EDITORIAL
The Great Publications Board Hassle
When Lee Nell told me that
SGA was considering a
Publications Board I was
simultaneously shocked and
hurt. I felt that my position as
editor of the newspaper required
my consultation about a matter
as important as this. I felt
personally hurt because I felt
that a Publications Board was an
affront against my job as editor
this year.
A .students showed me
the constitutional clause which
would make this board a reality.
It read (paraphrase) that the
Board should be composed of
senators from the student
government. I opposed this
board for two reasons: 1) 1 feel
that a Publications Board is a
repression of both free speech
and free press (which I will
discuss later), and 2) I feel that
elected senators of SGA are not
qualified to judge either the
content or the form of the
student newspaper.
The idea that elected officials
are incompetent in judging
literary merit or journalism is
not a new one. In the
seventeenth century, John
Milton addressed the Council of
England on this matter, in a
work entitled “Areopagitica.” It
applies as much to Capitol
Campus as it did to Milton’s
England
«<
Who shall warrent me his
judgement?” “The state sir,”
replies the stationer: but has a
quick return-“ The state shall be
my governors but not my
critics...”
The Student Government
Association, by their delegation
of funds to the newspaper is
correct in requesting that a
weekly paper be published
during each term, but is wrong
in feeling that iney can control
Free Grass in Venderville!
Just one last abuse of
editorial freedom to get your
attention. Actually the only free
grass you’ll get is by following
the mower around. But what
we’re offering is almost as good.
(Keep reading, Juniors and
Seniors.)
Next year, Seniors, you can
keep up with the unfinished
business here at Capitol Campus
by subscribing to the
CAPITOLIST. That’s right. For
the low cost of only $1.50 per
term (to cover postage and
handling, of course) you can get
the CAPITOLIST mailed right to
your door, tent or cell.
And, Juniors, if you are
interested in joining the staff—in
Editors:
Please send me the CAPITOLISTT on a weekly basis during the
fall/winter/spring term(s). I understand that my $1.50 per term will
cover postage and handling for this wonderful paper. Enclosed is
$ for the service.
Send to: NAME
ADDRESS.
Stiff IF
nm
EDITOR: Rosemary Scanlon CONTRIBUTORS:
ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Lu Ann Berulis
Lee Nell Missy Rotundaro
Tom Hagan Doug Meda
BUSINESS MANAGERS: Bill Winkler
Richard Marx Tout Ogden
Roger Hawkins Terry Wimmer
PHOTOGRAPHER; Dan Durante
Chandler Wolf
Cliff Balson Tony McGovern
Skip Lewis
EDITORIAL CONSULTANT: Charlie Bussison
Jim Benn Paul Snyder
or advise any of the newspaper’s
policies. Student government is
composed of students from
every curriculum. None are
journalists, none are critics, and
definitely none are qualified to
become active critics of a
student publication.
After my protest,
newly-elected SGA President
Terry Wimmer reconsidered the
clause and deleted it from the
constitution. Still without
consulting me, Terry informed
me that they were now
considering a new type of
publications board. This would
consist of (paraphrase) the
editors of THE CAPITOLIST
and CAPITOLITE, the station
manager of WZAP, the advisers
of each of these organizations,
the Chief Justice of the Student
Court, and the SGA president as
ex-officio chairman.
This second version of the
proposed Publications Board
displeased me less than the first
for it allowed participation of
the editors in matters which i
affected them and their
publications directly. I was
disappointed, in an ethical sense,
that the aforementioned
consideration was not applied by
the people involved with starting
a Publications Board in the first
place!
The entire concept of a
Publications Board is a
dangerous one in my view. It is a
board of potentially great
power. When a paper is
operating under the constant
threat of being taken before the
board, the editor can do a
justifiable job neither to his
readers hor his conscience. Every
editorial being written, every
article being submitted, every
picture being taken must be
viewed as a possible threat to the
by Lee Nell
reporting and commenting on
events next year—let us know.
Meet with Tom Hagan and I in
the TV lounge at noon today to
discuss it further.
