U-Censorship

Reporters Without Borders, 18 January 2002

Reporters sans frontières (Reporters without Borders - RSF) expresses its dismay and indignation following the death of a journalism student on January 12, 2002. The organization has asked the Ugandan authorities to carry out an in-depth and impartial investigation so that those responsible can be identified and reprimanded. RSF is delighted to hear of the rapid arrest of three police officers, but hopes that the investigation will not stop there, and that full responsibility will be established within the management ranks of the Ugandan police force. Those who authorized the officers to employ real bullets during a demonstration should also be arrested.

On January 12, 2002, Jimmy Higenyi, a journalism student at the United Media Consultants and Trainers (UMCAT), died after being shot in the back by a bullet fired by police in Kampala. The journalist was covering a demonstration organized by the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC, the opposition) in the streets of the capital. His report was for a student project. The government had banned the march under article 269 of the Constitution, which outlaws all political activity in the country. The police, overwhelmed by the crowd, began firing real bullets to break up the demonstration. It was Jimmy Higenyi’s first project as a correspondent on the ground. He is the first journalist to be killed in the course of his duty in 2002.

The same day, at least three journalists - James Akena from the daily New Vision, Archie Luyimbazi and Andrew Mujema from the television station WBS - and several leaders of the UPC were detained for a few hours by the security forces.

A few days later, the chief inspector of the police, Major-General Katumba Wamala, announced that an officer and two constables had been arrested in connection with the murder of Jimmy Higenyi. "The police takes full responsibility" in this affair, the Ugandan police chief stated during a press conference.

Honi Soit, Sydney University newspaper
http://www.src.usyd.edu.au/Honisoit/html/editions_feature705.html

The Press Gang
Amelia Walkley explores the state of student media in Australia, and how our precious independent publications are threatened by VSU
Experimental and irreverent, idealistic and politicised, brazen and raw - student media is perhaps best characterised by its perpetual state of immaturity, with a well-deserved reputation for being intensely amateur, even at the best of times. This glorious pastiche of seditious satire, cheeky commentary, heavily opinionated rants and thoughtful musings holds a fundamental place within the university and student community - it is free from the clutches of any multi-million dollar media enterprise peddling mainstream values, and most vitally it is a medium through which students may say whatever the hell they want, and get away with it - most of the time, at any rate!

The Impact of VSU
The rich tradition of alternative commentary in Australian universities is being threatened significantly on a number of different levels, as measures taken to cope with the recently introduced Voluntary Student Unionism legislation have brought to light issues of censorship and autonomy. Around the country the impact of VSU, which prevents universities from collecting compulsory levies not directly related to students' courses, is hitting student associations hard. Funding cuts and budget re-workings are unavoidable, as student unions make great sacrifices and compromises so as to keep their organisation running and to continue providing essential services to students. Arguments and rants lamenting the flaws of VSU have been plentiful in the past, and often anti-VSU activists can begin to sound like broken records stuck singing to the same old tune, but it is pertinent to bring the subject up again, because VSU is an outright attack upon the autonomy, independence and integrity of our student publications.

In some cases, it has marked the end of individual publications entirely, such as Southern Cross University's Pulp; in other cases it has forced publications to go online, like the University of Queensland's Semper Floreat. At the very least, all Australian student publications have been required to completely reassess their financial situation - often with committed editors now working for free or for a pittance just to ensure that students are provided with a metaphorical microphone for their views.

The negative effects of VSU upon the industry of student media are overwhelming and widespread, and are occurring as we speak. Dara Conduit, one of the editors for this year's Lot's Wife, produced by the Monash University Students Association, said that 'under VSU we have had our budget cut severely.' Lot's Wife had previously ten editions a year, now only eight are published; and where last year they had three full-time editors and an advertising manager, they now have only two full-time editors. Likewise at Australian National University, where Woroni is published monthly during semester, editor Peter Davis noted that "VSU has cut our funding down to a quarter of what it used to be three years ago." Woroni was lucky enough, however, to receive some financial assistance from the Australian National University, though Davis said that their economic contribution is dwindling slightly.

