Central New Mexico Community College has temporarily suspended its student-run newspaper, The CNM Chronicle, following the publication of an issue devoted to sex.
College officials say the suspension is not entirely due to the most recent issue, but because of a concern over the oversight of the newspaper.
But Jyllian Roach, editor-in-chief, said the issue hit the news stands Tuesday and six hours later, she and other staff members got a call to meet with the dean of students.
“All we know at this time is they thought it was “raunchy” and that was it,” she said.
A statement from the college reads:
“CNM does not have a journalism program, which has limited the college’s ability to provide the education and training that students need to appropriately operate a newspaper that is distributed to a student body of nearly 30,000. CNM is going to re-evaluate how students can be trained, educated and supervised in operating a widely disseminated student newspaper.”
College officials say they hope the paper is up and running again by the summer term following an evaluation of the paper’s structure and oversight.
The issue includes how-tos on using sex toys and an article on sex classes, but also provides contacts for sexual resources and an article on abstinence.
“It’s a sex issue but it really focuses on education,” Roach said, adding that there’s no nudity or curse words.
A spokesman said that the college funds the newspaper. The students who work on it receive work-study money. They will be assigned other jobs on campus while the paper is suspended.
“The current issue was part of an ongoing pattern of concern with the content,” said Brad Moore, CNM spokesman.
