I discovered this via IHE and it seems completely up the alley of the hard-hitting journalism we are famous for here at EMUTalk.org: “Chronicle staff investigated for ‘PENIS’ gag,” which is a story in/on Salt Lake City Weekly.Net. Here are the opening paragraphs:
Nine University of Utah graduating seniors and former staff members of the Daily Utah Chronicle received an e-mail alerting them that there has been a hold placed on their records after a traditional newspaper staff farewell gag caught the attention of administrators. Editors at the paper, as they have for at least a decade, arranged for the drop-cap letters in a series of farewell columns to spell out the words “CUNT” and “PENIS.”
For pictures of the offending layout, go here.
The Chronicle‘s outgoing editor in chief, Rachel Hanson–who has also served as a City Weekly staff copy editor since February–says the nine students whose columns’ first letters spelled out the gag words each received an e-mail that says they allegedly violated the University of Utah’s Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. They’re suspected of “intentional disruption or obstruction of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary proceedings or university activities,” and “unauthorized or improper use of any university property, equipment, facilities or resources.”
Pretty stupid reasoning on the U of Utah’s part, if you ask me. I suspect that when this year’s “PENIS” joke made it to the popular FAIL Blog, the administrators freaked out a little.