The situation is even worse at Adelaide University - their student association's publication On Dit was one of only two weekly student newspapers left in the country (the other being our very own Honi Soit) until last year, when they were forced to change to being published on a fortnightly basis due to budget constraints. Editors Ben Heschke and Claire Wald lament that 'VSU has made On Dit's funding non-existent. This is the first year the editors are unpaid. We rely on making $3000 an edition in advertising to cover printing costs, which we have only managed for one of our three editions. The Union has budgeted to cover costs not covered by advertising, but for a Union already running at a large loss, this arrangement may not last long.' Similarly at Wollongong University the impact has been crippling - Tertangala has had its budget reduced from $120,000 to just $20,000 in the space of one year. This means that they are unable to pay the students who contribute, and consequentially their ability to secure content is diminished. The editorial team are all unpaid volunteers, frequently having to dip into their own pockets to fund their commitment to the publication. Small things like buying late night dinners and batteries for a tape recorder may not seem like much, but it all adds up.

A regrettable reality is thus revealed - in order to maintain their existence, students have had to compromise the precious and vital independence of their publications as they search for financial assistance from alternative sources.

Censorship and Controversy
Student media has a strong tradition of providing against-the-grain opinions, especially in the good old days of the 1960s and 1970s, when the country was buzzing with politically active students opposing the war and conscription, and fighting for women's liberation and freedom of speech. Writing for the student paper was (and still is) a viable form of activism, earning you a good dose of cred at the same time. But nowadays the autonomy and freedom of student newspapers are further sacrificed as editors are obliged to attempt to be more conservative and less offensive and radical so as not to displease the advertisers and universities who fund the publication.

Yet, by nature, student media is necessarily controversial, and censorship has always been a touchy issue in the industry. One of the more notorious cases involved the editors of La Trobe University's Rabelais publishing a 'Guide to Shoplifting' in 1995, poking fun at the dire state of student poverty. It was so contentious that the article was banned by the Office of Film and Literature Classification board on the grounds that it was material that 'promotes, incites and instructs in matters of crime'. This is an example of light-hearted satire gone terribly, terribly wrong, and the editors in question were threatened with hefty fines and even gaol sentences.

Interestingly, censorship can come just as forcefully from within the student government as well as from outside sources. Woroni editor Peter Davis commented that 'our censorship comes from the most extreme corners of both the queer and feminist corners and generally is just personal opinion of what constitutes offensive material. Most frustratingly, it seems most of our censorship occurs because the individuals involved feel that they need to be seen to be doing something, even if that something is counter-productive to the publication of a well-balanced student magazine.'

Past editor of Sydney University's Honi Soit and The Bull Sarah-Jane Collins said that 'when we ran for Honi we had a light-hearted slogan: " Honi only gets sued once a year, it's a good year" - but we outdid ourselves by being threatened by solicitors on two separate occasions.' The worst example of censorship she experienced was when editing The Bull last year - 'Some deals had been done on the Union Board, and we decided to write an article about it but when it was time to go to print the Union Board refused to allow the article to be published and even threatened legal action. Ultimately we had to publish in Honi Soit.'

A similar tale is related by On Dit editors Ben Henschke and Claire Wald - 'Last year an entire edition went missing the day after it was delivered, before the editors could distribute it. It featured a (probably defamatory) article on the student elections that were being held that week, a full-scale attack on factionalism and the inadequacies of student politics.' The article would have reflected badly on certain candidates running in elections, which perhaps explains why bundles of copies were allegedly found outside the then-Union president's house. Henschke and Wald said that nothing could be proven and the incident was not pursued.

Even more disturbing are the instances of censorship at the Catholic Notre Dame University, where most sexual references, profane language and criticism of the university are forbidden in the student publication Quasimodo. Further, at the University of New England in 2005, funding was cut suddenly to the student magazine Neucleus by the Liberal-controlled Students Association because of the amount of anti-VSU sentiment circulated within the paper. It is frightening that the genuine debate and commentary provided in what is supposed to be an independent and alternative source of media has the potential to be hijacked because of a powerful group's subscription to a particular religious or political outlook.

