Maroon

              LOYOLA MAROON VOL. XLV Loyola University, New Orleans, La., Friday, April 25,1969 No. 23 Bond urges blacks to seek separatism By BRUCE NOLAN (Maroon Staff Reporter) Julian Bond, controversial Negro member of the Georgia House of Delegates, appeared at the Field House Monday night, claiming that "representative democracy has yet to win a single major decision" for the nation's underprivileged and reiterating the call for black separatism. Bond, the first Negro to have his name placed in nomination for the vice-presidency by a major political party, minimized the accomplishments of the civil rights movement to date. "Certainly lunch counters have been opened," he said, "making possible sizzling steak dinners for those with only hot dog pocketbooks. And now blacks can ride in the front of the bus when they move from the abject poverty of the South to the more vertical poverty of the North." Speaking before a predominately white audience, Bond pointed out that the Negro's drive for equality over the past 10 years has been largely unsuccessful. "This country, founded 300 years igo by the white man, has remained in the eyes of its citizens, subjects and rulers, an all-white society today," he said. "This nation gave birth to democracy while instituting racism." Bond emphasized his point by drawing a lesson from American history, calling attention to the near extermination of the American Indian as an example of what may happen to the black man. "The question facing the black man today is a question of life or death," he said. Bond called for the formation of a "new coalition" to carry on the black man's struggle—a coalition of "shifting and temporary alliances." With the emphasis on the "temporary nature" of the coalition's membership, Bond declared that the black man should ally himself only with those groups which are driving towards, specific goals with which he (the Negro) agrees. Further, he said, the black man should cooperate with these groups for the attainment of only those goals which are coincidental to both, avoiding when possible, broad policy alliances. Thus, said Bond, the black man might find himself sometimes in partnership with labor, and at other times with white suburbia. Bond told the 1,000 people in attendance that, "Politics in 1969 for oppressed people will cease being the art of compromise and the art of the possible, and will begin being the art of seeing who gets how much from whom." The Georgia legislator stressed his view that the coalition should be a political movement, saying that the prospect of violent revolution was "doubtful," He warned, however, that ( violence should not be dismissed out of hand. The new coalition, he said, must always be ready for the "extraordinary." "Extraordinairiness, of course, assumes that if regular and responsible and democratic and fair methods don't work for us, then others must be considered." As a goal, Bond sees the membership of the new alliance working "to carve out our own place, separate—but part of the whole." In a question and answer session following the speech, he offered a clarification of the notion of black separatism, saying that its aim was "to build a world where no one is afraid of separatism and everyone is afraid of racism." According to Bond, the new coalition's strength—political and economic—must come from "within the black community." "We have to begin by making our own communities as strong as they can be. We have to excercise control of all resources and institutions within our own communities," he said. After the speech, Bond drew applause from the audience when he chided the Church for failing to exert itself as a moral force "shaping the lives and thoughts of men." It will not, he said, be counted as part of the new coalition. Bond's speech and the reception in his honor which followed were sponsored by the Loyola Student Union. JULIAN BOND A case for freedoms An Editor/a I The statement on student rights and freedoms is, on paper, a very nice statement. Its original draft, which was made public during the fall semester of this year, contains no grammatical errors. However, when the time came for the statement Jo be tested, it proved meaningless - meaningless in the sense that the administration has demonstrated its unwillingness to back it up with action. The case of the Word, a local underground newspaper which appeared briefly on campus several weeks ago, serves as a case in point. However, the issue goes beyond the Word; it is the principle of student rights and freedom, as well as academic freedom, that is at stake. After several skirmishes revolving around whether or not the Word should be allowed to be sold on campus, a stand was set up outside Danna Center. Within 24 hours, however, campus security had "arrested" the machine and locked it safely within the confines of the security office. The arrest had been ordered by university business manager Thomas Preston. He said at the time that the underground newspaper "isn't conducive to a business operation," and that the Word would not be sold on campus unless his decision was overruled. The University Senate met Thursday, April 17, and in a heated discussion, the faculty seemed to favor the implimentation of student rights and freedoms in connection with the sale of the Word on Loyola's campus. Of course, according to the rights and freedom statement, the