Today the University of Colorado will decide whether to fire it's student paper's editor, after he let approved the headline, "Taser This: F*** Bush," reported The New York Times.

The issue was publicized when a campus group, the College Republicans, circulated a petition requesting the resignation of the editor David McSwane.

The Board of Student Communications, which oversees the paper, then released a statement expressing its disappointment in the paper and held a well-attended public forum on the issue.

The paper's code of ethics specifically speaks against the use of profanities in opinion pieces.

However, the ethical dilemma here is not over where or not it's acceptable to use profanities. If a paper finds a responsible and beneficial reason to use expletives, it's acceptable to take them to print.

Being an opinion column, the headline was most likely not on the front page of the paper. Passersby were not forced to read the profanity.

A reader who chooses to pick up a college paper shouldn't be surprised to find such profanities. Student papers have a reputation for breaking social expectations.

However, the use of the profanity was nonetheless tasteless. The headline was still unethically published in the aspect that it was in direct disregard of policy without consideration of its effect on the paper's readers, who avidly expressed their disappointment.

It is a paper's responsibility to raise controversy, while maintaining respect for its community. The clear response to this statement was not a discussion of the story's content but of its method of conveying its point.

McSwane issued this response: "We feel the statement, albeit unpopular, was necessary in communicating our opinion that it's time college students challenge the current political climate and speak out."

Although this response was the best course of action the editor could have taken, the headline did not encourage political interest or conversation. Instead, it caused readers to question the credibility of the paper.

Still, the board shouldn't fire McSwane. A major purpose of student papers is to teach students how to learn from their mistakes. Firing the editor would deliver the wrong message to college papers about the utilization of language to challenge conventions.

Student papers around the nation should draw from this case a better understanding of how the irresponsible use of journalistic freedom can hurt a paper's goals and build distrust within its readership.