Daily Skiff

Issue date: 1/26/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Javier Vasquez Members of the La Catarina staff get organized in a hallway. These photographs were provided by Astrid Viveros, former La Catarina staff member. Identifications of people in the photographs were unavailable.

In the wake of the recent closure of the newspaper at TCU's sister school, the university plans to re-examine its relationship with la Universidad de las Americas, the provost said.

The administration at UDLA shut down La Catarina, the school's newspaper, Jan. 16. La Catarina staff members said the closure was in response to cartoons criticizing the university's chancellor, Pedro Palou, published in the paper.

The university's administration has denied the charge, although some allege resignations were forced upon those who spoke out against the administration's actions.

Provost Nowell Donovan responded to the recent closure of the newspaper at UDLA, with an official university statement.

"We are saddened and greatly perturbed by what we have read both in correspondence with UDLA and in Mexican national press," Donovan said, "Unjust censorship is not part of the ethos of TCU nor should it be of any university. Consequently, with due care and consideration, we are examining our entire relationship with UDLA."

La Catarina was established in 2000, with the help of The Skiff, said Carlos Dominguez Martinez, a former member of the La Catarina staff.

He said in the first few months of the newspaper's publication, Skiff staff members visited UDLA to present the Skiff as an example of independent media. Also, four members of the La Catarina staff visited TCU to learn how the Skiff was published.

Astrid Viveros, a student reporter for La Catarina, said the publication was one of the first university newspapers in Mexico to be managed by students.

TCU and UDLA have been sister universities for 15 years. Donovan said the program with UDLA involves agreements in which the schools exchange students, as well as pay reciprocal faculty visits. He said the programs have, in the past, been beneficial to both universities.

Donovan said to the best of his knowledge, TCU has never been involved in a situation of this sort in its relations with other institutions of higher learning.

Continued...

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