Word: students
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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This article finds its starting-point in a remark recently made by a student of a sister institution, a member of the staff of its college weekly, to the effect that the faculty adviser read every word in every issue before the paper was printed. Every sheet of copy, every page of proof, he said, had to bear the censor's initials; and the printers had been instructed not to go to press until the faculty adviser had given his official...
Inquiry of college presidents, deans of men, heads of schools of journalism, and students active in publications, reveals that this sort of thing is, fortunately, not very common in American colleges. Only in a few cases that have come to my attention do college authorities indicate that they approve of censorship in any form. On the other hand, almost without exception they appear to believe that student editors should be given complete authority, but authority accompanied by the complete responsibility that must accompany lawful authority in every activity of life...
...ideal system, my inquiries seem to indicate is one of complete editorial control by students, with strict accountability for the exercise of that control both as members of the college community and as citizens. Only in this way in my opinion, will student editors be enabled to develop genuine standards of editorial judgement, discrimination and taste. As long as standards are imposed by faculty or adminis- trative flat they are bound to be educationally and psychologically unsound and to be accepted by students grudgingly...
These suggestions, however, do not mean that there ought to be no contact whatever between student boards of editors, and deans, faculty advisers, instructors in journalism and other officers. Far from it. Indeed, I believe that student editors will seek such advice and will appeal to maturer judgment to a far greater degree when such consultation is voluntary and spontaneous, than when they feel that the adviser or censor is their natural enemy and that it is part of the game to trick him by any legitimate or illegitimate means...
...advantages of a system under which frank, friendly, and intimate conference between student boards and university officials is substituted for arbitrary and autocratic control, so far outweigh the disadvantages due to the inevitable and sometimes serious mistakes that editors will make, that I am convinced we ought to take the chance courageously for the sake of the great good. Unpleasant incidents are bound to happen, but they are part of the price we must be prepared to pay for what I am sure student editors will ultimately accomplish: the development by the trial and error method of sound and acceptable...