CCNY Newspaper Faces Suspension For 'Lewd' Cartoon

The student senate of the City College of New York will meet tonight to decide whether to suspend publications of CCNY's student newspaper because it printed a cartoon that many groups have interpreted as anti-Catholic.

The cartoon, which appeared in the February 13 edition of Observation Post, the student paper, pictured a nun sexually stimulating herself with a crucifix.

Sen. James L. Buckley (R-N.Y.) described the cartoon Friday as a "vicious and incredibly offensive antireligious drawing," and asked the Council of College Presidents to consider a proposal for the "expulsion of any student or group of students who deliberately abuse [the press] in a tax-supported institution."

Buckley called for the civil rights directors of both the Justice Department and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to investigate whether publishing the cartoon violated federal discrimination statutes.

Steven Simon, managing editor of the Observation Post, Saturday denied that the newspaper had intended to offend any religious group. "I took the cartoon as a sexual satire, but if we managed to demean an entire belief, it's not by intent," he said.

The Observation Post receives about $12,000 a year from a general activity fund at CCNY, paid for by students.

Buckley said that by publishing something possibly discriminatory and definitely offensive to certain students, the paper misused the university's "power to impose student fees that go to pay the costs of printing campus publications."

The CCNY student senate has shut the newspaper down temporarily twice in the last four years for offending the public