Editors Fight With Officials Over Control of News Policy

Student editors and administrative officials battled in several universities this year over the right of college and state-supported papers to form their own policies.

Executives of the Red and Black, University of Georgia newspaper, resigned last November rather than comply with pressure by University Regents and state politicians to stop the editors' stand against racial segregation.

The newspaper had condemned the sudden 1A reclassification and drafting of a 4F negro whose legal suit for admission to the University was about to be considered by the courts. Following this stand, the Board of Regents of the school, led by powerful politician-editor Roy V. Harris, threatened to withdraw state funds from the paper if it were to continue its stand.

Two weeks later Harris attacked the editors in his weekly newspaper in Augusta, naming them "a little handful of sissies, and misguided squirts." He called them perverts and Communists, saying ". . . the time has come to clear out all of these institutions of all Communist influences and the crazy idea of mixing and mingling of the races which was sponsored in this country by the Communist party."

Officials Prohibit Reply

When the editors of the paper attempted to reply to Harris, University officials prohibited them from doing so and, instead, asked them to apologize. Rather than do this, four of them, including the president and managing editor, resigned from the paper.

Harris insisted that his stand was "not one of endangering freedom of the press." He said. "The students can get their own paper and do what they please with it, but the University is not going to turn over any money to the Red and Black unless the editors change their policy." At present the paper is two-thirds supported by University funds.

Harris wrote in his newspaper, "The State of Georgia pays a big price to educate its college students. If the state is willing to spend this money it has the right to control what is taught and what is done at the University."

Staff Members Resign

When the top editors resigned, other staff members took over the paper, but they, in turn, resigned after the University imposed faculty censorship on the paper. This spring, the new managing editor, running for president, took a stand against segregation. He was unanimously defeated by a student-faculty board of control. But in the final spring edition, the student who was finally elected president continued the paper's former stand and printed a column headed, "Segregation Is Wrong."

Another administration attack came from the University of Maryland, where the dean of men attempted to suppress an edition of the student paper last fall.

Geary Epply, dean of men, disapproved of two pictures appearing in the issue, one of crowded quarters for 24 women students in a dormitory basement, the other of an empty chair at a student council meeting. University police accosted a reporter from the Baltimore Evening Sun, who tried to ascertain the cause of the partially successful suppression of the paper.

Student Council Threat

At Queens College, on the other hand, not the administration, but the Student Council threatened censorship of the campus newspaper this spring. After the Crown printed an advertisement from the Labor Youth League, which is listed on the Attorney General's list of subversive organizations, the Student Council ruled by a vote of 19-6 that any college publication "which carries such ads shall be subject to immediate suspension and possible revocation of its charter."

The issue reportedly originated, however, with the publication of an advertisement in another student weekly, the Rampart, which was submitted by an organization not on the List. This advertised a mock trial of Senator McCarthy.