Rutgers Student Says He Was Fired From Campus Newspaper for Being Conservative

Rutgers University student Aviv Khavich claimed he was fired from the campus newspaper earlier this week because of his conservative views, The College Fix reports.

"I was an Opinions columnist for The Daily Targum, Rutgers' print campus newspaper, until this Monday, when a series of escalating confrontations resulted in my column being terminated," Khavich wrote in an article published in The Tab on Tuesday.

"I can only arrive at the conclusion, as any reasonable person would, that my termination was a politically motivated move itself," Khavich wrote.

Khavich published his sixth and final column for The Daily Targum Sunday night, where he defended his argument that immigration enforcement is not "anti-immigrant."

The matter is believed to have escalated following Khavich's demand that his column include the phrase "illegal aliens" instead of "undocumented immigrants" to describe those in the country illegally.

The Daily's editor pointed out that Khavich often fought over "stylistic" editing changes made to his columns over the past several months.

In a phone interview to College Fix, Khavich pointed out that "every instance of 'illegal alien' I wrote was changed to 'undocumented immigrant'" by his editors.

"But I considered it a part of my opinion to not use" the latter term, which he finds "politically correct and also inaccurate."

Khavich was told the paper's editor-in-chief Dan Corey wanted the column to follow Associated Press Style, hence the changes were made. Khavich claimed he was fired the next day. Blaming Corey, he called the Daily "very bias indeed."

In his defense, Corey told The Fix in an email that Khavich's "column was not discontinued because he is a conservative," adding that the Daily had "other conservative columnists" as well.

The actual reason was that Khavich "continuously took issue with small edits to his columns that were either for stylistic purposes, or for the purpose of fitting his column into the print edition of The Daily Targum."

Corey also pointed out Khavich's "previous attempt to disparage the Targum's name publicly" as grounds for termination.

Khavich, meanwhile, believes The Daily was just looking for a reason to fire him for political motives.

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