Yet another media circus has arrived on campus and, not surprisingly, the ill-reputed Koala is in the middle of it. Even with countless sets of eyes focused on UCSD — news crews flocked this week to the Koala’s sit-in protest for juicy sound bites and off-color quotes — administrators seem to be forgetting that just last year, the university fumbled the Student-Run Television scandal, drawing national media attention with its reactionary shutdown.

Now, with its target set on the Koala after a cloudy drug and alcohol bust in the paper’s office, the administration risks alienating students once again.

Before an official appeal has been submitted or any other final resolution has come in the case, university officials are wasting no time moving in on the Koala’s office space. The vice chair of the University Centers Advisory Board, Soheyl Tahsildoost, has already offered “unexpected[ly] vacated” space in the Student Center Media Lounge (the location of the Koala office) to other student organizations in a Nov. 1 e-mail obtained by the Guardian. This is a risky move for the university — the Koala’s status as a traditionally controversial organization makes administrators more susceptible to charges of stifling freedom of speech and taking advantage of the situation to harshly punish an administratively unpopular organization.

The university may have a right and perhaps even an obligation to evict the Koala, but such a determination needs to be made after a thorough, fair deliberation in which the paper’s staff has an opportunity to defend itself and all dimensions of the case are fully discussed.

Any preemptive action administrators take to reassign the Koala’s office or condemn members of the paper’s staff before that point will only reflect badly on the university’s sense of fairness and legitimacy.