Two years ago, I joined my student newspaper, ready to do work that I had dreamed of doing ever since I had entered college. I was 20, a junior and autistic. I struggled with assignments that weren’t clear, with expectations that I was supposed to know things – because my neurotypical peers did – or…
As strikes and work stoppages led by faculty, graduate students, and other academic staff become increasingly frequent on college campuses across the United States, student journalists often find themselves at the forefront of unfolding events reporting, writing, and disseminating news to their audiences. Last month faculty unions at three public universities in Illinois went on…
The point of the First Amendment is to protect expression people hate – Nazi protesters in Skokie, anti-war protesters burning the American flag, KKK hooligans in an Ohio farmfield, Christian fundamentalists protesting the burial of American soldiers. Tolerance for the speech we despise is the lesson of 232 years of the First Amendment. Yet the…
For decades the Missouri legislature has been at odds with the will of the people on a host of major issues. Legislators are unfazed. In this year’s session in Jefferson City, lawmakers seem determined to codify their disdain for grassroots democracy. Legislators have introduced a slew of proposals to effectively end state voters’ use of…
Even as some in the Missouri legislature try to unravel the initiative process, they also are trying to undo “the will of the people” on previously passed voter initiatives on government transparency. A bill to undo some of the government transparency requirements passed by voters five years ago in the Clean Missouri initiative is advancing…