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Called out by name

On Sept. 10, The Daily Princetonian published a news article, "Student charged with drug possession at Princeton Stadium," about an undergraduate student who was arrested by the University's Department of Public Safety for allegedly being in possession of marijuana and psilocybin, a compound found in psychedelic mushrooms, at the Princeton Stadium. The article clearly stated both the student’s full name and class year and reignited an age-old debate about whether the 'Prince' should publish the names of students in articles regarding their arrests, particularly when they have only been charged, and the case has not yet been adjudicated.

One thing that should be noted: The 'Prince' technically has the right to publish the student’s name. The name is public record and is available to anyone actively seeking out the information. That being said, just because a news outlet can do something, doesn’t mean it should.

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Arrests can be a matter of campus safety—if something happens that directly concerns the well-being of other students, it would be wise to make sure everyone is informed. The most important feature of the particular crime at hand was how passive it was. The student arrested was allegedly under the influence of marijuana and allegedly was carrying marijuana, psilocybin and drug paraphernalia. There is no mention in the article that he was hurting anyone, nor that he was causing any sort of disturbance. He wasn’t a danger to others. The 'Prince,' therefore, had no good reason to publish his name other than because it was juicy gossip. But that’s not the role of the newspaper. It isn’t supposed to be a seedy tabloid, pointing fingers and airing dirty laundry.

It’s even harder to justify the actions undertaken by the 'Prince' when we consider how selectively the supposed policy —that of reporting the names of students arrested —is applied. The Princeton Police Department, a separate police force from Public Safety, arrests students for underage possession of liquor and use of fake IDs frequently as well. This, too, is information made public, easily accessible on The Princeton Packet’s regular reporting of the police blotter. The fact that underage drinking is more common on campus doesn’t make it any less illegal than possession of marijuana, but the 'Prince' doesn’t call these individuals out for breaking the law. If there were actually a consistently implemented policy of naming every student who is arrested, there would be an article every two weeks about the latest sophomore busted leaving the liquor store with a handle of vodka.

Princeton is a school, like most, filled with ambitious students who undoubtedly want to do important things with their lives. The thing is, the arrest wasn’t just reported on unnecessarily; it was reported on prematurely. The case could easily be thrown out for any number of reasons between arrest and conviction. Furthermore, even if it is legitimate, if the student is a first-time offender, it’s likely that he will be eligible to have his record expunged after six months. At that point, the only evidence that will remain on the Internet is a college newspaper article written the night that the arrest happened. Potential hires don’t need to disclose the contents of criminal records that have been expunged, but a rudimentary Google search would probably bring this article up. By publishing an article with a name, the 'Prince' is overriding something that the law deemed irrelevant.

There is no added benefit of including the name of a student arrested for a passive crime. It highlights a sporadically applied policy and reduces the campus newspaper into a gossip column. In the future, more consideration should be given to the function of the 'Prince.' We aren’t Big Brother. We aren’t Perez Hilton. It isn’t the paper’s responsibility or duty to shame a student for something that affects no one but himself.

Shruthi Deivasigamani is a molecular biology major from Cresskill, N.J. She can be reached at shruthid@princeton.edu.

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