Gazette Incriminates Students With Hundreds of Demonstration Photos

The University Gazette has turned over hundreds of demonstration photographs this year to Administration officials so that they can identify student protesters.

Gazette photographer Rick Stafford provides eight-by-ten glossy enlargements and as many duplicates as complainants request. General University funds pay him 85 cents for each photographic print.

Lawrence F. Stevens, research assistant in the Office of Tests, said that for the CFIA demonstration hearings, Stafford and an unnamed University photographer supplied the only photographic evidence.

No Threat

Asked about Gazette policy, editor David W. Cudhea '53 said he feels "neither threatened nor coerced" into directing Stafford to turn over, develop, and enlarge hundreds of unpublished photographs.

But Cudhea also said, "I as a house organ editor and officer of the University simply do not see how I can refuse internal official requests either for photography or testimony." He said he would testify, if asked, on his unpublished demonstration notes before the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR). But he would not turn over evidence to municipal authorities, he added.

Cudhea explained that he sends Stafford to demonstrations "as a newsman" and directs him "to shoot for news." After the demonstrations, Cudhea said that he accepts all Administration requests for unpublished photographs.

"These are public events and I see no invasion here of anyone's privacy," Cudhea said. "I fully presume that they [the Administration] use those pictures for CRR hearings." he added.

After the April 1969 crisis, President Pusey asked Cudhea to make a feasibility study on publishing a University newspaper. Cudhea determined a weekly was in fact feasible and he was named the paper's editor.

The old Gazette cost $20,000 per year, but was merely a weekly listing of Corporation appointments, deaths, and scheduled University events.

The new Gazette, which costs $80,000 per year, has a circulation of 15,000. Cudhea said, "Our position is to circulate the paper free to Faculty and staff and to make it available to students without forcing it on them."