Radcliffe Watches Over "Good Name"

Harry Truman flared up last month. To a roomful of White House reporters he bellowed: "Too many people have been criticizing the government. I don't like it." But Truman couldn't do a thing about it, and he's president of the United States.

The American government can't censor the press; it can't tell reporters what they may print and what they may not. The Radcliffe government can and does.

Pick up any newspaper--from the New York Times to the New Orleans Times-Picayune to Ultima Hora in Lima, Peru. If there's a story in it about Radcliffe, it didn't get there without an official okay from the Radcliffe administration.

Five reporters cover the Annex for the world's newspapers. They are chosen by Radcliffe, they are responsible to Radcliffe and they are told not to print a two-inch squib until they clear it with Radcliffe.

As head of the Publicity Office, Joan Projansky '49 is in charge of telling editors who their correspondents will be. She explains the process this way; "When the last girl got married, I called up the Globe and said that Mary Stokes would be their new correspondent. Mr. Merrill (the Globe's city editor) was a little angry, but in a few days he called back and said she was okay."

The Chosen Five

Miss Projansky's reportorial staff consists of Marilyn Hines '51 (assigned to the Boston Post), Mary Kahle '53 (Boston Advertiser), Mary C. Stokes '51 (Boston Globe), Ann Roberts '51 (New York Herald Tribune), and Georgianne Davis '51 (Indianapolis News). At present the Boston Herald and Traveler has no Radcliffe correspondent at Radcliffe, inasmuch as Radcliffe has just dismissed the last one.

These girls write for more than their own papers. Associated Press and United Press quickly pick up their stories, spreading them across America and the world. What the world knows about Radcliffe College is what it learns from these five chosen students. Except, of course, for stories that break in the CRIMSON, jump to the Boston papers and then to the wires. The CRIMSON picks its own correspondents.

Harvard has newspaper "stringers" too. About a half-dozen students hold the jobs; they are hired by city editors in Boston and New York; no Harvard officer holds power over them. They report rapes, riots and suicides as well as speeches and handouts.

Radcliffe Theory of News

Radcliffe has a different theory. Dean Small says: "Reporting for the Boston newspapers is a permission granted by the College." Miss Projansky says: "The student Press Board is part of the Publicity Office. There has always been a rule that everything that goes to outside papers has to be cleared through this office," -- contrary to a report in Wednesday's CRIMSON.

What stories does Miss Projansky refuse to clear? Here is the answer she told the CRIMSON earlier this week: "In cases where it would not be to the interests of Radcliffe College."

Joan Projansky herself is a friendly, good-natured woman. But her function was clear as soon as she took office this fall. The Radcliffe News reported factually: "Miss Joan Projansky, Radcliffe '49, has been appointed Director of the Publicity Office, succeeding Miss Barbara Norton. In her new position, Miss Projansky will direct all releases and information that go to the public and students must check with her office before giving their name or picture to be used in a newspaper or magazine."

This Tuesday, Miss Projansky invited the Press Board to her office for its monthly social hour. Every girl brought a sandwich, and Miss Projansky served some cookies that she had baked herself. She also bubbled coffee in an adjoining room while the Press Board gossiped about the quality of the food and the scarf of one of their members. Five minutes before the chit-chat was scheduled to end, Miss Projansky got down to business.

Lays Down the Law

"As you know," she said, "you're supposed to let me read a copy before you send it to the papers. Now I think that's rather childish. You just tell me what stories you're sending in . . . before you send them in."

And then a few afterthoughts: "Whenever you get a photographer from a Boston paper, I have to be there." And, "I wish you wouldn't call in riots." And that was all.

The whole air was very cordial. But if the girls had any doubts about Miss Projansky's meaning they could notice that one of the correspondents was no longer with them. Radcliffe had purged her from the press board five days before, because she had written a story and didn't clear it.

She is R. Deborah Labenow Labenow '51, former correspondent for the Herald and former Bureau Chief for the CRIMSON. She had dug up a scoop on Radcliffe's proposed graduate center and checked it with Dean Cronkhite. "She liked the story," says Miss Labenow.

Miss Labenow phoned the story to the Boston Herald but was unable to clear-it-with-Projansky because Miss Projansky was not in her office when she called. Called before the Board of Deans, she was told she had committeed an offense against the Press Board, and, later, that she had to resign. Miss Labenow thinks there is a lot of irony in the action; for the Herald never even printed her story.

No Press Board, No News

"Insofar as she is a Radcliffe girl, she is responsible to this office," Miss Projansky explained. "We'll probably wait a week or so and then assign a new reporter to the Herald."

