ustxtxb_obs_1966_10_14_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

organizations as Young Republican and Young Democratic Clubs. DeFrank’s article on the forum situation was largely devoted to the fact that the idea was to be pursued during October and that it would likely be the spring semester before any speakers could be brought to the campus. Lindsey, director of publications, said “the article was premature and not fair to the administration. It accused the administration of delaying in organizing a political forum.” However, DeFrank says, Lindsey had approved the article the morning became out. DeFrank recalls that as the paper was going to press he visited Rudder at his office. While there he says he mentioned the forum article in passing, but Rudder didn’t appear concerned about it. DeFrank returned to the newspaper office, followed about ten minutes later by LindSey, who rushed in and said the political forum story would have to be taken out of the paper, which then was . just going to press. The story was removed. A reading of a_ proof of the article reveals that criticism of the administration was not its main subject matter. It was a straight news account; it contained no editorializing. It quoted Great Issues Committee Chairman Steve Kovich as stating, “If we keep putting if off and don’t make a decision on forums soon, we won’t have them at all this year.” Evidently, therefore, Lindsey’s objection went, not to DeFrank”s story, but to the fact that it quoted Kovich’s remark. The letter and the censored story were to become the bullets with which DeFrank was shot out of the editor’s chair. This in turn led to the removal also of his managing editor, the sports editor, and the resignation \(as a show of symFrank on Sept. 27 met with the A&M board as he had earlier requested, briefly summarized the problem as he saw it, and passed out copies of the letter to the editor and the censored article. The board Was noncommittal. The next day it released a written statement that “policies pertaining to student publications are matters to be handled within the structure of the university administration.” The motion to adopt this statement had been seconded, it was announced, by S. B. Whittenburg, a board member from Amarillo who publishes the Lubbock and Amarillo papers. DeFrank told the Observer that Rudder summoned him and the editors of the several other A&M student publications and said he considered Texas A&M to be the publisher of the periodicals and, he went on, no good publisher is to be criticized by its writers. Rudder added that he considers the members of the publications board to be editors-in-chief of their respective publications. There are no students on the publications board; Lindsey serves as its chairman over six other members, one from the faculty of each college of the university. The clay after that, Sept. 29, Lindsey’s name was inserted in the staff masthead of the Battalion as editor, and the second in command was similarly an nounced to be Lane Stephenson, Lindsey’s assistant who had recently joined the university information office. DeFrank was ranked third in the new listing, his title altered from editor to student editor. And, the board decreed, no more letters to the editor would he published. According to DeFrank, Lindsey told him that his, DeFrank’s, salary would be increased from $100 monthly to $115; further, DeFrank could give raises of $10 monthly to each of three other staff members of DeFrank’s choosing. DeFrank says he was warned by Lindsey to accept the reorganization or face replacement. Raises for Battalion staffers had been requested for two years and had been considered periodically since then. The publications board had last refused to grant them on Aug. 30, though Lindsey said at the time that they might be forthcoming soon. Their timing was taken as an insult by some of the young newsmen. On Sept. 30, while DeFrank was out of town, a Bryan radio station called the Battalion to ask staff members about the situation. Managing editor Dani Presswood of Fort Worth and sports editor Gerald Garcia of Beeville were interviewed, and they spoke out forthrightly against the turn of events. The next day the staff was put on notice by Lindsey not to speak for publication about the situation. On October 4 the Battalion masthead carried another alteration: inserted above Lindsey’s name were the words, “Publisher Texas A&M University.” Lindsey told the Associated Press that the listing “is not a change, but reaffirms a continuation of the policy that Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, which in turn incorported the State Week and Austin ForumAdvocate. We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Editor and General Manager, Ronnie Dugger. Partner, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. Associate Editor, Greg Olds. Business Manager, Sarah Payne. Associate Manager, C. R. Olofson. Contributing Editors, Elroy Bode, Bill Brammei., Larry Goodwyn, Harris Green, Dave Hickey, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. King, Georgia Earnest Klipple, Al Melinger, Robert L. Montgomery, Willie Morris, James Presley, Charles Ramsdell, Roger Shattuck, Robert Sherrill, Dan Strawn, Tom Sutherland, Charles Alan Wright. Staff Artist, Charles Erickson. Contributing Photographer, Russell Lee. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and contents of the Observer. None of the other people who are associated with the enterprise shares this responsibility with him. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not them has been in effect since I have been here.” DeFrank, ignoring the injunction not to speak to reporters, told the AP, “Ever since I have been on the Battalion we have had censorship problems of one kind or another. The point the university is trying to make is that I do not have authority to determine editorial policy . . . I cannot agree with that policy. That is not the way a student newspaper should be run. None of us feels like we are working on a newspaper.” Meanwhile nothing of these developments was reported in the Battalion. Y NOW other college newspapers’ staffs were taking interest in the A&M situation. However, the professional papers were paying limited attention. Reporters from the University of Texas and Baylor papers visited A&M last week, and others from T.C.U., Rice, and the University of Houston phoned College Station for more information. The U.H. paper editorialized that Lindsey and Stephenson have the job of making the university look good, but that an editor “cannot always make a university look good. . . . The Daily Cougar mourns the death of the Battalion.” The only professional paper to comment editorially was the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, for whom DeFrank had worked the past two summers. Editor Jack Butler sympathized with both sides, but concluded, “No one should expect 45-year-old heads on 20-year-old shoulders. If the young men make a mistake, it isn’t the end of the world. A&M is reaching for greatness, but it must promote selves written, and in publishing them the edi’tor does not necessarily imply that he agrees with them, because this is a journal of free voices. Subscription Representatives: Arlington, George N. Green, 416 Summit, Apt. 41, CR 70080; Austin, Mrs. Helen C. Spear, 2615 Pecos, HO 5-1805; Corpus Christi, Penny Dudley, 12241/2 Second St., TU 4-1460; Dallas, Mrs. Cordye Hall, 5835 Ellsworth, TA 1-1205; Denton, Fred Lusk, Box 8134 NTS; Fort Worth, Dolores Jacobsen, 3025 Greene Ave., WA 4-9655; Houston, Mrs. Shirley Jay, 10306 Cliffwood Dr., PA 3-8682; Huntsville, Jessie L. Murphree, Box 2284 SHS; Lubbock, Doris Blaisdell, 2515 24th St., Midland, Eva Dennis, 4306 Douglas, OX 4-2825; Odessa, Enid Turner, 1706 Glenwood, EM 6-2269; San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tuggle, 531 Elmhurst, TA 6-3583; Cambridge, Mass., Victor Emanuel, Adams House C112. The Observer is published by Texas Observer Co., Ltd., biweekly from Austin, Texas. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $6.00 a year; two years, $11.00; three years, $15.00. Foreign rates on request. Single copies 25c; prices for ten or more for’ students, or bulk orders, on request. Editorial and Business Offices: The Texas Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin, Texas 78705. Telephone GR 7-0746. Change of Address: Please give old and new address and allow three weeks. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Texas Observer Co., Ltd. 1966 A Journal of Free Voices A Window to the South 60th YEAR ESTABLISHED 1906 Vol. 58, No. 19 7 c 4OW October 14, 1966