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THE RECORD TURNS 100: Animal Kingdom - April 8, 1970

This week in The Record history...

By Editorial
On April 24, 2013

 

In celebration of 100 years of service to Buffalo State, The Record will re-print
one former article in each of its 10 issues this semester, chronicling the paper's
rich history since its establishment in 1913. This week, we feature an article that
appeared in Vol. 72, Issue No. 24, published Wednesday, April 8, 1970.
 
Instances of the infringement of our First Amendment have been well
documented throughout the history of this country. Forty-two years ago, this
campus experienced its own freedom of the press crisis. In April 1971, The
Record published an editorial titled, "Animal Kingdom," which detailed the
shortcoming of campus administration. The Record editorial staff expressed its
displeasure with leaders, offering pointed criticism regarding their recent actions
at a student representative meeting. The day after The Record printed the
editorial, 2,000 copies of The Record were burned in an act of retaliation, leaving
few. Below is an excerpt of the editorial.
 
--
 
American Parliamentary Law is built upon the principle that rights must be
respected: rights of the majority, of the minority, of individuals, of absentees, and
rights of all these together.
 
Such principles, which underlie parliamentary law as stated in Robert's Rules of
Order and which govern all student government meetings, were not apparent last
week. The representatives at Wednesday and Thursday night meetings were far
from what could be considered free agents.
 
When, at a H and R meeting, a motion, which is beyond the jurisdiction of that
body is passed under pressure and when students are assaulted for speaking
out against this motion, these individuals are far from free and far from having
their rights respected.
 
This is all very well, but it offers little comfort to the members attending last
week's meeting or the individuals assaulted. This doesn't mean a damn thing to
anyone on campus if these pretty rules in bold print are not going to be enforced.
 
Buffalo State may very well be spoken of as the school that was: it has no future
with the students within returning it to a barbaric state and the administration
standing by passively permitting it to happen.
 
If a student is assaulted, the administration will escort him down to a local court if
the assaulted wishes to place charges, but the administration takes no action of
its own. It does nothing to prevent the recurrence of the same event the following
day when both students meet on campus.
 
Planet of the Apes was an appropriate movie to show on Sunday because this
campus has been turned into a jungle and the chief zoo keeper will probably
leave town.
 
Once again, the administration has sat back and watched the world pass by. Talk
goes on about apathetic students - what about an apathetic administration who
cannot be concerned with civil order? If the administration is going to let students
fight out all their problems, they serve no purpose. Then again, possibly following
Darwin's survival of the fittest would be a better system.
 
The administration has far too long upheld a double standard in fear of their
actions being called racist. Such actions from any other organization would have
been stomped on immediately.
 
If the administration has any hope for survival, they had better do some thinking
pretty damn fast. When it is known that those motions forced through last week
are meaningless, then all hell will break out.

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