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Peg* 4-A Tht R»d and Black Tltur«dcy, Sept. 24, 1970
Editorials
Campus calm,
Fall quarter at the University has
traditionally been marked by wide-
eyed freshmen, football games and
fraternity parties Some people today
are wondering if this fall will add
campus disturbance to that list.
The significance of 3000 students
squatted on and around the Academic
Building last May is still being debat
ed Some say it indicated a large
number of Georgia students are mov
ing from the level of concern to the
level of action Some say it meant
radical leadership, effectively absent
from campus since the 1%8 sit-in. is
developing Some say it meant "out
side agitators are making in roads
at UGA Some say it was a beautiful
spring night, and a lark Some say it
was an opportunity for many students
to do collectively what they couldn't do
individually - force President Fred
Davison into an open confrontation
with students who wouldn't tolerate
his standard platitudes
Much — probably too much — has
been debated throughout the nation
this summer about whether the cam
puses will or will not erupt into viol
ence when school reconvenes Some
might Some have been closed since
the Kent State tragedy Kach campus
is a unique situation Including this
campus
It is th* belief of The Red and Black
that, barring any unstabling events
like the Cambodian invasion and Kent
and Jackson State killings, this cam
pus will be calm, if not quiet this fall
Foremost among our reasons for
believing this is that there is no preced
ent on this campus for mass disrup
tion during the fall Moratoriums,
marches, demonstrations — yes. but
mass obstructive or violent actions,
no. Refreshed by a summer layoff,
the majority of students possess a
rather low evel of frustration with
classes, professors and the adminis
tration during the fall quarter Mili
tant groups, often diminished by grad
uation or drop-outs, need time to re
organize. New leaders need time to
weld together a following This fall,
there will be the elections to divert
the attention and energies of many
activist students
Hie Red and Black does have a re
servation. however While we believe
that mass disruptive incidents will
probably not occur, we cannot rule
out the possibility of violence by a
small group or an individual It is
impossible to predict the behavior of
every person Who would have expect
ed. for instance, that some person
would throw a sorry-excuse for a Moi-
otov cocktail into the military build-
$72,000 for what?
Under the reserve seating plan for
football games. University students
will for the second year be paying
tt ice to get to see the Bulldogs play
between the hedges Kach student
pays $4 to the athletic department as
part ot his matriculation fee Then, to
get into any football game or games
this year, the student must also buy a
$5 coupon book
The Red and Black feels that the
time is quickly coming when a more
equitable system for financing the big
business of University football
should be investigated The Student
Government Association is studying
the possibility of making the athletic
fee optional in matriculation The
Red and Black endorses this investi
gation heartily
The athletic department is unique
among those agencies which receive
money from student matriculation
The department, being a separate
corporation, is under no control by the
University. Students are thus forced
to contribute over $200,000 a year to
something over which neither they
nor tlx- University has direct control
It seems to The Red and Black that
the relation of the athletic depart
ment to the University and the stu
dents has become a case of the tail
wagging the dog
As it stands now. the student who
d<x-s not pay the extra {5 for a coupon
bonk, receives nothing for his $4 fall
matriculation fee to the athletic de
partment He ikx-s not even get an as
surance that away football games will
he covered in the campus newspaper
The athletic department, generous
ly. does pay the way for a Red and
Black reporter to go to one away
game a year and to a bowl game if
there is one At the same time, the
two Atlanta newspapers are almost
always assured of a seat on the plane
to each away game and the Athens
papers usually get to go to two away
games per paper, according to the
Athletic department The Atlanta
papers, bv their own request, are pay
ing their own way for the lirst year
ever, even though the atletic depart
ment offered to continue its standing
policy of paying the expenses of the
press it takes on the plane
The athletic department said that
space (xi the chartered plane to away
games is scarce That's understanda
ble But then why are other newspa
pers assured of seats to every game
while the campus paper goes to only-
one of five? The subscribers to the
Atlanta and Athens papers aren't pay
ing $72,000 each fall to the University-
athletic depart neat University stu
dents are
Somehow, this arrangement
doesn't seem fair But the athletic
department, after discussing the is
sue recently didn't seem willing to
alter the situation
Coach Joel Kaves. athletic direc
tor. explained that, actually, the
money given the athletic department
in the fall is used to support the other
collegiate sports because football can
support itself through various
sources Perhaps then Student Gov
ernment should also study the feasibili
ty of increasing the athletic fee the
other two quarters and letting students
into football games free Or perhaps
there should be a studv on what place
the big business of athletics even has at
an academic institution.