The Future for Australian Student Publications
Felix Eldridge, president of the National Union of Students in 2005, pointed out that student newspapers 'are not set up to represent the views of student organisations, but to represent the views of students'. Lot's Wife editor Dara Conduit said that 'we've published stuff that the student association hasn't wanted us to publish and yet we can because, well, we do what we want. If our advertisers told us not to publish something, we'd cut them, rather than the articles - in the real world, that just wouldn't happen.' Conduit's comments illustrate the essence of student media in practice - it is alternative, unorthodox, unconventional - and unafraid of publishing even the most radical of views. Editors tend to be immovable and idealistic - Sarah-Jane Collins points out that if an article is ever cut for political reasons, 'most editors will spend all night making photocopies, because when you're a student and you're running a paper, its integrity is the key and its ability to communicate honestly what's going on around campus is vital.' Student press has been the breeding ground for a whole host of notable (and notorious) Australians - the likes of Germaine Greer, Robert Menzies, H.V. Evatt and Keith Windschuttle were student editors in their university years, many developing their politics and values as a result. Will the next generation be cheated of their equivalent outspoken feminists or political leaders as a result of the death of many of our Australian student publications? When asked of their opinion of the importance of student media, editors around the nation shared similar sentiments. They celebrated the fact that student media is the main point of contact between students and their representative bodies, and that there is no other aspect of University life that can so accurately encapsulate what university is about. They cherished the opportunities yielded by having a student magazine or newspaper on campus - the vital media skills learnt by students through their involvement in such activities are invaluable. But most of all they noted the importance of independent criticism - Adam Knobel, editor of Tertangala this year, stated that 'to not question your government, your country, the media - or even your own beliefs - is to resign yourself to a life of suppression and subordination.'

Students are arguably an oppressed group in society - graduating with an enormous debt and putting up with difficult living and working conditions just to make ends meet. Without student publications, the issues faced by Australian students are in danger of being ignored completely by mainstream media sources. With the loss of this vital outlet, a significant chunk of youth popular culture in Australia would go down the drain, along with the political criticisms, literary genius and unique ideas generated by students

31 March 2004

Reporters Without Borders has called on Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz to open an investigation into the death of student journalist Mohammad Abu Halimeh, who was killed on 22 March 2004 while covering clashes at Balata refugee camp in Nablus.

The international press freedom organisation also called for the conclusions of the Israeli Army investigation into the death of British documentary film-maker James Miller to be given to his family and made public as quickly as possible.

It is almost a year since Miller was killed by Israeli shooting on 3 May 2003 when he was working on a documentary in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. Eyewitneses and the conclusions of the investigation backed by his family have called his death "deliberate killing".

James Miller

"In the same town of Nablus, the Israeli Army already killed a cameraman for US news agency APTN Nazeh Darwazi on 19 April 2003. Shamefully, no investigation was announced and no action taken against the perpetrators even though eye witnesses and footage of the incident showed there was a serious breach of regulations," said Reporters Without Borders in its letter to the minister.

"Today we are calling for an honest and serious investigation to be held into the circumstances of the death of Mohammad Abu Halimeh to bring an end to the impunity enjoyed by Israeli soldiers," the organisation added.

Palestinian hospital and security sources said that an Israeli bullet had apparently fatally wounded Halimeh in the stomach. Eye witnesses told Reporters Without Borders that the journalist student was about 50 metres from the soldier who opened fire on him.

He was standing in front of one of the main entrances of the Balata camp and had a camera around his neck. No exchanges of fire had been heard at the time. Agence France-Presse said Israeli soldiers opened fire against stone-throwing Palestinians.

Halimeh, aged 22, had been working for several months as a volunteer for An-Najah University radio in Nablus, where he was completing his journalism studies. He had been reporting live by telephone on the clashes at the Balata camp about ten minutes before his death.

