The president of Loyola University New Orleans angered staffers of the student newspaper last week when he quashed an article about the sudden departure of a music-program director.

In April, reporters at The Maroon began looking into rumors that Scott Fredrickson, a professor of music and coordinator of the university's music-business program, was leaving the university. A front-page article, with the headline "Chair's firing shrouded in secrecy," was scheduled to appear in last Friday's edition.

On Thursday, however, Loyola's president, the Rev. Bernard P. Knoth, told the staff to delete references to Mr. Fredrickson's apparent firing. Then, minutes later, Father Knoth called back and ordered the newspaper's adviser, Liz Scott, not to run the story, according to Maroon staffers.

As the newspaper's publisher, Father Knoth has the authority to pull an article. But Ms. Scott said that the president normally does not review the newspaper prior to publication.

"The students were furious. They had been up all night working on the story," Ms. Scott said. "In retrospect [Father Knoth] was just trying to protect ... the university. I can understand why he did it. I just wish he'd done it differently."

Following the decision, four Maroon editors went to Father Knoth's office to demand a meeting. Staffers said that the meeting was confrontational and that Father Knoth ordered them to leave his office after a brief conversation.

Mr. Fredrickson could not be reached for comment, and the reasons for his departure remain unclear. In an interview published on Sunday in The Times-Picayune, a New Orleans newspaper, Mr. Fredrickson confirmed that he had left Loyola, but refused to comment further.

On April 25, apparently days before Mr. Fredrickson's departure, The Maroon published a guest opinion piece by the professor, titled "Karma works out in the end."

Mr. Fredrickson wrote, "In recent weeks, I have experienced unfortunate actions from people whom I respected and thought were friends, This has caused me to contemplate the karmic law of cause and effect. ... I hope my 'friends' will keep an eye over their shoulder. The karmic principle of 'what goes around comes around' is on the way."

Father Knoth did not respond to The Chronicle's requests for an interview. It was unclear whether Mr. Fredrickson resigned or was fired.

Father Knoth told The Times-Picayune that the article about Mr. Fredrickson was "inflammatory" and that it was improper for the student newspaper to report on personnel matters.

Bob Wardlaw, a junior at Loyola and the newspaper's editor in chief, told The Chronicle that he was "outraged" by Father Knoth's decision. "He could have handled it better than he did. I wouldn't have had a problem adapting the story, to be more accurate."

"It's almost like having the mayor of your city be the publisher of your paper," he said.

Mike Hiestand, a lawyer at the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit group that defends students' free-speech rights, said he was disturbed by the events.

"The bigger question is not whether [pulling the story] was legal or not legal, but if it was right or wrong," Mr. Hiestand said. "The Maroon is supposed to be a newspaper, not an extension of Loyola's public relations office."

Loyola's student handbook states that "in order to operate effectively, [the student newspaper] is to be a free and independent voice acting in the best interest of the university in pursuit of truth."

The Maroon's editors reprinted that policy, as well as the First Amendment, in the space where the pulled article was to have appeared.