But while any such studies are
being made, the double-charging con
tinues The precedent which this dou
ble-payment sets is an interesting
one Why shouldn't this method be
used to fund other student activities'.’
The Red and Black budget was cut in
half last year by the Student Senate
Perhaps its time we took our student
activities allocation — gleaned fnxn
the matriculation fee each student
pays — and then demand that anyone
wanting the paper wixild also have to
buy a subscription To our mind, we
would be doing nothing that isn t
being done already
'Action Line' begins
The Red and Black and the Student
Government Association are cooper
ating to provide a new informational
service to members of the University
community. Patterned after the At
lanta Constitutions Action Line,
the service will take questions over
the phone, find the answers and the
answers will be published in The Red
and Black, as space permits
The number to call is 2-5555
The service is designed to cut
through red tape and get an answer
for people who either do not know the
proper source to contact regarding
their question or do not have the time
to track down an answer Volunteers
with SGA will take the calls and work
through the various cabinet ministers
in seeking answers and solutions
A similar service was begun last
year bv The Red and Black but was
plagued by Lnderstaffing and finally
was discontinued The Red and Black
looks forward to tills opportunity to
revive the service, believing that it
can be a valuable communication
vehicle for campus
In a further attempt to serve the
University community better. The
Red and Black is expanding its Bulle
tin Board column from last year In
response to numerous requests. The
Red and Black will begin to run an
nouncements of regularly scheduled
meetings in addition to the special
meetings we announced last year
Persons having announcements for
Bulletin Board must turn them in to
The Red and Black no later than 6
p m Sunday for the Tuesday paper or
6 p m. Tuesday for the Thursday pap
er
if not quiet
Ing on a Sunday night when school was
not in session’’ (Fortunately, the bomb
was so poorly constructed that the
sprinkler system put it out — more
damage was caused by water than by
the bomb I
The numerous, and largely well-
attended. moratorium observances
were an encouraging development
last year They indicated that Univer
sity students are becoming increas
ingly concerned about vital issues We
applaud the University administra
tion — especially the Division of Pub
lic Safety and Dean of Student Affairs
Office — for their cooperative atti
tude in helping make possible the free
exercise of basic freedoms. Some
universities seem wont to prevent
such peaceful expression
The Red and Black continues to
endorse the right of every member of
the University community — as a citi
zen of the United States — to exercise
his first amendment freedoms, espe
cially as they relate to peaceful assem
bly and tree speech. But The Red and
Black condemns violence of any kind
directed against individuals or prop
erty — whether it emanates from stu
dents or the administration
Violence is not only antithetical to
the necessarily orderly and hopefully
progressive nature of society, but vio
lent acts by a few can hurt the just
cause of many. This is happening to
day. Bombings, burnings and similar
destruction through intimidation,
may achieve the short-range goal of a
few. Indiscriminate tear gassing,
clubbing and shooting may settle the
current confrontation
Both, however, are dangerously
expedient Neither contribute to an
environment wherein people feel free
actively to untangle the complexities
of contemporary existence At a time
when finding solutions to our prob
lems depends upon our unity and
progress, violence of the right or left
creates only division and retrench
ment.
REBEQCA1EE1
Transition and truth
The Red and Black is a student activity.
