press passes.
Related articles: https://charlatan.ca/2014/09/western-university-paper-pulled-from-stands/
