Chronology of Events Related to Campus Press Column

The Campus Press is a student-run electronic paper that operates in conjunction with two classes, Newspaper Practicum and Advanced Editing, which meet three times a week.

• On Feb. 4, Max Karson submitted an opinion piece titled “If it’s war they want, it’s war they’ll get,” to Amanda Pehrson, the editor of the Opinions section.
• After days of consideration of the Karson column, both Amanda Pehrson and Cassie Hewlings, the Campus Press Editor, decided that, because of the controversial nature of the Karson column, a “counterpoint” column written by another student should be published alongside the Karson piece.
• On Feb. 15, student Felix Im was invited to submit an accompanying column to the Karson piece.  The Im column was titled, “A Few Words on the Asiaphilic Plague” (see link below).
• Feb. 17, Campus Press publishes an opinion piece by Lauren E. Geary titled “No hablo ingles: Try speaking English, this is the United States.” 
• On Feb.18, the following two companion opinion pieces appeared in the University of Colorado at Boulder Campus Press:
  • “If it’s war they want, it’s war they’ll get,” by Max Karson.
    
  • “A few words on the Asiaphilic plague” by Felix Im.
• Feb. 20, Chancellor Peterson issued a statement regarding the Campus Press opinion piece, which has been posted on the CU-Boulder homepage since that date and made available to media.
• Feb. 20, the Campus Press regularly scheduled class meeting at 11 a.m. featured a previously scheduled presentation by a First Amendment attorney, in which the students discussed the issue in the context of free speech law.
• Feb. 20, the Campus Press editors wrote an apology regarding the Max Karson opinion piece.  The apology is posted at:
• Feb. 21, Journalism Dean Paul Voakes issued a letter to journalism faculty, Campus Press staff, concerned students and to the chancellor and chancellor’s cabinet outlining action items to be taken by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.  The letter was distributed internally and later posted on the Web. Dean Voakes proposed six reforms in the Campus Press procedures.
• Feb. 21, CU-Boulder Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson met with concerned students from the Asian Pacific community to discuss the implications of the Karson editorial.  Others present at this meeting were Vice Chancellors Sallye McKee and Ron Stump, Campus Press Adviser Amy Herdy, and Campus Press Editors Cassie Hewlings, Ioanna (Vanna) Livaditis, Ashley Oldland and Jason Bartz.  Also present were members of CU-Boulder’s professional counseling services.  Max Karson attempted to attend but students requested that he not come in the room.
• Feb. 21, the University of Colorado Student Union Legislative Council passed resolution 68-LCR5 by Special Order, criticizing the Campus Press Karson opinion piece. The resolution “urges the Campus Press to acknowledge their role in generating the controversy in question and release a further statement to address these issues.”  It also encourages “the Campus Press to develop a better understanding of how its articles impact underrepresented communities so that it may better serve the entire campus community.”  As of Feb. 26, the resolution was awaiting the signature of the UCSU tri-executives before being finally approved.
• Feb. 22, Dean Voakes’ letter was posted on the CU-Boulder web site with Chancellor Peterson’s statement.
• Feb. 22, Amy Herdy sent a letter to journalism faculty explaining the process and role of the Campus Press faculty adviser.
• Feb. 25, a meeting of concerned students was held at 5:15 p.m. in the Willard Administrative Center.  Vice Chancellors Sallye McKee and Ron Stump attended the meeting. The students then met separately with staff from the Center for Multicultural Affairs (CMA).
• Feb. 26, a number of Campus Press student editors published a column titled “A different part of the newsroom speaks on the Karson column controversy." 
• Feb. 26, the Campus Press published “From Conception to Publication: The Process Behind the Karson Opinion.”

• Feb. 27, the Campus Press announces that Max Karson’s duties with the online publication have been suspended pending a restructuring of the opinions section.

• Feb. 27, a student-organized community dialogue was held in Chemistry 140 from 4-6 p.m. Several multicultural student-group leaders made presentations and two officials from the Denver office of the U.S. Justice Department facilitated the discussion. The students presented a series of proposals to the CU-Boulder administration to move ahead on long-standing issues of diversity, inclusion and campus climate.