Maroon

              The MAROON Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 February 25,1983 Vol. 61, No. 18 Campaign to shape future gets underway By Ted Mahne A fanfare of trumpets and 1,000 helium balloons signaled the beginning of Shaping The Vision, The Campaign for Loyola. CBS News Special Correspondent Walter Cronkite was Loyola's guest of honor at the groundbreaking ceremonies for the $13 million Communications/Music Complex Friday, Feb. 18. Cronkite was awarded an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters by the Rev. James C. Carter, S.J., university president, and by the university Board of Trustees. - Francis C. Doyle, chairman of the Board of Trustees, welcomed everyone to the ceremony and the beginning of The Campaign for Loyola. Former Mayor Moon Landrieu and his wife, Verna, both Loyo|a alumni, are serving as the campaign chaircouple.Others participating in * the groundbreaking ceremonies were Archbishop Philip M. Hannan and Phil Johnson, assistant manager of WWL-TV, WWL-AM and WAJY-FM radio. Verna Landrieu said that more than 60 percent of Walter Cronkite speaks as Verna Landrieu, Archbishop Philip Hannan and Dr. Robert Preston look on. (For additional photos, see page 3.) —Photo by l.ori Caradonna Cronkite airs concern over state of his art By Jeanette Gbur Although Walter Cronkite, CBS News special correspondent, owes his world-wide fame to broadcast journalism, he is not reluctant to point out the industry's flaws. The biggest problems in broadcasting are lack of time and misguided priorities, according to Cronkite. "We don't have enough time really to com-municate as much as we need to communicate. Therefore, I think it is the greatest sin to use that time for the trivial and the entertaining rather than to inform," Cronkite said. Half-hour television newscasts cannot cover stories in enough detail necessary to understand the context of the event, according to Cronkite. "[We] certainly need an hour for news; you can't do anything without it," he said. The present nature of news broadcasting necessitates covering stories in three minutes or less, Cronkite said. ''You justify it because that's all you've got with the medium with which we're working." However, he added, "You can't justify it on the grounds that you can completely cover the story — all the pertinent angles — in that time, because you usually can't. "That's one of the reasons you duck behind the shibboleth of covering fires, barn burnings and jackknifed trailer trucks because you can tell that in 10 seconds and who cares." Cronkite notes that watching television news is only the first step to being informed. He points to the necessity of reading newspapers for gaining further information and greater explanation. He said that broadcast journalism can certainly augment print journalism but that broadcast, as it is currently constituted, cannot substitute for print. ■ • v • v. "There are many things that broadcast can do that print cannot," he said. "Certainly television can make a greater impact — taking you to the scene, introducing you to the people making the news. That can be done far better in broadcast television than print." Cronkite finds it hard to imagine a time without print. "It is true that newspapers are folding to an extent, but 1 don't think that that is the death of print journalism." "1 find it very hard to visualize the day when print would cease to exist. It just seems to me that holding a book in your hands and holding a newspaper, is part of, almost a tacticle part of, absorbing knowledge. As I say, that could turn out to be terribly old-fashioned in another generation." Educating the journalist is as important as educating the public, according to Cronkite. He said that although communications courses are essential, the majority of education should be based in liberal arts. "I've always felt while communications courses are a very good idea . . .the bulk of a bachelor of arts education ought to be taken in the traditional academic subjects of the humanities, social sciences, history, of course, economics and your basic sciences," Cronkite said. "That is the only time that a person is going to get that information — that's when they ought to be educated. The technical education can come in, I think, just in a few hours of courses and perhaps post-graduate," he said. Cronkite also feels that journalists can benefit by a five-year college program. "It [journalism] is a profession because an ethic is involved and the practice of it. I would feel that since doctors take eight years and lawyers take six or seven, I don't see why a journalist shouldn't take five and get a fullbased arts and sciences course in four and do their technical stuff in another year," he said. Cronkite holds that the schools may be turning out many communications students who are not as well prepared or as dedicted as they should be. "This is particularly true of a lot of those who are trying to get into television, who are really looking at the glamor more than at the gut business of reporting," he said. Threat triggers hall evacuation By Paula M.Guibault A call threatening the destruction of Seton, Mac Donald and Cummings halls on St. Charles Avenue was received Friday, according to Thomas Blalock, director of Security. According to Security, the threat, made by a male voice with no accent, was received at 12:33 p.m. Blalock said the caller said "something to the effect that ,'when you return tomorrow morning [Saturday], you'll find that the three buildings on St. Charles will be flat."' He said it was not known if the threat was related to Walter Cronkite's visit. Cronkite was on campus for the Communications/Music Complex groundbreaking ceremonies, held Friday at 2:30 p.m. Two of the buildings, Mac Donald Hall and Cummings Hall, were evacated. Seton Hall, the education building, was not. See Groundbreaking /page 5