The Current Student Newspaper Suspended

The Current received a letter from Miriam Huffman, which effectively suspended The Current's budgets, organization, and activities. Huffman, the associate director of the Office of Student Life, also detailed four violations that The Current is charged with. The letter stated that the suspension could be lifted on August 1, 2009 if four conditions are met.

The violations are as follows: University of Missouri Policy HR-105, documents must be presented that establish identity, verify eligibility and make provisions for taxes to be employed by UM-St. Louis.

University of Missouri Policy HR-221, forms such as the Personnel Action Form, Employment Eligibility Verification, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, Direct Deposit, and Appointment Notification Form are presented.

Federal law, I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services form filled out at the beginning of employment.

Student Code of Conduct of the University of Missouri, "failure to comply with direction of University officials acting in the performance of the duties."

According to the letter the suspension can only be lifted if four conditions are met. A new Editor-in-Chief is named by the Publications Committee (named on June 3), new processes and procedures created to "correct issues related to completion of new hire paperwork," the Editor-in-Chief is trained by the Office of Student Life and Human Resources and The Current must revise and submit changes to its constitution to the Office of Student Life.

According to The Current's constitution, constitutional revisions cannot be made without a majority vote from 2/3 of paid staff members. The disciplinary letter terminated all employees of The Current effective immediately.

The disciplinary letter stated that if The Current wished to appeal the sanctions to do so in writing within seven days of the dated letter. The Current did appeal the sanctions within the timeline given.

In the appeal The Current requested clarification on violations 1, 2, 3, and 4 and said "Clarification of these alleged violations should include a detailed explanation, in writing, of who committed the violation, when, and specifically what happened."

The appeal also stated: "Due to the ambiguous nature of the policy violations and sanctions within the Office of Student Life's disciplinary letter to The Current and the vast number of issues, questions and concerns that arise because of The Current's pending suspension, this letter should be recognized as our formal appeal." The appeal elaborated on The Current's questions and concerns. To date, The Current has not received a written response to their appeal.

Local media such as the St. Louis Post Dispatch and KSDK have reported on the suspension on June 22 and June 23.

All UM-St. Louis students who have chosen to be involved in the summer-editions of The Current are doing so on a volunteer-basis.