Operated by students. Oriented toward
student interests
But the interests of the students at the
University are changing, and so too is the
focus of The Red and Black. For many
years students here have been interested
mainly in the frivolities of athletic con
tests. rush and the Greek life, and the ac
tivities of campus organizations Corre
spondingly. The Red and Black limited its
content mainly to these areas
But recent years have brought students
to campus who are deeply interested and
involved in non-frivolous events — in so
cial problems and political questions and
ecological emergencies, in curriculum
relevancy and teaching quality and over
all academic excellence. To meet the
needs of these students. The Red and
Black is moving away from being prima
rily a bulletin board of campus comings
and goings to becoming a newspaper
striving to bring students the kind of infor
mation they want
Like any transition, this is not without
its rough times At several points last
year, members of the University com
munity complained about the change in
content Some strongly chastised the pap-
er for involving itself in issues outside the
realm of student concern Some students
complained because they could not get the
activities of their organization printed in
The Red and Black
The Red and Black regrets that it can
not report the activities of various cam
pus organizations to the extent to which
some students believe they should be re
ported However, the newspaper is aware
that, with over 200 organizations on cam
pus. no matter how much or how little you
run about organizational activity, it is
impossible even to scratch the news sur
face in this area Some will always be dis
content as a result.
I disagree with those who claim The
Red and Black is stepping outside its
rightful domain in reporting some events
— notably, last year, the history depart
ment fiasco Increasingly the newspaper
is hearing from members of the Universi
ty community that this is the kind of infor
mation they want and expect from their
campus newspaper
The way looks clearly marked for The
Red and Black The days of the bulletin
board are numbered But with the new age
of "relevant news, tresh problems arise
As with any serious journalistic venture,
one maior problem will be objectivity.
It is impossible for any reporter, being
human, to be totally objective in every
situation. It may help his objecivity in
covering a story if he knows nothing ahead
of time about the situation — but that lack
of knowledge will probably hinder his
thoroughness in collecting information
But if he knows anything of the event, his
prejudices will unavoidably — and often
unconsciously — hamper his objectivity.
Human prejudices, likewise, will color the
reports of people whom he almost always
must use as the sources for his story
But if objectivity is not possible, that
does not mean that bias and prejudice are
acceptable While objectivity may not be
attainable, fairness may be. The Red and
Black is committed to f; .ness in report
ing and editorializing.
Fairness in print is achieved by the re
lentless search for truth through the re
porting of as many credible sides of an
issue as exist - with a similar allotment
of ediorial space when available
Employing reporters with varied politi
cal leanings and running columnists with
different persuasions are two ways of ac
tively searching Unfortunately with a
staff heavily composed of journalism stu
dents (not by design) most of our report
ers and editors are basically more "liber
al' than many students — this seems to be
a consequent j of the profession. Howev
er. The Red and Black encourages stu
dents of all academic majors and political
«
leanings to work on the paper and strongly
urges all members of the University
community to use the "Reader Reaction"
section as a torum for their ideas
A committment to fairness derives
from a supreme valuation of truth, and
from the acceptance that neither I nor
anyone individually has hold of the truth
It is possible, however, to perceive a gen
eral imprefcion of the truth through locat
ing a sphere within which truth is some
where located
The sphere is given shape by the "plot
ting" of various reports - "the truth as
seen by different people Each person, in
relating what he believed to be the truth
indicated he had established the bounda
ries of his sphere of truth No two people's
spheres exactly overlap But generally
there will be an area where many people's
spheres overlap It is within this sphere
that the truth probably lies
In each story and editorial, it is this
sphere which The Red and Black seeks to
determine through fair reporting
Moderates are odd men out
Americans are not really fighting an
open ideological battle They are shadow-
boxing m odd comers against imagined
ogres Although they agree on many prob
lems. they never have sat down to face
each other's solutions.