Human Rights Watch, November 30, 2003

Liu Di, a twenty-two year-old psychology major at Beijing Normal University, frequently posted comments on Chinese Internet chatrooms, under the pen name “stainless-steel mouse.” In 2001, she started her own a chatroom, “A Life Like Fire,” in 2001 after police closed down one she preferred. Liu published several articles on the Xici on-line bulletin board that criticized government restrictions on the Internet. One of her articles expressed sympathy for Huang Qi, a webmaster jailed in June 2000 the on-line bulletin board he ran published articles relating to several taboo topics, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy demonstrations.

On November 7, 2002, officers of the State Security Protection Bureau removed her from her campus. Five months later she has yet to surface. Her family does not know where she is; she has had no access to legal counsel. Public Security Bureau officials later searched the family home, removing her computer, notebooks, and floppy disks. The Beijing branch of China’s State Security Bureau has notified Ms. Liu’s family that she is being held on charges of “being detrimental to state security.”

According to friends and university officials, the police had warned her several times to stop posting articles critical of the government and in defense of other jailed Internet users. In some of her web essays, Ms. Liu urged readers to “ignore government propaganda and live freely,” and to spread “reactionary” ideas via the Internet.” “Even though the Chinese Communist Party has power over us, but if we can’t feel it, pretend and live as if it doesn’t exist,” she wrote.

Reporters Without Borders 2005 report

Reporters Without Borders today deplored Syria’s blocking of two Kurdish-language news websites - www.amude.com and www.qamislo.com - which had carried news, pictures and video clips of demonstrations by the country’s Kurdish minority.


It said it was "disgusted by the regime’s authoritarian attitude and flagrant contempt for freedom of expression" by censoring websites and noted that a journalism student, arrested last July for posting photos on amude.com, was still in prison. "The authorities have now gone a step further," it said.

The two websites, run from Germany and blocked for Syrian Internet users in mid-March, are a major source of information for Kurds abroad and for foreign media, which regularly use their photos and videos.

Syrian users now get an "access denied" message when they try to go to the sites. Amude.com manager Siruan Hadsch-Hossein (whose pseudonym is Sirwan Heci Berko) said the authorities filter websites and block their domain name, so the material was initially still available at another address, www.amude.net, which had now been blocked.

The state-run Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE) filters hundreds of websites it deems pornographic, pro-Israeli or critical of the regime. Syria has only two Internet service providers (ISPs), both government-controlled - one operated by the post office and the other by the Syrian Computer Society. Much evidence suggests that e-mail, like phone conversations, are extensively monitored by the authorities.

Two Internet users are in prison for posting allegedly "offensive" material online.

One is Kurdish journalism student Massud Hamid, 29, who was arrested on 24 July last year while sitting an exam at Damascus University. He has since been held in secret at Adra prison, near Damascus, and reportedly ill-treated. He was picked up a month after photos were posted on amude.com of a peaceful Kurdish demonstration in Damascus.

The other cyber-dissident in jail is Abdel Rahman Shaguri, arrested on 23 February last year after e-mailing Levant News, the newsletter of the banned website www.thisissyria.net. He too is being held in secret, at Saidnaya prison, near Damascus, pending trial by the state security court.

By Reporters without Borders Published: August 27, 2006

Blogger Abed Tavancheh released on bail

Reporters Without Borders welcomes the release on bail, on 11 July 2006, of blogger Abed Tavancheh. Bail was set at 50 millions tomans (about 50,000 euros). He is due to go on trial shortly, but the date of the hearing has yet to be fixed. The blogger was arrested on 26 May at Teheran University where he is a student, during demonstrations which led to clashes between young democrats and the Basij militia - students who are controlled by the authorities.

06.06.2006

Arrest confirmed of blogger Abed Tavancheh, missing since 26 May

Blogger Abed Tavancheh, from whom nothing had been heard since 26 May, finally got in touch with his family on 6 June to tell them he is being held at Evin prison in Teheran. He said that he was well but gave them no further information. The newspaper Sobeh Sadegh, the official organ of the Revolutionary Guards, accused Tavancheh and his friends of the “Marxist branch” of the Unity Consolidation Bureau (the unofficial students’ union) of being behind rioting which has shaken Amirkabir University in Teheran for several weeks. In Iran, to be a Marxist means to question the existence of God, which is in the eyes of the law an apostasy punishable by the death penalty.

