The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, October 16, 1969, Image 1
BY THE WAY
By DORIS A. SANDERS
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
Elsewhere on this page you
will find a story concerning the
charges leveled against New
berry College and the college's
reply to same.
In a letter sending these doc
uments to Lutheran pastors in
the College's supporting synods.
Dr Wiles gives a most impres
sive definition of academic free
dom:
■ We invite your attention to
the two enclosed communica
tions: one anonymous and the
second our response to it. Please
read the anonymous one first
and then our response.
"The anonymous one deeply
troubles us, not just for the spec
ific errors in it. which we have
answered in our response, but
for the general misunderstand
ing of the purpose and conduct
of a Christian liberal arts col
lege such as ours. The purpose
is the liberation of the mind
and soul from ignorance, a lib
eration made possible by con
fronting the student factually
and objectively with subject mat
tors that bear seriously on his
life. The conduct of such a col
lege is through the operation of
the much discussed, much mis
understood concept known as
academic freedom. Academic
freedom does NOT mean free
dom to express one's own opin
ion loosely and thoughtlessly,
to propagandize or to prosely
tize for one's own personal and
peculiar point-of-view; it means
rather freedom to teach and to
learn and express things fact
ually and objectively, and to
search for truth wherever it may
be thought to reside. And it
means this freedom for both
faculty and student.
"This great ideal of man has
one greatly and nobly limiting
factor: it is that, though man
is free to teach and to learn
factually and objectively, he is
not free to inhibit or destroy
such freedom for other men.
Here lies one of the greatest
tests of man's strength: Wheth
er he has the good-heartedness
and the strong-mindedness to
grant to other men the ideal he
cherishes.
"This is tne ideal under which
the Christian liberal arts col
lege conducts itself.''
Republicans to
hold primary
Prosperity Republicans will
hoid primary this year for the
pur >se of nominating eandi-
e . s for the office of Mayor
. d city councilmen.
This action was taken at a
meeting of the Prosperity Re
publican Club held Tuesday
night, during which Karl Bod-
enbaugh was elected president.
Other officers named are James
Mills, first vice-president: Le
roy Pugh, second vice presi
dent, Dr. C A Mills, secretary,
and Mrs Charles Simmons,
treasurer and finance chairman.
Noon, Saturday, November 1
was set as deadline for can
didates to file for the city of
fices The primary will be held
on November 11th.
Walter Hamm, a Democrat,
is now Mayor of Prosperity.
The two councilmen whose term
of office expires this year are
Dr. Mills and Earl Bedenbaugh,
both Republicans. Holdovers on
council are Woodrow Beden
baugh, Republican and Oscar
Bowers, Democrat.
Fees for filing will be $25 for
Mayor and $10 for Council.
Prior to this time, Republi
cans seeking office have been
nominated by convention.
Vol. 33—No. 26.
Newberry, S. C. 29108, Thursday, October 16, 1969
$3 PER YEAR
THE SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS featured address; Dr. Karl W. Kinard,
BUILDING at Newberry College was de- president of the South Carolina Synod of
cheated during' he College’s annual Par- the Lutheran Church in America, presid
ents Day activities Saturday. Dr. Joseph ed over the formal dedication <>f the $1,-
Straley, professor of physics at the Uni- 215,000 building,
varsity of North Carolina, delivered the
School Board approves $4.1
million building program
In a meeting that lasted un
til amost midnight Monday, the
County Board of Education ap
proved a building program for
Newberry County Public schools
and will submit the proposed
plan tv, voters in a referendum
to be held on November 18.
Total cost of the program as
approved by the Board is $4,-
175,000. Some portion of this
amount would be available from
the State Educational Finance'
Commission and from other
sources However, the bulk of
it would have to be raised by
a bona issue which first must
meet the approval ‘' f the voters
The plan as adopted after al
most four hours discussion by
board members is an eight point
plan as follows
1 Construct new high school
ito include vocational facilities)
near the city of Newberry to
serve all high school students
in the Newberry attendance
area $2,000,000
2 Construct six classrooms,
and add dressing room facili
ties at Mid-Carolina High school
to accommodate all high school
pupils from the Mid-Carolina
attendance area: $150,000.
3 Construct new elementary
school, kindergarten through the
fourth grade, at Whitmire at
a cost of $500,000.
4. Construct middle school,
grades 5—8 near Mid-Carolina
High School to serve pupils in
Mid-Carolina attendance area.
