W ny
by John m. harrison
drawings by jim forrest
(Editor's Note: As a
journalism, teacher at
Pennsylvania State Uni
versity and earlier at the
University of Iowa, John
Harrison, a Harvard Nie
man Fellow in 1952, has
had close association with
college papers and their
editors. This article is re
printed with permission
' from the Nieman Reports
of January, 1962)
A lot of hogwash has
been written about the
college press its place in
the educational scheme of
things, how much freedom
its editors should enjoy,
Off
Should Be
the reasons why it should
be free at all.
To invoke the provi
; sions of the First Amend
ment on behalf of college
editors is to miss the
point. A newspaper oper
ates on campus at the be
hest of administrative of
ficials, just as do social
clubs and political
groups. Its rights and
privileges are defined and
1 i m i t e d by presidents,
boards of regents, trus
tees and overseers who
ever makes and admin
isters educational policy.
This is true whether the
newspaper is in some de
gree an adjunct of the
university, or operates
outside the official fam
ily. The most outspoken
and untrammeled cam
pus newspapers today
have little or no official
status. The Harvard
CRIMSON and the Mi
chigan DAILY are prime
examples. Tradition con
fers on them an indepen
dence that is relatively
rare.
an unholy howl,.
Yet nothing prevents
President Pusey from
closing up the CRIMSON
shop tomorrow. He could
acistn
(Feltar'e Kate: The fellesrtag fetter mean la a
eesx tees af the Daily Texaa, University at Texas etu
des newepaper. II waa written Immediately attar tka
Texas Student Aesembly Tate la andarae James Mere
dlth's attentat ta redder at the University ef Mississippi.
It shewn vividly the reelings kat the President and (be
anfogratlea pree-ram anal everceme.i
To the Texas Student's Governing
Body:
Just what kind of white people are
you?
Furthermore, what kind of Texas
Southerners are you that would insult
your fellow Texans, your fellow alumni,
by sending that kind of a telegram.
(The Student Assembly sent Meredith a
telegram saluting his courage and pres
erverance.) I didn't think I would ever live to see
the day that I would be ashamed of the
University of Texas you haven't even
considered the individual rights of white
people, the rights of the individual
states no, you're either a bunch of beat
niks, crossbreeds with a predominance of
Negroid extraction, or just a bunch of
misinformed, socialistic-thinking kids that
belong up among the other Yankee de
graders thet are doing their damndest
to literally shove the smelly Negro race
down the throats of the white Southerner.
If you all don't know the difference
now you never will know, and I pity
the possibility your children or your
children's children and their spotted off
spring, which your brainwashed love of
a race which the Lord Himself segregat
ed has blindly encouraged you to mix
with.
The group of good old darkies in Mis
sissippi that offered to pay this Negro
Meredith's education in any other school
Sftouia t lie
do it by any of several
acts within his rights as
Harvard's president. An
unholy howl might go up
from many quarters. But
no constitutional provision
could help the boys in
Plympton Street one bit
should he decide to take
such action.
That he does not do so
is rather a mark of Pres
ident Pusey's intelligence
and of his appreciation
of the purposes student
edited and written news
papers serve in a com
plex university than of
his acknowledgement that
CRIMSON editors possess
any constitutional right to
say whatever comes to
mind. College newspapers
like the CRIMSON, like
the Michigan DAILY, the
the Cornell DAILY SUN,
and the Penn State COL
LEGIAN exist precisely
because the tradition of
an independent student
daily exists in these cam
puses. They are sustained
by administrative respect
Most Outspoken
Southern Style
if he quit his antagonistic rabble-rousing
have shown more respect to the white
race than you bunch of weak-kneed mis
informed dreamers that would turn
against your own race and advocate and
encourage this unconstitutional political
scheme to force this embarrassing situa
tion on a bunch of good fellow American
Southern whites that have had a 114-year
tradition that they loved ad cherished.
And you, you silly bunch of sissy
socialist-inclined saps that would throw
tradition to the winds in order to advo
cate something you're not old enough to
really comprehend and slap the memo
ries of our forefathers in the face that
fought for these very rights, that the
good people of Mississippi are trying to
uphold.