You know how good the
CAPITOLIST was this year, and
next year it will be even better.
We will be publishing six pages
of news, happenings, comment
and a few other surprises. If you
want to help us in this, let us
know. And, Seniors, if you want
to subscribe, use the following
form. Mail it to: THE
CAPITOLIST care of this
campus when you know what
your address will be. And we are
always open for articles from
alumni. Have a good summer.
very existence of a newspaper.
On top of the monumental job
the editor already has, he must
assume responsibility for the
ethics of everyone and the
morals of little old ladies in
Highspire.
This is why I feel the
Publications Board is
unnecessary. There should be no
restrictions on what the reader is
allowed to see in print. He
certainly is old and mature
enough to decide his own
opinions on editorial matters.
Ajid, since very few little ladies
in Highspire would ever see THE
CAPITOLIST, there is very little
reason to bowlderize our
content to fit her delicate ears. I
am not advocating obscenity or
poor taste, however, but I really
don’t think that an occasional
“Fuck” for emphasis ever
corrupted the morals of any
Capitol Campus reader.
Once a permanent newspaper
has established itself on campus
the students, administration and
faculty should have the good
faith in it that it would not
slander or libel anyone. This also
falls under the heading of poor
taste. I feel that THE
CAPITOLIST has proven itself
in the past. It deserves the good
faith of the campus community.
“Thou shalt not libel” has
always been one of our cardinal
rules, and if the readers respect
this there will never be the
necessity of libel suits.
It would be a very great loss
to Capitol Campus, if it lost a
fine, growing news media
because the careless and
paranoid activation of a student
Publications Board. And yes,
that may just happen. Repressed
editors become poor
editors...who quit.-
In the epilogue to the
“Report of the Special
Commisssion on the Student
Press to the President of the
University of California” the
contributers state: “The press
must be free because its freedom
is a condition of its veracity, and
its veracity is its good faith with
the total record of the human
spirit.”
So be it at Capitol.
THE LOT DOWN THE HALL
by Tom Ogden
Transferring to a new
campus, I had no idea what life
would be like—yet on the “dorm
experience.” For those of you
who are commuters, or Meaders
from the start, or live in the
tents in the wasteland, let me
describe the nerve-racking
ordeal. I’m certain many of youj
recall with anticipation the idea
of moving into the dorms. This
was making us all “college joes”
(or Joe-esses, as the girls on
second floor Wrisberg, etc., may
testify to). The dorm room,
especially to those who had
never had a room of their own,
was to be our own little worlds,
complete with billposters, beer
bottles and bosomy broads.
All of this is true. It is the
unanticipated events that I wish
to describe here within: the
lot down the hall. You know
them well. The group that never
goes to sleep before three, and
keeps you awake too! Sample
prank: Hook up one hose to
faucet in bathroom. Spray
generously down halls and in
any open doors. Result: One
R.A. trampling down the hall.
Another routine event: stereos
do NOT go on until 11:30 and
then remain on until 2:30. Some
of us are lucky and have REAL
stereo—a record player on each
side of us. One hall sports a full
billboard-size poster of Lucy,
WHERE IS JUSTICE?^
by Skip Lewis
Where is Justice? Where does
credibility end and trumped up
falsification begin? Why is
inequality so hard to put to rest?
These are questions we all might
ask ourselves on different
occasions from time to time; but
recently they are questions that
have come to the forefront in
the minds of Leroy Howell,
Carol Sims, Chandler Wolf, and
of other Black Student Union
Members. (HEY! Don’t get
turned off by the name. Read
on.) They have but one problem
and but one question. Their
problem is one of inequality in
terms of percentage of black
faculty and students to white
faculty and students. Their
question is why out of
twenty-seven faculty positions
open for the academic year
starting September 1971, there
is only one black professor being
offered a contract. This one,
professor is a man named Clem
Kelpen who is being retained to
teach and coordinate the Black
Studies option. But what of the
inequality?
