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DEAN TATE. PT. 2
As recounted in the Aug. 12 Pub Notes, my college career
began in a mob presided over by UGA Dean of Students William
Tate. The next mob I was in, also on campus, had the Dean
back in the forefront. This crowd involved the racial integra
tion of the University of Georgia. After a week of angry groups
racing around campus waving Confederate flags at the two
African-American students admitted to the school, a big, rock
throwing mob gathered outside Myers Hall one night. I was
not in that one, but rather in front of it, in the direction of
the rocks. That week may have been Dean William Tate's fin
est hour. Whatever his own sentiments were, the federal court
had ordered the integration of the University of Georgia, and
he saw his duty as Dean to protect those two students and to
protect the university.
By day during that week when the news media descended
and the legislature swore they would close the university,
Dean Tate went about his duty, escorting Charlayne Hunter and
Hamilton Holmes around campus with a steely glint flashing
behind his wire-rimmed glasses.
Busting student panty raids was one thing, but this was
serious business, and Dean Tate got right out there in it,
instead of sending underlings from the safety of his office.
To tell the truth, nobody but the
Dean could have done what he
did. *
I later left town, and by the
time I got back, Dean Tate was
nearing retirement, due to what
he called "statutory senility."
After legal changes meant that he
could no longer act as parent for students, Dean Tate became
their friend and, wreathed in love beads, sat in with the crowd
protesting the killing of. students at Kent State University,
while the university president hid from his own students.
Then there was the time he went back in the rain at night
to the scene of a wreck and found a student's ear, that had
been severed, and brought it back to the hospital, where it was
successfully re-attached.
By the time I got into the newspaper business, I witnessed
a transformed Dean-Emeritus. The once-fierce runner-down of
fleeing miscreants and the stern figure behind the gruff voice
demanding entry into dens of student iniquity had morphed
into an eccentric, genial old man, the glint in his eye replaced
by a twinkle.
This Dean Tate began writing columns for our newspaper,
The Athens Observer. Every week he came chuffing up the long
flight of steps to our second-floor offices, clutching his latest
screed, hand-written on leftover stationery bearing his name
as Dean of Students. He took his writing duties seriously and
wrote like he talked, in long, rambling sentences. That made
his pieces easy to edit, which was fortunate, because they
were frequently too long. Dean Tate never complained about
what was cut, he just put it back into his column the following
week. He was a faithful contributor and wrote his last piece
from his hospital bed the week he died.
While he was writing for the Observer, Dean Tate, in spite
of his retirement, was allied with university faculty who were
fighting what they accurately saw as the increasing corporati
zation of the university, replacing the traditionally collegial,
departmental management with the top-down corporate style
that eventually won out. Dean Tate had no use for the presi
dent or his top echelon of administrators, and he made himself
a thorn in their corporate side. At the same time, he seemed
more at ease and more informal, especially around our young
staff. One day when he had delivered his column, he was chat
ting with a circle of Observer staff, commenting shamelessly on
the president's coterie, when he fixed our young office manager
with that steely glint of old and asked him, "Son, do you know
what a revolving son-of-a-bitch is?"
"No, sir, Dean Tate."
"A revolving son-of-a-bitch, the Dean intoned, "is a son-of- -
a-bitch no matter which way you look at him." I will let that
particular SOB remain nameless here, but in that flash, I saw
again the fire that drove Dean Tate when actions offended him.
Look closely at that sculpted likeness of his face hanging in
the Tate Student Center on campus, and.see if you can deter
mine whether that's a twinkle or a glint in his eye.
Pete McCommons editor@flagpoie.com
To tell the truth,
nobody but the
Dean could have
done what he did.
THIS WEEK'S ISSUE:
NEWS & FEATURES
City Dope 5
Athens News and Views
Which pots will show at Saturday’s health care protest rally in Watkinsville? Also, Roy Barnes visits...
Athens Rising 8
What’s Up in New Development
A partial “reboot” of sorts for Athens Rising, two years into its Flagpole run. What's ahead?
AE^TS <§s- EVENTS
/
Film Notebook 11
News of Athens’ Cinema Scene
The ICE film series kicks off with Jacques Tourneur’s 1943 classic / Walked with a Zombie.
Movie Pick 14
World War QT
Inglourious Basterds is the film moviegoers have been waiting for from Tarantino since Pulp Fiction.
MUSIC
Happy Happy Birthday to Me 17
Local Record Label Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary
A decade of silly music and silk-screened record sleeves.
Fear and Loathing Across America 18
Here Comes a Big Black Cloud
One-time Athenians return with a sound that’s louder and darker than ever.
LETTERS
4
RECORD REVIEWS
..16
CITY DOPE
5
HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME....
..17
CITY PAGES
6
HERE COMES A BIG BLACK CLOUD..
..18
CAPITOL IMPACT/.
7
THE LOVE LANGUAGE
..19
ATHENS RISING
8
THE CALENDAR!
..20
WILLIAM ORTEN CARLTON = 0RT.
9
BULLETIN BOARD
..28
FOODIE
....10
ART AROUND TOWN
..28
FILM NOTEBOOK....:..:
....11
COMICS
..30
MOVIE DOPE
....12
REALITY CHECK
..‘31
MOVIE PICK :...
CLASSIFIEDS
..32
THREATS & PROMISES
....15
EVERYDAY PEOPLE
..35
COVER DESIGN by Kelly Ruberto
„ featuring artwork by R.A. Miller on
display at the Lyndon House Arts Center
EDITOR & PUBUSHER Pete McCommons
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR l PUBUSHER Alicia Nickles
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Larry Tenner
MANAGING EDITOR Christina Cotter
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MUSIC EDITOR Michelle Gilzenrat
CITY EDITOR Ben Emanuel
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AO DESIGNERS Ian Rickert, Kelly Ruberto
CARTOONISTS James Allen, Ruth Allen, Cameron Bogue, Jacob Hunt, Missy Kulik, Jeremy Long, Clint McElroy
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Chris Hassiotis, John Huie, Gordon Lamb. Charley Lee, Dave Marr, Jordan Stepp. Valentina Tapia, Drew Wheeler,
Kevan Williams
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Auocutian (V Aittnutiw NmnrcUin
AUGUST 26,2009 • FLAGP0LE.COM
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