A woman is drawn wearing nothing but electrical tape and straps over her naked body. Another drawing shows a woman bent over on high heels with a naked man behind her.
These were the drawings that spurred controversy on the catholic Jesuit campus of Loyola University Chicago last week. The drawings were featured in the student run magazine Diminuendo and caused such controversy among religious leaders that the school pulled the magazine from the shelves. The drawings were among poems, essays, and pictures in the issue devoted to the topic of sex. This was the first time school officials have done this to a student publication.
While the controversy over the issue and its drawings is expected at a religious campus, it still violates our freedom of the press and deters our freedom of expression.
No school, organization, official, church or government has the right to say what is and is not appropriate material for publication. We can draw, write, and published whatever we want in this country- our first amendment gives us the right to do so. The school officials are in violation of this amendment and should be held accountable and punished to the full extend of the law. It makes no difference whether the religious undertone of Loyola frowns down on sexuality. The school has no power over our constitutional rights.
The schools actions vehemently violate the individual’s right to express freely and without fear of persecution- something that is cherished on this country. The school’s officials are deliberately limiting the students’ artistic and intellectual abilities and forcing their views and opinions on the student body. The school’s officials are suggesting that it’s okay to express yourself, just as long as it does not violate their own personal values.
A university should never sacrifice students constitutional rights in order to protect its own image. What is the heart and core of a university if not its students? What does Loyola plan to accomplish by refusing to distribute this student publication? Shouldn’t the university be encouraging free expression and be protecting- not violating- the rights of the individual?
As stated before, the religious atmosphere of the university should have nothing to do with what students publish or write. Some school officials argued- mostly priests- that the content of the issue exhibited aspects of pornography, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. But as one student of the university stated sex is "marketed everywhere''- on TV, movies, and mainstream magazines. So, why should the editors of college student publication be treated differently that the rest of the mass media?
Let’s just hope the school comes to its senses.
