Free at last
http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/free-at-last-1.1471825
The Diamondback declared its independence as the university was torn
asunder by war, protests
By Ben Slivnick
May 4, 2010
As Wilson Elkins addressed the university's graduating class of 1967,
he did not impart sage wisdom or fond remembrances.
As he looked out onto the neat rows of students robed in black,
Elkins, the university president at the time, did not leave the class
of 1967 with advice for the real world ahead. He left them with a
declaration of war.
His targets ranged from hippies to Communists to radicals, all facets
of an emerging student sect he described as "the New Left." Not to be
left out from Elkins' barrage was The Diamondback.
"We have seen the only student newspaper, which is supported by all
the students maintain an editorial policy obviously in support of the
New Left," Elkins said in his address.
Diamondback editors bristled at this characterization.
"It is embarrassingly apparent that Elkins has been laboring under
some sort of misconception," an editor told The Diamondback at the time.
Student publications had indeed shifted left as the anti-war movement
swept college campuses everywhere in the 1960s. The university
magazine, Argus, ran covers featuring burning flags, nudity and pigs
emblazoned with the names of university administrators.
Another university publication, Course Guide, took a more subtle
approach. Its cover featured an abstract geometric pattern
indiscernible at first glance. But when turned on its side, the
pattern's message was clear: It spelled out "F--- Elkins."
These outrageous covers eventually led to all student publications
severing ties with the university in the spring of 1971. But as the
tumultuous '60s raged on, The Diamondback took a path of its own.
Looking back on the era, former Diamondback staffers remember
covering the anti-war movement from a balanced perspective that
sought out both sides. While the staffers acknowledge some opinion
columns slanted left, the paper ultimately endorsed Richard Nixon for
president in 1968.
The staffers say it was curious that Elkins would have singled out
The Diamondback. Here is how they remembered the paper:
David Lightman (former managing editor):
"There's this impression that people have of that era that we were
all just out there as agents of the anti-war movement. And it just
wasn't true ... I can remember trying to cover some of the
demonstrations and the riots and trying to be the down-the-middle
reporter. It wasn't easy. But you had to do it. That's what journalism was."
Ira Allen (former managing editor and columnist):
"Here's the thing. Maryland was a large commuter school outside of
Washington. In the 1960s, it was very much like it was still [the]
'50s. ... It was a very conservative place, and I didn't realize
that. I wrote what I thought was kind of [a] mainstream, liberal
[column] and people thought I was a Communist."
Michael Fribush (former advertising manager, who now heads The
Diamondback's parent company Maryland Media Inc.):
"There was certainly more investigative work, more questioning of
things that happened on campus. ... It wasn't just accepted that,
'OK, this is what the administration says, and that's the way it is.'"
Jerry Ceppos (former editor in chief):
"There was one curious episode. ... The [university] administration
wanted to know who was running this anti-Nationalist Chinese
advertisement, and I refused to tell them. And it became a big issue,
that even the Board of Regents became involved in. But it said to me,
boy, if a pretty innocent political ad about world history can cause
a dispute, ... there's really a problem here. That was the first time
I said to myself that this idea of university publication probably
wasn't going to work long term."
Allen:
"I graduated in January 1970, immediately went to work for United
International in Baltimore, back when it was a real wire service.
Naturally, when stuff started happening in 1970 against the war, I
was assigned to cover what was going on down in College Park. When I
arrived on campus as a fully credentialed reporter for a major
international news service, I found out I was barred from campus. I
was named on an injunction the university had gotten. ... Now, I was
never an activist because I was a journalist."
Fribush:
"The university and the state didn't want to have anything to do with
these publications. They were getting too much heat from taxpayers
... and the students on campus, meaning the editorial staffs of the
publications, were just as eager to say, 'We don't want to have
anything to do with you.'''
Ceppos:
"If you have alumni calling saying, 'Why did you let them do X, Y and
Z?' I'll bet there was some administrator who said 'I'd rather tell
them we have no control over The Diamondback.'"
Fribush:
"So the Board of Regents formed a commission, saying that these
publications should be separated, and they had several hearings on
it. ... They said, 'OK fine, we're going to separate these
publications from the university. They're always going to be the
official publications of the University of Maryland, and we're going
to provide a space, but they're on their own.'"
--
slivnick at umdbk dot com
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