The Battalion/Page 5
News
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? Kirsten Dietz, assistant city editor.
Bays, “(Work on the newspaper)
[ doesn’t have set hours. It’s tough to
ftalance a personal relationship. It
Bakes someone really special to be
||ible to understand it and put up
with it.”
One question bothers most stu
dent-reporters.
| “You always wonder how many
plactually read the paper,” Dietz says.
I The Battalion has a 23,000 circu
lation, ranking it in the top 10 for
collegiate newpapers in the nation.
I Don Johnson, student publica
tions coordinator, says The Battalion
has a budget just under $ 1 million a
wear.
I “It (the money) all comes from ad-
Hvertising,” Johnson says, adding that
only 5 percent of the newspaper’s
Uxidget is supplied by student service
ees.
With so much money invested in
The Battalion, the businesses of
[Bryan-College Station expect to be
|n the news occasionally, Johnson
ays.
If The Battalion prints a feature
tory on a worker in a pizza restau-
ant, “every pizza place will com-
ng over,. ■p| a j n because that guy got free pub-
s like "ssBicity,” Johnson adds,
know how™ j-[ e sa y S advertisers consider The
[Battalion a more credible newspaper
cause it is technically not a free
ublication. It has a circulation
barge of $ 1 per student — or about
35,000 to $37,000 per year — taken
rom student service fees each year.
To qualify for this portion of stu-
lent service fees, The Battalion
must win the stamp of approval
from the Finance Committee of Stu-
; dent Government. Johnson says a
dollar a year per student amounts to
less than a penny per paper.
\ David Alders, former student
^ ' body president, says:
“In an organization so concerned
with a student institution (Student
Government) being held account
able to their constituency, it seems to
me (the newspaper’s criticism of Stu-
jdent Government) is pretty hypo-
Icritical. Maybe (The Battalion writ
ers) ought to hold a magnifying glass
rents argi® [ U p to themselves.”
1 advocates,*; Kevin Brannon, Political Forum
o weekendt '{chairman, says:
fi]“I think The Batt recently has gotten
iinto almost a personal vendetta
gainst Student Government.”
Alders says more attentive advis-
[ing is needed by members of the
communications department to
solve the problems of irresponsibil
ity.
But Johnson, who is also an asso-
Jciate professor of journalism, says
First Amendment constitutional
rights state that student publications
cannot be touched by administra
tors. He added that some A&M offi
cials have had to be reminded of the
First Amendment over the years.
The courts, however, have not
forgotten and have enforced the
First Amendment in several cases.
The 1972 decision by the U.S.
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals of
Fujishima vs. the Board of Educa
tion ruled that prior review of a pub
lic institution’s student newspaper
was unconstitutional.
In Bazaar vs. Fortune in 1973, the
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court ruled that
speech, which might provoke antag-
jonistic responses from a majority of
people, could not be hindered in any
iway.
In defense of The Battalion, the
paper’s informal adviser, Bob Rog
ers, told staff writers:
“Fact of the matter is, you guys prob
ably get more advice and take more
advice than people who have quote:
‘advisers.’ ”
Rogers praised Jerry Oslin, the re
porter who covered Student Gov
ernment this semester.
“Oslin, I think you deserve a
medal on this series on Student Gov
ernment,” he says. “The criticisms
that I’ve heard about what you did
are without merit.”
The only student newspaper in
Texas that leads The Battalion in
circulation, The Daily Texan at the
[University of Texas, also has been
jthrough some rough times with stu
dent government, Editor David
Woodruff says.
To improve student relations at
A&M, some students have suggested
holding a campus-wide election for
the editor of The Battalion as UT
does. But Woodruff says UT stu
dents have lost interest in the elec
tion.
Candidates for editor of The Bat-
Italion are interviewed by the Student
Publications Board, composed of
three A&:M students, three members
of the faculty and one administrator.
Professors on this year’s board were
from the philosophy department,
the English department, and the
College of Geosciences. The admin
istrator was Dr. Carolyn Adair, di
rector of the Department of Student
Activities.
In 1975, The Battalion was placed
under the umbrella of the Depart
ment of Communications. Rogers
says the newspaper was a part of the
University News Service before the
merger.
“A very small clique of people”
wrote for The Battalion at that time,
Rogers says. When he was asked to
be chairman of the Student Publica
tions Board, Rogers says, he stip
ulated that the newspaper be utilized
by the communications department.
Now, any student, regardless of
his major, has the opportunity to
work on The Battalion. The staff is
chosen each semester by the editor.
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