Newspaper Editor is Fired for Refusal to Print Military Ads

After refusing to publish military recruiting advertisements, the editor of Ohio's Wayne State University's student newspaper has been fired for insubordination, the newspaper's acting executive editor said yesterday.

Patricia A. Maceroni was dismissed from her salaried post as executive editor of The South End, Wayne State's daily campus newspaper, after banning the advertisements in protest of U.S. military involvement in Central America, said Christopher J. Greenlee, acting executive editor in Maceroni's absence.

The Student Newspaper Publications Board, which oversees management of the South End, this fall charged that according to the newspaper's charter the editor does not have the right to make advertising policy.

However, Maceroni and other South End editors claim that the charter gives the editor full responsibility for everything in the paper, including advertisements. She said that it was hypocritical for the South End to be protesting U.S. military involvement in Central America on its editorial page while simultaneously running military ads.

In mid-September the Publications Board gave Maceroni two weeks to resume printing the ads, but she refused. The board then fired Maceroni from her $150-per-week post for insubordination, Maceroni said.

Maceroni has retained Detroit attorney John Minock to determine exactly what powers the charter gives the editor. Minock filed an injunction in a Detroit district court last week stating that Maceroni's civil rights, as well as the first and 14th amendments to the Constitution, had been violated. A hearing date is set for Monday.

Wayne State, a commuter school of 29,000 students whose average age is 28, disregarded Maceroni's original request to settle out of court. The university, shunning its in-house legal staff, has retained a private lawyer to defend the school, Maceroni said.

Greenlee believes the university administration is taking so strong a stance in order to court potential military defense research contracts, most of which are rumoured to be Star Wars related.

The original conflict over advertisements has been blown greatly out of proportion, Maceroni said. "The university has silenced a student and violated my civil rights. If it can silence one student, it can silence a whole student body," Maceroni said.

University officials have refused to comment until after Monday's hearing.