WYOBISONMAN
09-22-2004, 06:21 PM
Get a load of this......the Spectrum is a heck of a lot more interesting than when I was News Editor!!!!!
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NDSU sexual column redone
By Mike Nowatzki
The Forum - 09/22/2004
The panel that oversees North Dakota State University's student newspaper does not condone the raunchy writings of the paper's former sex columnist, members said Tuesday.
In a two-part statement, the Board of Student Publications also recognized that The Spectrum's editor is working on guidelines for future sex columns.
The statement emerged from more than two hours of discussion during two separate meetings Tuesday.
Board members hoped it would bring closure to an issue that has dominated the newspaper since the start of fall semester.
A columnist using the pseudonym Allison Moorhead wrote sex columns for the paper in August before editor Matthew Perrine pulled the column on the advice of Spectrum adviser David Wahlberg.
In the first column, Moorhead described how she became sexually aroused when she saw men and women getting short haircuts.
The second column offered a physical description of how to perform oral sex on men.
The column has since been picked up by The High Plains Reader, a Fargo-based alternative weekly.
Tuesday morning, Perrine presented a draft of sex column guidelines developed by opinion page editor Sybil Priebe.
The guidelines state the column will contain "informative and persuasive material" and "will not be focused primarily on entertainment or shock value."
The column also will use technical terms for the human body and sexual problems and won't contain explicit material relating to the act of sex, Perrine said.
A question-and-answer format will be used by the paper's next sex columnist, with responses delivered "in a more conservative manner," Perrine said.
"I definitely learned a lot," he told the board. "I should have went into the first (column) with a similar policy, because I had nothing to look at and say, 'Yes, we went beyond what we were supposed to.' "
Perrine, a senior mass communications major, thought the board's statement was fair.
Though the official board action amounted to little more than a slap on the keyboard, Perrine didn't escape the meetings without some tongue lashings.
Spectrum office manager Janet Turner said some staff members were embarrassed to be part of the newspaper after the sex columns ran.
"I've been in the work force for 32 years, and this is the first time I've ever been ashamed of my workplace, and I don't think that's a proper atmosphere that people should have to work in," she said.
Robert Lindberg, one of five student members on the nine-member board, said he believed the oral sex column violated the board's policy on obscenity.
"Every student pays for this paper, and we have the right to make sure that they're not offended," said Lindberg, a sophomore economics major. "I actually think that the second column went as far as possibly sexual harassment."
Lindberg proposed a board resolution calling the content of the columns "obscene and indecent." However, he withdrew it after board members Lou Ziegler and Steve Bergeson objected to the language as being too vague.
Ziegler, editor of The Forum, also noted that Moorhead's columns elicited some positive reaction on campus, contrary to the tone of Lindberg's resolution.
Board member Charles Okigbo, a communications professor at NDSU, said some students in his ethics class found value in the columns, while many found them deplorable.
The board unanimously approved the two-part statement proposed by Bergeson, who represents NDSU University Relations. It will be published on The Spectrum's opinion page.
Members also recommended that Perrine work with Wahlberg to complete the sex column guidelines and develop them into a broader ethics policy for Spectrum staff.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Mike Nowatzki at (701) 241-5528
*********************************************
NDSU sexual column redone
By Mike Nowatzki
The Forum - 09/22/2004
The panel that oversees North Dakota State University's student newspaper does not condone the raunchy writings of the paper's former sex columnist, members said Tuesday.
In a two-part statement, the Board of Student Publications also recognized that The Spectrum's editor is working on guidelines for future sex columns.
The statement emerged from more than two hours of discussion during two separate meetings Tuesday.
Board members hoped it would bring closure to an issue that has dominated the newspaper since the start of fall semester.
A columnist using the pseudonym Allison Moorhead wrote sex columns for the paper in August before editor Matthew Perrine pulled the column on the advice of Spectrum adviser David Wahlberg.
In the first column, Moorhead described how she became sexually aroused when she saw men and women getting short haircuts.
The second column offered a physical description of how to perform oral sex on men.
The column has since been picked up by The High Plains Reader, a Fargo-based alternative weekly.
Tuesday morning, Perrine presented a draft of sex column guidelines developed by opinion page editor Sybil Priebe.
The guidelines state the column will contain "informative and persuasive material" and "will not be focused primarily on entertainment or shock value."
The column also will use technical terms for the human body and sexual problems and won't contain explicit material relating to the act of sex, Perrine said.
A question-and-answer format will be used by the paper's next sex columnist, with responses delivered "in a more conservative manner," Perrine said.
"I definitely learned a lot," he told the board. "I should have went into the first (column) with a similar policy, because I had nothing to look at and say, 'Yes, we went beyond what we were supposed to.' "
Perrine, a senior mass communications major, thought the board's statement was fair.
Though the official board action amounted to little more than a slap on the keyboard, Perrine didn't escape the meetings without some tongue lashings.
Spectrum office manager Janet Turner said some staff members were embarrassed to be part of the newspaper after the sex columns ran.
"I've been in the work force for 32 years, and this is the first time I've ever been ashamed of my workplace, and I don't think that's a proper atmosphere that people should have to work in," she said.
Robert Lindberg, one of five student members on the nine-member board, said he believed the oral sex column violated the board's policy on obscenity.
"Every student pays for this paper, and we have the right to make sure that they're not offended," said Lindberg, a sophomore economics major. "I actually think that the second column went as far as possibly sexual harassment."
Lindberg proposed a board resolution calling the content of the columns "obscene and indecent." However, he withdrew it after board members Lou Ziegler and Steve Bergeson objected to the language as being too vague.
Ziegler, editor of The Forum, also noted that Moorhead's columns elicited some positive reaction on campus, contrary to the tone of Lindberg's resolution.
Board member Charles Okigbo, a communications professor at NDSU, said some students in his ethics class found value in the columns, while many found them deplorable.
The board unanimously approved the two-part statement proposed by Bergeson, who represents NDSU University Relations. It will be published on The Spectrum's opinion page.
Members also recommended that Perrine work with Wahlberg to complete the sex column guidelines and develop them into a broader ethics policy for Spectrum staff.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Mike Nowatzki at (701) 241-5528