By Sara Sanchez-Contreras; The Whetstone

Announcements of many events on campus get sent out to the Wesley College community with no problems or questions asked.

But not when it comes to Whetstone articles.

The ability to send out announcements to the entire Wesley community that include all faculty, staff and students is limited to a very few administrators.

I found out yesterday that President Clark and interim-Provost Urbanas want to silence the newspaper by not allowing links to our articles sent out to all of the Wesley College community via email.

Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs Christine McDermott yesterday sent an email to me and Whetstone adviser Professor Victor Greto stating that the provost emailed her to say she is no longer permitted to send out general emails to the campus specifically from Whetstone students.

“President Clark and I discussed the question of notifying members of the Wesley College community of updated publications and current availability of The Whetstone,” the provost told her. “In the future, please do not email such notifications to members of the Wesley College community if the origin of these notifications includes a reference, either direct or indirect, to the Office of Academic Affairs.”

The provost further stressed that this order only applied to Whetstone articles. The idea seems to be that neither Clark nor the provost want these notifications to come from the Academic Affairs office where many other announcements come.

I believe the ability to do this is important so that the Wesley College community may be informed about what is happening here, listen to their peers express themselves, and hear their professors speak through our right to a free press.

Whenever articles were published, I would send links to the newer articles to Ms. McDermott so that she could inform others there were new articles and hoped that faculty members, staff and students would read them and get informed.

The articles Whetstone students have published this semester have been good articles and, for some, controversial.

But how can the community know when there’s a new article they can read without being notified that there has been one posted?

The entire Wesley College community should be emailed about the new stories we have been working on for the Whetstone. Being emailed about events taking place on campus should be the same as our publications in the Whetstone.

The Whetstone gives faculty members, staff and students a place to express how they feel about what has been happening here at Wesley College and how many on campus are feeling about the closing of the school.

It’s a needed voice that should not be silenced.