University of Virginia Library

'Tar Heel' Controversy

ed.

It is no novelty that the Daily Tar Heel,
student newspaper at Chapel Hill, is stirring
controversy. It is a novelty, however, that a
student group calling itself, in Nineteen-eighty-fourish
fashion, "the committee for a
free press" has urged the UNC administration
to disestablish the Tar Heel as an "official
student publication" by withholding its
student-fee subsidy.

The muddle is compounded by the curious
fact that the incumbent editor, whose term
will end this spring, agrees with his critics that
the Tar Heel is "monopolistic" and should
"become financially independent of the
university." A study group appointed by the
chancellor is investigating the possibility of
such a "reform." Meanwhile the Committee
for a Free Press is organizing a financial
boycott of the paper - a move which the
editor in addled broadmindedness approves in
principle, but opposes in practice because it
would put the paper out of business for the
spring semester.

Despite the inevitable comic-opera overtones
of the uproar, the question of the
newspaper's future is a serious one. The Tar
Heel has its dim and dull periods, which are
usually non-controversial; usually, it is a lively
and valuable instrument of campus coherence
and information. If of late some youthful
editors are afflicted by the vogue of "activist"
(i.e., unobjective and partisan) journalism, and
if they at times salt their prose with grown-up
dirty-words, we assume that these are passing
afflictions that will have their day and pass
on.

The permanent value of a vigorous student
press ought not to be eclipsed by temporary
issues, in other words. The perennial questions
underlying the controversy are, as ever,
whether an unfettered student publication -
its editorial viewpoint checked by yearly
elections - is a defensible educational
enterprise; and also whether the occasional
embarrassments inseparably connected with the
combination of youth and full discretion are
offset by services to the university community.

If, as we think, the answer to both these
questions is yes, the university administration
will wish to think very carefully before it
alters the function or financial status of the
Tar Heel in the face of objections to its
political slant, its tone, or its "monopoly"
status. (A campus newspaper, like a campus
telephone system, does not lend itself to free
competition.) Certainly no worthwhile newspaper,
student or otherwise, will escape
controversy or please everyone. That is the
starting point of a sound judgment in the
matter.