University of Kansas Black Student Group Upset with Newspaper Coverage
LAWRENCE, Kan.
The Black Student Union at the University of Kansas is
demanding a few changes from the campus newspaper.
The organization is upset with coverage of a recent conference of Black student leaders from Big 12 schools. About 100 students, mostly Black, from Kansas, Kansas State University and the University of Missouri marched into the offices of the University Daily Kansan dropping off copies of Kansan articles marked "F" and "Incomplete."
The students also left a list of demands that included having the newspaper's multicultural beat reporter go through diversity training.
The students were disappointed with the Kansan's coverage of the Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government, held in February, says Courtney Bates, Black Student Union president.
But the paper contends it was simply covering campus news.
The paper's story led with a fight that lasted a few minutes at a party held in conjunction with the conference, Bates says. And the
paper did an inadequate job of covering good things happening at the conference itself, she says.
"Regardless of what conference is going on, it was a fight on campus involving students," says the
paper's editor in chief, Lori
O'Toole. "The KU cops had to call Lawrence police for backup. That's a big deal on campus. That doesn't happen very often.
"The story we tried to show was the fight happened, yes, but they were able to move on," she says.
O'Toole says she liked the idea of having the multicultural beat
reporter go through diversity
training.
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