Last week, over half of the press run of the most recent issue of The Counterweight, the magazine of the Bucknell University Conservatives Club, was vandalized. (Disclaimer: I served as editor of The Counterweight while at Bucknell.)
Here are the details from a BUCC press release:
The first issue of this semester was printed and distributed on Monday, February 18. Within 24 hours, over 1,000 copies were stolen from locations across the Bucknell campus.
A large proportion of the remaining press run was distributed again on the morning of Tuesday, February 19. In approximately one hour, all of the issues were again taken. Soon after, a report was filed with Bucknell’s Office of Public Safety.
The issue was assumedly stolen because it featured several controversial articles criticizing the University’s sponsorship of Focus the Nation, a national teach-in about global climate change. This event was the latest example of University-supported indoctrination and deliberate political activism. Sarah Schubert, editor-in-chief of The Counterweight said, “This vandalism is unacceptable because it amounts to censorship; on a college campus, the free and vigorous exchange of ideas should be wholeheartedly defended by everyone.”
The issue was reprinted and distributed across campus on Tuesday, February 26. Bucknell’s President Brian C. Mitchell also released a statement on Tuesday, condemning the vandalism, saying, “This act of apparent theft and harassment undermines the right of The Counterweight, and in fact of all student publications, to express their views.” The Office of Public Safety has launched an investigation into the incident.
A PDF of the issue is available here.