PAGE TWO THE MICHIGAN DAILY t: 'tTl CTY A tT A Y S/"STT t 7 i'! nnr a T~lEMICICEN f~_- rntWIlcRSAY AUGUT 3, 96 77 Year Legacy of Editorial Freedom Contiim res --- --- I - - - - -1 .1 - I (continued from Page 1) members viewed it as a char All this brought intense criti- "do something" about ther cism of The Daily-from Regents, while others thought it woul' s o m e faculty members and The Daily a vote of confi administrators. The c r i t i c i s m and take some of the pressu brought intense pressure on the the Board. Board in Control of Student Pub- Therfaculty did even lications to "do something" about authorize a study of Univ The Dily.communications media but a The Daily. ed initiating the type of in The Board oversees all student gation requested by the publications including Gargoyle, obviously reluctant to step Generation and the Michiganen- the controversy. Thus the pre sian as well as The Daily. An in- dependent s t u d e n t association formed The Daily in 1890 and in 1903 sold it to the Faculty Senate, which had earlier created a Board in Control of Student Publications. As it evolved{ over time, the Board lost its tie to the, faculty and became an autonomous body reporting directly to the Regentsh like the Board in Control of In- r tercollegiate Athletics. Consisting today of five faculty members, three students, two alumni and two administrators (the vice-presidents for student affairs and University relations),f the Board has increasingly limited itself to overseeing The Daily's financial affairs, avoiding any in- trusion into Daily editorial policy. But the Board had voted-on Feb. 6-to ask the faculty for an "investigation" into the "proper purpose, function and responsi- bility" of The Daily. Some Board Killingsworth nce to paper, d give dence re off tually versity avoid- on the Board to "do something" increased as the day for Daily senior appointments approached. Daily senior appointments are, in the view of Daily staffers, a question of editorial freedom just as much as news and editorial content. They generally believe that the editors have the requisite 2.0 aver- age and meet the other empirical standards set forth. eral Board members had suggested discussing, the Free Press editorial, that adding several new elements the telegrams and the disclosure to The Daily's Code of Ethics about Hatcher all apparently had vesti- Board's appointments role should Board, be limited to seeing that the jun- into iors recommended for senior ap- essure pointments by the outgoing senior But perhaps because senior ap- mignt serve as a "face-saver" for the desired effect. pointments have become virtually the wavering Board members. The Board voted, first 6-5 in a the only real control it can em- Rapoport and Killingsworth straw poll and then 7-4 in an ploy-and even though it usually talked over seven of these pro- official tally, to accept Rapoport rubberstamps the seniors' recom- posed "additions"-such as an edi- and the rest of the senior editors' .mendations-the Board generally torial-page spot for faculty and recommendations. says that its role should be more administration opinion, which had Crisis Not Over direct and influential than that. already been initiated-and Rapo- The crisis wasn't entirely over . When the Board had finished port began discussing these with yet, however. Many Daily staffers interviewing the juniors recom- the three Board members. were concerned that the seven mended for senior positions, Prof. Important Developments proposals submitted to the Board LukeCooperrider of the law Tby Rapoport, largely as face- LukeCooprnier o thelaw There were also three other im- savers, might be construed as con- school, Board chairman, called the portant developments before Feb. cessions the Board had squeezed senior editors into the room and 23: s shBrad said that the Board had voted 7-4 36 state legislators and num- to reject Rapoport as editor-al- erous Daily alumni sent telegrams though he declined to say why- t Hatche and Cooperide, con and added that it would considerj demning Rapoport's rejection and Ti t Rapoport for any other position urging that the Board reverse its on the senior editorial staff, decision. Authorize Strike '0The Detroit Free Press print- S a les, The Board then adjourned, set- ed a strongly-worded editorial at- ting another meeting two days tacking the Board, praising Rapo- later, Feb. 20. port and urging his appointment. The Daily staff met continu- It had earlier attacked the pro- Chances are you've never had ously until 4:30 the next morning posed faculty investigation of The your hands in the operation of a and several times during the next Daily in a laudatory editorial ' $250,000 business. If not, The Mi- three days to discuss what it titled, "The Daily Does Its Job." chigan Daily business staff is an would do if the Board refused to The Daily learned from a opportunity that you cannot pass appoint Rapoport on Feb. 23.'hi h ersiyol thatdrem- by. We run our own business from Finally, it decided to authorize high University official that Pres the smallest classified ad to the the senior editors to call a strike ident Hatcher had tried-unsuc distribution of over 10,000 papers and shut down publication if nec- cessfully-to get Board Chairman to students and facultyacross the essary. Cooperrider to block Rapoport. campus and throughout the na-{ At the same time, Daily staffers The Daily then printed the tion. and several Board members had story-it appeared the morning of It