Newspapers / St. Andrews University Student … / April 15, 1976, edition 1 / Page 2
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EDITORIAL Letters . . . At The Presidents Door New Thoughts On The Smith Case Seven weeks ago in this space there appeared the following observation: Because of remarks made by Mr. Tauber, and others, at a recent Senate meeting and elsewhere indicating the possibility of the release of the Personnel Committee report by Mr. Smith. I (the editor) have hesitated in the editori^ to embrace his cause, thinking that in time the issuance of the report would make the facts available in their entirety without the need for action “outside channels”, as it was so often described in the Senate. One would hope that the report will indeed be made Dublic so that we can look at the thing with all the facts in hand. If the report does not show compelling reasons for denjing the professor tenure, I will be at Ihe President’s door alpng with everyone else. The report has now beai made public by the actions of the student association leadership and with the cooperation of THE LANCE. We issue the report in this issue so that the public discussions that were niade inevitable by its disclosure at the Senate meeting Monday night can be conducted on the basis of an accurate preception of the documents, contents. In line with the policy expressed in the February 26 editorial exerpted here, we also feel a judgement on the case is in order now that most of the facts are at hand. Our judgement is that President Perkinson should allow the Smith application to be reopened for tiie insertion of evidence oreviouslv withheld and additional evidence which has come to light recently. The evidence to which we^ refer is made up e up of excerpts of five letters from faculty members expressing high praise for the work Mr. Smith has done during his time here and support for his tenure. Pertinent portions of these five letters were excerpted Dr. Carl Bennett, head of Mr. Smith’s division, and sent to Dean Arnold for inclusion in Mr. Smith’s folder. The Dean then excluded these excerpted letters from the file on the grounds that it was his personal policy to exclude unattributed material from « consideration in tenure hearings. Thus these five favorable recommendations by Mr. Smith’s peers - the people with whom he works and who are clearly qualified to pronounce an opinion on his competence - were not among the materials reviewed by President Perkinson and the Board of Trustees in acting to deny the professor tenure. The fact that the Dean excluded the statements because they were “unattributed”, as the report of the Personnel Subcommittee notes, is rather odd, since he could have very easily asked Dr. Bennett for the names of the authors of the letters. It is more than odd in our view. It is arbitrary and extremely distressing. It amounts to suppression of evidence for the flimsiest of reasons, and did Mr. Smith’s case a gross disservice. In addition to this evidence, which was extant at the time of the tenure application, Mr. Smith has been chosen to exhibit some of his works in a competitive show, and this week is publishing a book under the auspices of the Curveship Press. These are things which need to be considered as well, and President Perkinson should take action on a review of the matter at once. Much of the dissatisfaction on the part of the student association has been based upon the long and drawn out nature of this case. Every delay - even for possibly valid reasons such as “not forcing the president into a corner and an urevocably negative decision” - has come to an object of suspicion, an example of the administration’s alleged intent to drag the matter into the summer when‘the students are at at home before some sort of definitive resolution is made Whether tiie reasons for delay in the matter’s ultimate resolution are valid or not, they are being treated lightly on this side of the lake for want of evidence that they should be treated seriously. If the president is planning to take action on the case, he should either do so swiftly and make the act known or at least given an indication that action is forthcoming. To the editor: As an employee of the St. Andrews News Bureau staff, your editorial of March 18 disturbed me, angered me, and made me reflect on the ef ficiency of the department. I reply in its defense. I agree with you completely that the News Bureau should ideally be “the one place from which news for both internal and external consumption takes place.” As the same time I realize that nothing can ever be what it should be ideally. Of course, if the various departments would be considerate enough to inform us of their individually spon sored events we could come closer to that ideal. For in stance, we were never in formed of the visiting Nigerian professor in question. It seems to me, however that I vaguely recall receiving in my campus box a calendar which arrives around the first of each mon- th-Could it be a “master calendar” of sorts? Or is it the case that members of the staf fs of WSAP and The Lance don’t receive such calendars. Again, this calendar, sent from the Student