31.05.2006

Student blogger missing, may have been arrested

Reporters Without Borders today said it was “very worried” about Abed Tavancheh, a blogger and student at Tehran’s Amirkabir polytechnic university, who has been missing since 26 May and may well have been arrested after posting photos and reports about the demonstrations taking place at his university for the past few weeks.

“Tavancheh is a courageous blogger who may well have fallen prey to the government’s crackdown on the student pro-democracy movement,” the press freedom organisation said. “His work nonetheless shows that Iranian civil society is dynamic and is resisting government censorship and authoritarianism.”

Tavancheh has been out of contact with his family and friends since 26 May and cannot be reached on his mobile phone. He had participated in the rioting between pro-democracy youths and the government-controlled Basij student militias that recently broke out on his campus.

Many photos of these incidents have been posted on his blog, called “In the name of man, justice and truth”. His last message, posted the day he went missing, includes the text of a letter by Nasser Zarafshan, a famous lawyer - now in prison - who acted for the families of intellectuals and journalists who were murdered during a crackdown in 1998.

Two other bloggers Arash Sigarshi and Mojtaba Saminejad, are currently in prison in Iran.

© Reporters Without Borders - 47, rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris - France

By Monica Cambell Published: December 6, 2007

Cholula, Mexico

On the evening of January 17, Monica Cruz, an editor at La Catarina, the student newspaper here at the University of the Americas-Puebla, scrambled to collect her personal belongings. A few steps away, padlocks in hand, campus security guards and administrators stood ready to shutter the newspaper.

They were under order of the university's administration to block publication of La Catarina, which had gained a reputation as an independent voice during its six-year tenure at this elite, private liberal-arts university.

"We asked why they were doing this," Ms. Cruz recalls. "We felt like criminals."

For La Catarina's many supporters, the answer was obvious: The newspaper had taken on the university's increasingly unpopular administration and its rector, Pedro Angel Palou GarcÃa.

Now, nearly a year later, the university is finding that its list of enemies has grown, and that many people on the campus and off are raising uncomfortable questions about its leadership and financial management.

The stakes are high. The University of the Americas-Puebla is one of the most respected higher-education institutions in Mexico and has substantial ties to the United States. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, has received more than $20-million from the United States Agency for International Development, and has been a study-abroad destination for students from more than 20 U.S. universities.

SACS, as the accreditor is known, placed the institution on warning last December and will announce this month whether this past year's turmoil has affected its standing further. American colleges are either placing their agreements with the university on hold or considering doing so. And USAID has not given any money to the institution since Mr. Palou came to power.

Perhaps most significantly, in Mexico the university's reputation has taken a beating. A number of academics have signed petitions and published letters in national newspapers questioning the university's administration, citing concerns over freedom of expression. The university declined to provide figures, but professors and students say enrollments have dropped off substantially.

The irony in all this is that many of the changes taking place at the University of the Americas have been driven, reportedly, by a desire to make it more profitable.

'A Corporate Venture'

The university's senior administration, including Mr. Palou, who recently stepped down to take a temporary research position at a university in Paris, declined requests for interviews. Members of the Mary Street Jenkins Foundation, a private, family-run organization that owns the university's land and has served as the institution's main source of funds for decades, did not respond to e-mail messages and calls from The Chronicle. But many current and former faculty members and students agreed to speak about what has happened on the campus in recent years.

Academics here say the changes began a few years ago. The Jenkins foundation's new generation of leaders, descendants of William O. Jenkinsâ€"sometimes called the John D. Rockefeller of Mexicoâ€"have business, not academic, backgrounds, academics note, and foundation members hold every seat on the university's governing board.

