The Facts in the "Labenow Case"

The following is an itemised recapitulation to clarify the facts made public so far in connection with the Radcliffe administration's order that R. Deborah Lebanow '51 cease her activities as the CRIMSON'S Radcliffe Buerau Chief and as a member of the Radcliffe Press Board.

It is Radcliffe administrative policy to refrain from public comment on its own disciplinary actions. Student Government President Elizabeth K. Heaton '51 and Radcliffe News Editor Ann Roberts '51 cooperated with the CRIMSON in checking over the facts in which Student Government was concerned.

Great Issues Story

On November 14, Miss Labenow was given the information for the story by several council members who requested that their names be withheld. Miss Labenow's idea for the story sprang from a statement at an open council meeting that President Jordan would have tea with the council to discuss the "Great Issues" course project further.

Miss Labenow asked for comment and amplification from Jordan. His secretary said that Jordan was ill, but promised to give Miss Labenow a statement from him next day. That statement was that Jordan did not think there was enough information for a story at that time. He gave no other comment.

The story appeared on page one of the November 16 CRIMSON.

On November 17, Mary C. Small, Dean of Residence, told Miss Labenow that she was in serious danger of disciplinary action for misrepresenting administrative policy in a news story.

(Asked later for information to correct the article, President Jordan told the CRIMSON that he had not offered it before and would not then because he did not feel that the errors in the story were worth correcting publicly. Last Friday the Radcliffe News printed a story clarifying the "Great Issues" course story. The News explained that the council, not Jordan, had made the original suggestion for the course. For Jordan to have proposed the course in this way, it said, would have been clearly contrary to University procedure.)

Graduate Center Story

On October 18, Dean Cronkhite told Miss Labenow the facts, checked them, and said the story was accurate in every detail. She then asked Miss Labenow, as a personal favor, to stop at the Publicity Office on her way out of Fay House and to tell Miss Projansky, the director, to prepare a release for the Boston papers.

Miss Labenow could not find Miss Projansky in the office. She then wrote a completely accurate story for the CRIMSON and sent a story on the subject to the Boston Herald. The Herald did not use the story, although the Traveler did the following afternoon.

Several days later, Miss Projansky restated to the Press Board (the Radcliffe students who report Annex news for various papers) a college rule that all stories for Boston papers should be cleared with her as Publicity Director. (Present and past Press Board members later stated that this rule has not always been enforced in recent years.)

No question was raised about the Graduate Center story until November 30, when the Board of Deans told Miss Labenow that she had violated a college rule by submitting the story to the Herald.

On December 12, Miss Projansky informed a meeting of the remaining members of the Press Board that the clearing rule need not be mandatory. Instead of submitting copy, members were now asked simply to notify her what stories they were writing.

Action by Radcliffe

On December 6, the Board of Deans ordered Miss Labenow to cease any activities connected with the CRIMSON and the Press Board. They pointed out that this was a probation, and that failure to comply would result in severance of Miss Labenow's connections with Radcliffe College.

Dean Small, in a letter informing Miss Labenow's mother of the disciplinary action, explained that Miss Labenow had failed to meet the "standards of journalism which Radcliffe expects of its students." She said she and others had felt for some time that "getting a scoop has more importance to her than any other obligation" and told Mrs. Labenow that that feeling "is not without basis in fact."

Miss Small asked Radcliffe Student Government to hold an open meeting Thursday afternoon at which she would answer questions concerning the disciplinary action. She said Miss Labenow had broken release dates. She said she had no record of any such occurrences and could not recall a definite instance. Miss Projansky said later that Miss Labenow has not broken a single release date this term, since Miss Projansky has been Publicity Director, and suggested that Miss Small had perhaps misunderstood the term "release date."

Miss Small said: "What we are concerned with is a misrepresentation of facts so far as they are concerned with Radcliffe policy," not with "suppression of the right of a girl to express her opinion for or against the college."

Miss Small walked out of the open meeting, and met later with President Jordan and the Student Government for three and a half hours in closed session. Late Thursday night, the council issued a statement that "no individual student rights have been violated."

Censorship and Responsibility

The CRIMSON feels that Radcliffe has presumed a responsibility for news which can rightly lie only with a newspaper. The CRIMSON believes that if Radcliffe allows itself to take disciplinary action because of an inaccurate story, it is giving itself the right to censor stories to avoid "misrepresentation of Radcliffe policy" and by necessary extension this carries with it at least the threat of censorship to avoid publication of stories which Radcliffe would prefer not to be published. This threat of censorship is an inevitable consequence of application of college rules, disciplinary action, and finally probation in a case where, as the CRIMSON feels, open dealing with the reporter as a reporter as a reporter was the only justifiable action. Such a threat no newspaper can tolerate