university president, the Very Rev. Homer R. Jolley, S.J., has the final say on all matters concerning "rights and freedoms." He had his say in a statement prepared for yesterday's meeting of the university senate, and he sided with business manager Preston. In his statement, he argued that the administration has the responsibility "to determine what items are offered for sale on the campus and by whom sales are made." In the interval between the time the Word was arrested and Father Jolley issued his statement, our hope was that he would come to the realization that student rights and freedoms should not rest with one man or even with a small, select group of university businessmen. Of course, this hope was shattered by his statement which indicates that he holds Loyola to be a business operation primarily and an academic community only secondarily or incidently. As a result, freedom -- student, academic or otherwise -- is an apparent farce at Loyola. The student rights committee ruled earlier that "because there exists no valid reason for denying you (Steve Vakas, a student trying to get the Word sold on campus) permission to sell the Word on campus, the (committee) finds your freedom was invalidly restricted." Because of Father Jolley's backing of university businessmen, this statement also takes on the appearance of a poor attempt at a joke. Total academic freedom does not exist at Loyola. These words may exist, but it seems as if they have been redefined to meet the needs of the administration. We wish to reiterate a fact which we can not help but believe has been overlooked again. Above being a "business operation," Loyola is an academic community where freedom to think and to choose should exist. Presently such freedoms are token, if present at all. Dr. John Corrington, professor of English, said in a statement of proposed resolutions before the University Senate Thursday, April 17: "While the presence or absence cf the Word on campus is a matter of small moment, it would be disasterous if the first decision of the Standing Committee on Student Rights and Freedoms were to be ignored, or permitted to stand effectively null and void." These are the sentiments of the Maroon and, undoubtedly, the majority of students and faculty. Father Patrick Ratterman, S.J., made the point in his speech at the Awards Day Convocation last Friday that if university officials do not make the changes that need to be made and grant basic rights to students that the radical element may take action. Yes, even at Loyola. If Loyola is not to become an academic community, we urge the administration to change the name to something appropriate like "Loyola Corp., S.J." If it is to remain as Loyola University, an atmosphere conducive to freedom of thought should exist, should even be fought for. Fee changes announced by university official Changes in the tuition rates for evening division and graduate students and in academic fees for all students have been announced by the university administration. All of the changes go into effect in September. John Eckholdt, vice-president for finance, said the changes, all of which entail a raising of rates, were made because the university needs more revenue to pay for its services the fees provide. He also said the university is attempting to standardize its rate and fee schedule so that financial officers can better predict the financial status of the university. "What we are trying to do is systematize," said Eckholdt. The tuition changes are: All graduate students, including those in business administration will pay $38 for a semester hour. This is increased from the present rate of $35 a semester hour. Evening division students will pay $25 for a semester hour, a three dollar per semester hour increase. Changes in the fee rates are: Parttime students will pay a $10 per year student center fee. At present they pay nothing. All full-time students will pay a $30 per year academic fee. This fee will provide such things as the university medical services, the student newspaper, the use of laboratories and matriculation procedures. It replaces such fees as the library fee, matriculation fee and lab fees. Social ills should concern universities, says priest By ED ANDERSON (Maroon Editor) The American colleges and universities, especially Catholic ones, have the obligation of "making the student aware of the social problems which face our nation today," said a renowned Jesuit educator and author in a recent speech in the Loyola Field House. The Rev. Patrick Ratterman, S.J., vice-president of student affairs at Xavier University (Cincinnati, Ohio) told a recent Awards Day audience of students, parents and professors that if the university and university administrations do not make the average student aware of the social ills in the country today, "then the young radicals will." He said that it is "an oversimplification to say that the problems of our society are being brought to the college campus." But he added that the reason this is so is in no small way due to the impact of television. He told his audience that today's college youth are seeing "things on television your generation and mine [referring to the parents] never realized was going on." He added: "They [the youth] have seen Negroes being beaten by white sheriffs; they have seen de facto segregation in Northern schools; they have seen poverty