Tme

Kmtocky Kernel
The South' s Outstanding College Daily

Wednesday Evening, May

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, LEXINGTON

1, 1968

Vol. LIX, No.

148

Police Storm
Columbia U

o

From Combined Dispatches
York City police stormed five Columbia
NEW YORK-N- ew
University buildings in the dead of night Tuesday and broke up
I
a week-lon- g
student sit-i- n at the Ivy League campus.
Alxmt 1,000 faculty members
and students joined immediately
events, we believe we are fully
in a general strike to close classwithin our professional resjxm-sibilit- y
rooms. The number arrested when
in urging our colleagues
to respect the strike.''
police swept students from their sit-i- n strong"We anticipate a full schedholds in five buildings before ule of classes Wednesday,'
a
dawn rose to 720.
university spokesman announced.
Many students wore bloody
Groups roamed the Manhatclothing or bandages when they tan campus, shouting, "Kirk
nlust go! Kirk must go!"
appeared it) court.
,
.
Alxmt 250 faculty members
Dr. Kirk said he had no insaid in a resolution Tuesday night tention of resigning.
most of the faculty would support
In theclub swinging, fist fightrebel students in staying away ing, pushing and kneeing that
from classes when President
marked the violent subjugation
Grayson Kirk again opens them. of the Columbia demonstrators,
"Normally we would regard 100 youths and 15 policemen were
the use of a strike by students reported injured, none seriously.
A sparse crowd of students, black and while,
asking "just what each of as can contribute"
as academically unwise, and by
Support for the students came
participated Tuesday night in the Black Student to the racial situation in this country. Some professors, professionally dubifrom legislators, union leaders,
Union sponsored Phone-I- n
entitled "But What
responded signing cards for the BSU to offer
ous," the faculty petition said. clergymen, physicians and alumCan I Do? Or more precisely, the BSU was
their services in BSU programs next fall.
"(But) in response to last night's ni.
Rep. William Fitts Ryan
whose district includes the
n
Columbia campus, sent a telegram to Mayor John Lindsay
calling for a "full investigation"
son of the Southern Christian their services in several programs
By LIZ WARD
In closing, he said he hoped
Hut what can I do?
and the the BSU has slated for next fall college students now would not of the "excessive force" used by
Leadership Conference,
A program title which seemed
police.
Rev. A.D. Williams King, brother including the tutorial program make the mistake in
getting their
Mr. Ryan also criticized the
best to define the feelings of a of the Rev. Martin Luther King. in the black community.
education that his contemporpolice action for "increasing tenOthers indicated they would aries had made.
The points made by each of
large group of black and white
students who gathered to hear these speakers stayed primarily
participate in one way or another
"We were so busy learning sion and creating distnist"
among residents in the adjacent
in the Poor People's March On how to make a living, we for-leaders of the civil rights and within the areas of need for edblack jxjwer movements tell ucation and understanding beWashington.
to learn how to Jive," he Morningside Heights and Harlem
got
communities.
n
Mr. Cregory, noted comedian
said
them, via telephone and tape tween the races on a
Democratic City Councilman
basis and emphasis on and civil rights worker, comrecording, just what each of us
The Rev King emphasized
Theodore Weiss charged police
can contribute to the racial and the fact that what each person mented that the younger generthe importance of economic
tactics were "more reminiscent of
economic ills facing our country, with an interest in thse problems ation is to be complimented be- - power not just for blacks, but
storm troopers than of New York's
had its point well illustrated in can do is of great importance.
cause "you are aware, and are' for poor whites as well.
finest."
discussion of
And alter the crowd had heard making us older people aware,
an
"Economics is the thing
Leon Davis, president of Local
what these leaders had to say. what was said, it became readily of what's happening "
now," he said. "Once we have 1199 of the Dnig and Hospital
apparent that most of the people
Cracking a joke about the that problem solved, the rest will Workers Union, urged Mr. LindSponsored jointly by the Black there were
willing to give their impossibility of going into a burn- be easy."
the
Student Union,
say and Dr. Kirk to drop charges
solutime to assist in bringing
The Rev. King spoke from against student demonstrators.
and Student Government, the tions to race
ing liotel with intentions of sleepproblems within
ing, Gregory said, "you young Washington where he and a group
The Rev. Kenneth Claus of
program included talks with Sam- their own communities.
people know the hotel's on fire of civil rights leaders are meetUnion Theological
my Davis Jr., Dick Cregory.Rep.
Seminary,
Many signed cards for tlie and you ain't about to go to ing with various governmental
Julian Bond of Ceorgia, Dr. John
said he would lodge an official
Black Student Union to offer sleep "
W. Oswald, the Rev Jesse Jack
Confined on Pfe II, CoL 1
Continued on Pace 15, CoL 1

4

club-swingi-

r

6

u

Bui What Can I Do?