The most enthusiastic segregationists
never have to trade honest arguments
with the most ardent integrationists face
to face The radical students don’t really
argue with the middle-class hard hats
And the younger generation rarely en
gages its parents in honest, fair, adult
swapping of ideas
Instead, they all have relied on the
media to get their messages across, and
then damned the media for failing to get
all the nuances right They have blamed
the media because their views have not
been declared victorious
The ideologues have depended on the
teachers to interpret one group to the oth
er. and then cussed the teachers for being
unable to do so
They have expected the government —
particularly the federal government, re
gardless of whether it was Democratic or
Republican - to control all the conflict
ing ideas without ruffling the country's
emotions
And so the moderate Americans have
Changes obviously have to come. The
first is to get hard hats into the campus
bull sessions and students into the practi
cal world of business and govern
ment. Hippies have to at least understand
their responsibility to work at something,
and the country has to understand that
Why is all this important*’ Well, the sit
uation is not very much different from
what Walter Lippman described in 1941
He realized then that the American people
"are not being dealt with seriouslv. truth
fully. responsibly, and nobly They are
being dealt with cleverly, indirectly, even
condescendingly and nervously '
Thin column, by editor Reft Murphy, is reprinted from the
Atlanta Constitution.
been the odd men out in the rising shrieks
of anger They have been damned with a
special ferocity because they tried to hold
the middle together — and the antagonists
apart
The moderates have pretty well lost
their credibility on both sides because the
national tolerance is not even skin deep
now Like young men with tneir tattoes
showing the moderates have found their
views hard to justify
thev may choose to work in different
ways. The migrant farmers' plight has to
be understood by doctors, and doctors have
to explain their fee systems to the stu
dents
This would take structure. One of the
great foundations should begin to organize
such discussions With both the resources
and independence of the foundation, the
discussions could be made to w ck.
In this blnderbuss kind of way. Vice
President Spiro Agnew tried to talk about
♦Se exchange of views this week. "You
people out there (meaning radicals)
preach a lot about dissent, but you’re
afraid of other points of view because you
don't have the strength of vour own con
victions."
Agnew talking about people not listen
ing is like generals denouncing the mili
tary But there really should be an honest
exchange of views between Agnew and the
radicals. Maybe both would stop shouting
so loud
Rebecca Leet, Editor
Jo Ann Reck,
Business Manager
Steve Stewart,
Managing Editor
W. F. Taft, copy editor; Nancy Hall, new* editor,- Cee Howe, feature editor;
Bob Giles, sport* editor, Marvin Katien, photographic editor, Shoryn Kane
and Patrice Walter*, associate news editors.
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m Reader Reaction
Learn loyalty
TV Red and Black received quite a bit
of reaction to its summer endorsement of
Jimmy Carter and Hal Suit in their re
spective party primaries, rhis letter is a
sample.
TO THE EDITOR:
I was astonished to note the endorse
ment of candidates Jimmy Carter and
Harold Suit by The Red and Black
While Messrs Carter and Suit are both
fine men. neither has any identity with the
University of Georgia, nor with education
generally, except for political promises in
connection with the present campaign
Mr Sanders. I remind you. is the
immediate past president of the Universi
ty of Georgia Alumni Association As
Governor of Georgia, he did more for
education in general and for the Universi
ty of Georgia in particular, than any prior
governor in our history Even his oppo
nents do not deny this. Mr Bentley, also
an alumnus of the University, had an out
standing record as a student campus lead
er. and lus interest has continued through
the years
1 appreciate the value of editorial free
dom. and 1 am not advocating abridge
ment of freedom of the press On the other
hand. The Red and Black is the campus
newspaper and traditionally, its primary
purpose is to train journalism students It
seems to me that before those students
flex the wings of editorial freedom, they
should be taught the fundamental princi
ple of loyalty, a woid which is unrecog
nized by the editors and apparently forgot
ten bv the faculty
ERASE W SEII ER
Letters policy
The Editor! ecourogc member! of the University
community to use Reoder Reaction ot a forum for
tfie expression of their opinions on vitol ittuet. Any
letter will be considered for printing All letters
must be signed, although the writer's name will be
withheld or* request
letters should not. eicept in rare instances, ex
ceed 300 words The Editor reserves the right to
edit all letters to conform to style ond libel lows.
i