Erwin Effmane Refutes Statemenigly Wineman on WSU Publication; Protests. Sounded
..t
Erwin ElLmann, an active
member of the Detroit chap-
ter of American Civil Liber-
ties Union, who has opposed
the recent resolution defend-
ing the South End editors
and whose views were chal-
lenged jR, last week's Jewish
Wews by Prof. David Wind-
man, this week replied, in
the following statement to
The Jewish News:
"1. My original memor-
• ndum was prepared before
the ACLU board meeting of
March 6 when the facts were
more fully established. At
that meeting, Mr. Glen n
Cunningham, editor in chief
of the South End, candidly
acknowledged that his edi-
torial position had been set
forth in the paper as follows:
'Journalistic
o b j e ctivity
which argues that both sides
or all sides be represented
!.s not a desired goal in it-
self. We will refuse to print
any material that works to
subjugate oppressed and ex-
ploited peoples whom we are
pledged to support. We will
not compromise our princi-
pals (sic.) or dilute and
twist the truth to be socially
acceptable.'
"Mr. Cunningham refused
to repudiate this statement
of editorial policy despite
prompting from some who
supported him.
"He reaffirmed this phil-
osophy of public campus
journalism.
"The ACLU heard other
evidence that student groups
taking positions contrary to
.Mr. Cunningham's views
have been identified with the
oppressors a n d excluded
from the paper, even to the
point of denial of mere
Feb. 24—To Mr. and MFS.
Mark Morganroth (Nancy
Schriedell), 6715 Alderley
Way, West Bloomfield, a
daughter, Melissa Jody.
• *
March 10—To Dr. and Mrs.
Harvey 0. Golden (Joan Zer-
ry), 18500 Midway, South-
field, a daughter, Helene
Danielle.
* '5 *
March 21 — To Mr. and
Mrs. Leonard Rosenberg,
16209 Templar Cir., South-
field, a son, Darren Matthew.
•
*
To Mr. and Mrs. Michael
Serling (Elaine St on e),
29215 Franklin Hills, South-
field, a daughter, Alizah
Michelle.
REV. SIDNEY
RUBE
Mohel
358-1426 or 357-5544
RABBI S. ZACHARIASH
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MOHEL
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HERSHl ROTH
Certified
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RABBI LEO
GOLDMAN
Expor/
Ser. ing I
LI 2-4444
and
1411111•••
•
LI 1-9769
notice of student organiza-
tional meetings.
"Dr. Ernest Benjamin, a
Wayne faculty member who
serves on the student publi-
cations, board as a repre-
sentative of the University,
explained to the meeting that
although there were numer-
ous candidates for editor,
Mr. Cunningham was select-
ed with full knowledge of
his political views as well as
his conception of the func-
tion of a student publication.
"2. Wayne State Univer-
sity has appropriated some
$70,000 to the South End in
addition to providing, without
charge, office space, equip-
ment, light and heat, and
the services of a faculty
member to serve as adviser
or assistant. This substantial
support is from taxes levied
on the public and tuition
levied on Wayne State Uni-
versity students.
"3. I do not suggest that
student editors should be
censored or curbed for anti-
Semitism, tastelessness, in-
coherence or shoddy journal-
ism in their columns.
"I do not contend, as your
March 116 report seems to
imply, that the students
writing or publishing the
South End have themselves
"violated the •aw", however
wrongheaded or unpalatable
their views may be.
"Nly quarrel is with the
board of governors which
has supported with public
funds a publication whose
editor forthrightly 'acknow-
ledges that it serves the
needs and airs the views of
those with whom he agrees
and refuses to print any ma-
terial which he identifies
with those he opposes,
though they also are stu-
dents in good standing or re-
cognized campus organiza
tions.
"The use of public funds to
proclaim or oppose an idio-
syncratic political or credal
position, and to exclude dis-
sent is as abhorrent to me
as Mayor Hubbard's use of
the Dearborn City Hall bul-
letin board a few years ago
to disseminate anti-black
propaganda.
