University of Virginia Library

Chabot Protests Two Editorials
On Expansion In 'Register'

By BEVERLY DOWELL

Phil Chabot, Chairman of the Special
Committee on Growth, has protested the
recent reprinting in "The University
Register" of two newspaper editorials
supporting the administration's growth
plans.

In a letter to Edwin Crawford, Vice
President for Public Affairs, Mr. Chabot
stated that the editorials, "can in no
stretch of the imagination be included within
the category of administrative
announcements."

The editorials from the Norfolk-Virginian
Pilot and the Roanoke Times are prefaces in
"The Register" with the statement that they
are "from two influential papers not widely
circulated in the Charlottesville area."

Mr. Chabot asked in his letter why "a
column by Mr. Russell Kirk regarding
University expansion, which also did not
receive wide publication in the Charlottesville
area, did not accompany the disputed
editorials?"

Mr. Kirk's article praising University
students for "suggesting practical alternatives to
turning the University of Virginia...into
Behemoth U." was first published in the June
15 issue of National Review.

When asked why the editorials were printed
in "The Register", Mr. Crawford explained that
they were actually printed on "the back page of
the calender of University events."

"The calender on page three was merged
with 'The Register' at the beginning of the year,
and the back page of the calender has always
been used for reprints," he continued. " 'The
Register' has just continued the use of the
reprint format on the back," he noted.

Mr. Crawford also stated that he had not
submitted the editorials to be printed and
didn't know why they had been chosen.

In an interview, Mr. Chabot stated that he
did not think that " 'The Register' should print
any editorials."

"It should be only a summary of
administrative announcements and University
events," he continued.

"I am surprised that Mr. Chabot sent a copy
of what I thought was a personal letter to the
Cavalier Daily," Mr. Crawford added. "Maybe it
is part of that 'paper war' he mentions in his
letter," he wrote.

Mr. Chabot explained that he wrote the
letter because "almost every week they have
been printing pro-expansion arguments, and I
don't want to see the same thing happen again
and again."

Mr. Chabot also asserted that he thought the
editorials were part of an "attempt to discredit
the Student Council."

"We want to work with the paper
committees to present facts and rational
arguments, but there is no way to do it with the
administration using such tactics," he
continued.

Mr. Chabot had also objected earlier to the
printing of President Shannon's letter to Tom
Collier, President of the Student Council,
asking that "University Tuesday" activities of
canceled. Mr. Chabot referred to this in his
letter stating that he had hoped "there would
never again be an attempt to present such a
biased account of what had transpired prior to
and during 'University Tuesday'."