Personnel of fice, is sometimes incomplete also. Is that a reason td have two “master calendars.” Each department should in form Jerry Surface of their planned events also. As for harping on the ef ficiency of the News Bureau while under the direction of Ro Bayes, I have but one answer. At that time the N. B. was not in charge of all alumni affairs as it is now. Tom Sweeny, current director, as a result, is not accessible to this staff because he is out trying to raise a much needed goal of $50,000 for the school. Perhaps these two offices should be separated. You mentioned the abun dance of workship students there. In reality, only two are funded for New Bureau work; the other six are funded by the alumni office. Two people 1 working a total of 20 t«f20 hours a week cannot be ex pected to be capable of Mackenzie Letter To The Editor: “While you are reading this there may be a “St. Andrews faculty member being read about in the Charlotte Ob server. Herein lies the respon sibility of the “News Bureau.” As some of you might remem ber there were a number of students that quit the News Bureau at the beginning of the year. Tom Patterson “left” for other reasons. Knowing neither Patterson nor the students involved, I was for ced for the most part to ask questions where I could and depend upon the S. A. grapevine for the wealthy of my informaticHi. The most popular rumor going around was that Tom Sweeney and the News Bureau were “over selling the College”. Tom Sweeney and I discussed Mr. Patterson’s departure and the “over selling of St. Andrews” last fall a few days after The Lan ce ran an article on the former issue. Patterson, according to Sweeney, “left for personal reasons.” Sweeney’s job with the News Bureau is to see S“St. Andrews College printed in all the major newspapers and broadcast on all the major stations across the State.” Who was responsible for outlining Sweeney’s job as described above? None other than President Perkinson. Tom Sweeney was hired from Channel Six in Wilmington, by President Perkinscm, as a public relations man from St. Andrews. The emphasis was put on “external news distribution” not internal. True, R«i Bayes did a hell of a job with the Bureau last year but Sweeney’s job is not con cerned with that sort of distribution. The News Bureau, as Perkinson would like to see it, is as an “Ex ternal distribution center of St. Andrews news and even ts.” Considering the pressure that Sweeney is under it is not surprising that we “internal beings” do not reap any of the fruit of the Bureau’s labor. In my opinion Sweeney and the Bureau are doing exactly (Continued On Page 5) The Lance Lin Thompson.. Michael Greene Managing Editor Asst. Editor/Sports Rowe Campbell Asst. Editor/Business DougMushet ....Layout Editor Nanci Boggs, C.O. Spann Circulation Managers R-n H Advertising Manager n w Photo Coordinator Dr.W.J.Loftus Staff: a„Ha„Uta David Sis taeHogs Celeste TiH™« erry Clark Kira Johnson uc« ibmi Beth Cleveland Myra McGinnis r k » ^ Joyce Dew Lin Potts Barbara Branges Richard Durham Curtis Sawyer Printing by The Laurinburg Exchange Co. processing every piece . newsatS.A.I„TdS^ twoof^oftenmustdoali when the staff does not Ik ataUbuttheN.«BjJL^ Aid Office and expects them t work. And, if we too everyone who loafed now and then off financial aid the school would loose halt fe population. Perhaps a solution there would be for Financial Aid to better choose it workship sudents and gear them more to their individual jobs. As for news releases being sent to TIk Lance, I un derstand that problem has been remedied. Yes, wltii cooperation the News Bureau can become a more produc tive office, but, I feel, the News Bureau is doing an ex cellent jobof coping with in consideration flcMember f olks-If we get 4, we print it. Suzanne Hogg Benchley’s Back! To the editor; After reading the faculty sub-committee report I can forsee the benefits of the Lake Ansley Moore great white shark. I hear the student association is organizing the first annual Administration relay swim. Just remember to tell them to splash and if you slip a few drops of blood in you will get good results. Here’s to your success. Good Luck, Peter Benchley (author of JAWS.) Editor’s Reply The letters on the editorial “Secret Speakers At St. Afr drews” seem to have misued the point. The editorial did not criticize the current operations of the News Bureau. It suggested that th© be expanded to include n^ duties. A number of od- servations seem in order _ 1. Ms. Hogg agrees with editorial’s assertion that n News Bureau should be place from .,» both internal and emanates. She then observe that nothing can tejha should be ideally. ^ ^ parently willing to ® . | the proposal the edjo J made as being unwortab^ because it :ti,out unreachable ideal having ever tried to j N* B.«' Tae" *■' : News Bureau ^as " .gj prised of the two of the Nigerian wBicrlhe reference, and then 8 say she vaguely that there, is a monthly ca dar of events (hat easfly be (continued on pag„
St. Andrews University Student Newspaper
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April 15, 1976, edition 1
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