"The then board of the
ACLU's Detroit branch was
not concerned with the dif-
ficulties of accommodating
every conceivable point of
view on the limited bulletin
board space; it was clear to
us then that it was not the
business of government to
run a propaganda mill to de-
mean black citizens. I think
today the issue is the same,
regardless of the color of the
victims.
"4. In your March 23 issue,
Prof. David Wineman pur-
ports to raise constitutional
obections to my position at
the request of the chairper-
son of the Detroit ACLU
branch, Ms. Adrienne James.
Though I understand his let-
ter was written on the letter-
head of the organization, I am
not aware that the some 30
members of the board have
endorsed his views, or ap-
proved them as an official
utterance.
"Prof. Wineman is quite
right, however, in emphasiz-
ing that my own position was
rejected by the preponder-
ance of board members pres-
ent and voting at a meeting
some weeks ago. In fact it
was characterized as utter
nonsense by one of the South
End's most vocal and influ-
ential apologists.
"In these circumstances, I
am accordingly flattered by
Prof. Winem'an's public at-
tention to views which the
organization so emphatically
discredited, especially in a
manner unprecedented dur-
ing my more than 20 years'
association with the ACLU in
Michigan.
"5. Available space does
not permit review of the con-
stitutional issues. They are
both complex and subtle and
do not yield to the easy for-
mulary generalizations which
have constellated the debate.
Phases of the problem could
have implications for aca-
demic freedom, due process
and student rights.
"Up to now, however, no
one has denied, so far as I
am aware, any faculty mem-
ber or student any academic
privilege because of his views
or expressions in or about
the South End. At the present
time the basic issue for 'me
is whether a public university
can expend moneys collected
from taxpayers and students
to foster a self-declared ex-
clusionary publication, which
deliberately and invidiously
discriminates against some
student activities and in fa-
vor of others.
"If Wayne State University
had appropriated $75,000 to
operate a publication which
four times a year features
Der Sturmer-like cartoons
and hate-materials, I suspect
that Prof. Wineman would
find this a shocking misuse
of public power and public
funds. I am just as shocked
when the board of governors
knowingly delegates the task
to Mr. Cunningham."
Detroit's chapter of the
ACLU is pursuing the South
End issue with a proposal for
an "open forum" agreement
in the continuing controversy.
A statement by Ms. James
contends that all previous as-
sertions and regulations do
not conclude the debate over
the WSU publication.
Students and faculty mean-
while have also expressed
their concern over occur-
rences on the WSU campus.
In behalf of a growing stu-
dent body activated against
the prejudicial position of
South End editors, Leonard
Winogora, Monte Schloss,
Carolyn Tujaka and Gilbert
Sniderman issued this state-
ment:
"Whether the public rea-
lizes it or not, the South End
is still publishing its anti-
Semitic diatribes. A small
group of Jewish and non-
Jewish students have contin-
ued to fight this hate sheet
with little financial or moral
support.
"This is to inform the en-
tire Jewish community that
we have NO intention of let-
ting this issue die until Gene
Cunningham is removed as
editor of the South End. We
have no intention of allowing
a state-funded publication to
continue to spread anti-Semi-
tism.
"It is our intent to evoke
moral outrage on the part of
all those who read or hear
about this and to press the
Wayne State University ad-
ministration into action on
this matter. If we are to fight
and defeat anti-Semitism, we
can do so only with the sup-
port of the community."
statement to The Jewish
News by Prof. Abe Citron,
professor of educational so-
ciology:
"How does a small group
capture and maintain control
of the student newspaper?
"Wayne students are busy
and hurried with cares of
jobs, homes and upward so-
cial mobility. Very few stu-
dents read the South End. It
has not been difficult for
members of a determined
minority who come to meet-
ings/ early and stay late and
get their members on key
committees to capture the
editorship in a vacuum of
student attention turned else-
where.
"The second answer is that
the Detroit metropolitan area
is one of the centers of the
black-white power struggle.