You do not have the intestinal forti
tude to publish this letter and let your
fellow students know what some of the
real Texans that attended in years gone
by, when Texas University had Texan
guts, really think of the wire you sent
that Negro. He doesn't want an educa
tion, you gullible crusaders, he wants to
eventually change his color for yours, or
yours for his. If you were Texans, which
you're not, you wouldn't have let this
happen.
It's a fine way for you to thank Mis
sissippi for what they have done for Tex
as and its people, specifically their help
in 1836-1962, etc.
I know you feel proud of yourselves,
don't you?
Sincerely,
T. S. Baily
Ft. Worth, Texas
for these traditions and
the educational values
they represent.
The reasons why the col
lege press should be free
College
have nothing to do with
students' rights. They are
at the very heart of the
educatonal process in a
free society. These will
suggest themselves im
mediately to the educator
who is genuinely con
cerned that today's col
lege student develop a
free and wide-ranging fac
ulty for criticism. It is this
faculty which is the main
spring of a free society.
Its withering away has
been widely deplored by
critics of today's educa
tional system and the
graduates it produces.
newspapers provide
forum . . .
Outlets for the expres
sion of opinion by students
jLoiie
are always needed. The
need is especially great
today when mounting en
rollments tend to isolate
the student, to make him
Editors
feel he is more a cog in
a machine than a part of
a continuing educational
process. Student newspa
pers provide forums in
which all kinds of prob
lems are discussed, and
not just by the relative
few who serve as editors.
But such a forum func
tions properly only in an
atmosphere where the
free expression of ideas
including ideas that are
critical of the status quo,
unpopular ideas is en
couraged. Of course it re
quires forbearance to
grant freedom of expres
sion to students hardly
dry behind '.he ears, who
may use this privilege to
question the motives and
abilities of distinguished
scholars and educators.
Of course it may demand
patience beyond the ordi
nary to concede that the
student critic however
wrong-headed he may be
should be permitted to
express his opinions.
But aren't patience and
forbearance in the face of
student error and abuse
essential qualities of edu
cators? Surely they are if
the teacher or administra
tor accepts as one of the
basic tenets of a liberal
education that the devel
oping mind must be en
couraged to test and
stretch itself, to put its
convictions and its critical
judgments into words
even when they may be
wrong.
Unfortunately, other
considerations come ahead
of education in. the minds
of some college adminis
trators today. They have
come to regard students
almost as a nuisance, who
get in the way of the per-
Daily
Nebraskan
SEVENTY-SECOND
YEAR OF
PUBLICATION
Telephone 432-7631
ext. 4225, 4226, 4227
Member Associated Col
legiate Press, Internation
al Press Representative,
National Advertising
Service, Incorporated.
Published at: Room 51,
Student Union, Lincoln 8,
Nebraska.
Entered as second class matter,
postage paid, at Ike anal afflce ta
Llnoefn. Nebraska.
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manngei John Zelllnger
Assistant Business Managera:
Bill GOilirkt. Bob Cunn-ugham.
Tom Fltrhetl
Circulation Manager Jim Trester
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor . . Jim Fairest
Managing Editor . . Dave Wohlfarth
News Editor .... Wendy Rogers
Snorts Editor Kick Akin
Ac News Editor Bab Ray
Cony Editora llnda Jenaen,
Susie Batter. Lynn Corcoran
Starl Writers Sue Hovlk.
Gary Lacey. Karen Ounllcks
Junior Staff Writers . Al Rpere,
Jim Moore. Susan ttmitnberger,
Tom McGtnnls
Photographer Bosemary Smallwood
Reporter Didtan Consey. John Rieser
The Dally Nebraskan ta published
Monday. WebWsdu. Thursday and
Friday during the school year. ex
cept vacations and exam periods,
and anee during August by students
af Ibe University af Nebraska aider
the authorisation af the Committee
on Student Affairs as an expression
af student opinion. Publication un
der the Jurisdiction of the subeom.
mlttee an Student Publications shall
be free tram editorial censorship
on the part of the subcommittee or
on the part of any person - -outside
the University. The members af the
Daily Nebraikan ataff are person
ally responsihlle for what they aay
ar do, ar cause la be printed.
