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In an essay published in the student paper Monday, Chapman University president Daniele Struppa has apologized to The Panther's reporters for the university's insistence that they run any coverage of President George W. Bush's visit past Bush's team prior to publication, inspiring an editorial from the paper explaining why they chose not to attend.
Struppa's apology confirmed that the university did indeed tell reporters the paper would need to submit the article for prior review. He went on to say this was not to the standard of the university's values of free speech and apologized to the students.
"As president, I am saddened that this happened, but I want to reaffirm our commitment as an institution, as well as my personal commitment, to do better next time," Struppa wrote. "I also want to restate and double down on our promise of free speech. The fact that we failed this time is not something we want to hide, but something we want to learn from. The fact that we failed is no justification for lowering our standards in the future."
That same day, The Panther's editorial board ran a second editorial stating that Bush's chief of staff called them on Oct. 17 saying that Bush's team did not place the restrictions on the student reporters -- Chapman did. The Panther's editorial board apologized to Bush and his team for originally pinning the blame on them.
"That means we were led awry," read the editorial. "We were led to believe that Chapman’s hands were tied, that they couldn’t do anything to let us into the event condition-free, that this decision was all Bush’s office. But then we found out that wasn’t the case at all."