The South End purports to
be, above all else, the de-
fender and protector of black
interests against the racism
of the establishment. (For
example, it recently present-
ed James Boyd and Mark
Bethune as heroes of the
black struggle for liberation.)
"In this context any attack
on the paper is represented
by its staff and defenders as
an attack on black students
and on the black community.
Since the South End has been
the captive of this clique it
has usually had a black edi-
tor, and if anyone criticizes
the paper he or she is ac-
cused of racism.
"There is still a third an-
swer. For if the university
administration attempts to
move in any way to utilize its
constitutional responsibility
to improve or guide 'the pa-
per, the hue and cry is
raised of students' rights and
freedom of the press. This
facade is q u it e effective
with many students and fac-
ulty.
"The inescapable fact is
that repeated use of anti-
Semitic symbols and mater-
ials in the South End is out-
rageous and completely out
of bounds for a paper sup-
ported by taxpayers' funds
and officially representing a
university of this state. Pub-
lication of such material con-
stitutes racism just as clear-
ly as anti-black stereotypes,
language or •cartoons. Student
freedom to print is not with-
out limits; freedom of the
press is not absolute. Were
the offending editor white,
the issue would not be ob-
scured.
"Students and faculty at
Wayne State University have
no idea of the emotional
threat to Jews or the political
danger to the country repre-
sented by anti-Semitic expres-
sions in the student newspa-
per of the university. The
vast majority of blacks have
no conception of the horror,
felt at the bone's marrow, ex-
perienced by Jews contem-
porary to the Holocaust,
when they are confronted
with symbols of anti-Semitism
in places of quasi-govern.
mental power.
"Most Jews have no idea
of the feelings and fears of
blacks, fears, for example,
of insensitive and trigger-
quick police; anxieties of
making one's way in a huge,
white, racist majority, re-
sen•ment of being held in
because of color of
How Problem contempt
skin.
"Some blacks have told me
Originated
that they feel it is only when
Faculty opinion expressed the South End has a black
on the issue included this editor that the administra-
•
.1,-*V. '
r "1"N
lion clamps down. This is not
the case, but they feel that
way. As usual, perception of
groups is situationally based;
many blacks fear a takeover
of the South End by a mili-
tant, black hating, right wing
group of which there are
members on campus.
"Jews and blacks are nar-
row-visioned indeed to allow
left or right wing revolution-
aries to drive them apart.
Jews and blacks are natural
allies and should get together
in more groups around more
tables more often 'and talk
turkey. It won't be easy, since
there are many tough, emo-
tional issues. It is high time
for serious rapproachment of
blacks and Jews all across
the nation."
In a statement to President
George Gullen and the WSU
board of governors, Robert
Broner, associate professor
of humanistic studies at
WSY's Monteith College,
urged that the editor be di-
rectly elected by the student
body "on the basis of pub-
lished editorial policies by
each candidate.
"The candidates should
first be screened by a recon-
stituted SNPB for some of
the basic qualities and skills
necessary to an editor. But
he or she should be elected
at large so that it is clear for
whom the paper is being
written."
He explained that:
"The system for the selec-
tion of an editor of the South
End is undemocratic in the
best sense of that word. What
is the constituency of the
editor? To whom is he re-
sponsible? The editor has
been appointed by a half doz-
en members of the Student
Newspaper Publication
Board, who are in turn ap-
pointed by the Student Facul-
ty Council. Only some of
these S-FC members are
elected at large by the stu-
dent body.
"The system, therefore,
makes the editor an appointee
-
•
JOE MILLER
and
HIS ORCHESTRA
of appointees of a partially
elected and partially appoin-
ed body. Actually students
are thus prevented from- hay-
ing a clear voice in the selec-
tion of an editor of the stu-
dent newspaper. The editor
owes his oppointment to 2.
handful of people who are
not directly responsible 'to
the administration or the
board of governors nor are
they directly accountable to
the S-FC.
"The board Imust set up en-
forcement procedures t o
guarantee fair treatment to
all by a university paper."
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
36—Friday, March 30, 1973
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