On December 6, the Board of Deans ordered Miss Labenow to cease any activities connected with the CRIMSON and the Press Board. They pointed out that this was a probation, and that failure to comply would result in severance of Miss Labenow's connections with Radcliffe College.
Dean Small, in a letter informing Miss Labenow's mother of the disciplinary action, explained that Miss Labenow had failed to meet the "standards of journalism which Radcliffe expects of its students." She said she and others had felt for some time that "getting a scoop has more importance to her than any other obligation" and told Mrs. Labenow that that feeling "is not without basis in fact."
Miss Small asked Radcliffe Student Government to hold an open meeting Thursday afternoon at which she would answer questions concerning the disciplinary action. She said Miss Labenow had broken release dates. She said she had no record of any such occurrences and could not recall a definite instance. Miss Projansky said later that Miss Labenow has not broken a single release date this term, since Miss Projansky has been Publicity Director, and suggested that Miss Small had perhaps misunderstood the term "release date."
Miss Small said: "What we are concerned with is a misrepresentation of facts so far as they are concerned with Radcliffe policy," not with "suppression of the right of a girl to express her opinion for or against the college."
Miss Small walked out of the open meeting, and met later with President Jordan and the Student Government for three and a half hours in closed session. Late Thursday night, the council issued a statement that "no individual student rights have been violated."
Censorship and Responsibility
The CRIMSON feels that Radcliffe has presumed a responsibility for news which can rightly lie only with a newspaper. The CRIMSON believes that if Radcliffe allows itself to take disciplinary action because of an inaccurate story, it is giving itself the right to censor stories to avoid "misrepresentation of Radcliffe policy" and by necessary extension this carries with it at least the threat of censorship to avoid publication of stories which Radcliffe would prefer not to be published. This threat of censorship is an inevitable consequence of application of college rules, disciplinary action, and finally probation in a case where, as the CRIMSON feels, open dealing with the reporter as a reporter as a reporter was the only justifiable action. Such a threat no newspaper can tolerate