How does the Herald feel about all this? City Editor Don Ross says, "That's something I have to think about. Debby is our correspondent. If we took off on it, we'd take off on it in full swing. Either we'll do nothing or we'll go full swing."

Ross knows what he'll lose if he starts swinging. He would have to hire a Radcliffe stringer not accredited by the Press Board. "The situation has never arisen," says Miss Projansky. "That would have to be dealt with by the college. The girl wouldn't have our inside news sources. We probably wouldn't give her any releases."

The chief-of-correspondents for the Boston Globe says this: "I once spoke before several college publicity officers and I criticized several things about them. I told them democracy was at work when a newspaper covers the news," and the colleges shouldn't try to suppress it, he said. He had good words for the Publicity Bureau at Smith College. "There was a big hunt for a missing Smith girl who was supposed to have eloped and been killed. The publicity office at Smith did everything they could to help me get a picture of the girl. The head of the publicity office said she had a responsibility to the newspapers as well as to the college. I think it's a pretty wholesome situation at Smith."

Pajamas Before Nine

Boston editors, looking for all-round coverage, say they have a right to be annoyed. Last month the Radcliffe Publicity Office told them that the inter-dorm song contest would begin at 9 p.m. Then Miss Projansky found out some girls were doing a number in pajamas. She freely admits: "I told Rachel (contest chairman Rachel Mellinger '52) to put that on first, before 9."

Another reporter went after a story on the grades of Radcliffe freshmen. "They said they didn't want anything like that to run, because," the reporter states, "it would make Radcliffe look unfavorable compared to Harvard." Once a Moors Hall student phoned in a minor riot, and was called on the carpet by the deans.

NEWS Gives Little Trouble

Besides the Press Board, Annex news escapes through two other channels: the Radcliffe News and the CRIMSON. The administration has had little trouble with the News. "We don't ever have a policy of scrounging for news," Editor-in-chief Ann Roberts '51 explains. "It doesn't seem that any paper should have to rely for its news on scrounging around for things that are wrong."

Miss Roberts and her staff say that, "We are a college paper and as such must never be unmindful of the fact that we are members of our college. That goes without saying. If a news story is going to hurt your college, I'd think long about it before printing it."

In order to preserve the "newsworthiness and accuracy" of stories, Miss Roberts says she has ignored the graduate center and Radcliffe's violation of the minimum-wage law. Yesterday, in a brief story on the Labenow question, the News did not mention that anyone had protested Radcliffe's action.

Why is the News like this? A high executive on the new board answers: "Why? Because Radcliffe's perfect, that's why." Another staff member says this: "Students have to buy the News. The Administration is behind it; the News knows where its support is coming from."

Radcliffe and the CRIMSON

Radcliffe has had a tougher time with the CRIMSON. In 1947 it was glad to see the CRIMSON accept Radcliffe girls as correspondents--according to one student source, because "Radcliffe girls will be more sympathetic in writing the news." But the CRIMSON always presented the sour with the sweet, and one student complained, "We don't like to have all our business aired. Our interests are not their interests."

This week--for the first time--Radcliffe tried to clamp down on the CRIMSON, too. It ordered the paper's Radcliffe Bureau Chief to quit her job on threat of expulsion.

The Bureau Chief, Miss Labenow, had learned of a projected Great Issues course from Student Council members. She tried to check it with President Jordan; Jordan was ill and replied that he thought it was too early to write anything." Sometime after the story appeared demanded that Miss Labenow drop all her CRIMSON activities. Radcliffe gave several reasons. President Jordan said that the story contained inaccuracies--and this is probably true. But Miss Projansky told John Fenton of the New York Times: "Miss Labenow has gone ahead and had stories printed in the CRIMSON which were contrary to the best interests of Radcliffe."

Annex deans have ordered Miss Labenow not to reveal the letter of production she received from them. But Dean Small wrote the following explanation to Miss Labenow's mother:

"We are all sorry that Deborah cannot understand that she has failed to meet the standards of responsibility and journalism which Radcliffe expects of its students.

"The strong feeling which has pre-vailed for some time, that information not ready for publication must be kept from Debby because getting a scoop has more importance to her than any other obligation is not without basic in fact.

"Whatever the practice of the CRIMSON may be in printing stories which appear as official but have not been verified as such, Radcliffe students are answerable to their college for any misrepresentation."

This Radcliffe attitude is a sharp contrast to the attitude at Harvard, where a CRIMSON reporter has never been disciplined for anything he wrote. At the CRIMSON'S 75th Anniversary Dinner in 1948, President Conant himself stated that at times the CRIMSON makes the Administration "uncomfortable." "But," he said, "Nothing has ever been done to limit its freedom, and nothing will be done. It is a healthy force in the Harvard community."