"They see the university as a corporate venture, not as a center to promote first-rate investigation," says Edward Simmen, professor emeritus at the university and its official historian.

Troubles began from the start of Mr. Palou's tenure. A noted novelist and former cultural minister for the State of Puebla, he was hired in 2005 and, critics say, began abruptly merging departments, increasing faculty teaching loads, canceling classes, and steadily removing professors and administrative workers without formal review. (Mexican universities do not have tenure systems).

The sudden changes came as a shock to faculty members. The University of the Americas is modeled after American liberal-arts colleges, with student dormitories, a focus on developing English-language skills, and a picturesque, 180-acre campus complete with manicured gardens and fountains. Over the years, and with steady support from the Jenkins foundation and USAID, the 6,000-student institution has become one of Mexico's most regarded universities, attracting top international scholars and exchange students.

The university has long been recognized as a very high-quality, tolerant, pluralistic university," says Manuel Gil Anton, a sociology professor and expert in Mexican higher education at Mexico City's Autonomous Metropolitan University.

In all, more than 60 professors, some 40 high-level administrators, and nearly 200 lower-level personnel have been fired or forced to resign over the past two years, according to several students and professors. Faculty cuts were especially deep in the communication and international-relations departments.

The economics department was nearly halved, and the future of both its master's and doctoral programs are in doubt.

"Our department was on the map and was decimated in one day," says Isidro Soloaga, a former economics professor who says he was forced to resign and was immediately hired at Mexico City's elite College of Mexico.

In interviews with the local news media in May, Mr. Palou argued that dismissed faculty members had engaged in a "conspiracy against the university's interests" and said that new professors with "similar or better academic levels" would replace those let go. To date, nearly all new professors are part-time and lack the recognized international credentials of their predecessors, according to several current and former faculty members and administrators.

"We were accused of conspiracy by questioning what the heck was going on," says Mr. Soloaga. "Pretty soon, people were afraid to speak up."
Conflict of Interest

Under Mr. Palou, his critics say, the administration made several deals that benefited the Jenkins family. They included a campuswide switch from Linux to Microsoft that involved the purchase of new software and Dell computers from a technology firm owned by a Jenkins relative. Other relatives, the critics say, benefit from large insurance and construction contracts.

For years, the Jenkins foundation gave, on average, between $1- and $2-million every year to the university, known as UDLA. But financial support has shrunk drastically since 2002, says Nora Lustig, an economist and a visiting professor of international relations at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. She served as rector at UDLA from 2001 until May 2005, when she resigned over disputes with the new leadership of the governing board and its direction over the university.

"The foundation, the UDLA's endowment, shifted under new leadership," she says. "The goal was to turn the university into a self-sustainable, profit-driven enterpriseâ€"not to fund research."

As research funds dropped, the new administration upgraded computer networks and revamped sports facilities in order to start a youth soccer school. A glossy new quarterly magazine called Revuelta debuted in December 2005 and regularly featured the writing of Mr. Palou and those in his literary circle. New undergraduate efforts include a cooking school and programs in nanotechnology, nutrition science, and interior design. Ms. Lustig says such investments were not necessarily bad, but they should not have been a priority.

Late last year, the university adopted a new "code of ethics." A loyalty oath of sorts, it states that any "public declarations" by employees or students that negatively affect the university's image can result in dismissal, according to a notice on the university's Web site.

"Under this code, it was virtually impossible to get anybody to talk to us," said Ms. Cruz, of the student newspaper. When it was shut down in January, the university said it was undergoing an "adjustment." The newspaper reopened a few weeks later following a national media outcry.

Today, La Catarina is widely considered an organ of the administration. Recent articles have heralded the university's lavish new Xbox-equipped video-game room, which is also featured on the university's Web site.

During a tour of the campus with a Chronicle reporter in November, Maria López Aguilar, the university's vice director of communication, referred all questions about the various controversies on the campus to senior administrators.

Asked about the newspaper's temporary shutdown and its ability to report on campus news without violating the loyalty oath, Ms. López said "freedom of speech is no longer an issue."
A Year of Conflict

The temporary closing of La Catarina this past January ushered in a particularly tumultuous year at the campus.