The BSU has met off and on
with Dr. Heindel, Dean of
Academic, about just this matter
hoping to have their demand of
two black professors psr
curriculum satisfied and to have
the injustice of not having all
sources through which black
professors may be reached and
obtained exhausted. But such
meetings have revealed little
except that Dr. Heindel believes,
"himself to be fulfilling his
obligations in the aspect of
academic recruitment. The BSU
disagrees and feels they have
valid reason for their pessimism;
they feel Dr. Heindel and the
division heads who recommend
prospective candidates for
position within their field, are
over worked and do not have the
time needed for a thorough
investigation into the manyi
diversified avenues one must
explore in order to find the
proper people with the proper
credentials. The BSU suggests as
an alternative to this pressing
slightly disfigured. Ahem. A
door boasts a “Girl
Wanted-Apply Within” sign.
Another the list of gripes: (1)
Too much noise, (2) Too
many cans in the hallway
(sic)—referring to the playing of
ten-pins with tennis balls and
beer cans down the halls, (3)
MORE water battles, and (4) We
ran out of warnings—this last
referring to the hundreds of trips
the R.A. had to take down the
hall.
Yet they boys—be they ever
so humble—feel the dorms are
just like home, evinced by the
dirty laundry left hanging
everywhere. The place is kept in
what if one morning the
water fountain is missing. Is it
any worse than a missing rock or
TV? Klackers, skateboards,
bowling all find their way into
the dorm halls. No wonder sleep
is impossible.
Still I love it. Communal life
is often tiresome, dining hall
food could possibly be
surpassed; but the friendships
which can be built in such a
situation can NOT be surpassed.
Pity the Meaders and commuters
who never have and never will
fill those blessed halls of horror,
the dorms. You will
never-unfortunately-get the
taste, be it bitter, of the “dorm
experience.”
time problem, that the college
enlist the services of a full time
person whose responsibility
would be to investigate the
many diversified sources for
qualified professors while at the
same time working hand in hand
with the academic department.
This proposal was met with a
hand raised to the mouth and an
astonished “things just are not
done that way.” Well, we say
why not if the old system can no
longer function in the collegiate
world.
• What the Black Student
Union wants to rectify is the
inequality of black faculty
recruitment. Moreover, they
would wish to see an increase in
the number of black faculty
members on Campus. It seems
the replacement-nonrenewal of
contract syndrome so popular in
administration today has shown
its ugliness here at Capitol also.
J>OTPOURRI
by Missy Rotondaro
Say this fast five times: Five
Fresh Fried Fish.
Candy is dandy; but sex
won’t cause tooth decay.
Who’s the wildman of 8238
Nelson?
Why does everyone stand up
when President Wimmer enters
the room?
For Smokers Only:
It’s not the coughin’
that carries you off,
It’s the coffin they carry
you off in.
Why does everyone stand up
when President Wimmer enters
the room?
Paper thin walls tell the tales
on Delores.
Tct ALL the men out there:
Don’t drink anymore beer till
the end of the year—take a girl
to dinner.
Little Jack Homer sat
in the comer
Eating his brother.
REMEMBER: A bird in the
hand, really gets kinda messy.
Some write for pleasure
Some write for fame
I just write to sign my name.
Mary had a little watch
She swallowed it one day.
Her mother gave her castor
oil to pass the time away.
The castor oil it did not work,
the time it did not pass.
Now when you want to see what
time it is you look up
Mary’s uncle-He has a watch.
I want to thank you all for
reading this insane column. I’ve
really enjoyed writing it. Thank
you Walt for the idea, and
thanks go especially to Ro for
being Potpourri’s biggest fan.
Sob , Sniff 9 Etc.
The Junior class members of
the staff of the CAPITOLIST
hereby address themselves to the
graduating Seniors.
As the year ends and you
leave us, we might express joy or
sorrow, or some other suitable
sentiment. In this yearly
changing of the guard, we could
say that we will miss you in
many ways. Or we could say
that we are happy to be
assuming the status of Seniors.
And this is all true.
It is also our sincere wish that
you may see the just results of
your endeavors. We wish you
peace, freedom and love. But as
the sun sinks slowly in the west,
all you really can be sure of is
that the CAPITOLIST wishes
you the best.