University of Kansas wants student newspaper funding lawsuit dismissed

The University of Kansas is seeking the dismissal of a federal lawsuit that alleges administrators allowed the Student Senate to illegally cut the student newspaper’s funding in half based on its content.

The school argues the case lacks merit, noting in a court filing that the University Daily Kansan now prints two days a week instead of four. The motion said the reduction in publication frequency was the Senate’s official reason for cutting the newspaper’s student fee funding to $45,000 from $90,000 this school year, the Lawrence Journal-World reported.

The student fee revenue makes up about 5 percent of the Kansan’s total budget, with ad sales generating the rest.

“With students getting half as many newspapers each week, it stands to reason they should pay half as much,” university attorney Mike Leitch wrote in the motion, which was filed Friday.

In February, University Daily Kansan Editor-in-Chief Vicky Díaz-Camacho and former Editor-in-Chief Katie Kutsko sued Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Tammara Durham, citing a number of former Student Senate members’ statements that indicate their decision to cut funding was based on dissatisfaction with the newspaper’s coverage of the Senate.

The lawsuit alleges that the cuts created a chilling effect on the “expression of First Amendment-protected speech.”

But Leitch said in the motion that there was no practical way for the chancellor or vice provost to discern the actual motives of the student body’s elected representatives because statements from one member can’t necessarily be attributed to another. The university’s response also says the plaintiffs, including the newspaper, lack standing.

Leitch wrote that neither Díaz-Camacho nor Kutsko themselves “spoke, wrote, or published anything that was the subject of retaliation,” and added that the Daily Kansan is part of the university and lacks the authority to sue or be sued.

Earlier this month, the Senate decided to keep the newspaper’s fee revenue at $45,000.

Díaz-Camacho has said the loss of revenue has forced the Kansan to cut staff and leave the vacant position of faculty news director unfilled. She said that even though the paper doesn’t print as often, it still needs staff to produce news for its website.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 12:52 PM with the headline "University of Kansas wants student newspaper funding lawsuit dismissed."