Three student journalists have sued Ocean County College, asserting that the college, in Toms River, N.J., violated their First Amendment rights to freedom of the press and of speech, the Asbury Park Press reported today. The lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Trenton, N.J., names as defendants the college, its Board of Trustees, and several administrators, including its president, Jon H. Larson.
The lawsuit stems from a series of clashes between the campus newspaper, the Viking News, and the college’s administration since 2004, when the paper printed articles criticizing the cost of the president’s inauguration and his decision to change a college logo. The friction came to a head in December 2005, when the trustees voted to remove the paper’s faculty adviser of 35 years, Karen L. Bosley (The Chronicle, December 15, 2005).
