By Melinda WalkerStaff Writer
They are seen all over campus — giant bulletin boards withhundreds of fliers attached to them.
How much control does the university have over these boards?
According to the Associated Students Organization handbook, fliersand posters smaller than 18-by-22 inches may be placed on anygeneral-purpose bulletin board on campus without prior approval.However, there are guidelines for what can be posted.
Leaflets and fliers may not contain false, misleading, or illegalclaims, contain defamatory material, violate applicable lawspertaining to obscene matter or consist of offers to sell termpapers, theses, or other written materials for academic credit.
Director of Marketing and Communications Jack Beresford said itwould be virtually impossible for the university to monitor everyflier that is posted on the boards to see if it follows theseregulations.
Beresford said if students complained about a posted ad, then theuniversity would look into the allegations, however there is no onewho specifically walks around to all the boards and looks forquestionable material.
“The boards are considered public space,” he said.
Because of this, the university should not be held liable for whatis posted, attorney Steven Rubin said. If something bad were tohappen to someone who answered an ad posted on one of the boards,that person could sue the university, but winning such a case ishighly unlikely, he said.
Rubin and Beresford encourage students to use their own discretionwhen deciding to answer an ad. If something seems questionable, thenstudents should not put themselves in unsafe situations, they said.
Many students on campus said they were not aware of anyrestrictions.
“I have not heard anything of these restrictions,” engineeringsophomore David Camp said. “I mean they sound reasonable because Idon’t want there to be any false things posted, but it is not likeanyone is checking to see if they follow the guidelines.”
Some students on campus said they never answer ads placed on
the boards.
“You never know who you can trust and who you can’t,”communication sophomore Julie Eliot said.
However, not all students think the boards are completely uselessand unsafe.
“It is helpful, especially to those looking for roommates,”liberal studies junior Angela Osborn said. “As for the safety of ads,I think students should be able to judge what is safe and whatisn’t.”
Students have also expressed concern over classifieds in The DailyAztec soliciting “female dancers” and egg donors.
Editor in Chief Jeremy Lynch said the newspaper will be placing adisclaimer on the classifieds page to let readers know that alladvertisers have not been researched.
“While it’s not our job as a newspaper to go out and make sure allof the ads in classifieds are legitimate, we do have a responsibilityto protect or readers to a certain extent,” Lynch said. “We feel thatwe would be doing a disservice to readers if we didn’t let them knowthat we hadn’t checked out all of the classified advertisers.”