BSU Phone-i-

(D-N.Y- .)

Raises Questions

person-to-jx-rso-

after-the-fa-

YW-YMC- A

The 'Illusion' Is Not The Real Thing

Test Student Press Freedom, KIPA Advises

Kentucky Collegiate Press Service
The chief cause of weak, timid and irresponsible
student newspapers is lack of freedom. A controlled
press cannot lx; a responsible press.
Those few consistently active, independent and
college papers are consistently active, independent and resjxmsible because of legal autonomy
This is the second of two articles on the state of
the student press in Kentucky written by the president of the Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association
in conjunction with statewide Scholastic Publications
Week. Pari one appeared last Friday.

or a commitment by their schx)ls to editorial freedom.
They are few in number because too many administrators do not recognize the necessity of a free campus
press, or are afraid to unleash this potentially xwerful
force.
Several times each y ear student etlitors are suspended
or fired and papers are confiscated for articles attacked
as"irresix)nsible," violations of"g(xKl taste," or "abuses
of freedom." On many campuses where such overt
incidents do not occur, student papers suffer from intimidation. On still other campuses, suppression is so
subtle it is not recognized.
No matter what form suppression takes, what results
is lack of resixmsibility. Truth, the ultimate journalistic
aim, cannot coexist with censorship.
On campuses wheie the student press operates free
of administrative restraint, the news is presented as
completely and accurately as pxmible in what are tnte
educational experiences and open fonuns where staffers

and readers may challenge, comment upon and criticize
the academic environment.
"There is no fear at UK of questioning the status
quo or comparing the president's promises with his
performance," Richard G. Wilson, former Kernel adviser
now with The
has observed.
"Once the administra
tion makes it its business
to remove the fetters from
the campus press and to
give financial and professional assistance," writes
Prof. Melvin Mencher of
Courier-Journa-

l,

Columbia University, "the
newspaper will be on the
a tradition of
way to
journalistic excellence."
Kentucky Not Immune
Kentucky student newspapers are not immune from
the oppression the college press suffers nationwide. A
free press at most schools in the state is still "a joke,"
UK's Walter Grant commented when he was Kernel
editor in 19Ti6. This is still on the whole true, but
commitment to campus press freedom appears to !e
increasing.
The Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association (KIPA)
this year began investigating incidents of suppression
for a report to a national commission. The Iouisville
chapter of Sigma Delta Chi Professional Journalistic-Societalso serv e as watc hdogs
and The Courier-Journa- l
of student press freedom.
While there have been no recent headline-grabbin- g
firings or expulsions in Kentucky, suppression cleaily

...

exists. One example is the censorship of the Asbury
Collegian editorial decrying academic mediocrity.
Georgetown College has limited distribution of the
Ceorgctonian when something the public relations department considers objectionable is printed.
Eastern Kentucky University officials embargoed
copies of the Progress for publication of a letter critical
of the wife of Morehead State University's president.
Unpleasant "confrontations" with theadministration
has stifled the Morehead Trail Blazer's editorializing on
controversial issues.
A Bellarmine College literary magazine was temxrar-il- y
banned because of a cover photo deemed unacceptable. At several scliools, faculty advisers must approve
all copy, ostensibly to protect against libel and to improve

quality.
There are a few
aspects of student
freedom that deserve mention.
press
First is the fact that for sometime Kentucky student
editors have evaded the issues of suppression, blindly
insisting they enjoyed unlimited freedom. The fact is,
these editors had neither tasted nor tested freekm
because there had been no occasion to use or abuse it.
Put simply, they never tried to tread on toes if an
loosely-connecte-

d

ouch might be heard, or never stepped on any toes
worth stepping on.
Independence Encouraged
Secondly, campus papers are being encouraged by the
U.S. Student Press Association (USSPA) to free themselves financially and editorially from their schools.
Kentucky papers who find control unbearable have
been advised to go underground. It's no coincidence
Continued on Paje

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