February t, 1956.
m im
e rress Be
' fectly functioning admin
istrative machine. They
are not so much con
cerned that students shall
have an opportunity to
whet their critical facul
ties as that students shall
not rock the boat at all.
adds to troubles . . .
One can almost sympa
t h i z e with the plaintive
declaration of one such
administrator, sorely tried
by what an outspoken ed
itor had written:
"Habitually I am called
upon to explain why the
University's attitude
is thus-and-so, when as a
matter of fact, it is The
(Student newspaper's) atti
tude and not the Univer
sity's which I am called
upon to explain. I see no
reason why I or anyone
should be put to the trou
ble which this involves.
Indeed I see no reason
why educational funds . . .
should be expended to
subsidize a project which
adds to our difficulties
and troubles."
Poor fellow! His is, in
deed a thankless job. He
must watch out for his
university's relations with
a board of regents, a leg
islature, an alumni asso
ciation, and a whole
state's population none
of which is likely to set
much store by the ideas
"those crazy college kids"
are p r o n e to propound.
But in his concern with
all these, he has lost sight
of his first responsibility,
winch is the education of
the young. And the young
are a troublesome,, feisty
lot. They will explore the
frontiers of knowledge,
and sometimes venture
far beyond, instead of be
ing content to be indoc
trinated with the safe and
tried. Tiiey will express
Poor
REW! PRO.
fIBST! BEc0J?e . 0,
No onpp,n6, no spilling 0.
Old Spice Pr..e,ec(f . r,QN
skin areas from ro,. ot6c r
"
Il.f.
your beard for the
most comfortab;e
c . , m,z::,zziz
new and revolutionary no
tions. They will be critical
and altogether disrespect
ful of their older and so
much wiser mentors.
The genuinely wise edu-..
c a t o r knows this, of
course, Not only does
he expect that young peo
ple will be critical; he en
courages them to speak
their minds. He recogni
zes that this is an essen
tial aspect of the educa
tional process. That is
why he leaves them free
to give tongue to heresy,
and why he recognizes
that a free and yeasty
Young
student newspaper is im
portant. assume
responsibilities . . .
One hopes that students
who undertake to edit and
publish a newspaper will
assume a measure of re
sponsibility commensurate
with the freedom granted
them. And, with an occa
sional exception, college
Fellow
ni.i. ti - arany
to
tfree
r
o
editors' waiA. nothing so
much as to be regarded
as reliable and responsi
ble. Freedom provides a
"stimulus to responsibility.
For once a student knows
he will get either credit
or blame for the job he
does as editor, he begins
to be concerned about his
own reputation. He seeks
advice before he acts,
where otherwise he would
wait for a higher author
ity to correct his errors.
He begins to learn ttie'es
sential lesson that frea
odm never really is
People
earned until the individual
proves that he can exer
cise it responsibly.
In this way, the college
press stimulates not just
the critical faculty in the
student, but also helps de
velop that more sophisti
cated faculty the re
sponsible exercise of free
dom which can be cul
tivated in no other way.
The notion that responsi
bility can be injected in
travenously and that,
enough of it having, been-,,
administered f r e e d o m "
can subsequently be sub
stituted in the syringe,
is itself irresponsible and
destructive. It is a favor
ite refuge of authoritari
ans. case for freedom . . T
Thus, the case for free
dom of the college press,'
which is strong and per
suasive, too often is put
in its weakest terms. It
has nothing to do with the
protections the Con
stitution affords the press.
What is at stake is pro
tecting these very consti
tutional freedoms, which
are based on a society
whose members are free
to examine and criticize
all institutions. These free
doms will survive only so
long as we make it a
stated policy of our edu
cational system to simu
late the critical faculty,
not suppress it because it
sometimes may cause em
barrassment. This is what our college
newspapers can do, have
done, and should be en
couraged to continue do
ing. 3
.Jaw
