Last updated:10/04/2008
Editor files police report over missing newspaper copies

The editor of a student paper has filed a police report claiming that 4,500 copies have disappeared.

The issue of North Dakota State University newspaper The Spectrum contained a special section that listed the salaries of all university employees. It also included a news story on a campus skit in which a white student with a blackened face portrayed presidential candidate Barack Obama receiving a lap dance. The skit received national attention and prompted University President Joe Chapman to put out a statement condemning it.

Spectrum Editor Stephen Baird said he does not know if the newspapers were stolen after they were distributed but that he finds it hard to believe readers would have taken them all in one night. He said issues from even the typically low-circulation areas vanished.

“We put a lot of time and effort into getting the issue produced,” opinion editor Steve Boss said. “I hate to see it not in the students’ hands.”

The Spectrum prints 7,000 copies of each issue and distributes 4,500 the first night. Editors have since distributed the remaining 2,500 issues around campus.