In May, 18 professors gathered to draft a letter of protest to the rector and governing board at the home of Mark Ryan, a former international-relations professor. During the meeting, he said, a campus security guard came to the door and served Mr. Ryan an order to report to the rector's office the next day. So began a wave of forced departures that left 12 of the professors at the meeting, including Mr. Ryan, without jobs. Several of those who left belong to Mexico's prestigious National System of Researchers. Mr. Ryan says they were forced to resign for holding views incompatible with the university's administration.

"The was no room for dissent. I've never experienced anything like it," says Mr. Ryan, who before coming to Mexico was a professor of American studies at Yale University for more than 20 years.

Last spring, the Board of Trustees dismantled the university's advisory board, which once held some authority over the selection of top administrators and faculty members.

"We were systematically prevented from having any information on new contracts or large deals made with the university," said Neil Lindley, a former advisory-board member whose father, Ray Lindley, was the university's first rector. "That just hardened our view that the Jenkinses were motivated by profits and no longer saw the university as a charitable venture."

The turmoil at University of the Americas has made few ripples in a country were local scandals are staples of daily newspapers, but it has grabbed the attention of academics at other universities. Aggrieved faculty members and students at UDLA blog anonymously about the situation, and alumni and former professor talk about it in an effort to garner external support and place pressure on the university to make changes.

In response to such concerns, SACS visited the campus in April 2005. Last December it put the university on a one-year warning, based on its inability to demonstrate financial stability and a failure to present a governing board not controlled by a minority of board members, according to Belle S. Wheelan, president of the accrediting association. On December 11, the accreditation body will announce whether to lift the warning, put the university on probation, or revoke its accreditation.
U.S. Groups Pulling Away

In November, Mr. Palou announced the creation of a new academic council to replace the dismantled advisory board, comprising 23 elected members from various departments. What sorts of powers the council has, though, is not yet clear.

Citing concerns over freedom of expression and mass firings, several U.S. universities, including Vanderbilt University and Texas Christian University, are reconsidering their exchange programs with UDLA. Jim Hromas, director of international education and outreach at Oklahoma State University, says talks to expand his university's study-abroad program with UDLA to include a joint master's-degree program are on hold until "things settle down." The University of Notre Dame is in "wait-and-see mode," says Claudia Kselman, director of international studies there.

USAID grants have also stopped, for the first time in decades. The last cash injection from the U.S. government was made in 2004, for $317,000 for scientific equipment. Since the 1970s, USAID has awarded at least $20-million to the university, with grant totals averaging more than $700,000 since the early 1990s. The money has helped renovate the university library and build student and faculty housing and computing networks.

According to USAID, the absence of grants in recent years owes to the university no longer being "competitive" for funds. The aid agency would not offer a further explanation.

Mr. Palou's departure last month, while welcomed by many, has given critics little cause to rejoice. The vice rector, Guillermo Aurelio Romero Melendez, is the interim leader, and the university, critics note, remains under control of the same board that approved Mr. Palou's decisions.

"Until the Jenkins foundation decides to turn things around, the university will continue being reduced to a shell of its former self in order to enhance profits," says Mr. Simmen. "It is unclear whether a new rector can change that."

These days a culture of fear pervades the campus. A number of professors and students, both former and present, say intimidation tactics are common and include phone tapping and being trailed by plainclothes security guards. Those critical of the university now go to off-campus Internet cafes to send sensitive e-mail messages. "The paranoia is real," says a current graduate student who refused to be identified, fearful of violating the university's "code of ethics."

Meanwhile, Ms. Cruz feels trapped. She lost her adviser in the firings and no longer works at the student newspaper. But transferring to another university, uncommon in Mexico, would mean losing three years of credits. "I'm resigned to finish my studies here," says Ms. Cruz. "But I'm worried that if things don't turn around soon, my degree won't mean much."

Copyright © 2007 by The Chronicle of Higher Education