$1,100,000.
5 Construct seven classrooms
and a cafeteria at Silverstreet
Elementary School for students
m K 4. $150,000.
0 Renovate Whitmire High
School. $50,000.
7 Renovate the present Car
ver Eiementary. Reuben Elen-
entary (.adman High and New
berry High Schools to serve as
middle schools ‘5-8) at esti
mated cost per ehool. $25,000:
$100,000
8 Renovate Prosperity Elem
entary. Rikard Elementary. Po-
mana Elemental y. (iarmany
Elementary, and Little Moun
tain Elementary to serve grades
K 4 Estimated cost, $25,000
each $125,000.
Total cost: $4,175,000.
Based on this plan the pre
sent Bush River Elementary
School, Newberry Junior High
School, and Mollohon Schools
wil be closed as soon as feas
ible.
The board also discussed a
list of grievances submitted last
Friday during a demonstration
by Negro students and adults.
A reply to those grievances with
which the Board is concerned
will be given at an early date
and will be made public at that
time.
In other action, the Board de
cided to use rental income from
the teacherage at Bush River
tor repairs to that building, with
the funds to be kept m the ac
counts of Bush River School and
administered as needed by the
Bush River principal Charles
Wise.
Several children living m the
county, but near the Laurens
County line, who are eurrently
attending school in Lauretm Dis
trict 5(i. were given permission
to complete tins year' m that
district.
Rev. Laughlin
at Wiles Chapel
The Rev. A James Laughlin,
pastor of St. Matthew's Luther-
a Church m Charleston, will
be the "Guest Preacher’’ Oct
ober 19 in the Sunday Chapel
Service at Newberry College.
He will speak on "A Faith for
such a Day as This” at the
11:15 service in Wiles Chapel.
A graduate of the Hamma
Divinity School at Wittenberg
University, of Springfield, Ohio,
he served the Ohio and North
Carolina parishes before accept
ing the call to St. Matthew’s in
1964.
He is a board member of the
YMCA and chaplain of the Civ-
itan Club in Charleston.
College denies
charges made in
unsigned letter
Newberry College President,
Dr. A. G. D. Wiles, and A. Hart
Kohn, Jr., chairman of the
Board of Trustees, today term
ed as "grossly erroneous” an
anonymous letter distributed to
Lutheran pastors of six South
ern Synods.
The letter, signed "A Group
of Concerned Lutherans” has
received wide attention in the
city.
"Although unsigned letters us
ually have no status and people
generally make it a point not
to answer them,” Dr Wiles and
Mr. Kohn said,, "this letter has
been so widely circulated and
is so menacingly in error that
we feel it necessary to send
to our constituency a reply. ”
The unsigned letter follows:
"There are quite a few Luth
erans in the City of Newberry
who are becoming quite con
cerned over some of the acti
vities and Liberal (or Radical)
views and actions at our church
supported college.
"We know that there is little
or nothing that a small group
of individuals can accomplish in
correcting these things, so we
are asking you Lutherans from
other areas to make yourself
familiar with what is going on.
if you approve of them, that’s
fine but if you do not approve,
it is far past time to yell.
"We'll bet. for instance, that
few of you knew that "The psy
chology of human sexuality,
touring as part of a theatre
company, and a black studies
program are only a few of the
interim courses beginning Jan.
5 at Newberry College” (quote
from The Indian'). You are sup
porting Newberry C o 1 1 e g e:
wouldn't you like to know more
about it° And while you are
about it. as about the rumor
around town and school con
cerning the iso-called) Rev.
Thomas who is planning a swap
program with Atlanta Univer
sity whereby his class will visit
this Negro campus for a per
iod of time while the Negro stu
dents f r o m there visit
our campus. Find out how many
days he has in mmd. Find out
if its true that he is planning
a social get together at the end
of the visitation to swap ideas,
etc.
"We have yet to find out why
Newberry schedules Allen Uni
versity in Basketball. This could
be a most explosive situation
with just a small misunder
standing on the floor.
"We would like to know, too,
why some students are expelled
from college for seemingly min
or rule violations and yet a
"Star” basketball player who
has been convicted of "break
ing and entering” in a court
of law and is now on probation
by the court, is not only still
at Newberry College but also
still on Scholarship and is up
held as a shining example of
the Newberry College Students.
"We do not claim to be in a
position to know all of the facts
(Continued on Page 4)