Even though police won’t charge a Lantern photographer who was arrested while taking photographs on campus last month, the authorities are making it difficult for us to let the whole debacle go.

As if the story wasn’t bizarre enough, police have accused The Lantern of issuing a fraudulent press credential to staff photographer Alex Kotran, who was threatened with charges of criminal trespass and misconduct at an emergency while taking photographs of two capricious cows that broke loose on campus April 21.

accusation by police appears to be based on information given to them by the administrative manager of OSU’s School of Communication, Melanie Yutzy.

In the police’s 60-page report documenting Kotran’s arrest and the following investigation, officers note that Yutzy e-mailed police a copy of Kotran’s press credential, which Yutzy points out is different than press passes currently given to Lantern staff members. She also points out that Photo Editor Zach Tuggle signed Kotran’s press credential, and that students are not allowed to issue such passes.

“The conclusion is that the pass issued for Mr. Kotran is not official and is fraudulent,” the report states.

If police had involved anyone at The Lantern in the investigation, we could have saved everyone a lot of time.

Kotran’s press credential resembles a business card labeled as a Lantern press pass, with his name written on it, along with the academic quarter and the signature of his editor. These passes were made five years ago by former Lantern General Manager Ray Catalino and former adviser Rose Hume.

Beginning last year, students in the Communication 423 course, who serve as reporters for The Lantern for a quarter, were issued different press passes, laminated with their photo.

As far as we’re concerned, both passes are valid.

Police never once called any staff member of The Lantern to determine the authenticity of Kotran’s press pass. If they did, we would have answered without hesitation that it is valid. But no one contacted us, and police were left with the word of an administrator who rarely steps foot into the Lantern newsroom and who is not familiar with all our policies.

Despite their limited involvement with the day-to-day operations of the newspaper, School of Communication administrators nonetheless issued a directive to The Lantern’s tech guru, Jay Smith — who is not a student — telling him to update all Lantern credentials and give staff members the laminated press passes. School of Communication Director Carroll Glynn wrote in an e-mail that these passes are invalid if they’re signed by a student — even the editor-in-chief.

Glynn says that only the faculty adviser can put the seal of approval on our journalists’ press passes.

Dictating how we issue our press passes, and who can validate them, is overstepping the boundaries of a School of Communication administrator.

In a response Kotran’s arrest and the subsequent investigation, Glynn issued a memo to alumni May 10 stating that “the question of status as a journalist given the many possible roles students have related to the Lantern, such as editors, beat reporters, regular and occasional student freelancers working on or off assignment, is legally and professionally complex.”

All this is true. But she goes on to say that “we are working with the professional journalists who advise the Lantern regarding such training” and that the school would work with our staff to assemble a program to discuss the First Amendment and “other important issues.” None of the students at The Lantern have been contacted about any of this.

This is the bottom line: The Lantern is a student newspaper. Students produce and edit the content, students manage the newspaper, and students are ultimately held responsible for the newspaper and the actions of its staff. University administrators don’t have the jurisdiction to tell us how our newspaper operates.

It is absurd to say that students are not allowed to sign press passes for a student-run newspaper. Quite the contrary, only students should be able to issue credentials for our newspaper. Our editors have always decided who gets to represent the newspaper, and they will continue to take advantage of that privilege.

And here is our message to OSU Police: We have never issued a fraudulent press credential to any staff member. Alex Kotran is indisputably a Lantern staff member, and we could have saved the police department time and money if officers had asked us.

And here’s our message to anyone who tries to implement policies at our newspaper without our approval: Hands off. This is a student newspaper. It is under the guidance of a staff adviser and is bound by certain rules created by the School of Communication Publications Committee, but the buck stops there.

Just like the front page of The Lantern states, this is the student voice of Ohio State, and as long as we’re here, that’s not going to change.