The disappearance of nearly 2,000 copies of Binghamton Review, the self-proclaimed conservative student publication on campus, is being investigated by campus police.

According to Joseph Carlone, the Review’s editor in chief, stacks of the magazine were placed in Lecture Hall on Monday at 8 a.m., and were gone by Tuesday at 3 p.m. Carlone believes that the copies were stolen overnight as a response to the content of this month’s issue.

Binghamton Review is published eight times a year and distributed mainly in Lecture Hall and dining halls, as well as in the Old University Union.

“If I was sensitive to things like that I’d be angry, but I wouldn’t break the law,” Carlone said. “They’ll destroy whatever they don’t want people to see.”

Investigator Matthew C. Rossie of BU’s New York State University Police, said that the investigation was “still ongoing,” that they have “some leads” and that they will “check all resources.”

“The University always takes something like this quite seriously,” Rossie said.

University spokeswoman Gail Glover concurred with Rossie’s statement.

“The University takes the theft of any University or student publication very seriously and a new rule was included this semester in the Rules of Student Conduct to address this issue,” she said. “In this particular case, once the investigation has been completed, the University will then determine whether the policy was violated.”

The rule in the Student Handbook that Glover is referring to states: “Taking multiple copies of campus newspapers with the purpose of interfering with freedom of expression is a violation of University policy.”

According to Carlone, it is not the first time that the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, has been breached by the destruction of publications on campus.

“In the early ’90s, there was a case where our magazine was stolen for an article on slave reparations and certain multicultural groups stole about 100 issues,” Carlone said. He also cited an incident two years ago, when former Student Association President Jordan Peck threw out about 50 copies of Binghamton Review because of an article that criticized him.

Carlone said that they would probably not be republishing the same issue again, but that they would take whoever was responsible through “the whole nine yards” — including the campus judicial system and the courts.