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The witch hunt has begun
WASHINGTON
(CPS)-Last spring 400
campuses mobilized around the
American invasion of
Cambodia to call a national
student strike. This fall a
different mood prevailed on
campus. There were
indictments and trials, sporadic
over-night bombings, and a
quietness that was more
indicative of political
re-grouping in the face of
campus crackdowns than
political indifference. Both the
country and the campuses were
tightening up in the wake of
May's student strike. And not
surprisingly, the student press
was among the first victims.
Since the start of this school
year alone, 25 overt acts of
censorship against student
papers and the shut down of
two campus radio stations have
been reported to USSPA (the
United States Student Press
Association) in Washington.
While this represents a sizeable
amount of censorship
incidents, the figure does not
take into account the "subtle"
forms of intimidation or actual
copy blackout which do not
get reported. Forty percent of
those editors responding to an
October questionnaire
distributed by College Press
Service stated that their paper
had experienced some form of
censorship or harassment due
to content.
Over half of the cases
reported this fall were initiated
by the paper's administration
MICK MORIARTY
editor
CONNIE WINKLER
managing editor
JOHN DVORAK
news editor
PAT DINATALE
advertising manager
JAMES HORNER
chairman, publications committee
Editorial staff
Staff writers: Gary Seacrest, Bill Smitherman, Jim Pedersen, Steve
Strasser, Dave Brink, Martha Bangert, Carol Goetschiut, Charlie Harpster,
Mike Wilkins, Jim Carver, Marsha Kahm, Bart Becker, Dennis Snyder, Vicki
Pulos, Roxanne Rogers, Ann Pedersen. East campus editor. Marlene
Tlmmerman. Sports editor: Jim Johnston. Sports writers: Steve Kadel,
Warren Obr, Photographers: Mike Hayman, Gall Folda. Entertainment
editor: Larry Kubert. Literary editor: Alan Boye, Artists, Linda Lake, Greg
Scott. Design editor: Jim Gray. Copy editors: Tom Lansworth, Laura
Willers, Don Russell. Night news editor: Leo Schleicher.
business staff
Coordinator: Sandra Cartar. Salesman: Steve Yates, Jane Kidwell, Greg
Scott, Ray Pyle, Bill Cooley. Business assistant: Pam Baker. Distribution
managers: Barry Pllger, John Waggoner, John Ingwerson.
Telephone: editor: 472-2588, news: 2589, advertising: 2590. Second
class postage rates paid at Lincoln, Neb.
Subscription rates are $5 per semester or $8.50 per year. Published
Monday through Friday during the school year except during vacation and
exam periods. Member of the Intercollegiate Press, National Educational
Advertising Service.
The Daily Nebraskan Is a student publication. Independent of the
University of Nebraska' administration, faculty and student government.
Address: The Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508.
either in the form of a faculty
adviser, executive council, or
by the President of the
institution himself.
Administrative actions
against student papers include
the firing of editors, eviction
and lock-outs from offices,
freezing of funds, suppression
of particular copy and the
outright prohibition to publish.
The papers at two Black
schools Dillard University and
Norfolk State--- were shut
down by administrations this
semester.
The Dillard Contbouillon
was closed down when the
editor refused to submit the
copy to an adviser for
pre-publication censorship. The
Spartan Echo at Norfolk was
silenced because of its its
position during a semester that
saw a building takeover, several
student suspensions and arrests
and a mass exodus of dorm
students taking up residence in
a church as a result of a
visitation hours protest.
At Niagara University, the
Index was threatened with
being shut down as a result of
an ad run for abortion referral,
the publication of the "Wanted
for Genocide" Richard Nixon
poster and some letters to the
editor, all of which were
deemed not in keeping with
the policies of a "Catholic
institution."
The publication of the
national abortion ad was also
cited as the reason for the lock
out of the Concordian at
Concordia College in
Minnesota in December.
In Colorado, the managing
editor of the Arrow, at the
University of Southern
Colorado in Pueblo was fired
when she refused to change a
parking editorial objected to
by the paper's adviser.
The student association and
the newly-formed Colorado
Media Alliance got together
and published a special
censorship issue, Broadside,
and the case is currently being
taken to court. The Paper at
Metropolitan State College was
threatened with the expulsion
of the editor after the
publication of the CPS story,
"Women's View of the
Clitoris."
Both the Purdue Exponent
and the Chicago Illini have had
trouble with the office space
they lease from the University.
The Exponent was locked out
of its offices three times this
year even though it had a
supposedly independent
contract with the
adminstration. The Illini was
given 30 days to vacate its
offices before Thanksgiving
after having submitted to an
Administration request for
publication guidelines earlier in
the fall.
A running battle between
student editors and the Board
of Regents has been going on
for over a year in California
where a number of papers have
undertaken investigative
exposes on the financial
holdings of both the Regents
and the University
While sometimes the
criticism would deal with the
social and political aspects of
the papers, often the
smokescreen of "obscene"
material was used by the
Regents in their attempts to
wrench the papers from their
on-campus location and
student-fee support. Such was
the case in May when both the
UCLA Daily Bruin and the
UCRiverside Highlander were
attacked for the publication of
a photo which simulated sexual
intercourse by a couple laying
across a grave.
While most of the
censorship cases this fall have
been internal matters, as
mentioned before, it is actually
outside pressures more obvious
in the actions of Trustees and
Regents that form the
motivations for even these
instances of silencing the
, student press.
As the campuses become
more politicized, reaction from
community leaders, alumni,
state legislatures and taxpayers
grow in intensity. The blacking
out of particular copy,
intimidation of editors or the
outright shutting down of
papers are just other form of
"campus crackdown." And one
thing seems pretty sureit's
going to be on the rise.
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1971