takes awell-organized staff been meeting in an attempt to the Board meeting - which of fifty students to do the work on "work something out," as one prompted faculty and student the business staff. Publishing The Board member put it. comment highly critical of Hatch- Daily six times a week means that Rapoport himself had met with er's attempt to manipulate the each of those fifty people shares three Board members who werte supposedly independent board. a large amount of responsibility in known to be wavering in their A combination of Rapoport's his department. As a result Th opposition to him. Moreover, sev- lobbying, the proposals he was Daily is always ready to welcome - new faces. t r 5 1 i i out of The Daily in exchange for Rapoport's appointment. As the New York Times reporter there to cover the story later drawled, "There are two schools of thought about those proposals" - the "face-saving" school and the "concession" school. But in a series of hectic meet- ings held during the Board meet- ing, the staff voted to accept Rapoport's suggestion that the staff could vote to accept or reject any or all of the proposals at, a later staff meeting. In the end, most Daily staffers considered that they had won al victory over the Board-which ir the early 1960's had eventually managed to get the senior editors to revise some of their recom- mendations and in 1943 had blocked the appointment of c-e junior recommended by the seniui editors Rapoport's rejection was the first time in the 77-year history of The Daily that the Board had rejected the senior editors' recom- mendation for Daily editor-in- chief. And, Daily staffers contend, it was the first clear-cut defeat for the Board over appointments as well, * off Means Business' Circulation Mount cokes you'll find that the people who "really" manage the paper are the junior managers. The junior year on The Daily is probably the most busy of the four yoi'll have on the staff. You are now the person responsible for the quality and type of ad that will run in tomorrow's paper or the many problems that always seem to come up in circulation. Direct Contact t and then spend a whole year watching your ideas take effect. The senior staff focuses around the business manager; a trainee just a few semesters ago. He is the one responsible for the fifty peo- ple who work on his staff and all of the decisions that they make. The Daily's biggest asset isn't the amount of money that it makes or its net worth, but the fact that it is truly an independent I!. Rapoport is immaterial 1 We have New and Previously Owned books for all people who want to save money. £TULYL NTBOOK 9LRVICC 215 South University 761-0700 D IA MON D RI NG S schian derer ON !O. UMIYERSI'flj 4 cr~qvp( I"v vei~sawrfp 4jrtyfi1 " t4ANN oaR1.. rttCNe~t G4 Easy Task - Becoming a part of the Daily staff is probably the easiest thing to do-a talk with our personnel director is all that it takes to be- come a member. If you should decide The Daly is for you then the next few months will be spent working in each of our departments as a trainee. Each trainee spends a. month in each department, mov- ing from circulation to. classified and then to advertisirg and serv- icing in order that they may gain a complete knowledge of how the business staff functions. Your Choice After completing v our tratrte- ship you can petition for an assis- tant managership in the depart- ment of your choice. With this added responsibility comes one of the many small rewards found on The Daily and in this case it is monetary. An assistant managership is really only the second step in your progress to the top of the busi- ness staff hierarchy. After a few weeks of work and many nickel ___________ i As a junior, your contacts are di- paper-a privilege that not many rectly with the people who patron- other college newspapers share. ize The Daily. If you're the kind During -the past 77 years we have of person that finds all types of built up assets of $450,000 through people interesting, then servicing our advertising and subscription the advertising accounts of Alii revenue, thus guaranteeing our Arbor merchants is your type of financial and editorial indepen- work. Management in circulation dence of the University. and classified brings you and the The Daily is neither financially students of the Univeisity toget°.- or editorially controlled by the er. Much time is spent over the University's administration o r phone making sure they ,gt their journalism departments. This in- Daily or figuring out why in the dependence is of prime concern to world they didn't get it. the businesst staff for by continu- Senior staff positions aren't the Ing and even increasing the reve- nue of the paper we insure The end of the road, for after threeDaily's long tradition of editorial years of listening to seniors make freedom. decisions the tables are finally Chances are that a few minutes turned. Now you, along with the spent at the Student Publications other five senior managers, can building may well be worth your decide what is best for The Daily while. .' ' i{ ; ,; , .} i BEATER' Keeping The Advertisers Happy GOOD THINGS Come In Small Packages 't I BOOK S Make yourself at home . i . . You'll find everything BOOK S you need in a BOOK S , I Hl very friendly atmosphere. STORE HOORS- 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. ... Closed Sundays and Holidays .1 if BOOK S BOOK S All this . .and more . . . 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