Campus newspaper theft

Oregon State University Daily Barometer kiosk

The campus newspaper at Oregon State University, the Daily Barometer, published a story on Friday about a recent drug bust that involved several OSU students.

After a month-long investigation, police from Albany, Corvallis and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office have arrested seven Corvallis residents in connection with a drug-trafficking ring.

Six of those connected, arrested on April 14 and 15, were OSU students.

The men were arrested on accusations of distributing cocaine, marijuana and Ecstasy in the area.

I had seen the story on another Oregon news site Friday morning, but was unable to find a copy of the Daily Barometer when I arrived to campus. I checked the Barometer’s website today to find an interesting announcement on the homepage:

This morning, many of the Barometer kiosks were found empty. Staff of the Barometer has confirmed that the paper was delivered.

It seems that a majority of the 7,000 copies had been removed from the kiosks and dumped in dumpsters and recycling bins.

If you have any information regarding the theft of The Daily Barometer on Friday, April 18, please contact Editor in Chief Lauren Dillard by e-mailing editor@dailybarometer.com or calling 737-3191.

I highly doubt that this is just a coincidence. This type of occurrence seems to happen quite frequently on college campuses. A negative event happens involving students, the campus newspaper prints a story (usually featured on the front page above the fold), and someone destroys or steals the majority of that particular edition of the paper.

Community forum series

Daily Barometer Community forum series isms at Oregon State University

I was in Waldo Hall about a month ago when I came upon a larger version of this poster. I’m a fan of inverted black and white posters as they remind me of my graphic design days in Chicago.

The poster was advertising a community forum to discuss “isms in media.” I moved a little closer and read the list of “-isms.” Sexism, racism, ableism and classism. Okay, those are all forms of oppression. What? Why was alcoholism on this list? It just did not make sense to me as it did not fit with the rest of the items on the poster. And where oh where was heterosexism? A list of institutionalized oppressions and a disease. I do not understand why alcoholism was included…?

The Daily Barometer, Oregon State University’s student newspaper, has had yet another year where the paper prints something racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. and then attempts to do a better job (usually folks of color start appearing in the photographs on the front page during Winter term). It’s a cycle and the pattern has occurred since I moved to Corvallis in 2004 and became a member of the OSU community. Year after year a student editorial board and their lackluster faculty advisor bring about copious amounts of harm to the community, apologize and then attempt to rectify what happened in the fall. I can understand that student editorial board members come and go, but the faculty advisor remains…

Continue reading Community forum series