The managing editor of the University of the Pacific's student-run weekly newspaper says the student government is trying to censor the paper.

Alexandra Wagner said talk by members of the student government of cutting the newspaper's funding, and forcing the paper to run the government logo, has alarmed her and others at the paper.

"We felt student government was trying to censor," she said. "They kept telling us, 'We fund you.' A (student) senator said, 'Don't read them. They lie,' and tore it up. It was all pretty much censorship by intimidation."

Student body president Matt Olson denies any attempt to censor the paper.

Last spring, student government capped the paper's funding. Then in the fall the student senate withdrew its approval of the paper's charter and called for its revision, leading to this headline: "Student government to censor Pacifican."

Days later, a senator and his fraternity brother drew attention on campus by shredding copies of the Pacifican. Student government then pressed the paper to adhere to a policy requiring student organizations receiving student government funding to display the government logo.

University officials have since intervened. They recently appointed a task force made up of students, faculty and staff to look at how student media are structured and funded at UOP.

Outside consultant Michael Cheney visited the Stockton campus late last month to do some fact finding. Cheney has a background in journalism and is provost at University of Illinois at Springfield.

Officials have asked for recommendations from the task force by May 1.

The paper gets 6 percent of a $75-a-semester Associated Students fee, or $20,000 a year, officials said. The paper's annual expenses are about $62,000, Wagner said.

Associated Students controls allocations to other student organizations on campus, but the university's Board of Regents has set the paper's for more than a decade, officials said.

Olson said a review of the charter was four years overdue and it was only his intent to rethink how the paper is funded.

"We weren't saying we weren't going to fund the paper," he said. "We were saying, 'What is the best way for us to fund the paper?'"

On the other hand, Olson has pushed to brand the newspaper with the ASUOP logo, just as, he said, road signs make it clear how tax dollars are spent.

The Pacifican has refused to print the logo.