and rats crawling out of holes in the nation's slum areas; they have seen pictures of war published in the newspapers in color. They have lived this experience." Father Ratterman said this generation of youth is the first to realize that "war is hell before they reach the battlefields." And he said it is this awareness that is making the difference in the U.S. today. FATHER PATRICK RATTERMAN Father Jolley erases 'Word' By LOUIS LASSUS (Maroon Special Reporter) The Very Rev. President Homer R. Jolley, S.J., said in a statement this week that the Word, an underground newspaper, would not be sold on campus. Father Jolley said that his decision is in complete accordance with the recent decision of the Committee on Student Rights and Freedoms concerning the Word. Father Jolley's statement was made a week after Jim Robinett, A&S senior, had made a presentation to the University Senate in which he said that the administration had violated student rights by not carrying out the decision of the rights committee. The rights committee had ruled in February that the Word had been denied permission to distribute on-campus for "no valid reason," and that conditions and terms of its sale had to be set by proper university officials. When Steve Vakas, A&S, sophomore, tried to sell the Word on campus in a vending machine a few weeks ago, Thomas Preston, university business manager, had the machine seized by the security police. FATHER JOLLEY DECIDES The controversy brought before the University Senate's meeting last week centered upon whether or not the rights committee's decision was binding. In a prepared statement addressed to students, faculty and administrators, Father Jolley said that "it was clearly within the administrative responsibility to determine what items are offered for sale on campus." (For entire text of Father Jolley's statement, see page three.) *- m -* -w -* -* -m -m -*■ -» * *" * C-«-«*■ — — ■ » ■• RELATED EVENTS Other events concerning the Word controversy include the following: —Five faculty members circulated a letter proposing that the University Senate ask Father Jolley to establish a procedure whereby important decisions of the rights committee would be reviewed by him "for prompt and timely approval or rejection." —-Dr. John Corrington, associate professor of English, made two separate resolutions to the senate at its meeting last week in which he asked DR. JOHN CORRINGTON RON NABONNE Telling it like it is at SUNO LU group voices backing for SUNO By STEVE VAKAS (Maroon Staff Reporter) Expression held a rally this week in an effort to enlist support for the recent student movement at Southern University in New Orleans (SUNO). SUNO students were on strike at that time in hopes of convincing administrators to act on a list of ten demands drawn up by student leaders. One spokesman for Expression, Dwight Ott, said the student unrest at SUNO has "roots" and "implications" at Loyola. He added whatever results come from the demands will form a "picture of what is to come" at this university and the rest of New Orleans. He would not elaborate more on this subject. One of the main objectives of the rally, according to Ron Nabonne, former Expression president, was to ask Loyola students to appeal to Gov. John J. McKeithen for his support of the SUNO students' demands. However, during the rally held in Danna Center, Nabonne read an Associated Press wire dispatch marked "urgent" concerning an unscheduled visit by McKeithen to SUNO's campus. The strike officially ended that afternoon when McKeithen agreed to take action on the students' "legitimate complaints." After Nabonne read the dispatch, the Expression group attacked the press in New Orleans for giving an "unfair and unobjective" report of events at SUNO. Nabonne said most of the reporters covering the events highlighted the lowering of the American flag and de-emphasized the importance of the actual demands. He stated that, "contrary to news presentation," there was "no such thing" as flag desecration. He said the flag was lowered, folded and stored away. He singled out WWL-TV as a special example of what he said was bad reporting and even worse public relations. According to Nabonne, two SUNO coeds called the station to complain of its "negative" reporting. He added that station officials "cursed out" these coeds and referred to SUNO students as savages. Bill Elder, news editor for WWL, later said he had no knowledge of the alleged use of profanity by his staff members in a telephone interview. He did say, however, that he recalls one telephone complaint by a SUNO coed in which the coed used "quite profane" language. He added that a staff member merely hung-up on her. Nabonne cited another example of what he said was "incorrect" reporting on the part of WWL and other news media. He said many sources reported that a black coed from SUNO was injured by a carelessly thrown brick when she was struck by a policeman. Lt. Van Flynn of the Community Relations section of the New Orleans Police Department said in a telephone interview that a coed had been struck by a policeman. However, he said the policeman "was attacked" by the coed. The Expression group asked Loyola students to support the Resurrection Fund, established to assist SUNO students who lose financial aid due to the recent demonstrations and alleged flag desecration. (continued on page 5) (continued on page 5)