ustxtxb_obs_1969_10_10_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

students and faculty might criticize the flow of new, highly restrictive legislation on the powers and activities of the administration, faculty, and student government. Those who believe in the dignity and restraint of boards of trustees will raise their eyebrows at the ignominious law suit brought by UT against The Rag, 16 while that far more educationally damaging newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman, is openly peddled to unprotected students. \(Not that I would suggest banning even that from campus; where else could one read Dr. Max troubled by the continued involvement of the chairman of the board of regents in state politics, not because his advice is not generally sound \(consider his advice to that one-day champion of the poor, Lieutenant Governor Barnes, that the people would rather because he is often tempted by this involvement “to blow his cool” about statehouse doings even more than he does as regards students and faculty. Although 1 sympathize with these advocates of restraint in regents, I have to point out that the rules are different for university teachers and regents; the rubric runs for the former as follows: The university teacher . . . should at all times [emphasis mine] be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make it plain that he is not an institutional spokesman. As a member of the staff of a state institution of higher education, he should refrain from involving the University of Texas system or any of its component institutions in partisan politics. The restrictions on regents, however, in the university rules seem far less. Section 8.8. make a statement on controversial matters that might reasonably be construed as an official position of the university, but he seems fortunately released from any obligation to be accurate or restrained. It can of course be argued that the public statements made by two regents about Larry Caroline, a matter we shall take up in the next issue, could be “reasonably construed” as an official position of the university. Moreover, since politics in Texas can be controversial, it is perhaps a pity that Chairman Erwin so closely identifies himself with the university in many minor ways; for example, if we can trust The Rag, the good chairman gives his profession not as lawyer, but as regent, and his place of business “UT,” even for such things as traffic tickets. 17 Dare we suggest that the regents pass rules making accuracy, appropriate restraint, and respect for the opinions of others incumbent on themselves? It will mean, of course, respect for the opinions of such men as Greg Calvert and Caroline, and for opinions on such delicate subjects as dress, marijuana, socialized medicine, 8 The Texas Observer the Vietnam war, and even personal hygiene. But even “dirty nuthin’s,” just like regents, have mothers. FOOTNOTES 1.O. K. Bouwsma, Philosophical Essays 2.The case has since been dropped, but the psychiatrist has left Texas. 3.See AAUP Bulletin Stewart in The Year of the Oath, The Fight for Academic Freedom at the University of California roughly speaking, ruined.” 4.*See Education: Texas Resource for Tomorrow. Report of the Governor’s Committee 5.All these figures and suggestions are available in an excellent committee survey: The Library and the College of Arts and Sciences: An Evaluative Report submitted to Dean Silber Ransom’s achievement in collecting 20th-century manuscripts and books may be found in the Times Literary Supplement Lehmann. Criticisms of its services to foreign scholars and the unevenness of its quality are to 6.See “The Future of Teaching,” Anon 6 7.This action rather shocked me, but I reflected that anyone rejected as a UT regent by the Texas Senate can’t be all bad. 8.I speak, of course, as a private individual and in no way as a representative of the board of regents of the University of Texas or its administration. 9.A sardonic account of the whole episode may be found in his revealing book, North Towards Home, pp. 184ff. 10.The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson \(New 11.I speak, of course, as a private individual and not as a member of the board of regents or in any way as a representative of the University of Texas. 12.*Alcalde, April, 1969, p. 8. A forlorn hope, as Christopher Jencks and David Riesman The Legislature Austin For the first time, at least to any considerable extent in recent years, censorship has been practiced in the House of Representatives printshop. The blue pencil was used or threatened on the contents of copy submitted for publication by at least five anti-leadership members. Most of the cases involved members’ newsletters to constituents. The most sensitive point to the censors was references to the Austin political leaders’ efforts during the summer to write a tax bill. The new policy of censorship evidently is traceable to the wounds Speaker Gus Mutscher and his lieutenants, among others, suffered when Texas taxpayers rose up in rare wrath against proposals to tax groceries and to impose virtually all of any new taxes on individuals rather than on business. imply: “The University of Texas … has in recent years managed to hire a number of distinguished professors from northern universities. … The state has never quite made up its mind whether to accept the legitimacy of national academic norms or simply to follow the dictates of local passion and prejudice. There has been continuing warfare between the state legislature and the university administration on this score … it has not attracted a significant number of out-of-state students.” The Academic Revolution, New York, 1968, p. 175. 13.The stand was reiterated by Mr. Grenville Clark of the Harvard Corporation to the threat of an alumnus to withhold money unless a certain professor was dropped: “I think it will always be Harvard policy not to be influenced in any way `to abridge free speech’ by the withholding of any subscription.” Harvard Alumni Bulletin, June 25, 1949. 14.It should be remembered that on June 5, 1950, the US Supreme Court in Sweatt v. Painter ordered the State of Texas to admit a black student to the then all-white law school [339 15.Texas Times, A Publication for the University of Texas System, To Erwin’s credit, he pointed out that Texas was not spending enough on higher education \(e.g., $18 annually per person in state institutions of which cost Texas many of the economic benefits of higher education: tax losses from the brain drain to other states; a paucity of government contracts and new industries in the state. He saw the UT at Austin as a bright spot in the educational picture. That his current policies tend to dim that bright spot is presumably lost on him, or perhaps he thinks that Nobel prize winners flock to universities where conservative public opinion is more important than academic freedom. 16.Austin’s radical left underground paper. 17.See the reproduction in The Rag for July 17, 1969, of a traffic ticket issued him on February 15, 1969. 18.Alcalde quotations, with the exceptions noted, are from the Austin Statesman or the Daily Texan. 19.Houston Chronicle, June 15, 1968. The newsletters of most representatives are printed at state expense in the House printshop operated by Albert Elam. The publications are funded by House contingent expense money. Elam cleary found himself in the middle of a dispute he wished no part of. On one side were the individual legislators, each of whom feels he has a right to say what he wishes to the people who elected him. On the other side were the people who control the way things go in the House, Speaker Mutscher and his coterie, who wish as little public comment as possible on their ministrations during the summer and desire no criticism at all, particularly not on the tax problems. REP. REX Braun, Houston liberal, had his newsletter run off in the House shop, only to find that he would not be permitted to have the completed copies. Braun says Elam said there was objection to Braun’s reprinting a column \(of Aug. Censor in the House